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

asked them to have some dinner and they said that they would eat,

provided that she used no salt in the cooking. She promised not to

do, but what she did was to scatter some salt over the bottom of the

dish. Then she cooked the rice and turned it into the dish and gave

it to them to eat. They ate but when they came to the bottom of the

dish they tasted the salt which had been underneath. Then the three

messengers said "She has got the better of us; we have eaten her salt

and can no longer deceive her; we must tell her why we have come."

 

So they told her that her son was to die that night and that Chando

had sent them to take away his spirit: all they could do was to

let her come too, and see the place to which her son's spirit was

going. The mother thought that this would be a consolation to her,

so she went with them. When they arrived in the spirit world they

told the Brahman's wife to wait for them by a certain house in which

dwelt her son's wife; and they took the boy to Chando. Presently they

brought him back to the house in which his wife dwelt and near which

his mother was waiting and she overheard the following conversation

between the boy and his wife. The wife said "Have you come for good

this time, or must you again go back to the world?"

 

"I have to go back once more."

 

"And how will you manage to return again here?"

 

"I shall ask for the dust of April and May and if it is not given

to me I shall cry myself to death; and if that fails, I shall cry

for a toy winnowing fan; and if they give me that, then I will cry

for an elephant and if that fails then on my wedding day there will

be two thorns in the rice they give me to eat and they will stick

in my throat and kill me. And if that does not come to pass, then,

when I return home after the wedding, a leopard will kill a cow and

I shall run out to chase the leopard and I shall run after it, till

I run hither to you."

 

"When you come back," said his wife, "bring me some of the vermilion

they use in the world" and the boy promised.

 

The messengers then took the Brahman's wife home, and shortly

afterwards the boy was born again. His mother had carefully guarded

the memory of all that she had heard in the other world; and when

the child asked for the dust and the winnowing fan and the elephant,

she at once gratified his desires. So the boy grew up, and his wedding

day arrived. His mother insisted on accompanying him to the bride's

house, and when the rice was brought for the bride and bridegroom

to eat together, she asked to be allowed to look at it first, and on

examining it pulled out the the two thorns; and then her son ate it

unharmed. But when the wedding party returned home and the ceremony

of introducing the bride to the house was being performed, word

was brought that a leopard had killed one of the cows; at once the

bridegroom ran out in pursuit; but his mother followed him and called

out, "My son, your wife told you to take her some of the vermilion of

this world; here is some that I have brought, take it with you." At

this her son stopped and asked her to explain what she meant; then

she told him all and he went no more in pursuit of the leopard:

so he stayed and grew up and lived to a good old age.

 

CVI. (The Speaking Crab.)

 

There was once a farmer who kept a labourer and a field woman to do

the work of the farm; and they were both very industrious and worked

as if they were working on their own account and not for a master.

 

Once at the time of transplanting rice, they were so busy that they

stayed in the fields all day and had their meals there and did not

go home till the evening. During this time it happened that the man

had unyoked his plough bullocks and taking his hoe began to dress the

embankment of the field, and as he dug, he dug out a very large crab;

so he plucked some leaves from the bushes and wrapped the crab in

them and fetching the yoke rope from the plough, he tied the bundle

up tightly with it and put it on the stump of a tree, intending to

take it home in the evening; but when he went home he forgot about it.

 

Now the crab was alive and in the middle of the night it began to

struggle to get out, but could not free itself. It happened that just

then the farmer was walking in the field to see that no one came to

steal his rice seedlings, and the crab began to sing:--

 

 

    "This servant, this servant, father,

    And this maidservant, this maidservant, father,

    Caught me while digging the bank:

    And in leaves, leaves, father,

    With the yoke rope, yoke rope, father

    Tied me and left me on the stump."

 

 

At this sound the farmer was very frightened, and puzzled also;

for he thought, "If this were a human being crying, every one in

the neighbourhood would have heard and woke up, but it seems that

I alone am able to hear the sound; who can it be who is talking

about my servants?" So he went back to bed and told no one. The next

morning when the labourer looked for his yoke ropes, he missed one;

and then he remembered that he had used it to tie up the crab; so he

went to the place and found his rope. When his master brought them

their breakfast that day and they had finished eating, the labourer

began to tell how he had lost one of the yoke ropes and had found

it again: and how he had used it for tying up the crab which he had

found. The master asked whether the crab was alive or dead; and the

labourer said that it was dead.

 

Then the master said "My man you have done a very foolish thing;

why did you tie it up alive? Last night I could not sleep for its

crying. Why did you imprison the innocent creature until it died?" And

he told them the song it had sung, and forbade them ever to cause

such pain to living creatures. He said "Kill them outright or you will

bring disgrace on me; when I heard the lament I thought it was a man,

but now I learn from you that it was a crab. I forbid you ever to do

the like again." And at the time of the Sohrai festival the farmer

called together all his household and sang them the song and explained

its meaning to them, and the men who heard it remember it to this day.

CVII. (The Leopard Outwitted.)

 

There was once a man-eating leopard, whose depredations became so

serious, that the whole neighbouring population decided to have a

great hunt and kill it. On the day fixed a great crowd of beaters

collected, and their drums made a noise as if the world were being

turned upside down.

 

When the leopard heard the shouting and the drumming, it started to

escape to another jungle, and as it was crossing a road it came on

a merchant driving a packbullock. The merchant tried to run away,

but the leopard stopped him and said "You must hide me or I will eat

you." The merchant continued to run, thinking that if he helped the

leopard it would surely eat him afterwards, but the leopard swore an

oath not to eat him if he would only hide it. So the merchant stopped

and took one of his sacks off the bullock and emptied it out and tied

up the leopard in it, and put it on the bullock and then drove on.

 

When they got out of hearing of the hunters the leopard asked to be

let out; but directly the sack was untied it said that it would devour

the merchant. The merchant said "You can of course eat me, but let us

consult an arbitrator as to whether it is fair." The leopard agreed

and as they were near a stream, the man asked the water whether it was

fair that he should be killed, after he had saved the leopard's life;

the water answered "Yes; you men wash all manner of filthy things

in me; let it eat you!" Then the leopard wanted to eat him, but the

merchant asked leave to take two more opinions; so he asked a tree;

but the tree said "Men cut me down; let the leopard eat you."

 

The merchant was very downcast to find everyone against him and

the leopard said, "Well, whom will you consult next? You have so

many friends;" so they went on and presently met a jackal and the

merchant said that he would appeal to him. The jackal considered for

some time and then said "I don't understand how you hid the leopard;

let me see how it was done; and then I shall be able to decide," The

merchant said "I hid him in this sack." "Really," said the jackal,

"show me exactly how you did it" So the leopard got into the sack

to show how he was hidden; then the jackal asked to be shown how

the leopard was carried out of danger; so the merchant tied up the

sack and put it on the bullock. "Now," said the jackal, "drive on,

and when we come to yonder ravine and I tell you to put the sack down,

do you knock in the head of the leopard with a stone." And the merchant

did so and when he had killed the leopard, he took it out of the sack

and the jackal ate its body.

CVIII. (The Wind and the Sun.)

 

Once the Wind and the Sun disputed as to which was the more

powerful. And while they were quarreling a man came by wrapped

in a shawl and wearing a big