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

and cautiously drove them home, keeping a good look

out all the way; the tiger prowled round them hiding in the bushes,

sometimes in front and sometimes behind, but found no opening to

attack while they for their part did not dare to shoot at it. The

tiger followed them right up to the house; but the elder brother did

not leave the other for a moment nor let him go outside the door and

at night he slept on the same bed with him.

 

The next morning he begged his brother to tell him all that had

happened and explain how he knew that a tiger would seek his

life on the previous day. "Come then" said the other, "to yonder

open ground. I cannot tell you in the house;" so they went out

together and then the younger told all that had happened and how his

sister-in-law had ordered the _Bonga_ to have him killed by a tiger;

"I did not tell you before till my story had been put to the proof

for fear that you would not believe me and would tell your wife; but

now you know all. I cannot live with you any longer; from this very

day I must go and find a home elsewhere." "Not so" said the other,

"I will not keep such a woman with me any longer; she is dangerous;

I will go home now and put her to death," and so saying he went home

and killed his wife with an axe.

 

 

 

CLXXXIII. (Ramjit Bonga.)

 

Once upon a time a man went out to snare quail: he set his snares

by the side of a mountain stream and then sat down under a bush to

watch them. As he waited he saw a young woman come along with her

water pot under her arm to draw water from the stream. When she got

to the _ghat_ she put down her pot and made her way up the stream

towards where the snares had been set; she did not notice the hunter

but went to the stump of an ebony tree near him and looking round

and seeing no one she suddenly became possessed and started dancing

round the ebony tree and singing some song which he could not clearly

catch; and as she danced she called out "The Pig's fat is overflowing:

brother-in-law Ramjit come here to me." When she called out like this

the quail catcher quietly crept nearer still to her. Although the

woman repeatedly summoned him in this way the Bonga would not come

out because he was aware of the presence of the onlooker; the woman

however got into a passion at his non-appearance and stripping off her

clothes she danced naked round the tree calling out "The Pig's fat

is overflowing: brother-in-law Ramjit come hither at once." At last

out of the _nala_ appeared the bonga, dark, enormous and shaggy; and

approached the woman: Then the woman said "Brother-in-law Ramjit there

is something that you must do for me; my nephew is ill; he must die

on such and such a day; that day I must see the smoke of his funeral

pyre; but you must save me from the witch-finder; let the blame fall

not on me but on so and so; this is what I came to urge on you; that

you protect me from discovery and then we shall always be friends."

 

The Bonga at first knowing that they were being watched would not make

the promise but when the woman insisted he promised in a low voice

and then disappeared into the _nala_; and the witch went back to the

ghat, filled her water pot and went home. The quail catcher also went

trembling home and he remembered the day fixed for the death of the

nephew of the witch and he decided to wait and see what happened before

saying anything to the villagers. Sure enough on the day before that

fixed by the witch the invalid became unconscious and was obviously

at the point of death. When he heard this the quail catcher went to

the sick man's bedside and seeing his condition told his relatives to

collect all the villagers to beat the woman whom he had seen with the

Bonga and he told them all that had passed; the villagers believed

him and summoning all the women of the village they scolded them;

and then being excited by this they rose up and began to beat the

women; to each they gave one blow with a stick, but the woman whom

the quail catcher pointed out they beat till she fainted.

 

Then they ordered her to cure the sick man and threatened to burn her

along with him if he died, but she insisted that she was innocent. Then

they told her that they knew all that had passed between her and

the Bonga Ramjit, she persisted that it was all a mistake. So they

started to beat her again; they beat her from her heels to her neck

and then from her neck down to her heels till the blood flowed and

they swore that they would not let her go unless she cured the sick

man and that if he died they would cut her to pieces. At last the

torture made her confess that it was she who was eating the sick man;

and she promised to cure him; so they first made her tell the names

of all the other witches in the village and then tied her to a post

and kept her there, and did not untie her till in four or five days

the sick man recovered. When she was let loose the quail catcher ran

away from the village and would not live there any more.

 

But the villagers threatened the witch woman that if her nephew or any

of his family got ill again they would kill her; and they told her that

as her secret had been found out she was henceforth to be their _ojha_

and cure their diseases; and they would supply her with whatever she

wanted for the purpose; they asked what sacrifice her nephew must make

on his recovery; and she told them to get a red cock, a grasshopper:

a lizard; a cat and a black and white goat; so they brought her these

and she sacrificed them and the villagers had a feast of rice and

rice beer and went to their homes and the matter ended.

CLXXXIV. (The Herd Boy and the Witches.)

 

Once upon a time a cowherd lost a calf and while looking for it he

was benighted in the jungle; for he was afraid to go home lest he

should be scolded for losing the calf. He had with him his bow and

arrows and flute and a stick but still he was afraid to stay the

night in the jungle; so he made up his mind to go to the _jahirthan_

as _More Turuiko_ would protect him there; so he went to the _jahir

than_ and climbed a tree in which a spirit abode; he took his bow

and arrows up with him but he was too frightened to go to sleep.

 

About supper time he saw a number of women who were witches collect

from all sides at the _jahir than_: at this sight he was more

frightened than ever; the witches then called up the _bongas_ and

they also summoned two tigers; then they danced the _lagre_ dance and

they combed the hair of the two tigers. Then they also called _More

Turniko_ and when they came, one bonga said "I smell a man" and _More

Turniko_ scolded him saying "Faith, you smelt nothing until we came;

and directly we come you say you smell a man; it must be us you smell";

and the chief of the _bongas_ agreed that it must be all right. Then

while the women were dancing the boy took his bow and shot the two

tigers, and the tigers enraged by their wounds fell on the witches

and killed them all; and then they died themselves; and as they were

dying they roared terribly so that the people in the villages near

heard them. When it grew light the boy climbed down and drawing the

arrows from the bodies of the tigers went home.

 

Then the people asked him where he had spent the night and he said

that he was benighted while looking for his calf and as he heard tigers

roaring near the _jahir than_ he was frightened and had stayed in the

jungle. They told him that when the tigers began to roar the calf

had come running home by itself and this was good news to the herd

boy. Then he found that all the children in the village were crying for

their mothers and the men were asking what had become of their wives;

then the herdboy said that in the night he had seen some women going in

the direction of the _jahir than_ but he had not seen them come back

and they had better go and look there. So the villagers went off and

found their wives lying dead by the _jahir than_ and the two tigers

also dead; and they knew that the women must have been witches to go

there at night; so they wept over them and burned the bodies. And a

long time afterwards the boy told them all that he had seen and done;

and they admitted that he had done right in destroying the witches

and that it would be well if all witches met the same fate.

 

This story whether true or not is told to this day.

CLXXXV. (The Man-Tiger.)

 

There was once a young man who when a boy had learnt witchcraft from

some girl friends; he was married but his wife knew nothing about

this. They lived happily together and were in the habit of paying

frequent visits to the wife's parents. One day they were on their

way together to pay such a visit and in passing through some jungle

they saw, grazing with a herd of cattle, a very fine and fat bull

calf. The man stopped and stripped himself to his waist cloth and

told his wife to hold his clothes for him while he went and ate the

calf that had stirred his appetite. His wife in astonishment asked

him how he was going to eat a living animal; he answered that he

was going