Folklore of the Santal Parganas - Cecil Henry Bompas (paper ebook reader .TXT) 📗

that he had

dispossessed him. The elder brother gladly gave the required promise

and returned to his kingdom with his faithful wife and lived happily

ever afterwards.

XLIII. (The Raibar and the Leopard.)

 

Once upon a time a _Raibar_ was going backwards and forwards between

two families arranging a marriage and part of the road which he used

to travel ran through a forest.

 

One day as he was going to the bride's house he took a sack with

him intending to try and get the loan of some Indian corn from the

bride's relations; but as he was passing through the piece of jungle

he suddenly met a leopard; he was terribly frightened but collecting

his wits he addressed the animal thus "Leopard; I beg you not to eat

me; I am engaged on a work of great merit, I am making two men out

of one." This address amazed the leopard and he at once asked the

_raibar_ whether he could make him into two, and promised that if

he could his life should be spared. The _raibar_ answered readily

"Seeing that in pursuit of my profession I have made two men out of

one all over the country, of course I can make you into two leopards

if I try; all you have to do is to get into this sack and keep quiet;

if you utter a sound you will spoil the charm."

 

"Well," said the leopard, "I will try and see; I undertake to keep

quite quiet, and if you are successful I promise to tell the whole race

of leopards to spare the lives of _raibars_." So saying the leopard

jumped into the sack and allowed the man to tie him up tightly in

No sooner was this done than the _raibar_ took the sack on his

head and carried it to the bank of a river and having given it two

or three hearty whacks with his stick threw it into the water. The

sack went floating down the stream and it happened that lower down a

leopardess sat watching the water and when she saw the sack coming

along she thought that it was a dead cow floating down. So when it

came near she jumped into the water and pulled it ashore.

 

She then proceeded to tear open the sack, when out jumped the first

leopard; he soon explained how he came to be in the sack, and declared

that the _raibar's_ promise had been fulfilled and that she was his

destined mate. The leopardess agreed and the two set to work to tell

all the other leopards what had happened and what a kindness the

_raibar_ had done them; and so it came to pass that to the present

day leopards never interfere with _raibars_ when they are going about

arranging a marriage; no one ever heard of one being injured.

 

Meanwhile the _raibar_ went on his way rejoicing at having rid himself

of the leopard. But the next year, while engaged on the business of

another marriage, the _raibar_ was passing through the same jungle

when he came face to face with the very leopard that he thought he

had safely disposed of; he at once took to his heels, but the leopard

called out to him not to be afraid and to wait, as he had something

to say to him. So the _raibar_ stopped and the leopard asked whether

he did not recognise him; the _raibar_ stoutly denied all knowledge

of him. "Well," said the leopard "I am the leopard of whom you made

two out of one, and to show my gratitude I will give you any reward

you like; would you like a cow or a deer or any other animal? I will

kill you one and bring it to you."

 

When the _raibar_ saw the turn that things had taken he thought that

he had better take advantage of it, so he asked for a good large

nilgai. The leopard told him to come to a certain tree at noon the

next day and he would find the animal there. So they separated and the

next day at noon the _raibar_ went to the tree and found a fine nilgai

waiting for him, which he and his friends took home and ate with joy.

 

 

XLIV. (The Ungrateful Snake.)

 

There was once a Raja and his dewan and they each had one son;

these sons were married in infancy but as they grew up they never

heard anything about their having been married. When the boys reached

manhood and found no arrangements being made for their weddings they

began to wonder at the delay and often talked about it, and in the end

they agreed to run away to another country. Soon after this resolve

of theirs some horse dealers came to their home with horses to sell;

the two youths at once saw that if they could each have a horse and

learn to ride it, it would be easy for them to run away from home. So

they hurried to their fathers and begged them to buy them each one of

the beautiful horses which the dealers had brought. The Raja and the

dewan did not like to disappoint their sons so they bought the horses,

to the great delight of the boys, who used to ride them every day.

 

One day the Raja's son was out riding by himself and he passed by

a tank where a number of women and girls were bathing and drawing

water; as he came galloping along the women ran back in a fright;

and as they could not draw their water while he was there, an old

woman came up to him and told him to go away and not stay making eyes

at the girls as if he had no wife of his own: "What wife have I?",

said the prince, "I know nothing of having been married." "You were

married sure enough when you were an infant," replied the old woman:

"your wife is still in her father's house, but now that you have

grown up they will probably bring her home to you this year."

 

Then the prince asked where his wife lived and having learnt the name

of the village he galloped off home and at once began to question his

mother about his marriage; his mother told him that they intended to

have the bride brought home that year, but the prince was impatient

and proposed that he should go off at once to his father-in-law's and

see his wife, and try to persuade them to let her come back with him

without any ceremony; his mother made no objection, so he got ready

for the journey and started off on horseback. He had not gone far

when he saw a field of thatching grass on fire, and in the middle,

surrounded by the flames, was a huge poisonous snake, unable to escape.

 

As the prince rode by, the snake called out to him "Prince, you are

going joyously to bring home your bride, and here am I in danger of

being burned alive; will you not have pity on me and save me? If you do

I will confer a boon on you." "But if I save you," objected the prince,

"you will only eat me: snakes do not know what gratitude is." "I am

not of that kind," answered the snake: "here I am in danger of death,

I beseech you to have pity on me." These pleadings prevailed and the

prince got off his horse and beat out the fire and then spread a cloth

over the embers so that the snake could crawl out. When the snake was

safe the prince asked for the boon that had been promised him: "No boon

will you get" said the snake: "you did a foolhardy thing in saving me,

for now I am going to eat you, and you cannot escape from me."

 

The prince saw that there was little hope for him but he begged the

snake to allow two or three judges to decide whether it was fair that

he should be killed, after what he had done. The snake agreed to this

provided that the judges were not human beings; he was willing to be

bound by the opinions of any one else.

 

They set out together to look for judges and soon saw a herd of cattle

resting under a banyan tree by a pool of water, so they agreed to

make these their judges; then the prince explained to one of the

cows and the banyan tree and the water what they were to decide,

whether it was fair for the snake, whose life he had saved, now to

want to kill him. The banyan tree was the first to answer: it said

"You did good to the snake and your wages for doing good are evil;

you saved his life and he will now kill you, this is fair, this is

the justice we have learnt from human beings; you enjoy the shade of

us trees and in return you lop off our branches and sit on them, and

do us all manner of injury; it is right that the snake should eat you."

 

Then the prince turned to the cow: "He may eat you," answered the

cow: "the tree is right, see how men treat cattle; you drive away our

calves from us and take our milk and you beat us and make us work hard;

for all this ill treatment the snake shall eat you."

 

Then the prince asked the water what it had to say: "I agree with the

other two" said the water: "to return evil for good is the justice of

mankind, it is by drinking water that your very lives are preserved;

yet you spit into it and wash dirty things in it; shall not the snake

return you evil for good?" So judgment was delivered, and the snake

wanted to eat the prince; but the prince asked the tree and the cow

and the water to listen while he made one prayer; he told them how

he had been married when he was too young to know anything about it,

and how he was going for the first time to see his wife, when this

misfortune befell him; so he begged that he might be allowed to go and

see his bride and then be eaten on his way back; the banyan tree asked

what the snake thought about this proposal and the snake said that it

would make no objection if the tree and the cow and the water would be

sureties for the return of the prince within three days. So the prince

promised them faithfully that he would return and they let him go.

 

The prince rode on to his father-in-law's house, and when he arrived,

a bed was brought out for him to sit on and he was asked where he

came from. When he explained who he was, they at once brought water

and washed his feet and then gave him oil and a tooth stick and took

him to bathe; then they brought him curds and dried rice to eat and

afterwards killed a goat and made a feast and showed him every honour.

 

That evening