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

hid and the leopard looked every where for

it in vain. At last the leopard sat down to rest and it chanced that

he sat right on top of the lizard which was hiding in a hole. The

lizard thought that the leopard meant to hurt it and in revenge bit

him and fastened on to his rump so that he could not get it off,

so that day when the boys came calling out "Ho, leopard," he ran

towards them to get their help: but when they saw the leopard they

all fled for their lives. Ledha however could not run fast because

he was lame, and the leopard headed him off and begged him to remove

the lizard. This he did after the leopard had sworn not to eat him,

and before they parted the leopard made him promise to tell no one

that the lizard had bitten him, and said that if he told then he would

be carried off and eaten. So Ledha rejoined his companions and told

them nothing of what had passed between him and the leopard. But that

night when they had all gone to bed, Ledha's sister-in-law began to

worry him to tell her what the leopard had said to him, when it had

caught him. He told her that the leopard would eat him if he told,

but she coaxed him and said that no one could hear them inside the

house; so at last he told her that he had taken off a lizard which

was hanging on to its rump. Then they went to sleep; but the leopard

was hiding at the back of the house and heard all that they said;

and when they were all asleep, he crept in and carried off Ledha's bed

with Ledha in it on his head. When Ledha woke up towards morning, he

found himself being carried through dense jungle and he quietly pulled

himself up into one of the trees which overhung the path. Thus when

the leopard put down the bed and was going to eat Ledha, he found it

empty. So he went back on his track and by and bye came to the tree

in which Ledha was hiding. The leopard begged Ledha to come down,

as he had something to say to him, and promised not to eat him; but

directly Ledha reached the ground the leopard said "Now I am going to

eat you." Ledha was powerless, so he only asked to be allowed to have

one chew of tobacco before he died; the leopard assented and Ledha

felt in his cloth for his tobacco, but the tobacco did not come out

easily and as Ledha felt about for it the dry tobacco leaves crackled;

the leopard asked what the crackling sound was, and Ledha said "That

is the lizard which bit you yesterday;" then the leopard got into a

terrible fright and ran away as hard as he could, calling out "Don't

let it loose: Don't let it loose."

 

So Ledha was saved from the leopard, but he did not know his way out

of the jungle. He wandered about, till he came to the place where the

wild buffaloes used to sleep at night, and he swept up the place and

made it clean and then took refuge in a hollow tree; he stayed there

some days, sweeping up the place daily and supporting himself on the

fruit of a fig-tree. At last one day the buffaloes left one cow behind

to watch and see who it was who swept up their sleeping place. The cow

pretended to be too ill to rise, and Ledha after watching for some

time came out and swept the ground as usual, and then tried to pull

the sick cow up by the tail; but she would not move so he went back to

his hollow tree. When the buffaloes returned they heard that it was a

kindhearted man who cleaned their sleeping place; so they called Ledha

out and said that they would keep him as their servant to clean their

sleeping place and to scrub them when they bathed in the river; they

made him taste the milk of all the cows and appointed the cow whose

milk he liked best to supply him. Thenceforward he used to wander

about with the buffaloes and he made a flute and used to play on it.

 

One day after scrubbing the buffaloes he washed his head in the river

and some of his hairs came out; so he wrapped them up in a leaf and

set the packet to float down the stream. Lower down the stream two

princesses were bathing with their attendants, and when they saw

the packet they tried who could fish it out and it was the younger

princess who caught it. Then they measured the hairs and found them

twelve cubits long. The princess who had taken the packet from the

water went home and took to her bed and said that she would not

eat until the man was found to whom the hairs belonged. Her father,

the Raja, sent messengers in all directions to search for the man

but they could not find him. Then he sent a parrot and the parrot

flew up high and looking down saw Ledha with the buffaloes in the

forest; but it did not dare to go near, so the parrot returned and

told the Raja that the man was in the forest but that no messenger

could approach for fear of the wild buffaloes. However a crow said,

"I can bring him if any one can," so they sent the crow and it went

and perched on the backs of the buffaloes and began to peck them;

then Ledha threw stones at it, but it would not go away; then he threw

a stick at it and last of all he threw his flute. The crow caught up

the flute and flew up to a tree with it. Ledha ran after it, but the

crow kept flying on a short distance and Ledha still pursued until he

came to the Raja's city. The crow flew on till it entered the room

where the princess lay, and dropped the flute into the hands of the

princess. Ledha followed right into the room and they shut him in

and the princess gave him his flute after he had promised to marry her.

 

So he stayed there a long time, but meanwhile the buffaloes all got

weak and ill for want of some one to look after them. One day Ledha

set off to the jungle with his wife to see them and when he saw how

ill the buffaloes were, he decided to build a house in the jungle

and live there. And the Raja sent them money and horses and cattle

and elephants and servants and they built a palace and Ledha subdued

all the jungle and became a great Raja; and he made a highway to his

father-in-law's home and used to go to and fro on it.

 

IV. (The Cruel Stepmother.)

 

There was once a Raja whose wife died leaving him with one young

child. He reared it with great care and when it could toddle about

it took a great fancy to a cat; the child was always playing with it

and carrying it about.

 

All his friends begged the Raja to marry again, but he said that he

was sure that a stepmother would be cruel to his child; at last they

persuaded him to promise to marry again, if a bride could be found

who would promise to care for the child as her own, so his friends

looked out for a bride; but though they found plenty of girls who

were anxious to marry the Raja, not one would promise to care for

his child as her own. There was a young widow in a certain village

who heard of what was going on, and one day she asked whether a

bride had been found for the Raja and she was told that no one was

willing to take charge of the child. "Why don't they agree," said she,

"I would agree fast enough. If I were Rani I should have nothing to

do but look after the child and I would care for it more than its own

mother could." This came to the ears of the Raja and he sent for the

widow and was pleased with her looks, and when she promised to love

his child as her own, he married her.

 

At first no one could be kinder to the child than she was, but in the

course of time she had a child of her own and then she began to be

jealous of the elder child; and she thought daily how she could get

rid of him. He was still devoted to his cat and one day when he came

back to the house, he asked his stepmother where the cat was. She

answered angrily, "The cat has bewitched the boy! It is 'cat, cat,'

all day long." At this the child began to cry; so she found the cat

and threw it to him, saying, "Here is your cat: you are mad about

your cat." But the boy hugged it in his arms and kept on crying at his

stepmother's cross words. As he would not keep quiet his stepmother got

more angry still; and catching hold of the cat she scratched her own

arms and legs with the cat's claws until the blood flowed; then she

began to cry and scold and when the neighbours came to see what was

the matter, she told them that the boy had let his cat scratch her;

and the neighbours saw that she was not loving the boy as she promised.

 

Presently the Raja came in and asked what was the matter; she turned

and scolded him saying: "You have reared the accursed cat and it has

scratched me finely; look, it has taken all the skin off; this is the

way the boy repays me for all my trouble. I will not stay with you; if

I stay the boy will injure me like this again." The Raja said, "Don't

cry like a baby; how can a simple child like that know better? when

he grows up I will scold him." But the woman persisted and declared

that she would go away with her own child unless the Raja promised

to kill his elder son. The Raja refused to do this, so the Rani took

up her baby and went out of the house with it in a rage. Now the Raja

was deeply in love with her and he followed and stopped her, and said

that he could not let her take away his younger child; she answered,

"Why trouble about the child? it is mine; I have left you your boy,

if you don't kill him, when he grows up, he will tell you some lie

about me and make you have me beaten to death." At last the Raja

said "Well, come back and if the boy does you any harm I will kill

him." But the Rani said. "Either kill him now or let me go." So at

last the Raja promised and brought her back to the palace. Then the

Raja called the boy and gave him his dinner and told him that they

were going on a visit to his uncle's: and the child was delighted

and fetched his shoes and umbrella, and off they set, and a dog came

running after them. When they came to a jungle the Raja told his son

to sit under a tree and wait for him, and he went away and killed the

dog that had followed them and smeared the blood on his axe and went

home, leaving the child.

 

When his father did not return, the child began to cry, and Thakur

heard him and came down, and to frighten the boy and make him leave

the jungle he came in the guise