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

its own people,

came to him and put the golden necklace on his neck and the other

elephant lifted him on to its back and carried him off and seated him

on the Raja's throne; and as he sat on the throne all his wounds and

bruises were healed. Years passed and the Raja's two sons grew up,

and as the Goala woman who had adopted them was very poor, they went

out into the world to earn their living. As it chanced, they took

service as sipahis with the Raja their father, whom of course they

did not recognise. Just after their arrival the Raja arranged a great

festival at which people from all parts assembled; and among others

the merchant went there with the Raja's wife, in hopes that among

the crowd he might find some physician able to cure the woman. When

he arrived, he went to the Raja and asked that two sipahis might be

deputed to keep watch over the woman he had brought. The Raja sent

his two newly enlisted sipahis, and thus the sons were set to guard

their own mother, and it was not long before they found out their

relationship. The Rani was delighted to recover her long lost children,

but when she heard that her husband had been washed away by the river

and drowned, she began to weep and wail. The merchant went to the Raja

and complained that the sipahis who had been sent, had thrown the woman

into great distress and the Raja thereupon sent for all the parties

in order that he might enquire into the matter. When he heard their

story, he at once recognised that it was his own wife and sons who

stood before him and thus the whole family was happily united. Then

his wife prayed to Thakur that if she were really the wife he had

lost and had been faithful to him, she might be restored to health;

water was poured over her and she was at once cured of her disease,

and they all lived happily ever afterwards.

LX. (A Variant.--The Wandering Raja.)

 

Once there was a Raja who was very prosperous; but his wife found

their life of wealth and ease monotonous, and she continually urged

him to travel into other countries and to see whether other modes

of life were pleasant or distressful; she pestered her husband so

much that at last he gave way. He put his kingdom in charge of his

father's sister and her husband and set off with his wife and his

two sons as an ordinary traveller.

 

After travelling some days they got tired of eating the parched rice

which they had brought with them and thought they would boil some rice

for their dinner. So the Rani went into a bazar to get cooking pots,

and a light for the fire. She went to the house of a rich merchant for

these, but he was attracted by her beauty and seized her and shut her

up and would not let her go back, but kept her as his wife. The Raja

and his sons soon got tired of waiting for her; he concluded that

the journey was merely a pretext of his wife's to escape from him,

as she had disappeared the first time that he let her out of his sight.

 

So he turned to go home and soon came to a river which had to be

crossed, he left his sons on the bank and went into the water to

see how deep it was and as he was wading in, a large fish came and

swallowed him. The fish swam away down stream and was caught in the

net of some fishermen. When they saw how big a fish they had caught,

they decided to take it to the Raja of that country. The Raja bought

it at a high price, but when it was cut open at the palace the man

it had swallowed was found alive inside; so the Raja of the country

appointed him one of his retainers.

 

Meanwhile the two boys had been found abandoned on the bank of the

river by a cowherd, who was too poor to bring them up, so he took

them also to the Raja; and they rejoiced to meet their father and

when they grew up, were also appointed retainers.

 

They had to travel all over the country on the Raja's business and it

happened that they one day came to the village where their mother was

and they met and recognised her; she told them how she had been seized

and confined and begged them to bring her husband to her. So the sons

fetched their father and the Rani told her husband how unhappy she was

and begged him to get her released, and he promised to ask the help

of his master. When the Raja of the country heard the story he took

pity on them and went with a body of soldiers and seized the wicked

merchant and ordered him to give up all his wealth and as the merchant

tried to conceal where some of his money was buried, the Raja cut

him down with his sword. He also laid a heavy fine on the villagers,

because they had not sent word to him of the capture of the Rani.

 

Then he took home the Raja who had been swallowed by the fish and his

wife and sons, and entertained them for some days, and then gave them

elephants and horses and men and all the merchant's property and sent

them to their own country. The uncle and aunt who had been appointed

Regents came out to meet them and escorted them home.

 

Two or three days after the aunt asked the Raja how he had got his

elephants and horses and money, and he said "They are the profits

of my wife's sin; I will not tell you the whole story for if you

heard it you also might be led astray; my wife induced me to travel

by false pretences. It is not good to follow the advice of a woman;

it is by mere chance that you see me alive to-day." His wife heard

what he said, and she went out and cut her throat from remorse;

and they went and burned her body.

LXI. (The Two Wives.)

 

 

There were once a Raja and his Dewan who had each one son, and the

two boys were great friends. Both had been married in their infancy

and when they grew up and heard that they had wives, they agreed to

go together and visit them. So they set out, and they arranged that

on account of the superior rank of the Raja's son they would go first

and visit his wife; and they also agreed that, as they were going to

a strange place, they would keep together day and night.

 

When they reached the house of the Prince's father-in-law they were

received with great honour and when night came they lay down with

their beds side by side. Presently the Prince's wife came to him

and began to rub his arms and legs, until she had soothed him off to

sleep. The Dewan's son pretended also to go fast asleep, but really

he was careful to keep awake, for he thought it safer to be on the

watch in a strange place.

 

His prudence was rewarded, for after a time he saw the Prince's wife

leave her sleeping husband and go out of the house.

 

The Dewan's son followed her and saw her enter the house of a Gosain

who lived on the outskirts of the village. He went near and listened at

the door. He heard the Gosain ask the young woman why she was so late

in coming, and her answer that she had been detained by the visit of

her husband. The Gosain reproached her for not having told him that

she was married, and she protested that she had known nothing about

it until her husband appeared. The Gosain said that she must choose

between him and her husband, and she answered that she would never

give him up. "Then" said the Gosain "if you really mean it, go and

bring me your husband's head." At this the Dewan's son hurried back

and lay down on his bed. Presently he saw the woman come with a sword

and cut off her husband's head. But when she took it to the Gosain,

he rose and beat her with his iron pincers and drove her out, swearing

that he would have nothing more to do with a woman who was so heartless

as to kill her own husband. Then the woman returned and placed the

severed head by her husband's body and raised a great outcry, that

her husband had been murdered. The people of the house came and at

first they charged the Dewan's son with the crime and were about to

put him to death; but he called the Gosain as a witness and the real

facts were proved by his evidence, and the murderess was hanged.

 

The Dewan's son would not allow the Prince's body to be burnt but

insisted on taking it with him, that it might be cremated at his own

home. So he took it on his back and carried it off.

 

He thought that, as he had come so far, it would be better to visit

his own wife before going home. So, when he reached the village where

his wife lived, he hid the Prince's body in a hollow tree and went

to his father-in-law's house.

 

That night when they had gone to bed, the Dewan's son saw that his

wife had something on her mind, so he resolved to watch her.

 

When she thought that he was asleep, he saw her rise and go out of the

house. He followed her to a shrine of Mahadeb; there she smeared the

ground with cowdung and worshipped the god and said "O Siva! I have

worshipped you for many days; now my husband has come to take me to

his house, and you must find another worshipper." The Mahadeb answered

"You have served me for many days; call hither your husband; as you

have worshipped me for so long, I will confer a boon on you." So she

went and called her husband and as he knew what had happened, he had

no hesitation in going with her to the shrine. There the Siv bade him

ask a boon, and he prayed that the Raja's son might be restored to

life, The Siv bade them bring the body and cover it with a wet cloth;

and when they had done so, the body began to breathe and presently

the Prince rose up alive and well. The Dewan's son told him all that

had happened and the next day they went home, taking with them the

wife of the Dewan's son, through whose virtue and piety the Prince

had been restored to life.