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

and ordered

his eldest son to go with the tigress. The young man took his axe

and bow and arrows and went with the tigress to her cave. When he

got there he asked where were the cattle which he was to tend. The

tigress pointed out to him all the bears which were roaming in the

jungle and said that they were her cattle. By the cave stood a large

rock and the tigress told the prince to take his axe and cut it in

two. The prince tried, but the rock only turned the edge of his axe

and he quite failed to cut it. The tigress being thus satisfied that

the prince had no superhuman powers sprang upon him and killed him

and devoured his body. Then she went back to the Raja and said that

she had too much work to be done, that she wished him to give her

a second son. The Raja agreed, but this prince met the same fate as

the first; and in succession, all the sons of the Raja, except the

youngest, went with the tigress and were devoured by her. At last

the youngest son went with the tigress: when bidden to cut the rock

in two, he easily accomplished the task. Then the tigress knew that

she had met her master and ran into her cave. Looking into the cave,

the prince saw the bones of his dead brothers. Gathering the bones

together, he prayed for fire to burn them, and fire fell from above

and burned the bones.

 

Then he climbed a tree in order to be out of the reach of the tigress,

and the tigress came and sat at the foot of the tree so that he could

not descend. Then he prayed again and wind arose and wafted him away

and set him down by a house where lived an old man and his wife. The

tigress followed in pursuit, but the aged couple hid the prince and

assured the tigress that he had not been seen; so the tigress returned

disappointed. The prince stayed with the old people and worked on

their land. One day as he was ploughing, the tigress came and killed

one of the bullocks that were drawing the plough. The prince at once

ran to the house to fetch his bow and arrow that he might kill the

tigress. When he returned, he found that several tigers were sucking

the blood of the bullock and with them a wild boar. He shot an arrow

which wounded the boar. The boar maddened by the pain turned on the

tigers and killed them all; including the tigress which had killed

the Raja's sons.

 

The prince then being no longer in danger from the tigress returned

to his father's palace.

 

 

 

 

(22)--The Cunning Potter.

 

Once upon a time there lived at the gate of a Raja's palace a Potter

who had a pretty wife. The Raja fell in love with the Potter's wife

and schemed to get rid of the husband. He could not bring himself to

commit a cold blooded murder, but he tried to accomplish his object

indirectly by setting the Potter impossible tasks which he was to

accomplish on pain of death. The Raja accordingly sent for the Potter

and ordered him to bring him the heads of twenty-four jackals.

 

The Potter went away to the jungle and began to dig a large hole

in the side of a hill. A jackal presently came by and stopped to

ask why he was digging the hole. The Potter said that it was going

to rain fire from heaven, and that every one who had not such a

shelter would be burnt. At this the jackal became very frightened;

the Potter thereupon said that he was so sorry for them that he

would allow the jackal and his friends to share the hole which he was

digging. The jackal gratefully ran away and returned with a number

of other jackals. They all went into the hole and the Potter closed

the entrance. After a time the Potter looked out and said that the

fire was over; he then stationed himself at the mouth of the hole and

as the jackals came out he cut off their heads with a knife; in this

away he beheaded twenty-three jackals; but the last jackal saw what

was happening and dodged the knife and escaped. The Potter took the

twenty-three heads to the Raja; but the Raja pretended to be angry

and said that if the Potter did not at once procure a twenty-fourth

head, he would be beheaded himself. The Potter took a pot of _gur_

and went to a pool of water which lay in the direction in which the

twenty-fourth jackal had fled. Smearing his body all over with _gur_,

he lay down by the water and pretended to be dead. Presently the

jackal which had escaped passed that way with a friend. Seeing the

body the second jackal proposed at once to go and eat it; but the first

jackal warned the other that there was probably some plot and related

how twenty-three of his friends had lost their lives at the hands of

this very Potter. But the second jackal would not listen to advice

and going to the supposed corpse smelt it and then began to lick it;

finding the taste of the _gur_ very pleasant it set to work to lick

the body all over beginning at the feet; it licked the feet and then

the legs, when it reached his waist it was within reach of his hand

and the Potter stabbed it with his knife and took the head to the Raja.

 

Foiled in this design, the Raja next ordered the Potter to bring him

a jar of tiger's milk. Taking some loaves of bread, the Potter went

into the jungle and soon found a cave in which was a pair of tiger

cubs whose parents were away hunting. The Potter told the cubs that

he was their uncle and gave them the bread to eat; they liked the

taste of the bread very much. Then the Potter hid himself in a tree

near the cave. Presently the tigress came back but her cubs refused

to suck her milk as usual, the tigress asked the reason of this and

the cubs said that their uncle had come and fed them with something

nicer than milk and they were no longer hungry. They then pointed

out the Potter in the tree and the tigress wanted to know what he had

given her cubs to eat. He told her that it was bread: the tigress said

that she would like to try some herself, whereupon the potter replied

that he would give her some if she would first give him some of her

milk. The tigress agreed and also consented that her legs should be

tied while she was being milked in order that she might not be able

to harm the potter. The tigress having been milked, the Potter gave

her a loaf of bread and then ran away as fast as he could.

 

Finding that he would not be able to get rid of the Potter by any

such devices, the Raja then persuaded the faithless wife to put

the Potter to death. She accordingly set up an idol in her house

and prayed daily to this that her husband might become blind and

die. One day the Potter overheard her prayers: the next day he hid

behind the idol and when the woman came and prayed he answered from

behind the idol that her prayer was granted and that in two days her

husband would become blind. Accordingly, two days later the Potter

pretended to become blind. Then the woman sent word to the Raja that

her husband was blind and that they had nothing to fear from him. The

Raja accordingly came one night to visit the woman, and the Potter

killed them both with an axe. He buried the body of his wife, but he

was in great trouble as to how to dispose of the body of the Raja:

for he knew that there would be a hue and cry when the disappearance of

the Raja was discovered. At last he decided to put the body in a field

of _brinjals_ belonging to a neighbour. Towards morning, the owner of

the field came to see that his property was all right, and seeing some

one among the _brinjals_, thought that it was a thief. He accordingly

hit the supposed thief on the head; and when he came to examine the

body, he was shocked to find that he had, as he thought, killed the

Raja. In great distress he went to consult his friend, the Potter;

the Potter advised him to put the body among the buffaloes belonging

to a Goala. At dawn the Goala came to look at his buffaloes and seeing

the body of the Raja thought that it was a thief stealing the milk of

the buffaloes: catching up a club, he inflicted a blow which caused

the body to fall over. When the Goala, found that the body was that

of the Raja and that he had apparently killed him, he was in great

fear and went to his friend, the Potter, for advice. It was finally

decided to dispose of the body by putting it down a well. The next day

great search was made for the missing Raja and the body was found in

the well by a Brahman. Preparations were made for the obsequies and

a funeral pyre erected. The Potter saw his opportunity and digging

a hole in the ground under the pyre hid himself in it. When the body

had been cremated and the mourners were still collected at the spot,

the Potter began to speak from the hole in which he was concealed:

the bystanders thought that they heard the voice of the Raja declaring

that the Potter had always been his true friend and that he desired

that he should be given half the kingdom and the hand of his daughter

in marriage. The supposed wishes of the late Raja were obeyed and

the Potter lived in luxury for the rest of his life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NOTES

   [1] This is why Santals when going to eat, move the stool that is

offered to them before they sit down on it.

 

[2] Jaituk is a bullock given to a girl by her parents at the time

of her marriage.

 

[3] Kisar bonga = brownie.

 

[4] This is quite in accordance with Ho notions. If a man buys a

wife there is an implied warranty that she is to last a reasonable

time. If she dies shortly after marriage a sister or cousin has to

be given to replace her.

 

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Publication Date: 05-08-2015

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