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

advance;

the Marwari hesitated, but after being given a name and address--which

were however false--he gave way and took his signature to a bond

and lent him the ten rupees. At this the blacksmith's son set off in

triumph to rejoin his brothers; he crossed the water in the same way

as before and took the ten rupees to his father.

 

Then they all went on to another bazar and bought dried rice

and sweetmeats and curds and had a grand feast. Then their father

proceeded to point out to his sons how, except the youngest, they were

all useless; they had been unable to cross the channel or to make

anything of their own pice of capital; they had nothing to answer,

and all went home and from that day nothing was heard of any proposal

to divide the family until the old father and mother died.

 

L. (Kora and His Sister.)

 

There were once seven brothers and they had one sister who was the

youngest of the family. The six eldest brothers were married but no

wife had been found for the youngest; for three years enquiries were

made to try and find a suitable bride for him, but all in vain. At last

the young man, whose name was Kora, told his parents and brothers not

to trouble any more, as he would find a wife for himself; he intended

to bring a flowering plant from the forest and plant it by the stand

on which the watering pots were kept, and then he would marry any

maiden who picked one of the flowers and put it in her hair.

 

His father and mother approved of this proposal, so the next day he

brought some sort of flowering plant and planted it by the water-pot

stand. He charged all his family to be most careful that no one

of his own relations picked the flower and also to warn any of the

village girls who wanted to pick it, that if she did so and put it

in her hair, she would thereby become his wife; but if, knowing this,

anyone wished to do so, they were not to prevent her.

 

The neighbours soon got to hear what the plant meant and used often

to come and look at it, and Kora watched it growing, till after

a time it produced a bud and then a beautiful and sweet-scented

flower. All the village girls came to see the beautiful flower;

and one day Kora's sister when she went to the water-stand to get

some water to drink, caught hold of it and longed to pick it, it

looked so pretty. Her mother saw what she was doing and scolded her

for touching the forbidden flower, but the girl begged to see what

it would look like in her hair; there could be no harm done if she

pulled the whole plant up by its roots and put it in her hair and

then replanted it; no one would know what had happened. In spite of

her mother's remonstrances she insisted on doing this and having seen

how the flower looked in her hair carefully replarited it.

 

Soon afterwards Kora came home and went to see his flower; he knew

at once that some one had worn it and called to his mother and asked

who it was. She protested that she knew nothing about the matter,

but Kora said that he could tell by the smell that it had been

worn and then he showed that there was also a hair sticking to the

flower. Then his mother admitted that in spite of all she could say,

his sister had worn the flower and planted it again in the ground.

 

When she saw that she was found out, the girl began to cry, but her

father said that it was clearly fated that she and Kora should matry

and this was the reason why they had been unable to find any other

bride; so they must now arrange for the wedding. Accordingly rice was

got ready and all the usual preparations made for a marriage. The

unfortunate girl saw that flight was her only means of escape from

such a fate, so one day she ran away; all she took with her was a

pet parrot.

 

For many days she travelled on and one day she stopped by a pool

to bathe and as she rubbed her limbs she collected the scurf that

she rubbed off her skin and put in on the ground in one place; then

she went on with her bathing; but at the place where she had put the

scurf of her skin, a palm tree sprang up and grew so rapidly, that,

by the time she came out of the water, it had become a large tree.

 

The girl was struck by this strange sight and at once thought that

the tree would afford her a safe refuge; so she climbed up it with

her parrot in her hand and when safely seated among the leaves she

begged the palm tree to grow so tall that no one would be able to find

her, and the tree grew till it reached an unusual height. So the girl

stayed in the tree top and the parrot used to go every day and bring

her food. Meanwhile her parents and brothers searched high and low

for her for two or three days, for the wedding day was close at hand,

but their search was of course in vain; and they concluded that the

girl must have drowned herself in some river.

 

Time passed and one day at noon, a Mahuli girl, who was taking her

basket-ware to market, stopped to rest in the shade of the palm tree:

and as she sat there, Kora's sister called to her from the top of

the tree and asked her to give her a small winnowing fan in exchange

for a bracelet The Mahuli girl told her to throw the bracelet down

first. Kora's sister made no objection to this, and when she had got

the bracelet, the Mahuli girl threw up a winnowing fan which soared

right up to where Kora's sister was sitting. Before the Mahuli girl

went on her way, Kora's sister made her promise never to let anyone

see the bracelet whew she went about selling her baskets as otherwise

it would be stolen from her; and secondly on no account to let it be

known that there was anyone in the palm tree, on pain of death. The

Mahuli girl kept her promise and whenever she went out selling baskets

she used to keep her bracelet covered with her cloth.

 

One day it chanced that she went to the house where Kora lived to sell

her wares and they asked her why it was that she kept her arm covered;

she told them that she had a sore on it; they wanted to see how big

the sore was, but she refused to show it, saying that if she showed

it she would die. They laughed at such a ridiculous story and at last

forced her to show her arm, which of course was quite well; but they at

once recognised the bracelet and asked where she had got it from. The

Mahuli girl refused to tell them and said that if she did, she would

die. "What a foolish girl you are" they objected "first you say you

will die if you show us your arm and then if you tell us where you

got this bracelet from; it belonged to our daughter whom we have lost,

and so you must tell us! Come, we will give you a basket full of rice

if you tell us." The Mahuli girl could not resist this offer, and when

the basket of rice was produced, she told them where the palm tree was,

in which Kora's sister was hiding. In all haste the father and mother

went to the tree and found that it was much too high for them to climb:

so they begged their daughter to come down and promised not to marry

her to her brother; but she would not come down: then they sang:--

 

 

    "You have made a palm tree from the scrapings of your skin

    And have climbed up into it, daughter!

        Come daughter, come down."

 

 

But she only answered:--

 

 

    "Father and mother, why do you cry?

    I must spend my life here:

    "Do you return home."

 

 

So they went home in despair.

 

Then her sisters-in-law came in their turn and sang:--

 

 

    "Palm tree, palm tree, give us back our sister:

    The brother and sister have got to be married."

 

 

But she would not answer them nor come down from the tree, so they

had to go home without her.

 

Then all her other relations came and besought her to come down,

but she would not listen to them. So they went away and invoked a

storm to come to their aid. And a storm arose and cold rain fell,

till the girl in the palm tree was soaked and shivering, and the

wind blew and swayed the palm tree so that its top kept touching the

ground. At last she could bear the cold and wet no more and, seizing

an opportunity when the tree touched the ground, she slipped off. Her

relations had made all the villagers promise on no account to let

her into their houses; so when she went into the village and called

out at house after house no one answered her or opened to her. Then

she went to her own home and there also they refused to open to her.

 

But Kora had lit a big fire in the cow house and sat by it warming

himself, knowing that the girl would have to come to him; and as she

could find no shelter elsewhere she had to go to his fire, and then

she sat and warmed herself and thought "I fled for fear of this man

and now I have come back to him; this is the end, I can no longer stay

in this world; the people will not even let me into their houses. I

have no wish to see them again."

 

So she sat and thought, and when she was warmed, she lay down by

the side of Kora; and he wore tied to his waist a nail-cutter; she

unfastened this and cut her throat with it as she lay. Her death

struggles aroused Kora, and he got up and saw the ground covered with

her blood and he saw that she had killed herself with his nail-cutter;

then he took counsel with himself and also cut his throat in the same

way. In the morning the two corpses were found lying side by side,

and it was seen that their blood refused to mingle but had flowed in

opposite directions.

 

So they took the bodies away to burn them and laid them on one pyre;

and when the fire was lit, it was seen that the smoke from the two

bodies rose separately into the air. Then all who saw it, said "We

wished to marry brother and sister but Chando would not approve of it;

see how their blood would not mingle though spilt on the same floor,

and how the smoke from the pyre rises in two separate columns; it is

plain that the marriage of brother and sister is wrong." From that

time such manages have been discontinued.

LI. (A Story