Folklore of the Santal Parganas, Cecil Henry Bompas [sad books to read .TXT] 📗

night the king lay awake on the bed and he heard the legs of the

bed talking, so he lay still and listened: and they said that the

Raja was in danger and that they must try to save him. So one leg

loosened itself from the bed and went away outside and it found a

tiger which had come to eat the Raja, and it beat the tiger to death,

and then came back and fixed itself into its place again. Soon a

second leg said that it would go outside; so it went and that leg met

a leopard and a bear and it beat them to death and returned. Then the

third leg said that it was its turn, and it went outside and it found

four burglars digging a hole through the wall of the palace, and it

set upon them and broke their legs and left them lying there. When

this one returned, the fourth leg went out and it heard a voice in

the sky saying: "The Raja is very cunning, I will send a snake which

shall hide in his shoe and when he puts the shoe on in the morning,

it will bite him and he will die." When this leg came back, each one

told the others what it had seen and done, and the Raja heard them and

lay awake till morning, and at dawn he called his servants and sent

them outside the palace and there they found the tiger and leopard

and bear lying dead, and the four thieves with their legs broken. Then

the Raja believed what the legs had said and he would not get up but

first ordered his servants to make a fire in the courtyard and he

had all his shoes thrown into the fire and then he got up.

 

After this the Raja ordered that great care was to be taken of the

bedstead and that anyone who sat on it should be put to death; and he

himself used not to sleep in it anymore but he kept it in his bedroom

that it might protect him.

XXXV. (The Ghormuhas.)

 

Ghormuhas have heads like horses and bodies and arms like men and

their legs are shaped like men's but they have only one leg each,

and they eat human beings.

 

One day a young man named Somai was hunting a deer and the deer ran

away to the country of the Ghormuhas and Somai pursued it, and the

Ghormuhas caught him and took him home to eat. First they smoked him

for two or three days so that all the vermin were driven out of his

body and clothes and then they proceeded to fatten him; they fed him

well every day on rice cooked with turmeric.

 

Somai saw how they dealt with their other victims: they tied them hand

and foot and threw them alive into a pot of boiling oil and when they

were cooked they hung the bodies up in the doorway and would take a

bite as they passed in and out; the liver and heart and brains they

cooked separately. They used to eat their own parents also: for when

a father or mother grew old they would throw them on to the roof of

the house and when they rolled down and were killed they would say to

their friends, "The pumpkin growing on our roof has got ripe and fallen

off and burst, let us come and eat it;" and then they had a feast.

 

Somai saw all this and was very frightened. The Ghormuhas could run

very fast and they made Somai run a race with them every day and

their plan was that they would eat him when he was strong enough to

beat them in the race. In the course of time he came to beat them in

running on the road; then they said that they would make him run in

the fields and, if he beat them there, they meant to eat him.

 

Somai found out their plan and he decided to try and run away; if he

stayed he would be eaten, so if they caught him when he tried to run

away he would be no worse off. So the first day they raced in the

fields Somai was winning but he remembered and stopped himself and

let himself be beaten that day. But he resolved to try and escape the

next day and the Ghorarahas had decided to eat him that day whatever

happened. So when the race began, Somai set off towards the lower lands

where the rice fields were embanked and he jumped the embankments, but

the Ghormuhas who pursued him could not jump well and tumbled and fell;

and thus he ran away to his own country and made good his escape. And

it was he who told men what Ghormuhas are like and how they live.

XXXVI. (The Boy Who Learnt Magic.)

 

Once upon a time there was a Raja who had seven wives and they were

all childless, and he was very unhappy at having no heir. One day a

Jogi came to the palace begging, and the Raja and his Ranis asked him

whether he could say what should be done in order that they might

have children; the Jogi asked what they would give him if he told

them and they said that they would give him anything that he asked

for and gave him a written bond to this effect. Then the Jogi said

"I will not take elephants or horses or money, but you shall give me

the child which is born first and any born afterwards shall be yours,

do you agree?" And the Ranis consulted together and agreed. "Then,"

said the Jogi, "this is what you must do: you must all go and bathe,

and after bathing you must go to a mango orchard and the Raja must

choose a bunch of seven mangoes and knock it down with his left

hand and catch it in a cloth, without letting it touch the ground;

then you must go home and the Ranis must sit in a row according to

their seniority and the Raja must give them each one of the mangoes

to eat, and he must himself eat the rinds which the Ranis throw away;

and then you will have children." And so saying the Jogi went away

promising to return the next year.

 

A few days later the Raja decided to give a trial to the Jogi's

prescription and he and the Ranis did as they had been told; but the

Raja did not eat the rind of the youngest Rani's mango; he did not love

her very much. However five or six months after it was seen that the

youngest Rani was with child and then she became the Raja's favourite;

but the other Ranis were jealous of her and reminded the Raja that he

would not be able to keep her child. But when her time was full she

gave birth to twin sons, and the Raja was delighted to think that he

would be able to keep the younger of the two and he loved it much.

 

When the year was up the Jogi came and saw the boys and he said that

he would return when they could walk; and when they could run about,

he came again, and asked whether the Raja would fulfil his promise.

 

The Raja said that he would not break his bond. Then the Jogi said

that he would take the two boys and when the Raja objected that he was

only entitled to one, he said that he claimed both as they were born

at the same time; but he promised that if he took both he would teach

them magic and then let one come back; and he promised also that all

the Ranis should have children. So the Raja agreed and sent away the

boys with the Jogi and with them he sent goats and sheep and donkeys

and horses and camels and elephants and furniture of all sorts.

 

The Jogi was called Sitari Jogi and he was a Raja in his own

country. But before they reached his country all the animals died,

first the goats, then the sheep and the donkeys and the horses and the

camels and the elephants. And when the goats died the boys lamented:

 

 

    "The goats have died, father,

      How far, father,

    Is it to the country of the Sitari Jogi?"

 

 

and so they sang when the other animals died.

 

At last they reached the Jogi's palace and every day he taught them

incantations and spells. He bought them each a water pot and sent

them every morning to fill it with dew, but before they collected

enough, the sun came out and dried up the dew; one day they got a

cupful, another day half a cupful, but they never were able to fill

the pots. In the course of time they learnt all the spells the Jogi

knew and one day when they went out to gather dew, the younger boy

secretly took with him a rag and he soaked this in the dew and then

squeezed it into the pot and so he soon filled it; and the elder

boy seeing his brother's pot full, filled his pot at a pool of water

and they took them to the Jogi; but the Jogi was not deceived by the

elder boy and told him that he would never learn magic thoroughly;

but the younger boy having learned all that the Jogi knew, learnt more

still from his friends, for all the people of that country knew magic.

 

Then one day the Jogi took the two boys back to their home and he told

the Raja that he would leave the elder boy at home. The Raja wanted

to keep the younger one, but the Jogi insisted and the younger boy

whispered to his mother not to mind as he would soon come back by

himself; so they let him go.

 

The Jogi and the boy used to practise magic: the Jogi would take the

form of a young man and the boy would turn into a bullock and the

Jogi would go to a village and sell the bullock for a good price;

but he would not give up the tethering rope and then he would go away

and do something with the tethering rope and the boy would resume his

shape again and run off to the Jogi and when the purchasers looked

for their bullock they found nothing, and when they went to look for

the seller the Jogi would change his shape again so that he could

not be recognised; and in this way they deceived many people and

amassed wealth.

 

Then the Jogi taught the boy the spell he used with the rope, and

when he had learnt this, he asked to be taught the spell by which he

could change his own shape without having a second person to work the

spell with the rope. The Jogi said that he would teach him that later

but he must wait. Then the boy reproached the Jogi and said that he

did not love him; and he went away to his