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

while he did puja to make the food wholesome. The

tigers obeyed and under pretence of doing puja the jackal ate up

all the tit bits and then allowed the tigers to come and eat the

rest. This happened daily and the jackal lived in comfort all his days.

 

 

 

 

(6)--The Wild Buffaloes.

 

There was once a man so poor that he had no land, no plough and no

plough cattle: all that he had was a pair of fine goats. This man

determined to plough with the goats, so he made a little plough and

yoked the goats to it, and with it he ploughed a piece of barren

upland. Having ploughed he had no seed paddy to sow; he went to try

and borrow some paddy from the neighbours, but they would lend him

nothing. Then he went and begged some paddy chaff, and a neighbour

readily gave him some. The man took the chaff and sowed it as if it

had been seed. Wonderful to relate from this chaff grew up the finest

crop of paddy that ever was seen. Day by day the man went and watched

with joy his paddy grow and ripen. One morning when he went to see

it he was horrified to find that in the night wild buffaloes had come

and eaten and destroyed the whole crop. Having now no other resource

the man determined to follow the wild buffaloes into the jungle:

he readily tracked them and came to a large open space where every

night the wild buffaloes used to sleep. As it was very dirty he made

a broom of twigs and brushed the place clean. At nightfall he heard

the buffaloes coming back and he went and hid in a hollow tree. When

the buffaloes saw how clean their sleeping place had been made they

were very pleased and wondered who had done it. The next morning the

buffaloes all went away into the jungle to graze, and the man came

out of his hollow tree and again swept up the place: the buffaloes on

their return saw that the place had again been swept and decided to

leave one of their number to watch and see who did this. They left a

buffalo who was lame to watch: when the day got hot however the lame

buffalo went to sleep, and the man then came out of his tree and swept

up the place and hid himself again without being discovered. So the

next day the buffaloes left a blind one behind.

 

The blind buffalo was of very acute hearing and he heard the man come

out and sweep the place and return to the tree: so when the other

buffaloes came back he told them of the man's hiding place. The

buffaloes made him come out and arranged that they would provide

for him if he would stay with them and sweep their sleeping place

daily. The next day the buffaloes lay in wait for a band of merchants

who were travelling through the forest and suddenly charging down

upon them put the merchants to flight: they fled leaving behind

them all their goods and provisions: these the buffaloes took on

their horns and carried to the man, and in this way they from time

to time supplied him with all he needed. As he was alone all day

they gave him a pair of horns, and said that wherever he was if he

blew on the horns all the buffaloes in the forest would come to his

assistance. But one day when he was bathing he put the horns down on

the bank of the stream and crows flew away with them and he did not

care to tell the buffaloes that he had lost them.

 

One day he went to bathe in the river and after bathing he sat and

combed his hair on the bank. Now his hair was so long that it reached

to his knees. One of his long hairs came out and so he took it and

splitting open a _loa_ fruit he coiled the hair inside and closed the

fruit up and then set it to float down the river. A long way down

the stream a Raja's daughter happened to be bathing and the _loa_

fruit floated past her: she caught hold of it and when she opened it

she found the long hair inside. At once she went to her father and

vowed that she would marry no one except the man to whom the long

hair belonged. As nothing would alter her determination the Raja sent

men up the river to search for the owner of the long hair. One of

them found the man at the home of the buffaloes and brought him to

the Raja. He was at once married with great grandeur to the princess

and promised the succession to the kingdom. So our hero began to live

in great luxury. One day as he was standing in the courtyard of the

palace some crows flew overhead and dropped the pair of horns that he

had lost. He picked them up and boasted that if he blew on them the

whole town would be at once destroyed. The bystanders laughed at him,

whereupon he got angry and blew on the horns. Then there was a great

noise and an enormous herd of wild buff aloes was seen rushing down

to destroy the town. However before they could do any damage he ran

out and assured them that he was unhurt; at this the buffaloes were

pacified; then all the straw and grain in the palace was brought out

and given to the buffaloes to eat: after eating all they wanted they

went back into the jungle, all except one pair which stayed behind in

the palace; and from this pair are descended all the tame buffaloes

which we see to-day.

 

 

 

 

(7)--The Grateful Cow.

 

Once upon a time there were two brothers who were very poor and lived

only by begging and gleaning. One day at harvest time they went out

to glean. On their way they came to a stream with muddy banks and

in the mud a cow had stuck fast and was unable to get out. The young

brother proposed that they should help it out, but the elder brother

objected saying that they might be accused of theft: the younger

brother persisted and so they pulled the cow out of the mud. The cow

followed them home and shortly afterwards produced a calf. In a few

years the cow and her descendants multiplied in a marvellous manner

so that the brothers became rich by selling the milk and _ghi_. They

became so rich that the elder brother was able to marry; he lived

at home with his wife and the younger brother lived in the jungle

grazing the cattle. The elder brother's son used every day to take out

his uncle's dinner to the jungle. This was not really necessary for

the cow used to supply her master with all sorts of dainties to eat,

so the younger brother, when his nephew brought out the rice used to

give the boy some of the sweetmeats with which the cow supplied him,

but he charged him not to tell his parents about this nor to take any

home. But one day the boy hid some of the sweetmeats in his cloth and

took them home and showed them to his mother. His mother had never

seen such sweetmeats before and was convinced that her brother-in-law

wished to poison her son. So she took the sweetmeats away and the

next day she herself took out the dinner to her brother-in-law and

after he had eaten it she said that she would comb his hair and pick

out the lice from it; so he put his head on her lap and as she combed

his hair in a soothing way he went off to sleep. When he was asleep

the woman took out a knife and cut off his head. Then she got up and

leaving the head and body lying at the place went home. But the cow

had seen what occurred and with her horns she pushed the head along

until it joined the neck: whereupon the man immediately came to life

again and learned what had happened to him. So he drove off all the

cattle to a distant part of the jungle and began to live there.

 

Every day he milked his large herd of cows and got a great quantity

of milk; he asked his friend the cow what he was to do with it and

she told him to pour it into a hole in the ground at the foot of a

pipal tree Every day he poured the milk into the hole and one day as

he was doing so out of the hole came a large snake and thanked him

for his kindness in supplying the milk and asked him what reward he

would wish to receive in return. Acting on a hint from the cow the

man said that he would like to have all the milk back again. Whereupon

the snake vomited up all the milk which it had drunk and died on the

spot. But the milk mingled with poison fell over the man and imported

to his body a glorious and shining appearance, so that he seemed to

be made of fire.

 

After this the man used every day to go and bathe in a river, and each

day when he bathed he threw one of his hairs into the water: and his

hairs were very long. Lower down the river a princess used to bathe

and one day she saw one of the hairs come floating down and vowed that

she would marry no one but the owner of the hair. So the father of the

princess sent a Brahman up the river to look for the man with the long

hair. The Brahman was a very thin man with his ribs showing through

his skin. After some days he found our hero and was amazed at his

shining appearance. He told him that a princess wished to marry him:

he was invited to stay some days; he did so, living on the milk from

the herd of cows and in a short time became very fat. The cow told the

man to take a basket and creep into the hole from which the snake had

come he did so and at the bottom he found a heap of gold and silver:

he filled his basket with this and came back and gave it all to the

Brahman, and told him to go home and inform his master that he would

come in a few days and marry his daughter. When the Raja saw the gold

and silver and how fat the Brahman had got he was very pleased to

think what a son-in-law he was getting. In a few days the cow said

that it was time to start and as he had no other conveyance he set

out riding on the cow. When they reached the boundary of the Raja's

kingdom the man woke up one morning and found that a great retinue of

elephants and horses and _palkis_ and _sipahis_ had appeared during the

night. This was owing to the magic of the cow. So the man mounted an

elephant and went in state to the Raja and married his daughter with

great ceremony. After staying some days he decided to return home

and started off with his wife and grand retinue. When they reached

the boundary of the kingdom all the elephants and horses and _palkis_

and _sipahis_ vanished into air, and the princess found that she and

her husband had nothing but an old cow to ride upon. At this she was

very unhappy but she was ashamed to go back to her father, so she

went on with her husband and helped to tend the cows in the jungle.

 

One morning they woke up and found that in the night a grand palace

had sprung up fitted with wealth of every kind, this was the last gift

of the cow which soon afterwards died. Thus the man became a Raja and

founded a kingdom and he gave a rupee to every one who would come and

settle in his kingdom. Many people came and among others his brother

and sister-in-law who had fallen into great proverty. When they saw

their brother they were afraid and thought that they would be killed,

but he forgave them and gave them clothes and land and they all lived

happily ever after.

 

 

 

 

(8)--The Belbati Princess.

 

Once upon a time there were seven brothers the youngest of whom bore

the name of Lita. The six elder brothers were all married but Lita

refused to marry and when questioned he said that he would