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

death men

have a very hard time of it in the next world. _Chando bonga_ makes

them work terribly hard; the woman have to pound the fruit of the

castor oil plant with a pestle; and from the seeds Chando bonga makes

human beings. All day long they have to work; those women who have

babies get a little respite on the excuse of suckling their babies;

but those who have no children get no rest at all; and the men are

allowed to break off to chew tobacco but those who have not learnt to

chew have to work without stopping from morning to night. And this is

the reason why Santals learn to chew tobacco when they are alive; for

it is of no use to merely smoke a _huka_: in the next world we shall

not be allowed to knock off work in order to smoke. In the next world

also it is very difficult to get water to drink. There are frogs who

stand on guard and drive away any who comes to the water to drink;

and so when Satals die we send drinking vessels with them so that

they may be able to run quickly to the water and fill the vessels

and get away before they are stopped. And it is said that if a man

during his lifetime has planted a peepul tree he gets abused for it

in the next world and is told to go and pick the leaves out of the

water which have fallen into it and are spoiling it and such a man is

able to get water to drink while he is picking the leaves out of it;

but whether this is all true I cannot say.

CLXVI. (After Death.)

 

When grown-up people die they become ancestral _bongas_ and sacrifices

are offered to them at the Flower and Sohrai festivals; and when

children die they become _bhuts_. When a pregnant woman dies, they

drive long thorns into the soles of the feet before the body is

burned for such women become _churins_. The reason of this is that

when the _churin_ pursues any one the thorns may hurt her and prevent

her from running fast: and so the man who is pursued may escape; for

if the _churin_ catches him she will lick all the flesh off his bones;

they especially attack the belly and their tongues are very rough.

 

There was once a man who had been to get his ploughshare sharpened by

the blacksmith and as he was on his way home it came on to rain, so he

took shelter in a hollow tree. While he was waiting for the weather

to clear he saw a _churin_ coming along singing and she also came to

take shelter in the same tree. Fortunately she pushed in backwards

and the man took the ploughshare which was still nearly red hot and

pressed it against her back; so she ran away screaming and he made

good his escape in the other direction; otherwise he would assuredly

have been licked to death.

 

 

CLXVII. (Hares and Men.)

 

In former days hares used to eat men and a man presented himself before

Thakur and said "O Father, these hares do us much damage; they are

little animals and hide under leaves and then spring out and eat us;

big animals we can see coming and can save ourselves. Have pity on

us and deliver us from these little animals," So Thakur summoned the

chief of the hares and fixed a day for hearing the case; and when the

man and the hare appeared he asked the hare whether they ate men and

the hare denied it and asserted on the contrary that men ate hares; but

the man when questioned denied that men killed hares. Then Thakur said

"O hare and man, I have questioned you both and you give contradictory

answers; and neither admits the charge; the matter shall be decided in

this way; you, hare, shall watch a _Kita_ tree and if within a year you

see a leaf fall from the tree you shall be allowed to eat men; and you,

man, shall watch a _Korkot_ tree and if you see a leaf fall, then men

shall be allowed to eat hares. Begin your watch to-day and this day

next year bring me your leaves." So the man and the hare departed and

each sat under a tree to see a leaf fall but they watched and watched

in vain until on the last day of the year a _korkot_ leaf fell and

the man joyfully picked it up and took it to Thakur; and the hare

failing to see a leaf fall bit off a leaf with its teeth and took it

to Thakur. Then Thakur examined the two leaves and said to the hare,

"This leaf did not fall of itself; see, the tip of the stalk is quite

different from the stalk of the leaf this man has brought; you bit

it off." And the hare was silent Then Thakur rubbed the legs of the

hare with a ball of cleaned cotton and passed this sentence on him,

that thenceforward he should skip about like a leaf blown by the wind

and that men should hunt hares wherever they found them and kill and

eat them, entrails and all.

 

And this is the reason why Santals do not clean the hares they kill,

but eat them entrails and all.

CLXVIII. (A Legend.)

 

 

Once upon a time a woman was found to be with child by her own brother,

so the two had to fly the country. In their flight they came to the

Mustard Tank and Flower Lake, on the banks of which they prepared

to cook their food. They boiled water and cooked rice in it; and

then they boiled water to cook pulse to eat with the rice. But when

the water was ready they found that they had forgotten to bring any

pulse. While they were wondering what they could get to eat with their

rice they saw a man of the fisher caste (Keot) coming along with his

net on his shoulder. Then the woman sang--

 

 

    "The son of a Keot is standing on the bank of the tank:

    The fish are jumping: the son of a Keot is catching the fish."

 

 

So the Keot caught them some fish, which they ate with their rice.

 

Then they went on and by the side of the road they saw a date palm

the juice of which had been tapped; and they wished to drink the juice

but they found that they had brought no drinking vessel with them. The

woman looked about and saw near by a fan palm tree and she sang--

 

 

    "The peepul's leaves go flicker, flicker:

    The banyan's leaves are thick and fleshy:

    Of the fan palm's leaf, brother, make a cup.

    And we will drink the juice of the date palm."

 

 

So her brother made a drinking vessel of a palm leaf and they drank

the date juice and went on their way. At nightfall they rested at

the foot of a Bael tree and fell into a drunken sleep from the date

juice they had drunk.

 

As the woman lay senseless her child was born to her and no sooner

was the child born than a bael fruit fell on to its head and split it

into four pieces which flew apart and became four hills. From falling

on the new-born child the bael fruit has ever since had a sticky

juice and the tree is covered with thorns which are the hair of the

child. In the morning the man and woman went on and came to a forest

of _Tarop_ trees and the woman wiped her bloody hands on the _Tarop_

trees and so the _Tarop_ tree ever since exudes a red juice like blood.

 

Next morning they went on and came to a spring and drank of its water

and afterwards the woman bathed in it and the blood stained water

flowed over all the country and so we see stagnant water covered

with a red scum. Going on from there they reached a low lying flat

and halted; almost at once they saw a thunder storm coming up from

the South and West; and the woman sang--

 

 

    "A storm as black as the _so_ fruit, brother,

    Is coming, full of danger for us:

    Come let us flee to the homestead of the liquor seller."

 

 

But the brother answered--

 

 

    "The liquor seller's house is an evil house:

    You only wish to go there for mischief."

 

 

So they stayed where they were and the lightning came and slew

them both.

CLXIX. (Pregnant Women.)

 

Pregnant women are not allowed to go about alone outside the village;

for there are _bongas_ everywhere and some of them dislike the sight of

pregnant women and kill them or cause the child to be born wry-necked.

 

A pregnant woman may not make a mud fireplace for if she does her child

will be born with a hare-lip; nor may she chop vegetables during an

eclipse or the same result will follow. She may not ride in a cart,

for if she does the child will be always crying and will snore in its

sleep; if she eats the flesh of field rats the child's body will be

covered with hair and if she eats duck or goose flesh the child will

be born with its fingers and toes webbed. Nor may a pregnant woman

look on a funeral, for if she does her child will always sleep with

its eyes half open.