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

_bonga_ girl had

turned into a fish. And they went to kill it, but the fish sang:--

 

 

    "Do not hit me, father,

    Do not hit me, father,

    Your daughter-in-law, the Ginduri fish is dying."

 

 

Nevertheless they killed it and dragged it on to the bank. Then they

began to cut it up, and as they did so, it sang:--

 

 

    "Do not cut me, father,

    Do not cut me, father,

    Your daughter-in-law, the Ginduri fish, is dying."

 

 

Nevertheless they cut it up, and Bhagrit divided the pieces among the

workmen, but they were too frightened to take any and preferred to

take the smaller fishes as their share. So he told Lukhu's wife to take

up the pieces and wash them: and as she did so the song was heard:--

 

 

    "Do not wash me, sister,

    Do not wash me, sister,

    The Ginduri fish is dying."

 

 

And she was very frightened, but her father made her wash them and

then they took home the pieces and lit a fire and ground spices and

turmeric and heated oil and made ready to cook the fish. Then the

fish sang again:--

 

 

    "Do not cook me, sister,

    Do not cook me, sister,

    The Ginduri fish, sister, is dying.'

 

 

But she nevertheless put the pieces into the pot to boil, when lo and

behold, out of the pot jumped the pretty _bonga_ girl. Then Bhagrit

said to his neighbours.--"You see by my persistence I have got a

daughter-in-law"--and she was duly married to Dukhu. At the wedding

the _bonga_ girl said "Listen, Father and all of you: I tell you and

I tell my husband--however much we quarrel let not my husband strike

me on the head, let him beat me on the body, I shall not mind; but

on the day that he hits me on the head: I shall depart for good."

 

After the marriage the family became very prosperous and their

crops flourished and every one liked the _bonga_ girl; but between

her and her husband there were constant quarrels and their friends

could not stop them. One day it happened that Dukhu smacked her

on the head. Then the _bonga_ girl began to cry and called her

father-in-law and mother-in-law and said "Father, listen, the father

of your grandson has turned me out, you must do your work yourselves

to-day;" then she took her child on her hip and left the house; and

they ran after her and begged her to return, but she would not heed;

and they tried to snatch the child from her but she would not give

it up, and went away and was seen no more.

 

 

LXX. (The Monkey Husband.)

 

One very hot day some children were bathing in a pool, when a Hanuman

monkey snatched up the cloth which one of the girls had left on the

bank and ran up a tree with it. When the children came out of the water

and went to take up their clothes, they found one missing, and looking

about, they saw the monkey in the tree with it. They begged the Hanuman

to give it back, but the monkey only said--"I will not give it unless

its owner consents to marry me."--Then they began to throw sticks

and stones at him but he climbed to the top of the tree out of the way.

 

Then they ran and told the parents of the girl whose cloth had been

stolen; and they called their neighbours and went with bows and arrows

and threatened to shoot the monkey if he did not give up the cloth,

but he still said that he would not, unless the girl would marry

him. Then they shot all their arrows at him but not one of them hit

him; then the neighbours said. "This child is fated to belong to the

monkey and that is why we cannot hit him." Then the girl's father

and mother began to cry and sang:--

 

 

    "Give the girl her cloth,

    Her silk cloth, monkey boy,"

 

 

and he answered

 

 

    "If she consents to marry me I will give it:

    If she consents I will put it in her hand."

 

 

And as he did not listen to the father and mother, her father's

younger brother and his wife sang the same song, but in vain; and

then the girl herself begged for it, and thereupon the monkey let

down one end of the cloth to her; and when she caught hold of it,

he pulled her up into the tree, and there made her put on her cloth

and ran off with her on his back.

 

The girl was quite willing to go with him and called out as she was

carried away: "Never mind, father and mother, I am going away." The

Hanuman took her to a cave in the mountains and they lived on

fruit,--mangoes or jack or whatever fruit was in season. The monkey

climbed the trees and shook the fruit down; but if the girl saw by

the marks of teeth that the monkey had bitten off any fruit, instead

of only shaking it down, she would not eat it, and pretended that

she had had enough; for she would not eat the leavings of the monkey.

 

At last the girl got tired of having only fruit to eat; and demanded

rice. So the monkey took her to a bazar, and leaving her on the

outskirts of the village under a tree, he went and stole some pots from

a potter and rice and salt and turmeric and pulse and sweetmeats from

other shops, and brought them to the girl. Then she collected sticks

and lit a fire and cooked a meal; and the monkey liked the cooked

food, and asked her to cook for him every day. So they stayed there

several days. Then the girl asked for more clothes and the monkey

tried to steal them too, but the shopkeepers were on the watch and

drove him away.

 

The girl soon got tired of sleeping under a tree so they went back

to the cave and the monkey gathered mangoes and jackfruit and told

her to go and sell them in the market and then she would be able to

buy cloth. But when she had sold the fruit, she stayed in the village

and took service with a well-to-do shopkeeper, and never returned to

the monkey. The monkey watched for her and searched for her in vain,

and returned sorrowfully to his hill; but the girl stayed on in the

village and eventually married one of the villagers.

LXXI. (Lakhan and the Wild Buffaloes.)

 

Once upon a time there was the only son of a widow, who used to tend

the sheep and goats of a Raja and his name was Lakhan. One day he

harnessed one of the goats to a plough and ploughed up a piece of high

land and sowed hemp there. The crop grew finely, but one night a herd

of wild buffaloes came and ate it all up; at this Lakhan resolved to

pursue the buffaloes and shoot them.

 

His mother did all she could to dissuade him but he made up a bundle

of provisions, and set off on his journey with a stick, and a bow

and arrows, and a flute made of the castor oil plant. He tracked the

buffaloes for some days and one evening he came to the house of an

old witch (hutibudhi) and he went up to it and asked the witch if he

might sleep there. She answered "My house is rough and dirty, but

you can choose a corner to sleep in; I can give you nothing more,

as I have not a morsel of food in the house." "Then," said he,

"I must go to bed hungry" and he lay down supperless.

 

In the middle of the night the witch began to gnaw at Lakhan's bow

and he heard her gnawing and called out "What are you munching? Give

me at bit," but she answered that it was only a little pulse which

she had gleaned from the fields and she had finished it. So Lakhan

said no more; but during the night the witch bit his bow to pieces

and when he saw this in the morning, he was very unhappy; for it was

useless to find the bison, if he had nothing to shoot them with.

 

So he went home and had an iron bow and arrows made by a blacksmith,

and then started off again. As before he came to the witch's house

and arranged to sleep there; and in the night the witch tried to

bite the bow to pieces, and Lakhan heard her crunching it and asked

her what she was eating: she said it was only a little grain which

she had gleaned. In the morning he found the bow all right, but the

witch's jaws were badly swollen. Lakhan laughed at her and asked what

was the matter and she said that she had toothache.

 

So Lakhan went on his way rejoicing and at last reached the place

where the wild buffaloes rested at night; he waited there and while he

waited he swept away all the droppings and made the place clean, and

then climbed up into a tree. At evening great herds of buffaloes came

to the place and they were so many that Lakhan was afraid to shoot. So

he stayed there, and every day he used to sweep the place clean, while

the buffaloes were away, and at night time hid himself in the tree.

 

The buffaloes determined to find out who their benefactor was, and they

chose an old cow to stay behind and watch. The next day the old cow

pretended that she was too weak to rise, and was left behind when the

herd went out to graze. Lakhan thought that she was too old to do him

any harm, so, although she was there, he got down from the tree and

cleaned up the place as usual, and even swept quite close up to the

old cow buffalo. In the evening the other buffaloes came back and the

old cow told them that it was a human being who swept their resting

place clean; and when they promised not to hurt him, she pointed out

the tree where Lakhan was. Then the buffaloes told him to come down

and swore not to kill him but to support him and keep him as their

servant. They told him to make a leaf bowl and they filled this with

their milk, as much as he could drink, and they arranged that he should

stay at the sleeping place and keep it clean, and when he wanted milk

he was to play on his flute and they would come at the sound.

 

So every noon he used to blow the flute and the cows came, running

and gave him more milk than he wanted so that he used even to bathe

himself in milk, and this made his hair grow very long.

 

One day a parrot belonging to a Raja saw him drying his long hair

in the sun and the parrot went to the Raja and told him that he had

found a husband for the Raja's daughter, with beautiful long hair;

but that no