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

them to the Rani,

and the Rani used to pay their weight in silver for them. In the

course of time the child who was left behind grew up and when he

used to play with his fellows at pitch and toss and there was any

dispute about the game his playmates would say "Fatherless boy,

you want to cheat!" So he asked his aunts whether it was true that

he had no father and they told him that the Jhades jogi had carried

off his mother, and how his father and uncles had gone in pursuit and

had never returned. So the boy decided to go in search of his mother

and he set off, and first he met some goatherds and he sang to them:--

 

 

    "Ho, Ho, goatherds

    Have you seen the Jhades Jogi

    On this road?"

 

 

But they could tell him nothing. And then he met some shepherd boys,

and he sang to them:--

 

 

    "Ho, Ho, shepherds,

    Have you seen the Jhades jogi

    On this road?"

 

 

But they could tell him nothing. Then he met some boys tending

buffaloes and he sang;--

 

 

    "Ho, ho, buffalo herds,

    Have you seen the Jhades jogi

    On this road?"

 

 

But they could tell him nothing. Then he came to a thorn bush, with

a number of rags fluttering on it, and he sang:--

 

 

    "Ho, ho, plum bush,

    Have you seen the Jhades jogi

    On this road?"

 

 

And the plum tree said "The Jhades jogi brought your mother this way,

and I did my best to stop them. If you don't believe me see the rags as

a proof." And he put his hand on the tree and went on. And then he came

to a squirrel which was chattering in a banyan tree, and he sang:--

 

 

    "Ho, ho, squirrel,

    Have you seen the Jhades jogi

    On this road?"

 

 

And the squirrel said "I have been calling you since yesterday. The

jogi brought your mother this way, go on and you will overtake

them. And your father and uncles also came this road." The boy was

cheered by this news and he put his hand on the squirrel's back and

said "You are a fine fellow to give me this clue" and the marks of

his fingers were imprinted on the squirrel and that is why squirrels

have striped backs to the present day.

 

Then he went on and came to a river and he decided to sit and have

his lunch there; he did not know that his father and uncles had been

turned into stones in that very place, but as he sat and ate, his eyes

were opened and he saw the stones weeping, and he recognised them,

and he dropt a little food on each that they might eat, and pursued

his way, until he came to the Jhades jogi's kingdom, and he went to

the old woman who kept the Jogi's garden and asked to be allowed to

stay with her and help her to make the garlands.

 

One day when he had made a garland, he tied to it a ring which had

belonged to his mother. So when the old woman took the garland to the

Rani, the Rani wondered why it weighed so heavy, and when she examined

it she saw her own ring. Then she asked the old woman who had tied the

ring there, and when she heard that a strange boy had come, she at

once ran to him and recognised her own son.

 

Then they planned how they could kill the Jhades jogi and escape! The

mother agreed to find out in what lay the life of the Jogi. So she

questioned him and worried him till he told her that his life lay in a

certain pumpkin vine. Then the boy went and cut down the pumpkin vine,

but the Jogi did not die; then the Rani worried and worried the Jogi

till he told her that his life lay in his sword; then the boy stole

the sword and burnt it in a fire of cowdung, but still the Jogi did not

die; then his mother again worried and plagued the Jogi till at last he

told her the truth and said "In the middle of the sea is a cotton tree,

and on the tree are two Bohmae birds; if they are killed I shall die."

 

So the boy set off to the sea and on the road he met three old

women and one had a stool stuck to her back, and one had a bundle of

thatching grass stuck on her head, and the third had her foot stuck

fast to a rice-pounder, and they asked him where he was going, and he

told them, "to visit the shrine of the Bohmae bird": then they asked

him to consult the oracle and find out how they could be freed from

the things which were stuck fast to them, and he promised to do so.

 

By-and-bye he came to the sea and was puzzled as to how he was to

cross it. As he walked up and down the shore he saw an alligator

rolling about in pain with a swollen stomach; and when it saw the boy

it said "I am like to die with this pain in my stomach, how can I be

cured?" and the boy proposed that it should take him to the cotton

tree in the midst of the sea and there they might learn a remedy from

the Bohmae birds. The alligator agreed, so the boy got on its back

and was taken across the water. Then the boy sat at the foot of the

cotton tree and sang:--

 

 

    "Come down, Bohmae birds,

    I wish to consult the oracle."

 

 

But the birds were frightened and flew to the top of the tree. But as

he went on singing, they became curious and came down and asked what

was the matter, and he said "There are three old woman and one has a

stool stuck to her and one a bundle of grass and one a rice pounder;

how are they to be freed?" And they said "The first old woman never

asked visitors to her house to take a seat; if she does so in future

she will get rid of the stool,"--and as they said this they came

nearer--"and the second old woman, if she saw anyone with straws

sticking in their hair never offered to take them out. If she does

so in future she will be freed," and as they said this they came

nearer still--"and the third old woman would not allow widows and

orphans to use her rice pounder: if she does so she will be freed:"

and as they said this they came quite near, and the boy seized them

and broke their wings, and as he did so the Jogi's arms were broken;

then he snapped off their legs, and as he did so the Jogi's legs were

broken; and the birds screamed and the Jogi howled.

 

Then the alligator carried the boy back, and by the time it reached

the shore it was cured of its pain. On his way back the boy told the

three old women of what the birds had said; and when he got to the

Jogi's palace he twisted off the heads of the Bohmae birds and then

the Jogi's head fell to the ground.

 

Then he started homewards with his mother, carrying the birds and

their heads; and the Jogi's head came rolling after them. But he saw

a blacksmith's fire burning by the side of the road and he threw the

birds into the fire and the Jogi's head rolled into the fire and was

burnt, and that was the end of him. When they came to the river where

his father and uncles were turned into stones, he bathed in the river,

and then put a cloth over the stones and they were restored to human

shape; and they rubbed their eyes and said "We must have slept a long

time" and were astonished when they heard how the Jogi had turned

them into stones. Then they all went home and lived happily ever after.

LXXIV. (The Tiger's Foster Child.)

 

Once upon a time a Potter woman went to dig earth for making pots,

and while she was working she was prematurely delivered of a boy. And

she considered whether she should carry the child home, or the basket

of clay, but in the end decided to take the clay which was urgently

wanted, while she would doubtless have plenty more children in the

course of time. So she went away, leaving the baby in the pit. At

evening a tiger came by and heard the child crying and he took pity

on it and carried it away and he and his wife reared it.

 

As the child grew up they used to take him to the tigers' assembly. He

was not at all afraid of the tigers and understood all they said

and one day he heard them saying that the Pargana (tribal chief)

tiger was a great man-eater. At this he was very angry and set off to

look for the man-eater, without telling his foster parents. When the

Pargana tiger saw the boy coming he had just finished cleaning his

teeth, and he thought "This is lucky, here is my breakfast coming;"

but just as he was about to spring on the boy, the boy caught hold

of him and tore him to pieces.

 

The news of this exploit soon spread, and the tigers called a meeting

to consider the matter, and they told the foster father that he must

take steps to prevent the boy doing any such thing again. So the

tiger and tigress went home and told the boy that it was time that

he went back to his own people, as he had brought shame upon them;

the boy objected that men would not receive him, but they told him to

go as an orphan boy and beg in the villages till he found his mother.

 

So he went away and when he came to a village he sang:--

 

 

    "My mother went to dig earth

    And left me in the pit;

    The tiger and the tigress of the jungle

    Reared me--give me alms,"

 

 

And thus he went begging from village to village and one day he came

to the village where his father and mother lived. His mother heard

him a long way off and running to him knew him for her son. Then she

brought water and oil and turmeric and bathed him and anointed him,

and gave him new clothes and fed him on curds and parched rice. And

the villagers collected, and when they heard the stories of the mother

and son, they believed them and gave a feast in honour of the boy,

and took him into the village.

 

LXXV. (The Caterpillar Boy.)

 

Once there was an old woman who lived on the grain she could collect

from other people's threshing floors. One day as she swept up a

threshing floor she found a caterpillar among the paddy; she threw

it away but it came crawling back again; she threw it away again,

but it said "Do not throw me