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

friends in the town and

learnt the spell he wanted from them, so that he was able to change

his shape at will.

 

Two or three days after the boy again went to the Jogi and said

"Teach me the spell about which I spoke to you the other day," and

the Jogi refused. "Then," said the boy, "I shall go back to my father,

for I see that you do not love me."

 

At this the Jogi grew wrathful and said that if the away he would

kill him, so the boy at this ran away in terror, and the Jogi became

a leopard and pursued him: then the boy turned himself into a pigeon

and the Jogi became a hawk and pursued him; so the boy turned himself

into a fly and the Jogi became a paddy bird and pursued him; the fly

alighted on the plate of a Rani who was eating rice, and the Jogi took

on his natural shape and told the Rani to scatter the rice which she

was eating on the ground and she did so; but the boy turned himself

into a bead of coral on the necklace which the Rani was wearing; and

the Jogi did not notice this but became a pigeon and ate up the rice

which the Rani had thrown down. When he did not find the boy among the

rice he turned himself into a Jogi again and saw him in the necklace;

then he told the Rani to break her necklace and scatter the beads on

the ground and she did so; then the Jogi again became a pigeon and

began to pick up the beads, but the boy turned himself into a cat

and hid under the verandah and when the pigeon came near, he pounced

on it and killed it, and ran outside with it. Then he became a boy

again and twisted off the bird's head and wrapped it in his cloth and

went off home; and looking behind he saw the Jogi's head come rolling

after him, so when he came to a blacksmith's fire by the side of the

road he threw the pigeon's head into it, and then the Jogi's head

also ran into the fire and was consumed.

 

And the boy went home to his parents.

XXXVII. (The Charitable Jogi.)

 

Once there was a very poor man with a large family; and when his eldest

son grew up he tried to arrange a marriage for him. He selected a bride

and arranged matters with her relations but then he found that he had

no money to pay for the performance of the marriage ceremonies. So he

tried to borrow from his friends and from money lenders, but no one

would lend him anything. So he proposed to the bride's relatives to

only have the betrothal that year and the marriage the year after, but

they would not agree and said that the marriage must be then or never.

 

Just then a Jogi came to his house to beg and he told the Jogi all

about his difficulties and asked for help; the Jogi took pity on

him and gave him twenty rupees which was all that he had collected

by begging.

 

Now this Jogi had two wives at home and he thought that he would get

a poor reception from them if he returned empty handed, so he picked

up two stones and wrapped them up in two pieces of cloth. And when he

reached home his wives welcomed him and brought out a bed for him to

sit on and asked about his adventures and when they saw the bundles

they wished to know what was inside and they opened them before him

and behold the stones had turned into gold. When the Jogi saw this

he wished that he had picked up three or four stones instead of only

two and he understood that Chando had given him the gold because he

helped the poor man.

 

This is why no money lender will refuse a loan if one is asked for

for the performance of a marriage and money so borrowed is always

paid back punctually. When the Jogi came back the next year the poor

man paid him the twenty rupees.

 

XXXVIII. (Chote and Mote.)

 

Once upon a time there were two brothers Chote and Mote; they were

poor but very industrious and they got tired of working as hired

labourers in their own village so they decided to try their luck

elsewhere. They went to a distant village and Chote took service

with an oilman and Mote with a potter on a yearly agreement. Chote

had to drive the oil mill in the morning and then after having his

dinner to feed the mill bullock and take it out to graze. But the

bullock having had a good meal of oilcake would not settle down to

graze alone but kept running after all the herds of cattle it saw,

and Chote had to spend his whole time running after it till he was

worn out and he was very soon sorry that he had taken up such hard

service; and was quite resolved not to stay on after his year was up.

 

Mote was no better off; the potter overworked him, making him carry

water and dig earth from morn to night and for all he did he got

nothing but abuse.

 

One day the brothers, met and Mote asked Chote how he was getting

Chote answered "Oh I have got a capital place; all the morning

I sit at my ease on the oil mill, then I have a good dinner and take

the bullock out to graze and as it has had a good meal of oilcake it

lies down without giving any trouble and I sit in the shade and enjoy

myself." Then Mote said "I am pretty lucky too. I have to fetch three

or four pots of water, then I have my dinner and a rest and then I

have to dig earth and knead it. Still I cannot say that I have so

little work as you; will you change with me for three or four days,

so that I may have a rest?"

 

Chote gladly agreed and each brother thought that he had got the better

of the other. In the morning while Mote was driving the oil mill he

was very pleased with his new job and when he had to take the bullock

out to graze he took a bedstead with him to lie on. But directly the

bullock got outside the village it rushed off bellowing towards some

other cattle and Mote had to run after it with his bedstead on his

head, and all the afternoon the bullock kept him running about till

he was worn out.

 

Meanwhile Chote was no better off; his unaccustomed shoulders were

quite bruised with constantly carrying water. At the potter's house

was a custard apple tree and it was believed that there was money

buried at the foot of the tree; so as Chote was a stranger, the

potter told him to water the earth by the tree to soften it, as it

was to be used for pottery. Chote softened the earth and dug it and

as he dug he uncovered pots of rupees; so he covered them up again

and dug the earth elsewhere. And at evening he went and proposed to

Mote to run away with the money. So at midnight, they went and dug it

up and ran off home. As they were not pursued, they felt safe after

a month or two, so they spent the money in buying land and cattle,

and their cultivation prospered, and they became quickly rich.

XXXIX. (The Daydreamer.)

 

Once an oil man was going to market with his pots of oil arranged on a

flat basket and he engaged a Santal for two annas to carry the basket;

and as he went along, the Santal thought "With one anna I will buy

food and with the other I will buy chickens, and the chickens will

grow up and multiply and then I will sell some of the fowls and eggs

and with the money I will buy goats; and when the goats increase,

I will sell some and buy cows, and then I will exchange some of the

calves for she-buffaloes, and when the buffaloes breed, I will sell

some and buy land and start cultivation and then I will marry and

have children and I will hurry back from my work in the fields and

my wife will bring me water and I will have a rest and my children

will say to me 'Father, be quick and wash your hands for dinner,' but

I will shake my head and say 'No, no, not yet!'"--and as he thought

about it he really shook his head and the basket fell to the ground

and all the pots of oil were smashed.

 

Then the oilman abused him and said that he must pay two rupees for

the oil and one anna for the pots: but the Santal said that he had

lost much more than that and the oilman asked him how that could be:

and the Santal explained how with his wages he was going to get fowls

and then goats and then oxen and buffaloes and land and how he came to

spill the basket and at that the oilman roared with laughter and said

"Well I have made up the account and I find that our losses are equal,

so we will cry quits;" and so saying they went their ways laughing.

XL. (The Extortionate Sentry.)

 

There was once a sentry outside a