Folklore Of The Santal Parganas - free ebook by Cecil Henry Bompas

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Folklore Of The Santal Parganas

Cecil Henry Bompas

209 chapters

29 hour read

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209 chapters

Preface

Preface

My translation though somewhat condensed is very literal, and the stories have perhaps thereby an added interest as shewing the way in which a very primitive people look at things. The Santals are great story tellers; the old folk of the village gather the young people round them in the evening and tell them stories, and the men when watching the crops on the threshing floor will often sit up all night telling stories. There is however, no doubt that at the present time the knowledge of these st

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I. Bajun and Jhore.

I. Bajun and Jhore.

Once there was a young fellow named Anuwa who lived with his old mother, and when he was out ploughing his mother used to take him his breakfast. One day a jackal met her on her way to the field with her son’s breakfast and told her to put down the food which she was carrying or he would knock her down and bite her; so she put it down in a fright and the jackal ate most of it and then went away and the old woman took what was left to her son and told him nothing about what had happened. This hap

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II. Anuwa and His Mother.

II. Anuwa and His Mother.

Once upon a time a boy named Ledha was tending cattle with other boys at the foot of a hill, and these boys in fun used to call out “Ho, leopard: Ho, leopard,” and the echo used to answer from the hill “Ho, leopard.” Now there really was a leopard who lived in the hill and one day he was playing hide and seek with a lizard which also lived there. The lizard hid and the leopard looked every where for it in vain. At last the leopard sat down to rest and it chanced that he sat right on top of the l

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III. Ledha and the Leopard.

III. Ledha and the Leopard.

There was once a Raja whose wife died leaving him with one young child. He reared it with great care and when it could toddle about it took a great fancy to a cat; the child was always playing with it and carrying it about. All his friends begged the Raja to marry again, but he said that he was sure that a stepmother would be cruel to his child; at last they persuaded him to promise to marry again, if a bride could be found who would promise to care for the child as her own, so his friends looke

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IV. The Cruel Stepmother.

IV. The Cruel Stepmother.

They went on and after travelling some days they came to a great city, where they took up their quarters in a tumble-down house and the next morning Lela went into the city to look for work. He went to the cutcherry and enrolled himself as a muktear (attorney) and soon the litigants and the magistrates found out how clever he was and he acquired a big practice. One day the Raja said, “This fellow is very handsome, I wonder what his wife is like?” And he sent an old woman to see; so the old woman

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V. Karmu and Dharmu.

V. Karmu and Dharmu.

Then they came to a mango tree and the same thing happened. And they went on and saw a cow with a calf; and they thought that they would milk the cow and drink the milk, but when they went to catch it it ran away from them and would not let itself be caught; and they sang:— “We go to catch the cow and it runs away, We go to catch the calf and it runs away, O Karam Gosain how far off are you?” But the cow said to them—“Go to the banks of the Ganges.” Then they came to a buffalo and went to milk i

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VI. The Jealous Stepmother.

VI. The Jealous Stepmother.

There was once a very pious woman and her special virtue was that she would not eat or drink on any day until she had first given alms to a beggar. One day no beggar came to her house, so by noon she got tired of waiting, and, tying in her cloth some parched rice, she went to the place where the women drew water. When she got there she saw a Jugi coming towards her, she greeted him and said that she had brought dried rice for him. He said that omens had bidden him come to her and that he came to

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VII. The Pious Woman.

VII. The Pious Woman.

There was once a rich man who had seven sons, but one day his wife died and after this the family fell into poverty. All their property was sold and they lived by selling firewood in the bazar. At last the wife of the eldest son said to her father-in-law. “I have a proposal to make: Do you choose one of us to be head of the family whom all shall obey; we cannot all be our own masters as at present.” The old man said “Well, I choose you,” and he assembled the whole family and made them promise to

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VIII. The Wise Daughter-in-Law.

VIII. The Wise Daughter-in-Law.

There was once an oilman with five sons and they were all married and lived jointly with their father. But the daughters-in-law were discontented with this arrangement and urged their husbands to ask their father to divide the family property. At first the old man refused, but when his sons persisted, he told them to bring him a log two cubits long and so thick that two hands could just span it, and he said that if they could break the log in two, he would divide the property; so they brought th

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X. The Girl Who Found Helpers.

X. The Girl Who Found Helpers.

and as she cried a buka sobo snake came out and asked why she was crying, and when she told it, it said that it would coil itself round the leaves in place of a rope. So it stretched itself out straight and she piled the leaves on the top of it and the snake coiled itself tightly round them and so she was able to carry the bundle home on her head. Her sisters-in-law ran to see how she managed it, but she put the bundle down gently and the snake slipped away unperceived. Still they resolved to tr

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XI. How to Grow Rich.

XI. How to Grow Rich.

There was once a cowherd named Sona who saved a few rupees and he decided to buy a calf so as to have something to show for his labours; and he went to a distant village and bought a bull calf and on the way home he was benighted. So he turned into a Hindu village and went to an oilman’s house and asked to be allowed to sleep there. When the oilman saw such a fine calf he coveted it and he told Sona to put it in the stable along with his own bullock and he gave him some supper and let him sleep

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XII. The Changed Calf.

XII. The Changed Calf.

There was a well-to-do man of the Koeri (cultivating) caste and opposite his house lived a barber who was very poor; and the barber thought that if he carried on his cultivation just as the Koeri did he might get better results; so every day he made some pretext to visit the Koeri’s house and hear what work he was going to do the next day, and with the same object he would listen outside his house at night; and he exactly imitated the Koeri: he yoked his cattle and unyoked them, he ploughed and

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XIII. The Koeri and the Barber.

XIII. The Koeri and the Barber.

There was once a Raja who had an only son and the Raja was always urging his son to learn to read and write in order that when he came to his kingdom he might manage well and be able to decide disputes that were brought to him for judgment; but the boy paid no heed to his father’s advice and continued to neglect his lessons. At last when he was grown up, the Prince saw that his father was right and he resolved to go away to foreign countries to acquire wisdom; so he set off without telling anyon

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XIV. The Prince Who Acquired Wisdom.

XIV. The Prince Who Acquired Wisdom.

Then she took off her cloth and showed it to him through the crack of the door and at the sight of this he was convinced; then he reflected on the advice of his teacher and repented, because he had nearly killed his sister through not restraining his wrath. There was once a man who had six sons and two daughters and he died leaving his wife pregnant of a ninth child. And when the child was born it proved to be a monkey. The villagers and relations advised the mother to make away with it, but she

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XV. The Monkey Boy.

XV. The Monkey Boy.

They both went and enjoyed themselves; and two or three days later the monkey boy said that he would also have a feast of first fruits, so he told his mother to clear the courtyard and invited his brothers and he purified himself and went to his clearing and brought home the biggest pumpkin that had grown there; this he offered to the spirits; he sliced off the top of it as if it were the head of a fowl, and as he did so he saw that the inside was full of rice; he called his mother and they fill

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XVI. The Miser’s Servant.

XVI. The Miser’s Servant.

There was once a rich merchant who lived in a Raja’s city; and the Raja founded a school in order that his own children might have some education, and the boys and the girls of the town used to go to the school as well as the Raja’s sons and daughters and among them the rich merchant’s son, whose name Was Kuwar. In the course of time the children all learned to read and write. In the evenings all the boys used to mount their horses and go for a ride. Now it happened that Kuwar and the Raja’s dau

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XVII. Kuwar and the Raja’s Daughter.

XVII. Kuwar and the Raja’s Daughter.

Then Chando told them to go and frighten her, and if they could frighten her away from her husband’s dead body he would do nothing, but if she would not leave him then they were to restore him to life. So they went and found her holding the dead body of her husband In her lap and weeping; and they first assumed the form of tigers and began to circle round her roaring, but she only went on weeping and sang— “You have come roaring, tigress: First eat me, tigress: Then only will I let you eat the b

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XVIII. The Laughing Fish.

XVIII. The Laughing Fish.

Then the Raja bade her explain why the fishes laughed, and the princess answered “If you wish to know the reason order all your Ranis to be brought here;” so the Ranis were summoned; then the princess said “The reason why the fishes laughed was because among all your wives it is only the eldest Rani who is a woman and all the others are men. What will you give me if this is not proved to be true?” Then the Raja wrote a bond promising to give the merchant half his kingdom if this were proved to b

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XIX. How the Cowherd Found a Bride.

XIX. How the Cowherd Found a Bride.

The next day they collected all the cows and drove them back to the princess’ home and there the Goala and his wife lived happily, ruling half the kingdom. And some years after the Goala reflected that the snake was to him as his father and mother and yet he had come away in a hurry without taking a proper farewell, so he went to see whether it was still there; but he could not find it and he asked the peepul tree and no answer came so he had to return home disappointed. Once upon a time there w

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XX. Kara and Guja.

XX. Kara and Guja.

There was once a Raja who had an only son named Kara and in the course of time the Raja fell into poverty and was little better than a beggar. One day when Kara was old enough to work as a cowherd his father called him and said “My son, I am now poor but once I was rich. I had a fine estate and herds of cattle and fine clothes; now that is all gone and you have scarcely enough to eat. I am old and like to die and before I leave you I wish to give you this advice: there are many Rajas in the worl

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XXI. The Magic Cow.

XXI. The Magic Cow.

Kara protested and said that he would fetch the person from whom he had got the cow and take whichever cow he pointed out. Telling them that they were responsible for his cow while he was away, he hastened off to the cave where the jackals lived. The jackals somehow knew that he had been swindled out of the cow, and they met him saying “Well, man, have you lost your cow?” And he answered that he had come to fetch them to judge between himself and the villagers: so the jackals went with him and h

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XXII. Lita and His Animals.

XXII. Lita and His Animals.

After a time his father said that Lita must marry; so marriage go-betweens were sent out to look for a bride and they found a very rich and beautiful girl whose parents were agreeable to the match. But the girl herself said that she would only marry a man who would build a covered passage from her house to his, so that she could walk to her new home in the shade. The go-betweens reported this, and Lita’s father and brothers consulted and agreed that they could never make such a passage, but Lita

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XXIII. The Boy Who Found His Father.

XXIII. The Boy Who Found His Father.

and they drank and went away. Then various kinds of birds came and after them a great herd of rhinoceroses and among them was one which had the dried up body of the boy’s father stuck on its horn. The boy was rather frightened and sang “Drink your fill, rhinoceroses, I shall not shoot you I shall shoot the giant rhinoceros.” and when the giant rhinoceros with the body of his father stooped its head to drink from the lake, he put an arrow through it and it turned a somersault and fell over dead:

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XXIV. The Oilman’s Bullock.

XXIV. The Oilman’s Bullock.

Then they all set out with the five hundred rupees to a level field near the Raja’s palace; a great crowd collected to see the fun and the Raja went there expecting easily to win five hundred rupees. The elephant was brought forward with vermilion on its cheeks, and a pad on its back, and a big bell round its neck, and a mahout riding it. The crowd called out “Put down the stakes:” so each side produced the money and publicly announced that the owner of the animal which should be victorious shou

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XXV. How Sabai Grass Grew.

XXV. How Sabai Grass Grew.

But the water rose to her knees and the pot would not fill, and she sang:— “The water has risen, brother, And wetted my knees, brother, But still the lota in my hand Will not sink below the surface.” Then the water rose to her waist and the pot would not fill, and she sang:— “The water has risen, brother, And wetted my waist, brother, But still the lota in my hand Will not sink below the surface.” Then the water reached her neck and the pot would not fill; and she sang:— The water has risen, bro

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XXVI. The Merchant’s Son and the Raja’s Daughter.

XXVI. The Merchant’s Son and the Raja’s Daughter.

As she finished her song the merchant’s son threw down a large branch to her, so she looked up and saw him sitting in the tree. Then she climbed up to him and began to scold him for putting her to the pain of waiting so long. He retorted “It was you who made me anxious by keeping me waiting.” “That was not my fault: you know how much work a woman has to do. I had to cook the supper and put my parents to bed and rub them to sleep. Climb down and let us be off.” So they climbed down from the tree

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XXVII. The Flycatcher’s Egg.

XXVII. The Flycatcher’s Egg.

They prepared to take away the corpse to burn it and the bonga girl asked to be allowed to go with them as she had never seen the funeral rites of a jugi: so they let her go. Before starting she tied a little salt in the corner of her cloth. When she reached the burning place, she sang to the two dogs:— “Build the pyre, Rauta and Paika! Alas! The dogs have bitten the jugi, Alas! They have chased and killed the jugi.” So the two dogs built the pyre and lay the body on it. Then she ordered them to

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XXVIII. The Wife Who Would Not Be Beaten.

XXVIII. The Wife Who Would Not Be Beaten.

The prince had no answer to give her and after this lesson gave up all idea of beating his bride. Once a marriage was arranged between Sahde Goala and Princess Chandaini and on the wedding day when it began to get dusk Sahde Goala ordered the sun to stand still. “How,” said he, “can the people see the wedding of a mighty man like myself in the dark?” So at his behest the sun delayed its setting for an hour, and the great crowd which had assembled saw all the grand ceremonies. The next day Sahde

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XXIX. Sahde Goala.

XXIX. Sahde Goala.

But no such thing happened and she had to go back to her husband’s house. When she arrived her mother-in-law gave her a large basket of cooked rice and a pot of relish and told her to take them to the labourers in the field. Her mother-in-law helped her to lift the basket on to her head and she set off. When she reached the field she called to her sister-in-law:— “Come Lorokini, Lift down from my head The basket of rice And the pot of relish.” But Lorokini was angry with her for trying to run aw

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XXX. The Raja’s Son and the Merchant’s Son.

XXX. The Raja’s Son and the Merchant’s Son.

After this the master made up his mind to get rid of Ujar, but he was in a fix: he could not dismiss him because of the agreement that if he did not continue to employ him so long as he was willing to serve for one leaf full of rice a day he was to lose a hand and an ear. So he decided to kill him, but he was afraid to do so himself for fear of being found out; so he decided to send Ujar to his father-in-law’s house and get them to do the job. He wrote a letter to his father-in-law asking him to

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XXXI. The Poor Widow.

XXXI. The Poor Widow.

Once upon a time the boys and girls of a village used to watch the crops of but growing by a river, and there was a Hanuman monkey who wished to eat the but, but they drove him away. So he made a plan: he used to make a garland of flowers and go with it to the field and, when he was driven away, he would leave the flowers behind; and the children were pleased with the flowers and ended by making friends with the monkey and did not drive him away. There was one of the young girls who was fascinat

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XXXII. The Monkey and the Girl.

XXXII. The Monkey and the Girl.

Once there was a blacksmith who had five sons and the sons were always quarrelling. Their father used to scold them, but they paid no heed; so he got angry and one day he sent for them and said: “You waste your time quarrelling. I have brought you up and have amassed wealth; I should like to see what you are worth. I will put it to the test: I will give you each one hundred rupees, and I will see how you employ the money; if any of you puts it to profitable use, I will call him my son; but if an

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XXXIII. Ramai and the Animals.

XXXIII. Ramai and the Animals.

Once upon a time a carpenter made a bedstead, and when it was ready he put it in his verandah. At night he heard the four legs of the bedstead talking together and saying: “We will save the life of anyone who sleeps on this bedstead and protect him from his enemies.” When the carpenter heard this, he decided not to part with the bed for less than a hundred rupees. So next day he went out to try and get this price for the bed, but people laughed at him and said that no one could pay such a price

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XXXIV. The Magic Bedstead.

XXXIV. The Magic Bedstead.

Ghormuhas have heads like horses and bodies and arms like men and their legs are shaped like men’s but they have only one leg each, and they eat human beings. One day a young man named Somai was hunting a deer and the deer ran away to the country of the Ghormuhas and Somai pursued it, and the Ghormuhas caught him and took him home to eat. First they smoked him for two or three days so that all the vermin were driven out of his body and clothes and then they proceeded to fatten him; they fed him

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XXXV. The Ghormuhas.

XXXV. The Ghormuhas.

Once upon a time there was a Raja who had seven wives and they were all childless, and he was very unhappy at having no heir. One day a Jogi came to the palace begging, and the Raja and his Ranis asked him whether he could say what should be done in order that they might have children; the Jogi asked what they would give him if he told them and they said that they would give him anything that he asked for and gave him a written bond to this effect. Then the Jogi said “I will not take elephants o

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XXXVI. The Boy Who Learnt Magic.

XXXVI. The Boy Who Learnt Magic.

and so they sang when the other animals died. At last they reached the Jogi’s palace and every day he taught them incantations and spells. He bought them each a water pot and sent them every morning to fill it with dew, but before they collected enough, the sun came out and dried up the dew; one day they got a cupful, another day half a cupful, but they never were able to fill the pots. In the course of time they learnt all the spells the Jogi knew and one day when they went out to gather dew, t

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XXXVII. The Charitable Jogi.

XXXVII. The Charitable Jogi.

Once upon a time there were two brothers Chote and Mote; they were poor but very industrious and they got tired of working as hired labourers in their own village so they decided to try their luck elsewhere. They went to a distant village and Chote took service with an oilman and Mote with a potter on a yearly agreement. Chote had to drive the oil mill in the morning and then after having his dinner to feed the mill bullock and take it out to graze. But the bullock having had a good meal of oilc

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XXXVIII. Chote and Mote.

XXXVIII. Chote and Mote.

Once an oil man was going to market with his pots of oil arranged on a flat basket and he engaged a Santal for two annas to carry the basket; and as he went along, the Santal thought “With one anna I will buy food and with the other I will buy chickens, and the chickens will grow up and multiply and then I will sell some of the fowls and eggs and with the money I will buy goats; and when the goats increase, I will sell some and buy cows, and then I will exchange some of the calves for she-buffal

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XXXIX. The Daydreamer.

XXXIX. The Daydreamer.

There was once a sentry outside a Raja’s palace who would let no one go in to sell anything to the Raja until they first promised to give him half the price they received from the Raja, and the poor traders had to promise, for their livelihood depended on selling their goods. One day a fisherman caught an enormous fish and he thought that if he took it to the Raja he would get a big price for it. So he went off to the palace, but when he came to the gate the sentry stopped him and would not let

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XL. The Extortionate Sentry.

XL. The Extortionate Sentry.

Once upon a time there was a Raja and his Dewan and they each had one son, and the two boys were great friends, and, when they grew old enough, they took to hunting and when they became young men they were so devoted to the sport that they spent their whole time in pursuit of game; they followed every animal they could find until they killed it, and they shot every bird in the town. Their parents were much distressed at this, for they thought that if their boys spent all their time together hunt

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XLI. The Broken Friendship.

XLI. The Broken Friendship.

Once upon a time there was a Raja who had two sons and after their father’s death they divided the kingdom between them. The two brothers were inveterate gamblers and spent their time playing cards with each other; for a long time fortune was equal, but one day it turned against the elder brother and he lost and lost until his money and his jewellery , his horses and his elephants and every thing that he had, had been won by his younger brother. Then in desperation he staked his share in the kin

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XLII. A Story Told by a Hindu.

XLII. A Story Told by a Hindu.

Now her husband had also escaped from the jungle and sought employment as a labourer but no one would give him work for more than a day or two, and at last his search for work brought him to the city in which the princess was; and there he was engaged as a groom in the palace stables. The prince had changed his name and he had no chance of knowing that his wife was in the palace, because she was confined to the women’s apartments; so some years passed without their having news of each other. At

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XLIII. The Raibar and the Leopard.

XLIII. The Raibar and the Leopard.

There was once a Raja and his dewan and they each had one son; these sons were married in infancy but as they grew up they never heard anything about their having been married. When the boys reached manhood and found no arrangements being made for their weddings they began to wonder at the delay and often talked about it, and in the end they agreed to run away to another country. Soon after this resolve of theirs some horse dealers came to their home with horses to sell; the two youths at once s

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XLIV. The Ungrateful Snake.

XLIV. The Ungrateful Snake.

Then the prince turned to the cow: “He may eat you,” answered the cow: “the tree is right, see how men treat cattle; you drive away our calves from us and take our milk and you beat us and make us work hard; for all this ill treatment the snake shall eat you.” Then the prince asked the water what it had to say: “I agree with the other two” said the water: “to return evil for good is the justice of mankind, it is by drinking water that your very lives are preserved; yet you spit into it and wash

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XLV. The Tiger’s Bride.

XLV. The Tiger’s Bride.

Meanwhile the tiger returned with his friends and sat down outside the cave and told his wife to be quick with the cooking of the cakes for he heard the hissing over the fire and thought that she was cooking. At last as she did not come out, he got tired of waiting and went in to fetch her: then he saw that she had disappeared and had to go and tell his friends. They were very angry at being cheated out of a feast, and fell upon the tiger and beat him, till he ran away and was seen no more: but

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XLVI. The Killing of the Tiger.

XLVI. The Killing of the Tiger.

One night as a man and his wife lay talking in bed, the woman told her husband that she had dreamt that in a certain place she had dug up a pot full of rupees, and she proposed that they should go and look for it and see whether the dream was true. While they talked, it chanced that some thieves, who had climbed on to the roof, overheard the conversation and at once decided to forestall the others. So they went off to the place which the woman had described and began to dig, and after digging a

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XLVII. The Dream.

XLVII. The Dream.

There was once a king of the Bhuyans and near his palace was a village of Santals; he was a kind ruler and both Santals and Bhuyans were very happy under his sway. But when he died, he was succeeded by his son, who was a very severe master and soon fell out with the Santals. If he found any cattle or buffaloes grazing anywhere near his crops, he had the cowherds beaten severely: so that no one dared to take the cattle in that direction. The Santals were very angry at this and longed to get even

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XLVIII. The King of the Bhuyans.

XLVIII. The King of the Bhuyans.

So the Santals went off to fetch the wounded cowherds and carried them to the Raja, all lying senseless on beds and put them down before him. While they were away the Raja had told his sipahis to grind some good hot chilis ; and when the cowherds were brought to him he told the sipahis to thrust the chili paste up their noses; this was done and the smarting soon made the cowherds jump up and run away in a very lively fashion, and that was the way the Raja kept his word and cured them. There was

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XLIX. The Foolish Sons.

XLIX. The Foolish Sons.

With this the blacksmith’s son went off to a second shop and begged for the loan of four annas, as he had pressing need of it; he promised to pay an anna a week interest, and to pay down at once the interest for the first week. After some hesitation the shopkeeper was deceived into lending the four annas. Then he went off to another shop and borrowed a rupee by promising to pay eight annas a month as interest and putting down four annas as advance. Then he went to a Marwari’s shop and asked for

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L. Kora and His Sister.

L. Kora and His Sister.

The girl was struck by this strange sight and at once thought that the tree would afford her a safe refuge; so she climbed up it with her parrot in her hand and when safely seated among the leaves she begged the palm tree to grow so tall that no one would be able to find her, and the tree grew till it reached an unusual height. So the girl stayed in the tree top and the parrot used to go every day and bring her food. Meanwhile her parents and brothers searched high and low for her for two or thr

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LI. A Story on Caste.

LI. A Story on Caste.

Tipi and Tepa dwelt together and lived on baked cakes. One day they met a bear in the jungle. “Now I will eat you” growled the bear. “Spare us,” said Tipi and Tepa “and to-morrow we will beg some food and bake it into cakes and give it to you,” So the bear let them go away to beg; but when they came back they ate the food which they had procured and then hid themselves inside a hollow gourd. The bear came and looked about for them but could not find them and went away. The next day Tipi and Tepa

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LII. Tipi and Tepa.

LII. Tipi and Tepa.

Once upon a time a son was born to a certain Raja and the child had the ears of an ox. The Raja was very much ashamed and let no one know. But the secret could not be kept from the barber who had to perform the ceremony of shaving the child’s head. However the Raja made the barber vow not to tell anyone of what he had seen. So the barber went away, but the secret which he might not tell had an unfortunate effect; it made his stomach swell to an enormous size. As the barber went along in this unh

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LIII. The Child with the Ears of an Ox.

LIII. The Child with the Ears of an Ox.

Once upon a time there was a girl whose parents took the greatest care that she should not be familiar with any of the young men of the village. But in spite of their precautions she formed an intimacy with a young man and was presently found to be with child. When this became known the villagers held a panchayat to enquire into the matter, but the girl flatly declined to give any information and her father and brothers were unable to point out the offender. So the village elders decided to let

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LIV. The Child Who Knew His Father.

LIV. The Child Who Knew His Father.

Once upon a time there was a young man of the weaver caste, named Jogeshwar. He was an orphan and lived all alone. One summer he planted a field of pumpkins on the sandy bed of a river. The plants grew well and bore plenty of fruit: but when the pumpkins were ripe, a jackal found them out and went every night and feasted on them. Jogeshwar soon found out from the foot-marks who was doing the damage; so he set a snare and a few days later found the jackal caught in it. He took a stick to beat its

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LV. Jogeshwar’s Marriage.

LV. Jogeshwar’s Marriage.

So then the jackal hurried back and turned them all away and Jogeshwar reached the palace, accompanied only by his palki bearers. Before the wedding feast, the jackal gave Jogeshwar some hints as to his behaviour. He warned him that three of four kinds of meat and vegetables would be handed round with the rice, and bade him to be sure to help himself from each dish—of course in his own house the poor weaver had never had more than one dish to eat with his rice—and when pan was handed to him afte

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LVI. The Strong Man.

LVI. The Strong Man.

After he had gone a little way, it struck the farmer that it would not do to let him display his strength in this way and that it would be better if he took the rice away at night. So he had the Strong man called back and told him that there was one job which he had forgotten to finish; he had put two bundles of sahai grass into the trough to steep and had forgotten to twist it into string. Without a word the Strong man wait and picked the sabai out of the water and began to twist it, but he cou

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LVII. The Raja’s Advice.

LVII. The Raja’s Advice.

Once four Jogis were out on a begging expedition and came to a city were a Raja lived. As they went along they discussed how they should beg of the Raja; and while they were discussing the point, they saw a field rat and one of them exclaimed “I know how I shall beg of him! I shall say ‘See, he throws up the earth, scrapety scrape! ’ ” This did not help the other three, but, further on, some frogs jumped into a pond as they passed by, and one of the others at once said “I know what I shall say!

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LVIII. The Four Jogis.

LVIII. The Four Jogis.

The next morning the Barber went to shave the Raja, and, while he was sharpening the razor, the Raja again began to study the mysterious paper, murmuring “Rub away, rub away, now some more water: Rub away, rub away! I know my boy what you are going to do.” The Barber thought that the Raja referred to his rubbing water over his face for shaving, and concluded that the Tehsildar had revealed the plot; so he threw himself at the Raja’s feet and confessed everything, swearing that the Tehsildar and

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LIX. The Charitable Raja.

LIX. The Charitable Raja.

Once there was a Raja who was very prosperous; but his wife found their life of wealth and ease monotonous, and she continually urged him to travel into other countries and to see whether other modes of life were pleasant or distressful; she pestered her husband so much that at last he gave way. He put his kingdom in charge of his father’s sister and her husband and set off with his wife and his two sons as an ordinary traveller. After travelling some days they got tired of eating the parched ri

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LX. A Variant.—The Wandering Raja.

LX. A Variant.—The Wandering Raja.

There were once a Raja and his Dewan who had each one son, and the two boys were great friends. Both had been married in their infancy and when they grew up and heard that they had wives, they agreed to go together and visit them. So they set out, and they arranged that on account of the superior rank of the Raja’s son they would go first and visit his wife; and they also agreed that, as they were going to a strange place, they would keep together day and night. When they reached the house of th

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LXI. The Two Wives.

LXI. The Two Wives.

When she thought that he was asleep, he saw her rise and go out of the house. He followed her to a shrine of Mahadeb; there she smeared the ground with cowdung and worshipped the god and said “O Siva! I have worshipped you for many days; now my husband has come to take me to his house, and you must find another worshipper.” The Mahadeb answered “You have served me for many days; call hither your husband; as you have worshipped me for so long, I will confer a boon on you.” So she went and called

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LXII. Spanling and His Uncles.

LXII. Spanling and His Uncles.

There was once a madcap of a fellow, whose wife got on very well with him and did all the house work very nicely, but she would never speak a single word to him. As nothing he tried would make her speak, the madcap at last hit on a plan of taking her on a long journey. But even when he told his wife that she must come with him to a far country, she did not utter a word. When all was ready for a start the madcap bathed his feet and took a lota of water into the house and pouring it out, prayed to

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LXIII. The Silent Wife.

LXIII. The Silent Wife.

There was once a very rich and powerful Raja and in his heart he thought that there was no one so powerful in the world as himself; thus he thought but he told no one of his thought. One day he made up his mind to see whether others could guess what he was thinking, so he called together his officers and servants and dependants and bade them tell him what thought was in his heart. Many of them made guesses, but not one gave an answer which satisfied the Raja. Then the Raja told his dewan that he

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LXIV. The Dumb Shepherd.

LXIV. The Dumb Shepherd.

There was once a very rich man who had seven sons and the sons were all married and lived with their father. The father was a miser: he lived in the poorest manner in spite of all his wealth and hoarded all his money. His eldest daughter-in-law managed the household and she alone of the family did not approve of the miserly way in which the family affairs were conducted. One day a Jugi came to the house and asked for alms. The eldest daughter-in-law happened to be away at the time, fetching wate

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LXV. The Good Daughter-in-Law.

LXV. The Good Daughter-in-Law.

Once upon a time there was a Raja who had no children. So he and his wife agreed that he should marry again. His second wife bore him two sons, and they were very pleased that the Raja should have heirs and all lived happily together. But after the two sons had been born, the elder Rani also gave birth to a son. This caused discord in the family, for the younger Rani had counted on her sons succeeding to the Raja, but now she feared that the son of the elder Rani would be preferred. So she went

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LXVI. The Raja’s Dream.

LXVI. The Raja’s Dream.

“From home, uncle.” “What has brought me to your memory now? You have never paid me a visit before. I am afraid that something has happened.” “You need not fear that, I have come to you because my mother tells me that you can help me to find the golden leopard and the golden snake and the golden monkey.” At this the Gosain promised to help the Raja’s son to find the animals and then put the cooking-pot on the fire to boil; and in it he put only three grains of rice, but when it was cooked, they

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LXVII. The Mongoose Boy.

LXVII. The Mongoose Boy.

When the six months expired, the brothers went home; and a little after them came Lelsing, leading his donkey, his brothers laughed at him but the Raja did not laugh; and Lelsing showed his father and mother what profits he had made by his trading, which his brothers declined to do. The Raja was pleased with Lelsing for this and declared that, in spite of his shape, he was a man and a Raja. It only made his brothers more angry with him to hear Lelsing praised. Two or three years later there was

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LXVIII. The Stolen Treasure.

LXVIII. The Stolen Treasure.

Once upon a time there was a man named Bhagrit who had two sons named Lukhu and Dukhu; and Lukhu used to work in the fields, while Dukhu herded the buffaloes. In summer Dukhu used to take his buffaloes to drink and rest at a pool in the bed of a dry river. Now in the pool lived a bonga girl and she fell in love with Dukhu. So one day as he was sitting on the bank she appeared to him in the guise of a human maiden. She went up to him and began to talk, and soon they became great friends and agree

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LXIX. Dukhu and His Bonga Wife.

LXIX. Dukhu and His Bonga Wife.

At this sound the workmen were frightened and stopped; but Bhagrit made them go on, saying that whatever happened should be on his head. And when the dams were finished, they began to bale out the water; thereupon a voice sang:— “Do not bale the water, father, Do not bale the water, father. Your daughter-in-law, the Ginduri fish is dying.” But they paid no attention and baled the water dry, and at the bottom of the pool they found an enormous fish, for the bonga girl had turned into a fish. And

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LXX. The Monkey Husband.

LXX. The Monkey Husband.

And as he did not listen to the father and mother, her father’s younger brother and his wife sang the same song, but in vain; and then the girl herself begged for it, and thereupon the monkey let down one end of the cloth to her; and when she caught hold of it, he pulled her up into the tree, and there made her put on her cloth and ran off with her on his back. The girl was quite willing to go with him and called out as she was carried away: “Never mind, father and mother, I am going away.” The

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LXXI. Lakhan and the Wild Buffaloes.

LXXI. Lakhan and the Wild Buffaloes.

So every noon he used to blow the flute and the cows came, running and gave him more milk than he wanted so that he used even to bathe himself in milk, and this made his hair grow very long. One day a parrot belonging to a Raja saw him drying his long hair in the sun and the parrot went to the Raja and told him that he had found a husband for the Raja’s daughter, with beautiful long hair; but that no one could go near where he lived because of the wild buffaloes; however the parrot undertook to

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LXXII. The Boy with the Stag.

LXXII. The Boy with the Stag.

Once upon a time there were seven brothers who lived all alone in the jungle, far from human habitations. None of them was married and they lived on the game they killed. It chanced that a bonga maiden saw the youngest brother and fell deeply in love with him. So one day when all the brothers were away hunting, she placed in their house seven nicely cooked plates of rice. When the brothers returned in the evening from the chase, they were astonished to find the rice waiting for them; all but the

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LXXIII. The Seven Brothers and the Bonga Girl.

LXXIII. The Seven Brothers and the Bonga Girl.

So they plighted their troth to each other, subject to the consent of the brothers, and towards evening the bonga girl left, promising to return on the morrow. When the brothers returned they discussed the matter and agreed that the youngest should marry the girl, provided that she promised to keep house for them. So the next day the girl came back and stayed with them; and they found wives for the other brothers, and got cattle and buffaloes and broke up land for cultivation and though the brot

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LXXIV. The Tiger’s Foster Child.

LXXIV. The Tiger’s Foster Child.

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

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LXXV. The Caterpillar Boy.

LXXV. The Caterpillar Boy.

Presently the Raja said that his kingdom was too small to give half of it to his son-in-law, so he proposed that they should go and conquer fresh territory, and carve out a kingdom for the caterpillar boy. So they went to war and attacked another Raja, but they were defeated and their army cut to pieces. Then the son-in-law said that he would fight himself; so he drew his sword and brandished it and it flashed like lightning and dazzled the eyes of the enemy and his shield clanged on his thigh w

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LXXVI. The Monkey Nursemaid.

LXXVI. The Monkey Nursemaid.

And in succeeding verses, he mentioned seven coats, seven pair of shoes, seven hats, seven swords, seven horses, and seven hogs; and as he repeated the incantation he blew on the Rakhas, and he was healed. The Rakhas was to give the things mentioned in the incantation, but when seven hogs were mentioned he objected and wished only to give one, and in the end the monkey agreed to be content with two; so the Rakhas departed and the next day appeared with seven waist strings, seven dhoties, seven c

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LXXVII. The Wife Who Could Not Keep a Secret.

LXXVII. The Wife Who Could Not Keep a Secret.

Once upon a time there was a Raja who had two wives and a concubine, but after giving birth to her second son, the first Rani died, and the name of her elder boy was Sit and that of the younger was Lakhan. The two children used to cry for their mother but the second Rani never comforted them, for she hated them; it was the concubine who used to bathe them and care for them, and their father loved them much. They used to go to the place where their father sat administering justice and Sit would s

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LXXVIII. Sit and Lakhan.

LXXVIII. Sit and Lakhan.

At evening the old birds returned and the nestlings said that the boys had saved their lives, and asked the old birds to give them some of the food that they had brought. So they threw down two bits of food, and it was ordained that whoever ate the first piece, should marry the daughter of a Raja, and whoever ate the second piece, should spit gold; and it chanced that Sit ate the first piece, and Lakhan the second. The next morning the boys went on their way, and the Raja of the country was look

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LXXIX. The Raja Who Went To Heaven.

LXXIX. The Raja Who Went To Heaven.

Seven-Tricks and Single-Trick were great friends, but some one told Seven-Tricks that Single-Trick was the cleverer man of the two. Seven-Tricks pondered over this but felt sure that his very name showed that he was the cleverer; so one day he went to pay a visit to Single-Trick, and put the matter to the test When Single-Trick saw him coming, he called a pretty girl and hid her inside the house and told his wife to put the rice on to boil. Seven-Tricks arrived and was pressed to stay for the mi

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LXXX. Seven-Tricks and Single-Trick.

LXXX. Seven-Tricks and Single-Trick.

There was once a Raja named Fuljhari and he was childless; he and his wife made pilgrimages to many shrines but all in vain, the wished-for son never arrived. One day a Jugi came to the palace begging and the Raja asked the holy man to tell him how he could have a son; then the Jugi examined the palms of their hands but having done so remained silent. The Raja urged him to speak but the Jugi said that he feared that the reply would be distasteful to the Raja and make him angry. But the Raja and

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LXXXI. Fuljhari Raja.

LXXXI. Fuljhari Raja.

There was once a blacksmith named Chitru who had a very pretty wife; and the woman attracted the attention of the son of the Raja. Chitru suspected that his wife was unfaithful to him, and one night he pretended to go away from home, but really he lay in wait and surprised the prince visiting his wife; then he sprang out upon him and strangled him. But when he found himself with the corpse of the prince on his hands, he began to wonder what he should do to avoid being convicted of the murder. At

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LXXXII. The Corpse of the Raja’s Son.

LXXXII. The Corpse of the Raja’s Son.

There was once a Raja who had two wives and each Rani had a maidservant who was the Raja’s concubine; but none of them had any children. In the course of time the ladies began to quarrel and when they appealed to the Raja, he found that the elder Rani was to blame and turned her out of the palace, and sent her to live in a palm leaf hut on the outskirts of the town. Her faithful maidservant followed her, and the two supported themselves by begging. But they barely got enough to keep body and sou

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LXXXIII. The Sham Child.

LXXXIII. The Sham Child.

The Kherohuri Raja had five sons, and he made up his mind that he would only marry them to five sisters. So he sent out Brahmans and Jugis to search the world to find a Raja with five unmarried daughters. And at the same time the Chandmuni Raja had five marriagable daughters, and he made up his mind that he would marry them to five brothers; he did not care what their rank in life was, but he was determined to find a family of five brothers to marry his daughters. And he also told all the Brahma

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LXXXIV. The Sons of the Kherohuri Raja.

LXXXIV. The Sons of the Kherohuri Raja.

As the princess from mid air gazed on this melancholy spectacle, a parrot came flying over and she called to it and begged it to take a letter for her to her husband in the palace of the Kherohuri Raja. The parrot obeyed her behest, and when the eldest prince read the letter and learned what had happened, he made a hasty meal and saddled his horse and was ready to start; but as it was nearly evening he thought it better to wait till the next day. Very early the following morning he set out and w

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LXXXV. The Dog Bride.

LXXXV. The Dog Bride.

Once upon a time there were a Raja and a rich merchant, and they each had one son. The two boys went to the same school and in the course of time became great friends; they were always together out of school hours; the merchant’s son would take his meals at the Raja’s palace or the Raja’s son would eat with his friend at the merchant’s house. One day the two youths began a discussion as to whether wealth or wisdom were the more powerful: the Raja’s son said that wealth was most important, while

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LXXXVI. Wealth or Wisdom.

LXXXVI. Wealth or Wisdom.

But the merchant’s son had not forgotten his friend and began to wonder why the Prince kept away from him. So one day he went to pay him a visit and was horrified to find him looking so ill and starved; when he heard how the prince was only getting a tamarind leaf full of rice every day, because he could not perform the task set him, he offered to change places with the Prince and sent him off to teach in the school while he himself stayed with the farmer. The next morning the merchant’s son too

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LXXXVII. The Goala and the Cow.

LXXXVII. The Goala and the Cow.

She was of course much distressed at this, but she was even more afraid of what might be done to her and at once hit on a device to save herself from the charge of murder. Taking the dead child in her arms she ran to the ploughmen and scattered all the food she had brought about the ground; then with the child still in her arms, she ran to the Raja and complained to him that his ploughmen had assaulted her, because she was late in taking them their dinner, had knocked the basket of food all abou

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LXXXVIII. The Telltale Wife.

LXXXVIII. The Telltale Wife.

Once upon a time there were two brothers; the elder was named Bhagrai and was married, but the younger, named Kora, was still a bachelor. One day Bhagrai’s wife asked her husband when he intended to look out for a wife for Kora, for people would think it very mean of them if they did not provide for his marriage. But to his wife’s astonishment Bhagrai flatly refused to have anything to do with the matter. He said that Kora must find a wife for himself. His wife protested that that was impossible

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LXXXIX. The Bridegroom Who Spoke in Riddles.

LXXXIX. The Bridegroom Who Spoke in Riddles.

Once upon a time three brothers lived together: the youngest of them was named Kora and he was the laziest man alive: he was never willing to do any work but at meal times he was always first on the spot. His laziness began to drag the family down in the world, for they could not afford to feed a man who did no work. His two elder brothers were always scolding him but he would not mend his ways: however the scolding annoyed him and one day he ran away from home. He had become so poor that he had

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XC. The Lazy Man.

XC. The Lazy Man.

Once upon a time there was a man named Kora who was so lazy that his brothers turned him out of the house and he had to go out into the world to seek his fortune. At first he tried to get some other young man of the village to keep him company on his travels but they all refused to have anything to do with such a lazy fellow, so he had to set out alone. However, he was resolved to have a companion of some sort, so when he came to a place where a crab had been burrowing he set to work and dug it

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XCI. Another Lazy Man.

XCI. Another Lazy Man.

After living in luxury for a time Kora went with a grand procession of horses and elephants to visit his industrious brothers who had turned him out of their home for laziness, and he showed them that he had chosen the better part, for they would never be able to keep horses and elephants for all their industry: so he invited them to come and live with him on his estate and when they had reaped that year’s crops they went with him. Once upon a time there was a poor woman whose husband died sudde

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XCII. The Widow’s Son.

XCII. The Widow’s Son.

He however refused to accept the decision and said that he would go and find two people to represent him on the panchayat. The villagers raised no objection for they knew that he was a stranger, and thought that they could easily convince any persons he might pick up. Bhagrai set off towards a village he saw in the distance but lost his way in the jungle, and as he was wandering about he came on two jackals. On seeing him they started to run but he called to them to stop and telling them all tha

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XCIII. The Boy Who Was Changed into a Dog.

XCIII. The Boy Who Was Changed into a Dog.

One day after its dinner the dog was lying on its side asleep and the princess chanced to see the heads of the iron nails in its feet: “Ah,” thought she, “that is why the poor dog limps.” So she ran and fetched a pair of pincers and pulled out the nails: no sooner had she done so than the dog was restored to its human shape and the princess was delighted to find that not only was he a man but also very handsome: and they settled down to live happily together. Some months later the six brothers r

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XCIV. Birluri and Birbanta.

XCIV. Birluri and Birbanta.

Then Birluri was taken to the Raja and married to one of the Raja’s daughters and given one half of the Raja’s kingdom. After a time Birluri told his wife that they must go back to his home to look after the large herds of cattle which he had left behind him. But his wife laughed at him and would not believe that he owned so much property: then Birluri said that if she would not go with him he would call the cattle to come to him: so he called them all by name and the great herd came running to

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XCV. The Killing of the Rakhas.

XCV. The Killing of the Rakhas.

Before he started he picked out a well-tempered battle axe and begged his father to propitiate the bongas and pray that he might be saved from the Rakhas. When he was produced before the Raja, Jhalka again tried to explain that there had been a mistake, but the Raja told him that he would be taken at his word and must go and kill the Rakhas. Then he saw that there was nothing left for him but to put his trust in God: so he asked that he might be given two mirrors and a large box and when these w

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XCVI. The Children and the Vultures.

XCVI. The Children and the Vultures.

And people had pity on them and gave them enough to live on. One day the two boys thought that they would go and see what the country was like in the direction which had been forbidden to them; so they set out singing their usual song, and when they came to the house where their mother lived she heard them sing and knew that they must be her children; so she called them and bathed them and oiled their bodies and told them that she was their mother and they were very glad to stay with her. But wh

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XCVII. The Ferryman.

XCVII. The Ferryman.

There was once a rich Raja; and in order to frighten away thieves whenever he woke up at night he used to call out— “What are you people saying? I know all about it: You are digging the earth and throwing the earth away: I know all about it: you are skulking there scraping a hole.” One night a gang of thieves really came and began to dig a hole through the mud wall of the Raja’s house. And while they were at work the Raja woke up and called out as usual. The thieves thought that they were discov

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XCVIII. Catching a Thief.

XCVIII. Catching a Thief.

There was once a Raja who was very rich. He was a stern man and overbearing and would brook no contradiction. Not one of his servants or his subjects dared to question his orders; if they did so they got nothing but abuse and blows. He was a grasping man too; if a cow or a goat strayed into his herds he would return the animal if its owner claimed in the same day; but he would not listen to any claim made later. He was so proud that he thought that there was no one in the world wiser than himsel

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XCIX. The Grasping Raja.

XCIX. The Grasping Raja.

The Raja thought and thought in vain, and at last asked to be told the answer to the puzzle. First the jackal made him write out a promise to restore the cow and to pay twenty-five rupees to the panchayat; and then it began:—“In a forest lived a wild elephant and every night it wandered about grazing and in the day it returned to its retreat in a certain hill. One dawn as it was on its way back after a night’s feeding, it felt so sleepy that it lay down where it was; and it happened that its bod

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C. The Prince Who Would Not Marry.

C. The Prince Who Would Not Marry.

There was once a Raja who had an only son. When the Prince grew up the courtiers proposed to the Raja that he should arrange for his son’s marriage; the Raja however wished to postpone it for a time. So the courtiers used to laugh and say to the Prince “Wait a little and we will find you a couple of wives;” the young man would answer, “What is that? I can find them for myself. If you offered to find me ten or twelve wives there would be something in it.” The Raja heard of his boasting like this

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CI. The Prince Who Found Two Wives.

CI. The Prince Who Found Two Wives.

Then the Raja’s daughter went to her father and told him what had happened and had enquiries made and speedily had the Prince released from prison. Then the prince himself again put vermilion on the forehead of the Raja’s daughter, and a few days later set off home with both his wives. This was the way in which he found two wives for himself, as he had boasted that he would. Once upon a time there were two brothers and as their wives did not get on well together, they lived separately. After a t

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CII. The Unfaithful Wife.

CII. The Unfaithful Wife.

Presently the wife came back and found the old woman weeping in real earnest over the loss of her nose. “Never mind, I’ll find it and fix it on for you,” so saying she felt about for the nose till she found it, clapped it on to the old woman’s face and told her to hold it tight and it would soon grow again. Then she sat down where she had sat before and began to lament the cruelty of her husband in bringing a false charge against her and challenged him to come out and see the miracle which had o

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CIII. The Industrious Bride.

CIII. The Industrious Bride.

There was once a Raja and Rani who had had three sons, but they had all died when only three or four months old. Then a fourth son was born, a fine handsome child; and he did not die in infancy but grew up to boyhood. It was however fated that he should die when he was sixteen years old and his parents knew this and when they saw him coming happily home from his games of play, their eyes filled with tears at the thought of the fate that hung over him. One day the boy asked his father and mother

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CIV. The Boy and His Fate.

CIV. The Boy and His Fate.

There was once a Brahman who had four sons born to him, but they all died young; a fifth son however was born to him, who grew up to boyhood. But it was fated that he too should die before reaching manhood. One day while his father was away from home, the messengers of death came to take him away. The Brahman’s wife thought that they were three friends or relations of her husband, who had come to pay a visit, and gave them a hearty welcome. And when she asked who they were, they also told her th

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CV. The Messengers of Death.

CV. The Messengers of Death.

There was once a farmer who kept a labourer and a field woman to do the work of the farm; and they were both very industrious and worked as if they were working on their own account and not for a master. Once at the time of transplanting rice, they were so busy that they stayed in the fields all day and had their meals there and did not go home till the evening. During this time it happened that the man had unyoked his plough bullocks and taking his hoe began to dress the embankment of the field

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CVI. The Speaking Crab.

CVI. The Speaking Crab.

At this sound the farmer was very frightened, and puzzled also; for he thought, “If this were a human being crying, every one in the neighbourhood would have heard and woke up, but it seems that I alone am able to hear the sound; who can it be who is talking about my servants?” So he went back to bed and told no one. The next morning when the labourer looked for his yoke ropes, he missed one; and then he remembered that he had used it to tie up the crab; so he went to the place and found his rop

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CVII. The Leopard Outwitted.

CVII. The Leopard Outwitted.

Once the Wind and the Sun disputed as to which was the more powerful. And while they were quarrelling a man came by wrapped in a shawl and wearing a big pagri . And they said “It is no good quarrelling; let us put our power to the test and see who can deprive this man of the shawl he has wrapped round him.” Then the Wind asked to be allowed to try first and said “You will see that I will blow away the blanket in no time,” and the Sun said, “All right, you go first.” So the Wind began to blow har

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CVIII. The Wind and the Sun.

CVIII. The Wind and the Sun.

One winter day a bear and a tiger began to dispute as to which is the coldest season of the year; the bear said July and August, which is the rainy season, and the tiger said December and January, which is the winter season. They argued and argued but could not convince each other; for the bear with his long coat did not feel the cold of winter but when he got soaked through in the rain he felt chilly. At last they saw a man coming that way and called on him to decide—“but have a care”—said the

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CIX. The Coldest Season.

CIX. The Coldest Season.

1 This is why Santals when going to eat, move the stool that is offered to them before they sit down on it. To a people living in the jungles the wild animals are much more than animals are to us. To the man who makes a clearing in the forest, life is largely a struggle against the beasts of prey and the animals who graze down the crops. It is but natural that he should credit them with feelings and intelligence similar to those of human beings, and that they should seem to him suitable characte

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CX. The Jackal and the Crow.

CX. The Jackal and the Crow.

And singing thus he went skipping homewards; and on the way he met a fowl and called to it to get out of the way or he would eat it,—singing:— “I ate a gourdful of mice And by the side of the ant-hill I ate the crow:—Hurrah!” And as the fowl did not move he ate it up; then he skipped on and came to a goat and he sang his verse and told it to get out of the way and as it did not, he ate it; and in the same way he met and killed a sheep and a cow and he ate the liver and lungs of the cow; and then

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CXI. The Tiger Cub and the Calf.

CXI. The Tiger Cub and the Calf.

Once upon a time a jackal and a hen were great friends and regarded each other as brother and sister; and they agreed to have a feast to celebrate their friendship; so they both brewed rice beer and they first drank at the jackal’s house and then went to the hen’s house; and there they drank so much that the hen got blind drunk, and while she lay intoxicated the jackal ate her up. The jackal found the flesh so nice that he made up his mind to eat the hen’s chickens too; so the next day he went t

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CXII. The Jackal and the Chickens.

CXII. The Jackal and the Chickens.

So the jackal took up the drum but when he got to the rock he accidentally let it fall and it broke and the chickens ran away in all directions; but the chicken that had been at the bottom of the drum had got covered with the droppings of the others and could not fly away; so the jackal thought “Well it is the will of heaven that I should have only one chicken; it is doubtless for the best!” The chicken said to the jackal, “I see that you will eat me, but you cannot eat me in this state; wash me

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CXIII. The Jackal Punished.

CXIII. The Jackal Punished.

And so saying he gobbled her up; and her chickens cried at the sight. Then the jackal resolved to eat the chickens also, so he came back the next day, and asked them where they slept and they said “In the hearth.” But when the jackal had gone, the chickens planned how they should save their lives. Their mother had laid an egg and as there was no one to hatch it now, they said, “Egg, you must lie in the fireplace and blind the jackal;” and they said to the paddy husker, “You must stand by the doo

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CXIV. The Tigers and the Cat.

CXIV. The Tigers and the Cat.

In the days of old there was a great deal more jungle than there is now, and wild elephants were very numerous; once upon a time a red ant and a black ant were burrowing in the ground, when a wild elephant appeared and said “Why are you burrowing here; I will trample all your work to pieces;” the ants answered “Why do you talk like this; do not despise us because we are small; perhaps we are better than you in some ways;” The elephant said “Do not talk nonsense: there is nothing at which you cou

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CXV. The Elephant and the Ants.

CXV. The Elephant and the Ants.

Once upon a time there were a fox and his wife who lived in a hole with their five little ones. Every evening the two foxes used to make their way to a bazar to feed on the scraps thrown away by the bazar people; and every night on their way home the following conversation passed between them. The fox would say to his wife, “Come tell me how much wit you have,” and she would answer him by, “Only so much as would fill a small vegetable basket.” Then she in her turn would ask “And how much wit hav

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CXVI. A Fox and His Wife.

CXVI. A Fox and His Wife.

Once upon a time there was a Raja who had an only son. As the boy grew up his father sent him to a school to learn to read and write. One day on his way back from school, the boy sat down by the road side to rest, and placed his school books on the ground by his side. Suddenly a jackal came along and snatched up the bundle of books and ran away with it; and though the boy ran after it, he failed to catch the jackal and had to go and tell his father how he had lost his school books. The Raja told

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CXVII. The Jackal and the Crocodiles.

CXVII. The Jackal and the Crocodiles.

Each morning the jackal took the five little crocodiles out of the water and told them to repeat after him what he said, and then he began “Ibor obor iakoro sotro” “Ibor obor iakoro sotro.” But try as they might the little crocodiles could not pronounce the words properly; then the jackal lost his temper and cuffed them soundly. In spite of this they still showed no signs of improvement, till at last the jackal made up his mind that he could not go on with such unsatisfactory pupils, and that th

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CXVIII. The Bullfrog and the Crab.

CXVIII. The Bullfrog and the Crab.

Once upon a time there was a great tiger who lived in a forest; and all the other animals that lived in the forest treated him as their Raja, down to the very birds. They all felt safe under his protection, because he was so much feared that no men dared hunt in that forest. One day it happened that this Raja tiger killed a man and made such a enormous meal on the flesh, that he got very bad indigestion. The pain grew worse and worse, till he felt sure that his last hour was come. In his agony h

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CXIX. The Hyaena Outwitted.

CXIX. The Hyaena Outwitted.

A crow and a white egret once made their nests in the same tree, and when the nestlings began to grow up the crow saw how pretty and white the young egrets were, and thought them much nicer than her own black young ones. So one day when the egret was away, the crow changed the nestlings and brought the little white egrets, to her own nest. When the mother egret returned and found the ugly little black crows in her own nest, it did not take her long to see what had happened and she at once taxed

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CXX. The Crow and the Egret.

CXX. The Crow and the Egret.

A jackal and a hare were sworn friends. One day they planned to have a dinner of rice cooked with milk. So the hare crouched down under a bush which grew by the side of a road leading to a busy market; and the jackal stayed watching a little way off. Presently some men came along, taking rice to sell at the market. When they saw the hare by the side of the road, they put down their baskets of rice and ran to catch the hare. He led them a long chase, and then escaped. Meanwhile the jackal carried

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CXXI. The Jackal and the Hare.

CXXI. The Jackal and the Hare.

Once upon a time a he-goat ran away for fear of being slaughtered and took refuge in a leopard’s cave. When the leopard came back to the cave the goat called out “Hum Pakpak,” and the leopard ran away in a fright. Presently it met a jackal and called out “Ah! my sister’s son, some fearful animal has occupied my house!” “What is it like, uncle?” asked the jackal “It has a wisp of hemp tied to its chin,” answered the leopard: “I am not afraid, uncle,” boasted the jackal, “I have eaten many animals

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CXXII. The Brave Jackal.

CXXII. The Brave Jackal.

Once upon a time a leopard and a leopardess were living with their cubs; and when the parents were away a jackal used to go to the cubs and say “If you won’t pay up the paddy you owe, give me something on account.” And the cubs gave him all the meat which their parents had brought; and as this happened every day the cubs began to starve. The leopard asked why they looked so thin although he brought them lots of game and the cubs explained that they had to give up all their food to the jackal fro

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CXXIII. The Jackal and the Leopards.

CXXIII. The Jackal and the Leopards.

A man once went to visit his mother-in-law and for dinner they gave him rice with a relish made of young bamboo shoots. The man liked it extremely and thought that it was meat, but he saw no pieces of meat; so he asked his mother-in-law what it was made of; and behind him was a door made of bamboos: so the mother-in-law said, “I have cooked that which is behind you;” and he looked round and saw the door; so he resolved to carry off the door, as it made such good eating, and in the middle of the

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CXXV. The Stingy Daughter.

CXXV. The Stingy Daughter.

There was once a Santal who owed money to a money-lender: the lender went to dun him every day but as he had nothing to pay with he used to hide in the jungle and as he had no warm clothes he used to light a fire to warm himself by; and when the fire was low he would sit near it and when it blazed up he would move back from it. When the money-lender asked the man’s wife where he was, she always replied “He is dancing the ‘Backwards and Forwards’ dance.” The money-lender got curious about this; a

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CXXVI. The Backwards and Forwards Dance.

CXXVI. The Backwards and Forwards Dance.

Formerly Santals were very stupid and much afraid of Hindus; and once a Santal was ploughing at a place where two roads met and a Hindu came along and asked him, in Hindi, where the two roads went to; now the Santal did not understand Hindi and was also deaf and he thought that the Hindu said “These two bullocks are mine,”—and he answered “When did I take your bullocks?” The Hindu sat down and repeated his question; but the Santal did not understand and continued to assert that the bullocks were

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CXXVII. The Deaf Family.

CXXVII. The Deaf Family.

A man once went to visit his married daughter in the month of October and he went round the fields with his son-in-law to see how his crop was growing. At each rice field they came to, the father-in-law said “You have not dammed up the outlets” and the son-in-law said “Yes, I have; the water is standing in the fields all right,” and could not understand what the old man meant. The next day they both set off to visit some friends at a distance; and the son-in-law carried his shoes in his hand exc

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CXXVIII. The Father-in-Law’s Visit.

CXXVIII. The Father-in-Law’s Visit.

Once two poor men named Ramai and Somai came to a village and took some waste land from the headman, and ploughed it and sowed millet; and their plough was only drawn by cows and their ploughshare was very small, what is called a “stumpy share;” and when they had sowed a little the rains came on; and Somai gave up cultivation and took to fishing and for a time he made very good profits by catching and selling fish; and he did not trouble even to reap the millet he had sown; he laughed at Ramai w

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CXXIX. Ramai and Somai.

CXXIX. Ramai and Somai.

There were once two brothers who were constantly quarrelling and one afternoon after a heated quarrel the younger brother asked the villagers to come and judge between them. The villagers agreed to meet the next morning. At cockcrow the next day the elder brother went to the other’s house and woke him up and said “Brother, this is a bad business; you have called in the villagers and they will certainly fine us both for quarrelling; it would be much better for us to save the money and spend it on

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CXXX. The Two Brothers.

CXXX. The Two Brothers.

Once upon a time three men were sitting at the foot of a tamarind tree and a stranger came up to them with a bunch of plantains on his shoulder and he put the plantains on the ground in front of them and bowed and went away. Thereupon the three men began to quarrel as to who was to have the plantains; each said that they were his because it was to him that the man had bowed. So they started calling each other “Fool” and after quarrelling for some time one said “Well, yes, I admit that I am a gre

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CXXXI. The Three Fools.

CXXXI. The Three Fools.

There was once a man who lived happily with his wife, but she was very lazy; when work in the fields was at its height she would pretend to be ill. In June and July, she would begin to moan as if in pain, and when every one else had gone off to work she would eat any rice that they had left over; or if there were none, would cook some for herself; Her father-in-law decided to call in some ojhas to examine her and if they could not cure her, then to send her back to her father: so he called in tw

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CXXXII. The Cure for Laziness.

CXXXII. The Cure for Laziness.

A long time ago a Brahman came from the west and did many wonders to the astonishment of those who saw him. He came to a certain village and at first put up in an old bamboo hut; there he sat motionless for three or four days and so far as anyone could see ate and drank nothing. The villagers said that he must eat during the night, so four men arranged to watch him continuously; two by day and two by night; but though they watched they could not detect him eating or drinking. Then the villagers

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CXXXIII. The Brahman’s Powers.

CXXXIII. The Brahman’s Powers.

It is a custom among us Santals that husband and wife do not mention each other’s names; and even if a husband sometimes mentions his wife’s name in a case of urgent necessity, the wife will never speak her husband’s; in the same way a man may not mention the name of his younger brother’s wife or of his wife’s elder sister; women again may not use the name of their younger sister’s husband or their husband’s elder brother. Our forefathers have said that if any one breaks this rule his children w

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CXXXIV. Ram’s Wife.

CXXXIV. Ram’s Wife.

There was once a man named Dhuju, and he had sons named Ret Mongla, Saru Sama and Chapat champa; and their wives were named Chibo, Porbet and Palo. One rainy season the family was busy with the ploughing: Ret Mongla used to take the plough cattle out to get some grazing before the sun rose; and his two brothers took the ploughs to the fields a little later and the old father used to look on and tell them what to do. It was their practice when they wanted to attract each other’s attention to call

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CXXXV. Palo.

CXXXV. Palo.

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 re

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CXXXVI. The Women’s Sacrifice.

CXXXVI. The Women’s Sacrifice.

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 th

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CXXXVII. The Thief’s Son.

CXXXVII. The Thief’s Son.

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

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CXXXVIII. The Divorce.

CXXXVIII. The Divorce.

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 da

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

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

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

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CXL. The Reproof.

CXL. The Reproof.

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 re

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CXLI. Enigmas.

CXLI. Enigmas.

There was once a man with a large tumour on his forehead and his wife was so ashamed of it that she would never go about with him anywhere for fear of being laughed at. One day she went with a party of friends to see the Charak Puja . Her husband wished to go with her but she flatly declined to allow him. So when she had gone he went to a friend’s house and borrowed a complete set of new clothes and a large pagri. When he had rigged himself out in these he could hardly be recognised; but his for

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CXLII. The Too Particular Wife.

CXLII. The Too Particular Wife.

Formerly before the Santals came into the country the four taluqs of Sankara, Chiptiam, Sulunga and Dhaka formed the Paharia Raj and the whole country was dense jungle. Then the Santals came and cleared the jungle, and brought the land under cultivation. The Paharia Raja of Gando was named Somar Singh and he paid tribute to the Burdwan Raja. Once ten or twelve Paharias went to Burdwan to pay the annual tribute. After they had paid in the money the Raja gave them a feast and a room to sleep in an

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CXLIII. The Paharia Socialists.

CXLIII. The Paharia Socialists.

In the days when the Santals lived in the jungle country there was once a man who had a patch of maize by the bank of a stream; and to watch his crop he had put up a platform in his field. Now one day he stole a goat and killed it; he did not take it home nor tell his family; he took it to the maize patch with some firewood and fire and a knife and a hatchet; and he hoisted all these on to his platform and lit a fire in the bottom of an earthen pot and cut up the goat and began to cook and eat t

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CXLIV. How a Tiger Was Killed.

CXLIV. How a Tiger Was Killed.

There was once a man of the Goala caste who had an only daughter and she grew up and was married, but had no child; and after twenty years of married life she gave up all hope of having any. This misfortune preyed on her mind and she fell into a melancholy. Her parents asked her why she was always weeping and all the answer she would give was “My sorrow is that I have never worn clothes of ‘Dusty cloth’ and that is a sorrow which you cannot cure.” But her father and mother determined to do what

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CXLV. The Goala’s Daughter.

CXLV. The Goala’s Daughter.

There was once a Brahman who had two wives; like many Brahmans he lived by begging and was very clever at wheedling money out of people. One day the fancy took him to go to the market place dressed only in a small loin cloth such as the poorest labourers wear and see how people treated him. So he set out but on the road and in the market place and in the village no one salaamed to him or made way to him and when he begged no one gave him alms. He soon got tired of this and hastened home and putt

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CXLVI. The Brahman’s Clothes.

CXLVI. The Brahman’s Clothes.

Formerly this country was all jungle; and when the jungle was first cleared the crops were very luxuriant; and the Santals had large herds of cattle, for there was much grazing; so they had milk and curds in quantities and ghee was as common as water; but now milk and curds are not to be had. In those days the Santals spent their time in amusements and did not trouble about amassing wealth, but they were timid and were much oppressed by their Rajas who looted any man who showed signs of wealth.

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CXLVII. The Winning of a Bride.

CXLVII. The Winning of a Bride.

1 Jaituk is a bullock given to a girl by her parents at the time of her marriage. The following stories illustrate the belief in Bongas, i.e. the spirits which the Santals believe to exist everywhere, and to take an active part in human affairs. Bongas frequently assume the form of young men and women and form connections with human beings of the opposite sex. At the bidding of witches they cause disease , or they hound on the tiger to catch men. But they are by no means always malevolent and ar

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CXLVIII. Marriage with Bongas.

CXLVIII. Marriage with Bongas.

His bonga father-in-law was so angry with him for having caused the death of the tiger, that he made his daughter take her husband back to the upper world again. In spite of all he had seen the young man did not give up his bonga wife and every two or three months she used to spirit him away under the water: and now that man is a jān guru . Sarjomghutu is a village about four miles from Barhait Bazar on the banks of the Badi river. On the river bank grows a large banyan tree. This village has no

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CXLIX. The Bonga Headman.

CXLIX. The Bonga Headman.

Once a young man named Lakhan was on a hunting party and he pursued a deer by himself and it led him a long chase until he was far from his companions; and when he was close behind it they came to a pool all overgrown with weeds and the deer jumped into the pool and Lakhan after it; and under the weeds he found himself on a dry high road and he followed the deer along this until it entered a house and he also entered. The people of the house asked him to sit down but the stool which was offered

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CL. Lakhan and the Bongas.

CL. Lakhan and the Bongas.

Once upon a time there was a house bonga who lived in the house of the headman of a certain village; and it was a shocking thief; it used to steal every kind of grain and food, cooked and uncooked; out of the houses of the villagers. The villagers knew what was going on but could never catch it. One evening however the bonga was coming along with a pot of boiled rice which it had stolen, when one of the villagers suddenly came upon it face to face; the bonga slunk into the hedge but the villager

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CLI. The House Bonga.

CLI. The House Bonga.

There was once a Sarsagun girl who was going to be married; and a large party of her girl friends went to the jungle to pick leaves for the wedding. The Sarsagun girl persisted in going with them as usual though they begged her not to do so. As they picked the leaves they sang songs and choruses; so they worked and sang till they came to a tree covered with beautiful flowers; they all longed to adorn their hair with the flowers but the difficulty was that they had no comb or looking glass; at la

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CLII. The Sarsagun Maiden.

CLII. The Sarsagun Maiden.

“He has shut me in with a stone, father He has closed the door upon me, father Do you and my mother go home again.” Then her eldest brother came and sang the same song and received the same answer; her mothers’s brother and father’s sister then came and sang, also in vain; so they all went home. Just then the intended bridegroom with his party arrived at the village and were welcomed with refreshments and invited to camp under a tree; but while the bridegroom’s party were taking their ease, the

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CLIII. The Schoolboy and the Bonga.

CLIII. The Schoolboy and the Bonga.

Then the boy’s eldest brother and his wife went and sang “Give, sister-in-law, give, Give our brother his pen: give up his pen.” The bonga maiden sing in answer “Let the owner of the pen Come himself and fetch it” Then the boy’s maternal uncle and his wife went and sang the same song and received the same answer. So they told the boy that he must go himself. When he reached the tank the bonga girl came up and held out his books to him; but when he went to take them she drew back and so she entic

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CLIV. The Bonga’s Cave.

CLIV. The Bonga’s Cave.

Then her father sang the same song and got the same answer; so they all went home. Then the girl’s father’s younger brother and his wife came and sang the song and received the same answer and then her mother’s brother and father’s sister came and then all her relations, but all in vain. Last of all came her brother riding on a horse and when he heard his sister’s answer he turned his horse round and made it prance and kick until it kicked open the stone door of the cave; but this was of no avai

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CLV. The Bonga’s Victim.

CLV. The Bonga’s Victim.

Having got possession of it he used to play on it constantly and always keep it by him. Every night the flute became a woman and the Santal found her in his house without knowing where she came from and used to spend the night talking to her but towards morning she used to go outside the house on some pretext and disappear. But one night as she was about to depart the Santal seized her and forced her to stay with him. Then she retained her human form but the flute was never seen afterwards; so t

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CLVI. Baijal and the Bonga.

CLVI. Baijal and the Bonga.

Once a bonga 1 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 an

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CLVII. Ramai and the Bonga.

CLVII. Ramai and the 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 th

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CLVIII. The Boundary Bonga.

CLVIII. The Boundary Bonga.

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 his wife counted the money and buried it under the floor of their house.

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CLIX. The Bonga Exorcised.

CLIX. The Bonga Exorcised.

1 Kisar bonga = brownie. The legends and customary beliefs contained in this part are definitely connected with the Santals. In the days of old, Thakur Baba had made everything very convenient for mankind and it was by our own fault that we made Thakur Baba angry so that he swore that we must spend labour in making things ready for use. This is the story that I have heard. When the Santals lived in Champa and the Kiskus were their kings, the Santals were very simple and religious and only worshi

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CLX. The Beginning of Things.

CLX. The Beginning of Things.

“Five days and five nights the fire will rain, ho! Five days and five nights, all night long, ho! Where will you two human beings stay? Where will you two take shelter? There is a hide, a hide: There is also a hill: There is also a cave in the rock! There will we two stay: There will we two take shelter.” When they came out of the cave the first thing they saw was a cow lying burnt to death with a karke tree fallen on the top of it and near it was lying a buffalo cow burnt to death; at the sight

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CLXI. Chando and His Wife.

CLXI. Chando and His Wife.

Santals say that the Sikhar Raja was a bonga and this is the story they tell about him. A certain woman was with child but could not say by whom she was pregnant so she fled into the jungle and at the foot of a clump of bamboos gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl; and then went home leaving the children lying in the jungle. The children lay there crying very pitifully. Now a herd of wild bison was grazing in the jungle and they heard the crying and one of the cows went to see what was the matt

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CLXII. The Sikhar Raja.

CLXII. The Sikhar Raja.

And they found in the book that the fort should be in Pachet hill; then they sang in triumph:— “It will not do, O Raja, to build a fort here: We will leave Paras and build a fort on Pachet hill: There in the happy Brinda forest.” Then they brought the Raja and Rani from the jungle to Pachet and on the top of the Pachet hill a stone fort sprang up for them; and all the country of Sikhar acknowledged their sway. After that the Santals made their way from Champa and dwelt in Sikhar and cleared all

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CLXIII. The Origin of Tobacco.

CLXIII. The Origin of Tobacco.

All the cats of Hindus have believed and believe, and the Santals also have said and say, that Thakur made the land and sky and sea and man and animals and insects and fish and the creation was complete and final: he made their kinds and castes once for all and did not alter them afterwards; and he fixed the time of growth and of dwelling in the body; and for the flowers to seed and he made at that time as many souls as was necessary and the same souls go on being incarnated sometimes in a human

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CLXIV. The Transmigration of Souls.

CLXIV. The Transmigration of Souls.

This is what the Santals say about the next world. After death men have a very hard time of it in the next world. Chando bonga makes them work terribly hard; the woman have to pound the fruit of the castor oil plant with a pestle; and from the seeds Chando bonga makes human beings. All day long they have to work; those women who have babies get a little respite on the excuse of suckling their babies; but those who have no children get no rest at all; and the men are allowed to break off to chew

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CLXV. The Next World.

CLXV. The Next World.

When grown-up people die they become ancestral bongas and sacrifices are offered to them at the Flower and Sohrai festivals; and when children die they become bhuts . When a pregnant woman dies, they drive long thorns into the soles of the feet before the body is burned for such women become churins . The reason of this is that when the churin pursues any one the thorns may hurt her and prevent her from running fast: and so the man who is pursued may escape; for if the churin catches him she wil

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CLXVI. After Death.

CLXVI. After Death.

In former days hares used to eat men and a man presented himself before Thakur and said “O Father, these hares do us much damage; they are little animals and hide under leaves and then spring out and eat us; big animals we can see coming and can save ourselves. Have pity on us and deliver us from these little animals,” So Thakur summoned the chief of the hares and fixed a day for hearing the case; and when the man and the hare appeared he asked the hare whether they ate men and the hare denied i

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CLXVII. Hares and Men.

CLXVII. Hares and Men.

Once upon a time a woman was found to be with child by her own brother, so the two had to fly the country. In their flight they came to the Mustard Tank and Flower Lake, on the banks of which they prepared to cook their food. They boiled water and cooked rice in it; and then they boiled water to cook pulse to eat with the rice. But when the water was ready they found that they had forgotten to bring any pulse. While they were wondering what they could get to eat with their rice they saw a man of

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CLXVIII. A Legend.

CLXVIII. A Legend.

So her brother made a drinking vessel of a palm leaf and they drank the date juice and went on their way. At nightfall they rested at the foot of a Bael tree and fell into a drunken sleep from the date juice they had drunk. As the woman lay senseless her child was born to her and no sooner was the child born than a bael fruit fell on to its head and split it into four pieces which flew apart and became four hills. From falling on the new-born child the bael fruit has ever since had a sticky juic

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CLXIX. Pregnant Women.

CLXIX. Pregnant Women.

If a child is born on the day before the new moon the following ceremony is observed. After bathing the child they place an old broom in the mother’s arms instead of the child; then the mother takes the child and throws it out on the dung heap behind the house. The midwife then takes an old broom and an old winnowing fan and sweeps up a little rubbish on to the fan and takes it and throws it on the dung hill; there she sees the child and calls out. “Here is a child on the dung heap” then she pre

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CLXX. The Influence of the Moon.

CLXX. The Influence of the Moon.

If a woman has an illegitimate child and from fear or shame will not name its father the bastard is called a child of Chando. At its birth there is no assembly of the neighbours; its head is not ceremonially shaved and there is no narta ceremony. The midwife does what is necessary; and the child is admitted into no division of the tribe. If it is a boy it is called Chandu or Chandrai or sometimes Birbanta and if a girl Chandro or Chandmuni or perhaps Bonela. Sometimes after the child is born the

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CLXXI. Illegitimate Children.

CLXXI. Illegitimate Children.

Santals are very much afraid of burial grounds; for dead men become bongas and bongas eat men. If a man meet such a bonga in a burial ground it is of little use to fight for the bonga keeps on changing his shape. He may first appear as a man and then change into a leopard or a bear or a pig or a cat: very few escape when attacked by such a being. It is said that the spirits of young children become bhuts and those of grown-up people bongas and those of pregnant women churins ....

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CLXXII. The Dead.

CLXXII. The Dead.

Formerly when the men went to a hunt the mistress of the house would not bathe all the time they were away and when the hunters returned she met them at the front door and washed their feet and welcomed them home. The wife of the dehri used to put a dish of water under her bed at night and if the water turned red like blood they believed that it was a sign that game had been killed....

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CLXXIII. Hunting Custom.

CLXXIII. Hunting Custom.

The belief in witchcraft is very real to the present day among the Santals. All untimely deaths and illness which does not yield to treatment are attributed to the machinations of witches, and women are not unfrequently murdered in revenge for deaths which they are supposed to have caused, or to prevent the continuance of illness for which they are believed to be responsible. The Santal writer in spite of his education is a firm believer in witchcraft, and details his own experiences. He has jus

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CLXXIV. Witchcraft.

CLXXIV. Witchcraft.

Once upon a time Marang Buru decided that he would teach men witchcraft. In those days there was a place at which men used to assemble to meet Marang Buru and hold council with him: but they only heard his voice and never saw his face. One day at the assembly when they had begun to tell Marang Buru of their troubles he fixed a day and told them to come to him on it, dressed all in their cleanest clothes and he would teach them witchcraft. So the men all went home and told their wives to wash the

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CLXXV. Of Dains and Ojhas.

CLXXV. Of Dains and Ojhas.

When girls are initiated into witchcraft they are taken away by force and made to lead tigers about. This makes them fearless. They are then taken to all the most powerful bongas in succession; and are taught to invoke them, as school boys are taught lessons, and to become possessed (rum) . They are also taught mantras and songs and by degrees they cease to be afraid. The novice is made to come out of the house with a lamp in her hand and a broom tied round her waist; she is then conducted to th

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CLXXVI. Initiation into Witchcraft.

CLXXVI. Initiation into Witchcraft.

He lived a long time with his master who found him a wife; but because his first child died he left the place and went to live near Amrahat where he is now. Another case is Tipu of Mohulpahari. They say that an old witch Dukkia taught him to be an ojha . No one has dared to ask him whether he also learnt witchcraft from her but he himself admits that she taught him to be an ojha . Although it is true that there are witches and that they “eat” men you will never see them except when you are alone

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CLXXVII. Witchcraft.

CLXXVII. Witchcraft.

I will now tell you something I have seen with my own eyes. In the village of Dhubia next to mine the only son of the Paranik lay ill for a whole year. One day I went out to look at my rahar crop which was nearly ripe and as I stood under a mowah tree I heard a voice whispering. I stooped down to try and see through the rahar who was there but the crop was so thick that I could see nothing; so I climbed up the mowah tree to look. Glancing towards Dhubia village I saw the third daughter of the Pa

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CLXXVIII. Witch Stories.

CLXXVIII. Witch Stories.

So from my own experience I have no doubt about the existence of witches; I cannot say how they “eat” men, whether by magic or whether they order “bongas” to cause a certain man to die on a certain day. Some people say that when a witch is first initiated she is married to a bonga and if she wants to “eat” a man she orders her bonga husband to kill him and if he refuses she heaps abuse on him until he does. Young girls are taught witchcraft against their wills and if they refuse to “eat” their f

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CLXXIX. Witch Stories.

CLXXIX. Witch Stories.

In the village of Mohulpahari there was a youth named Jerba. He was servant to Bepin Teli of Tempa and often had to come home in the dark after his day’s work. One night he was coming back very late and, before he saw where he was, suddenly came upon a crowd of witches standing under a hollow mowah tree at the foot of the field that the dhobie has taken. Just as he caught sight of them they seized hold of him and flung him down and did something which he could not remember—for he lost his senses

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CLXXX. Witch Stories.

CLXXX. Witch Stories.

There were once a woman and her daughter-in-law who were both witches. One night during the annual Sohrai festival the men of the village were going from house to house singing and getting rice beer to drink; and one young man named Chandrai got so drunk that when they came to the house where the two witch-women lived he rolled himself under the shelf on which rice was stored and fell asleep. Next morning he came to his senses but he did not like to come out and show himself for fear of ridicule

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CLXXXI. The Two Witches.

CLXXXI. The Two Witches.

Rupi and Bindi whose lives had been saved by Chandrai went and established themselves in his house, for they declared that as they owed their lives to him it was plain that he must marry them. There were once two brothers who lived together; the elder was married but the younger had no wife. The elder brother used to cultivate their lands and his wife used to draw water and fetch fuel and the younger brother used to take the cattle out to graze. One year when the elder brother was busy in the fi

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CLXXXII. The Sister-in-Law Who Was a Witch.

CLXXXII. The Sister-in-Law Who Was a Witch.

The next morning he begged his brother to tell him all that had happened and explain how he knew that a tiger would seek his life on the previous day. “Come then” said the other, “to yonder open ground. I cannot tell you in the house;” so they went out together and then the younger told all that had happened and how his sister-in-law had ordered the Bonga to have him killed by a tiger; “I did not tell you before till my story had been put to the proof for fear that you would not believe me and w

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CLXXXIII. Ramjit Bonga.

CLXXXIII. Ramjit Bonga.

Once upon a time a cowherd lost a calf and while looking for it he was benighted in the jungle; for he was afraid to go home lest he should be scolded for losing the calf. He had with him his bow and arrows and flute and a stick but still he was afraid to stay the night in the jungle; so he made up his mind to go to the jahirthān as More Turuiko would protect him there; so he went to the jahir thān and climbed a tree in which a spirit abode; he took his bow and arrows up with him but he was too

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CLXXXIV. The Herd Boy and the Witches.

CLXXXIV. The Herd Boy and the Witches.

There was once a young man who when a boy had learnt witchcraft from some girl friends; he was married but his wife knew nothing about this. They lived happily together and were in the habit of paying frequent visits to the wife’s parents. One day they were on their way together to pay such a visit and in passing through some jungle they saw, grazing with a herd of cattle, a very fine and fat bull calf. The man stopped and stripped himself to his waist cloth and told his wife to hold his clothes

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CLXXXV. The Man-Tiger.

CLXXXV. The Man-Tiger.

Adwa . Rice husked without having been boiled. Arta . Red pigment applied to the feet for ornament. Baha Porob . The flower festival; the spring festival held about February. Bandi . A receptacle for storing grain, made of straw rope. Bharia . A bamboo carried on the shoulder with a load slung at each end. Bhut . A ghost, a harmful spirit, not originally a Santal word. Bonga . The name for all gods, godlings and supernatural beings. Sing bonga is the sun god; the spirits of ancestors are bongas,

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Glossary.

Glossary.

But . Grain, a kind of pulse. Chamar . A low caste, workers in leather. Chando . The sun, the supreme god of the Santals. Champa . A country in which according to their traditions, the Santals once lived. Charak Puja . The festival at which men are swung by hooks from a pole. Chatar . A festival at which dancing takes place round an umbrella. Chowkidar . A watchman. Churin . The spirit of a woman who has died while pregnant, her feet are turned backwards. Not originally Santal. Chumaura . A cere

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Introduction.

Introduction.

Once upon a time a certain woman had been on a visit to a distant village. As she was going home she reached the bank of a flooded river. She tried to wade across but soon found that the water was too deep and the current too strong. She looked about but could see no signs of a boat or any means of crossing. It began to grow dark and the woman was in great distress at the thought that she would not be able to reach her home. While she thus stood in doubt, suddenly out of the river came a great s

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(1)—The River Snake.

(1)—The River Snake.

Once upon a time a cow and a tigress lived in a jungle and were great friends, they were never separated. Now in those days tigers did not eat flesh, but grazed like cattle, so the tigress never thought of doing any harm to her friend the cow. The tigress had given birth to two men children who were growing up fine and sturdy lads. One afternoon the cow and the tigress went down to a stream to drink, the cow went into the stream and drank and the tigress drank lower down. The cow fouled the wate

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(2)—The Sons of the Tigress.

(2)—The Sons of the Tigress.

Once upon a time there lived a Rājā who had one son and many daughters. One day the Rājā went into the jungle to cut grass. He cut a great deal of grass and tied it up in a big bundle and then he found that he had cut so much that it was more than he could carry. As he was wondering what he should do a tiger came by that way and seeing the Rājā in difficulties asked what he could do to help him. The Rājā explained that he had cut a bundle of grass which was too heavy to carry. The tiger said tha

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(3)—The Tiger’s Marriage.

(3)—The Tiger’s Marriage.

Once upon a time a jackal killed a kid in a village and taking it to a little distance began to enjoy a good meal. But the crows who always make a noise about other people’s business, gathered in a tree over his head and made a great cawing, so the villagers went to see what was the matter and beat the jackal severely and deprived him of his feast. On this account the jackal was very angry with the crows and determined to be revenged. Shortly afterwards a great storm came on with wind and heavy

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(4)—The Jackal and His Neighbours.

(4)—The Jackal and His Neighbours.

Once upon a time a pair of tigers lived in a jungle with their two cubs, and every day the two tigers used to go out hunting deer and other animals that they might bring home food for the cubs. Near the jungle lived a jackal, and he found it very hard to get enough to live upon; however, one day he came upon the tiger’s den when the father and mother tiger were out hunting, and there he saw the two tiger cubs with a large piece of venison which their parents had brought them. Then the jackal put

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(5)—The Jackal and the Tigers.

(5)—The Jackal and the Tigers.

There was once a man so poor that he had no land, no plough and no plough cattle: all that he had was a pair of fine goats. This man determined to plough with the goats, so he made a little plough and yoked the goats to it, and with it he ploughed a piece of barren upland. Having ploughed he had no seed paddy to sow; he went to try and borrow some paddy from the neighbours, but they would lend him nothing. Then he went and begged some paddy chaff, and a neighbour readily gave him some. The man t

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(6)—The Wild Buffaloes.

(6)—The Wild Buffaloes.

Once upon a time there were two brothers who were very poor and lived only by begging and gleaning. One day at harvest time they went out to glean. On their way they came to a stream with muddy banks and in the mud a cow had stuck fast and was unable to get out. The young brother proposed that they should help it out, but the elder brother objected saying that they might be accused of theft: the younger brother persisted and so they pulled the cow out of the mud. The cow followed them home and s

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(7)—The Grateful Cow.

(7)—The Grateful Cow.

Once upon a time there were seven brothers the youngest of whom bore the name of Lita. The six elder brothers were all married but Lita refused to marry and when questioned he said that he would not marry any one but the Belbati Princess. His sisters-in-law laughed very much at the idea that he would marry a princess and worried him so much that at length he decided to set out in search of the Belbati princess. So one day he started off and after some time came to a jungle in which was sitting a

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(8)—The Belbati Princess.

(8)—The Belbati Princess.

There once was a boy who lived with his mother and was engaged all day in tending cattle. Every morning when he started his mother gave him two pieces of bread called “hunger bread” and “stuffing bread,”—one to satisfy hunger with and the other to over-eat oneself on. One day the boy could not eat all his bread and he left the piece that remained over on a rock. When he went back the next day he was surprised to see that from the piece of bread a tree had grown which bore loaves of bread instead

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(9)—The Bread Tree.

(9)—The Bread Tree.

Once upon a time there were six brothers who lived with their sister. The brothers used to spend their days in the jungle hunting while the sister minded the house and cooked the dinner against their return. One day while the brothers were hunting the girl went to cut herbs to cook with the dinner: as she was doing so she chanced to cut her finger and some drops of blood fell on the herbs, which were put in the pot. When the brothers came home to dinner they noticed how very sweet the food was a

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(10)—The Origin of Sabai Grass (Ischaemum Angustifolium).

(10)—The Origin of Sabai Grass (Ischaemum Angustifolium).

Once upon a time there was a man who had a son and daughter: he used to cultivate his land and his son and daughter used to take his dinner to him. One day the man went to plough and while ploughing he stuck the spear which he had brought with him into the ground. As the man ploughed a tiger came and waited an opportunity to spring upon the man: but from whichever side the tiger approached, the spear which was stuck in the ground bent its point towards the tiger and so protected its master. Just

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(11)—The Faithless Sister.

(11)—The Faithless Sister.

Once upon a time there lived six brothers who had one sister. The brothers were all married and their wives hated their sister-in-law. It happened that the brothers all went away to trade in a far country and her sisters-in-law took the opportunity to illtreat the girl. They said “If you do not obey us and do what we tell you we will kill you.” The girl said that she would obey their behests to the best of her ability. They said “Then go to the well and bring this earthen pot back full of water.

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(12)—The Cruel Sisters-in-Law.

(12)—The Cruel Sisters-in-Law.

Once upon a time a Rājā who had just married was returning with his bride to his kingdom. It was hot weather and a long journey and as they passed through a jungle the Rājā and all his men went down to a stream to drink leaving the bride sitting in her pālki . As the bride thus sat all alone she was frightened at seeing a she-bear come up. The bear asked the bride who she was and where she was going. When she heard, she thought that she would like to share so agreeable a fate, so by threats she

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(13)—The False Rānī.

(13)—The False Rānī.

Once upon a time a jackal and a kite agreed to join forces and get their food together. In pursuance of their plan they sent word to a prosperous village that a Rājā with his army was marching that way and intended the next day to loot the village. The next morning the jackal took an empty kalsī and marched towards the village drumming on the kalsī with all his might, and the kite flew along overhead screaming as loud as he could. The villagers thought that the Rājā’s army was approaching and fl

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(14)—The Jackal and the Kite.

(14)—The Jackal and the Kite.

There was a Rājā who used to bathe daily at a certain tank. In the tank was a great fish: as the Rājā washed his mouth this fish used daily to swallow the rinsings of his mouth. In consequence of this the fish after a time gave birth to two human children. As the two boys grew up they used to go into the village near the tank and play with the other children. One day however, a man beat them and drove them away from the other children jeering at them because they had no father. Much disturbed at

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(15)—The Sons of the Raban Rājā.

(15)—The Sons of the Raban Rājā.

Once upon a time there was a Kumhār whose wife was about to have a child. As they were very poor the pair resolved that if the child should prove to be a boy they would abandon it, but if it were a girl they would bring it up. When the child was born it was found to be a son, so the Kumhār took it into the jungle and left it there. There it was found by a tiger and tigress whose cubs had just died and who determined to bring up the man-child as their own. They accordingly fed it and looked after

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(16)—The Potter’s Son.

(16)—The Potter’s Son.

Once upon a time there was a Rājā who had seven daughters. The seven princesses used to bathe daily in a tank and when they bathed they used to put the scrapings from their bodies in a hole in the ground. From this hole there grew a tree, and the eldest princess announced that she would marry the man who could tell her what had caused the tree to grow; many suitors came and made guesses but none divined the truth; heir father was anxious that she should be married, and insisted on every one in t

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(17)—The Wonderful Cowherd.

(17)—The Wonderful Cowherd.

There was once a king who, though he had two wives, had no son. He was very anxious to have a son and heir and went away into the midst of the hills and jungles and there began a course of worship and sacrifices. His prayers were heard and while he was away it was found that both his wives were pregnant. In due time the senior Rānī gave birth to a son and sent a Brāhman to the king with the welcome news. The Brāhman was a very holy man and he had to pray and bathe so often that he made very slow

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(18)—The Strong Prince.

(18)—The Strong Prince.

Once upon a time there lived a Rājā whose son formed a great friendship with a barber. For some reason the Rājā quarrelled with his son and ordered him to leave the kingdom. Accordingly the prince departed to a far country in company with his friend, the barber. In order to earn a living the barber opened a school and the prince took service with a mahājan. They were in such straits that the prince had to submit to very hard terms, it was arranged that his wages were to be one leaf-plate full of

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(19)—The Prince Who Became King of the Jackals.

(19)—The Prince Who Became King of the Jackals.

Once upon a time there was a Rājā who had seven wives but no children. In hope of issue he retired to the jungle and began a course of prayers and sacrifices. While he was so engaged a Brāhman came to him and told him to take a stick and with it knock down seven mangoes from a neighbouring tree, and catch them before they reached the ground: he promised that if the Rānīs ate these mangoes they would bear children. The Rājā did as he was directed and took the mangoes home and gave one to each of

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(20)—The Mongoose Boy.

(20)—The Mongoose Boy.

Once upon a time there was a Rājā who had seven sons. One day a tigress came to the palace and asked the Rājā to allow one of his sons to be her servant and look after her cattle. The Rājā consented 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 th

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(21)—The Prince and the Tigress.

(21)—The Prince and the Tigress.

Once upon a time there lived at the gate of a Rājā’s palace a Potter who had a pretty wife. The Rājā 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 Rājā accordingly sent for the Potter and ordered him to bring him the heads of twenty-four jackals. The Potter went away to the

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(22)—The Cunning Potter.

(22)—The Cunning Potter.

1 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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Corrections

Corrections

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