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

as would surely be the

case if his wife were found drowned, so he ran out of the house to the

pool of water to try and save her. Seizing this opportunity his wife

slipped into the house and in her turn locked the door from inside;

so that her husband had to spend the rest of the night out-of-doors.

 

He could not be kept out of the house permanently and the next day he

gave his wife a thrashing and turned her out. At evening however she

came back and sat outside in the courtyard, weeping and wailing. The

noise made her husband more angry than ever, and he shouted out to her

that if she did not keep quiet he would come and cut off her nose. She

kept on crying, and the Jugi heard her and sent an old woman to call

her to him. She declared that if she went her husband would know and be

the more angry with her, but she might go if the old woman would sit

in her place and keep on crying, so that her husband might believe

her to be still in the courtyard. The old woman agreed and began

to weep and wail, while the other went off to the Jugi. She wept to

such purpose that the husband at last could not restrain his anger,

and rushing out into the darkness with a knife, cut off the nose,

as he supposed, of his wife.

 

Presently the wife came back and found the old woman weeping in real

earnest over the loss of her nose. "Never mind, I'll find it and fix it

on for you," so saying she felt about for the nose till she found it,

clapped it on to the old woman's face and told her to hold it tight

and it would soon grow again. Then she sat down where she had sat

before and began to lament the cruelty of her husband in bringing a

false charge against her and challenged him to come out and see the

miracle which had occurred to indicate her innocence. She repeated

this so often that at last her husband began to wonder what she meant,

and took a lamp and went out to see. When he found her sitting on the

ground without a blemish on her face, although he had seen her with

his own eyes go to the Jugi's house, he could not doubt her virtue

and had to receive her back into the house.

 

Thus by her cunning the faithless wife escaped the punishment which

she deserved.

CIII. (The Industrious Bride.)

 

Once upon a time a party of three or four men went to a village to

see if a certain girl would make a suitable bride for the son of one

of their friends; and while they were talking to her, another young

woman came up. The visitors asked the first girl where her father

was and she told them that he had gone to "meet water."

 

Then they asked where her mother was, and she said that she had gone

"to make two men out of one." These answers puzzled the questioners,

and they did not know what more to say; as they stood silent the other

girl got up and went away remarking, "While I have been waiting here,

I might have carded a seer of cotton." The men who were looking for

a girl who would make a good wife, at once concluded that they had

found what they wanted: "How industrious she must be to talk like

that" thought they--"much better than this other girl who can only

give us incomprehensible answers." And before they left the village

they set everything in train for a match between their friend's son

and the girl who seemed so industrious.

 

When they got home and told their wives what they had done they

got well laughed at: their wives declared that it was quite easy to

understand what the first girl had meant: of course she meant that

her father had gone to reap thatching grass and her mother had gone

to thresh _dal_. The poor men only gaped with astonishment at this

explanation.

 

However the marriage they had arranged duly took place, but the fact

was that the bride was entirely ignorant of how to clean and spin

cotton. It was not long before this was found out, for, in the spring,

when there was no work in the fields, her father-in-law set all the

women of the household to spinning cotton; and told them that they

and their husbands should have no new clothes until they had finished

their task. The bride, who had been so carefully chosen, tried to learn

how to spin by watching the others, but all in vain. The other women

laughed at her efforts and she protested that it was the fault of the

spinning wheel: it did not know her; her mother's spinning wheel knew

her well and she could spin capitally with that. They jeered at the

idea of a spinning wheel having eyes and being able to recognise its

owner; however one day the young woman went and fetched her mother's

spinning wheel and tried to spin with that. She got on no better than

before, and could only explain it by saying that the spinning wheel

had forgotten her.

 

Whatever the reason was, the other women all finished their spinning

and received their new clothes, while she had nothing to show. Then her

father-in-law scolded her and told her that it was too late to make

other arrangements and as she could not get any new clothes the best

thing for her to do would be to smear her body with _Gur_ and stick

raw cotton all over it. A _parrab_ soon came round and all the other

women got out their new clothes and went to see the fun. The clumsy

bride had no new clothes and she took her father-in-law's advice and

smeared her body with _gur_ and covered herself with raw cotton and

so went to the _parrab_.

 

Her husband was very angry that she should have taken her

father-in-law's jest in earnest, and when she came home he gave her

a good beating and turned her out of the house. And that was the end

of the "industrious" bride.

CIV. (The Boy and His Fate.)

 

There was once a Raja and Rani who had had three sons, but they had

all died when only three or four months old. Then a fourth son was

born, a fine handsome child; and he did not die in infancy but grew

up to boyhood. It was however fated that he should die when he was

sixteen years old and his parents knew this and when they saw him

coming happily home from his games of play, their eyes filled with

tears at the thought of the fate that hung over him.

 

One day the boy asked his father and mother why it was that they were

so sorrowful: and they told him how his three little brothers had died

and how they feared that he had but little longer to live. On hearing

this the boy proposed that he should be allowed to go away into a

far country, as perhaps by this means he might avoid his fate. His

father was glad to catch at the faintest hope and readily gave his

consent: so they supplied him with money and mounted him on a horse,

and off he set.

 

He travelled far and settled down in a place that pleased him. But

in a short time the messengers of death came to the Raja's palace to

take him away. When they did not find him, they followed in pursuit

along the road which he had taken; they wore the likeness of men and

soon traced out the Raja's son. They presented themselves to him and

said that they had come to take him home again. The prince said that

he was ready to go, but asked them to allow him to cook and eat his

rice before starting. They told him that he might do this if he were

quick about it: he promised to hurry, and set to his cooking: he put

sufficient rice into the pot to feed them all and when it was ready

he offered some to each of the messengers. They consulted together

as to whether they should eat it, but their appetites got the better

of their caution and they agreed to do so, and made a good meal. But

directly they had finished they began to debate what they should do;

they had eaten his rice and could no longer compass his death.

 

So they told him frankly that Chando had sent them to call him;

he was to die that night and they were to take away his spirit; but

they had made the mistake of eating at his hands and although they

must take him away, they would give him advice as to how he might

save his life: he was to take a thin piece of lamp-wick and when

Chando questioned him, he was to put it up his nose and make himself

sneeze. The prince promised to remember this, and that night they

took his spirit away to Chando, but when Chando began to question

him he made himself sneeze with the lamp-wick; thereupon Chando at

once wrote that he should live for sixty years more and ordered the

messengers to immediately restore his spirit to its body. Then the

prince hastened back to his father and mother, and told them that he

had broken through his fate and had a long life before him; and they

had better make arrangements for his marriage at once. This they did

and he lived to a ripe old age, as he had been promised.

 

 

CV. (The Messengers of Death.)

 

There was once a Brahman who had four sons born to him, but they

all died young; a fifth son however was born to him, who grew up

to boyhood. But it was fated that he too should die before reaching

manhood. One day while his father was away from home, the messengers of

death came to take him away. The Brahman's wife thought that they were

three friends or relations of her husband, who had come to pay a visit,

and gave them a hearty welcome. And when she asked who they were,

they also told her that they were connections of her husband. Then

she