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

it themselves, and her husband Chapat Champa said that he

would punish her for it when he got home. Directly he got to the house

he began scolding her and she made no answer, but that night when they

were alone together she told him that what she had done was because

Ret Mongla had insulted her by calling her by name. The next day her

mother-in-law took her to task but Palo gave the same explanation.

 

Then Ret Mongla's mother went to him and asked him whether there was

any truth in this counter-charge; he saw at once what had happened

and explained that he had never called out his sister-in-law by name;

he had called out for the plough; "Pal ho! Pal ho!" because his brothers

had not got the ploughs ready; when Palo understood what a mistake she

had made, she was covered with confusion and they brought water and she

washed Ret Mongla's feet as she had done on the day of her marriage,

and they salaamed to each other and peace was restored. But if the

mistake had not been explained Palo would have been turned out of

the family.

 

CXXXVI. (The Women's Sacrifice.)

 

This is a story of the old days when the Santals both men and women

were very stupid. Once upon a time the men of a certain village had

fixed a day for sacrificing a bullock; but the very day before the

sacrifice was to take place, the Raja's _sipahis_ came to the village

and carried off all the men to do five days forced labour at the Raja's

capital. The women thus left alone suffered the greatest anxiety;

they thought it quite possible that their husbands and fathers would

never be allowed to return or even be put to death; so they met in

conclave and decided that the best thing they could do would be to

carry out the sacrifice which the men had intended to make and which

had been interrupted so unexpectedly.

 

So they made haste to wash their clothes and bathe, and by way

of purification they fasted that evening and slept on the bare

ground. Then at dawn they made ready everything wanted for the

sacrifice and went to the jungle with the bullock that was to be

the victim. There at the foot of a _sal_ tree they scraped a piece

of ground bare and smeared it with cow dung; then they put little

heaps of rice at the four corners of a square and marked the place

with vermilion; then they sprinkled water over the bullock and led

it up to the square.

 

But here their difficulties began for none of them knew what

incantations the men said on such an occasion; they wasted a lot of

time each urging the other to begin, at last the wife of the headman

plucked up courage and started an invocation like this: "We sacrifice

this bullock to you; grant that our husbands may return; let not the

Raja sacrifice them but grant them a speedy return." Having got as

far as this she wanted the other women to take a turn, but they said

that her invocation was capital and quite sufficient; and they had

better get on to the sacrifice at once. Easier said than done; they

none of them knew how to do it; as they all hung back the headman's

wife scolded them roundly and bade them take the axe and kill the

beast; then they all asked where they were to strike the animal:

"Where its life resides," said the headman's wife. "Where is that,"

asked the women. "Watch and see what part of it moves," answered she,

"and strike there." So they looked and presently the bullock moved

its tail: "That's where its life is," shouted they; so three or

four of them caught hold of the rope round the animal's neck and

one woman seized the axe and struck two blows at the root of the

animal's tail. She did it no harm but the pain of the blow made

the bullock pass water. "See the blood flowing," cried the women,

and eagerly caught the stream in a vessel; then the sacrificer dealt

another blow which made the bullock jump and struggle until it broke

loose and galloped off. The women followed in pursuit and chased it

through a field of cotton; the bullock knocked off many of the ripe

cotton pods and these the women thought were lumps of fat fallen from

the wounded bullock, so they took them home and ate them; such fools

were the women in those days.

CXXXVII. (The Thief's Son.)

 

Once upon a time a goat strayed into the house of a certain man who

promptly killed it and hid the body. At evening the owner of the

goat missed it and came in search of it. He asked the man who had

killed it whether he had seen it, but the latter put on an innocent

air and declared that he knew nothing about it but he invited the

owner of the missing animal to look into the goat house and see if

it had accidentally got mixed up with the other goats. The search

was of course in vain.

 

Directly the owner had gone the thief brought out the body and skinned

and cut it up, and every one in the house ate his fill of flesh. Before

they went to sleep the thief told his sons to be careful not to go

near any of the other boys when they were grazing the cattle next day,

lest they should smell that they had been eating meat.

 

Next morning the thief's son took his goats out to graze and was

careful not to go near any of the other boys who were tending cattle;

whenever they approached him he moved away. At last they asked him what

was the matter; and he told them that they must keep at a distance lest

they should smell what he had been eating. "What have you eaten?" The

simpleton replied that he had been eating goat's flesh and that there

was still some in the house. The cowherds at once ran off and told the

owner of the lost goat. The news soon spread and the villagers caught

the man who had killed the goat and searched his house and found the

flesh of the goat. Then they fined him one rupee four annas and made

him give another goat in exchange for the one he had stolen.

 

 

 

CXXXVIII. (The Divorce.)

 

There was once a man who had reason to suspect his wife's

faithfulness. He first tried threatening and scolding her; but this

had no good effect, for far from being ashamed she only gave him

back harder words than she received. So he set to work to find some

way of divorcing her without making a scandal. One day when he came

home with a fine basket of fish which he had caught he found that his

father-in-law had come to pay them a visit. As he cleaned the fish

he grumbled at the thought that his wife would of course give all the

best of them to her father; at last an idea struck him. As he handed

over the fish to his wife he told her to be careful not to give her

father the heads of the _mangri_ fish nor the dust of tobacco, as

it was very wrong to give either of those things to a visitor. "Very

well," she answered; but to herself she thought "What does he mean by

forbidding me to do these things? I shall take care to give my father

nothing but the heads of the fish" for her pleasure was to thwart her

husband. So when the evening meal was ready she filled a separate plate

for her father with nothing but the fish heads. As her husband heard

the old man munching and crunching the bones he smiled to himself at

the success of the plot. When his father was about to leave he asked

for some tobacco, and the woman brought him only tobacco dust which she

had carefully collected out of the bottom of the bag. The old gentleman

went off without a word but very disappointed with his treatment.

 

A few days later the woman went to visit her father's house, and

then he at once asked her what she meant by treating him as she had

done. "I am sorry," said she: "I did it to spite my husband; he went

out of his way to tell me not to give you the heads of the fish and

the dust of tobacco, and so I picked out nothing but heads for you

and gave you all the tobacco dust I could collect because I was so

angry with him." From this her father easily understood that husband

and wife were not getting on well together.

 

Time passed and one day her mother went to visit the troublesome

wife. As she was leaving, her daughter asked whether there was any

special reason for her coming. Her mother admitted that she had come

hoping to borrow a little oil to rub on the cattle at the coming

Sohrae festival, but as her son-in-law was not there she did not like

to mention it and would not like to take any without his consent. "O

never mind him!" said the woman and insisted on her mother taking

away a pot--not of cheap mowah or mustard oil,--but of ghee.

 

Now a little girl saw her do this and the tale was soon all over the

village; but the undutiful wife never said a word about it to her

husband, and it was only after some days that he heard from others

of his wife's extravagance. When it did reach his ears he seized

the opportunity and at once drove her out of the house, and when

a panchayat was called insisted on divorcing her for wasting his

substance behind his back. No one could deny that the reason was a

good one and so the panchayat had to allow the divorce. Thus he got

rid of his wife without letting his real reason for doing so be known.