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

CXXXIX. (The Father and the Father-in-Law.)

 

There was once a Raja who had five sons and his only daughter was

married to a neighbouring Raja.

 

In the course of time this Raja fell into poverty; all his horses

and cattle died and his lands were sold. At last they had even to

sell their household utensils and clothes for food. They had only

cups and dishes made of gourds to use and the Raja's wife and sons

had to go and work as day labourers in order to get food to eat. At

last one day the Raja made up his mind to go and visit his married

daughter and ask her husband's family to give him a brass cup (_bati_)

that he might have something suitable to drink out of. Off he went

and when he reached the house he was welcomed very politely by his

daughter's father-in-law and given a seat and water to wash his feet,

and a hookah was produced and then the following conversation began.

 

"Where have you come from, father of my daughter-in-law?"

 

"I have walked from home, father of my son-in-law?"

 

"You come here so often that you make me quite frightened! How is

it? Is it well with you and yours? with body and skin? Would it not

be well for us to exchange news?"

 

"Yes indeed; for how can you know how I am getting on if I do not tell

you. By your kind enquiries my life has grown as big as a mountain,

my bosom is as broad as a mat, and my beard has become as long as a

buffalo horn."

 

"And I also, father of my daughter-in-law, am delighted at your

coming and enquiring about me; otherwise I should wonder where you had

settled down, and be thinking that you did not know the way relations

should behave to each other; at present, I am glad to say, the seed

left after sowing, the living who have been left behind by death,

by your favour and the goodness of God, are all doing well. Is it not

a proverb. 'The eye won't walk, but the ear will go and come back in

no time.' Now the ear is the visitor and so far as it has looked our

friends up, it is well with all, so far as I know."

 

The other answered; "Then I understand that by the goodness of God,

all is very well with you all, O father of my son-in-law. That is

what we want, that it may be well with us, body and soul."

 

"Life is our wealth; life is great wealth. So long as life lasts

wealth will come. Even if there is nothing in the house, we can work

and earn wealth, but if life goes where shall we obtain it?"

 

The visitor answered "That is true; and we have been suffering

much from the 'standing' disease; (i.e. hunger) I have tried to get

medicine to cure it in vain; the Doctors know of none. I should be

greatly obliged if you could give me some medicine for it."

 

"The very same disease has overflowed this part of the country"

was the reply:--at this they both laughed; and the visitor resumed,--

 

"Don't they say 'we asked after them and they did not ask anything

about us in return;'? it is right now for me to ask how you are

getting on" and so saying he proceeded in his turn to put the same

questions and to receive the same answers.

 

Then they went out and bathed and came back and had some curds and rice

and sat for a while smoking their hookahs. Then a goat was killed and

cooked and they had a grand feast. But the Raja did not forget about

the _bati_, and he took his daughter aside and told her to sound her

mother-in-law about it. She brought back a message that if he wanted

anything he should ask for it himself. So he went very shamefacedly

to his host and told him that be must he leaving: "Well, good-bye, are

you sure you only came to pay us a visit and had no other object?" The

Raja seized the opening that this reply gave him and said "Yes, I had

something in my mind; we are so poor now that we have not even a brass

cup to drink out of, and I hoped that you would give me one of yours."

 

"My dear Sir, you say that you have gourds to drink but of: we have

not even that; we have to go down to the stream and drink out of our

hands; I certainly cannot give you a _bati._" At this rebuff the poor

Raja got up and went away feeling very angry at the manner in which

he had been treated.

 

When he reached home the Raja vowed that he would not even live in the

neighbourhood of such faithless friends so he went with all his family

to a far country. In their new home his luck changed and he prospered

so much that in a few years he became the Raja of the country.

 

Meanwhile the other Raja--the father-in-law,--fell into such poverty

that he and his family had to beg for their living.

 

The first Raja heard about this and made a plan to attract them to the

place where he lived. He ordered a great tank to be dug and promised

the workers one pice for each basket of earth they removed. This

liberal wage attracted labourers from all sides; they came in such

numbers that they looked like ants working and among them came the

father-in-law and his family and asked the Raja for work. The Raja

recognised them at once though they did not know him; at first the

sight of their distress pleased him but then he reflected that if he

cherished anger Chando would be angry with him, so he decided to treat

them well and invited them to his palace. The poor creatures thought

that they were probably doomed for sacrifice but could only do as

they were bid. Great was their amazement when they were well fed and

entertained and when they learnt who their benefactor was they burst

into tears; and the Raja pointed out to them how wrong it was to laugh

at the poor, because wealth might all fly away as theirs had done.

 

 

CXL. (The Reproof.)

 

A poor man once went to visit his daughter's father-in-law who was very

rich. The rich man was proud of his wealth and looked down on poverty;

so he made no special entertainment for his visitor and only gave him

rice and _dal_ for his dinner. When they went out to bathe he stood

on the bank of the tank and began to boast. "I made this tank; all the

land over there belongs to me; all those buffaloes and cattle you see,

belong to me; I have so many that I have to keep two men to milk them."

 

The visitor said nothing at the time but that afternoon as host and

guest sat smoking together they saw a beggar standing in front of

the house. The sun was very powerful and the ground was so hot that

the beggar kept shifting from one foot to another as he stood out

in the sun. Then the poor visitor spoke up and said "It is strange

that when you made such a nice house you made the roof without

eaves." "Where are your eyes? Cannot you see the eaves?" asked the

host in astonishment. The other answered "I see that you have made

a house as high as a hill but if it had any eaves, surely that poor

beggar there would not be standing out in the sun; and this morning

you must have been mistaken in saying that that tank was yours for

otherwise you would have given me fish for dinner; and I think that

they were only rocks and tufts of grass which you pointed out to me

as your flocks and herds for otherwise you would have offered me some

milk or curds." And the rich man was ashamed and had no answer to make.

 

 

 

CXLI. (Enigmas.)

 

Once upon a time a man and his son went on a visit to the

son's father-in-law. They were welcomed in a friendly way;

but the father-in-law was much put out at the unexpected visit

as he had nothing ready for the entertainment of his guest. He

took an opportunity to go into the house and said to one of his

daughters-in-law. "Now, my girl, fill the little river and the big

river while I am away; and polish the big axe and the little axe and

dig out five or six channels, and put hobbles on these relations who

have come to visit us and bar them Into the cow house. I am going to

bathe and will come back with a pot full of the water of dry land,

then we will finish off these friends."

 

The two visitors outside overheard this strange talk and began to

wonder what it meant. They did not like the talk about axes and digging

channels, it sounded as if their host meant to kill them as a sacrifice

and bury their bodies in a river bed; rich men had been known to do

such things. With this thought in their minds they got up and began

to run away as fast as their legs could carry them. But when the young

woman saw what they were doing she ran after them and called them back.

 

They reluctantly stopped to hear what she had to say; and when she came

up they reproached her for not having warned them of the fate in store

for them. But she only laughed at their folly and explained that what

her father-in-law meant was that she should wash their feet and give

them a seat in the cow house; and make ready two pots of rice beer and

polish the big and little brass basins and make five or six leaf cups

and he would bring back some liquor and they would all have a drink. At

this explanation they had a hearty laugh and went back to the house.