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

had come to the jungle to gather

leaves. The two met and acquaintance soon became love and the two

used to meet each other every day in the jungle. One day the _bonga_

girl asked Baijal to come home with her; so they went to a pool of

water and waded into it but when the water had risen to the calf of

his leg Baijal suddenly found himself on a broad dry road which led to

his mistress's house. When they reached it the bonga girl introduced

Baijal to her father and brothers as her husband and told him not to be

afraid of anything he saw; but he could not help feeling frightened,

for the stools on which they sat were coiled-up snakes and the house

dogs were tigers and leopards.

 

After he had been there three of four day his brothers-in-law one

morning asked him to come out hunting pea fowl. He readily agreed and

they all set out together. The Bongas asked Baijal to lead the dog

but as the dog was a tiger he begged to be excused until they reached

the jungle. So they hunted through the hills and valleys until they

came to a clearing in which there was a man chopping up a tree. Then

the _bongas_ called to Baijal "There is a peacock feeding; take the

dog; throw a stick and knock the bird over and then loose the dog at

it." Baijal pretended not to understand and said that he could see no

peacock; then they told him plainly that the man chopping the log was

their game. Then he saw that he was meant to kill the man and not only

so, but that he would have to eat the flesh afterwards. However he was

afraid to refuse, so he took the tiger in the leash and went towards

the clearing but instead of first throwing his stick at the man he

merely let the tiger loose and cheered it on. The wood cutter heard

the shout and looking round saw the tiger; grasping his axe he ran to

meet it and as the animal sprang on him he smote it on the head and

killed it. Then Baijal went back and told his brothers-in-law that

the peacock had pecked their hound to death. They were very angry

with him for not throwing his stick first but he explained that he

thought that such a big dog as theirs would not need any help.

 

Two or three days later Baijal told his _bonga_ wife to come home with

him, so they set off with a bundle of provisions for the journey. When

they had passed out through the pool Baijal opened the bundle to have

something to eat but found that the bread had turned into cowdung

fuel cakes; and the parched rice into _meral_ leaves; so he threw

them all away. However he would not give up the _bonga_ girl and they

used to meet daily and in the course of time two children were born

to them. Whenever there was a dance in the village the _bonga_ girl

used to come to it. She would leave the two children on Baijal's bed

and spend the whole night dancing with the other women of the village.

 

The time came when Baijal's parents arranged for his marriage,

for they knew nothing of his _bonga_ wife; and before the marriage

the _bonga_ made him promise that if he had a daughter he would name

the child after her. Even when he was married he did not give up his

_bonga_ wife and used to meet her as before. One night she came with

her children to a dance and after dancing some time said that she was

tired and would go away; Baijal urged her not to go but to come with

her children and live in his house along with his other wife. She

would not agree and he tried to force her and shut the door of the

house; but she and her children rose to the roof in a flash of light

and disappeared over the top of the house wall and passed away from

the village in a flame of fire. At this Baijal was so frightened that

from that time he gave her up and never went near her again.

 

By and bye his wife bore him a daughter but they did not name the

child after the _bonga_ and the consequence was that it soon pined

away and died. Two or three more were born but they also all died

young because he had not named them after the _bonga_. At last he did

give a daughter the right name and from that time his children lived.

CLVII. (Ramai and the Bonga.)

 

Once a _bonga_ [3] haunted the house of a certain man and became such

a nuisance that the man had him exorcised and safely pegged down to

the ground; and they fenced in the place where the _bonga_ lay with

thorns and put a large stone on the top of him. Just at the place

was a clump of "Kite's claws" bushes and one day when the berries

on the bushes were ripe, a certain cowherd named Ramai went to pick

them and when he came round to the stone which covered the _bonga_

he stood on it to pick the fruit and the _bonga_ called out to him

to get off the stone; Ramai looked about and seeing no one said "Who

is that speaking?" and the voice said "I am buried under the stone;

if you will take it off me I will give you whatever boon you ask";

Ramai said that he was afraid that the _bonga_ would eat him but the

_bonga_ swore to do him no harm, so he lifted up the stone and the

_bonga_ came out and thanking Ramai told him to ask a boon.

 

Ramai asked for the power to see _bongas_ and to understand the

language of ants. "I will give you the power," said the _bonga_,

"but you must tell no one about it, not even your wife; if you do

you will lose the power and in that case you must not blame me,"

Then the _bonga_ blew into his ear and he heard the speech of ants;

and the _bonga_ scratched the film of his eye balls with a thorn

and he saw the _bongas_: and there were crowds of them living in

villages like men. In December when we thresh the rice the _bongos_

carry off half of it; but Ramai could see them and would drive them

away and so was able to save his rice.

 

Once a young fellow of his own age was very ill; and his friends blew

into his ears and partially brought him to his senses and he asked

them to send for Ramai; so they called Ramai and he had just been

milking his cows and came with the tethering rope in his hand; and

when he entered the room he saw a _bonga_ sitting on the sick man's

chest and twisting his neck; so he flogged it with the rope till it

ran away and he pursued it until it threw itself into a pool of water;

and then the sick man recovered.

 

But Ramai soon lost his useful power; one day as he was eating his

dinner he dropped some grains of rice and two ants fell to quarrelling

over one grain and Ramai heard them abusing each other and was so

amused that he laughed out loud.

 

His wife asked why he laughed and he said at nothing in particular,

but she insisted on knowing and he said that it was at some scandal he

had heard in the village; but she would not believe him and worried

him until he told her that it was at the quarrel of the ants. Then

she made him tell her how he gained the power to understand what

they said: but from that moment he lost the powers which the _bonga_

had conferred on him.

 

CLVIII. (The Boundary Bonga.)

 

There was once a man who owned a rich swampy rice field. Every year

he used to sacrifice a pig to the boundary _bonga_ before harvest;

but nevertheless the _bonga_ always reaped part of the crop. One year

when the rice was ripening the man used to go and look at it every

day. One evening after dusk as he was sitting quietly at the edge of

the field he overheard the _bonga_ and his wife talking. The _bonga_

said that he was going to pay a visit to some friends but his wife

begged him not to go because the rice was ripe and the farmer would

be cutting it almost at once. However the _bonga_ would not listen

to her advice and set off on his journey.

 

The farmer saw that there was no time to be lost and the very next

day he sacrificed the usual pig and reaped the whole of the crop. That

evening when work was over he stayed and listened to hear whether the

_bonga_ had come back, but all was quiet. The next day he threshed

the paddy and instead of twenty bushels as usual he found that he had

got sixty bushels of rice, That evening he again went to the field

and this time he found that the _bonga_ had returned and was having

a fine scolding from his wife, because he had let the farmer reap the

whole crop. "Take your silly pig and your silly plate of flour from the

sacrifice," screamed the _bonga's_ wife, throwing them at her spouse,

"that is all you have got; this is all because you would go away when

I told you not to do it; how could I reap the crop with the children

to look after? If you had stayed we might have got five _bandis_

of rice from that field."

CLIX. (The Bonga Exorcised.)

 

A very poor man was once ploughing his field and as he ploughed the

share caught fast in something. At first he thought that it was

a root and tried to divide it with his axe; but as he could not

cut it he looked closer and found that it was a copper chain. He

followed the chain along and at either end he found a brass pot full

of rupees. Delighted with his luck he wrapped the pots in his cloth

and hurried home. Then he and