Indian Antiquary Vol 04

SR No.: 032496
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 410
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 18 MB

Page 273

SEPTEMBER, 1875.] THE TWO BROTHERS: A MANIPURI STORY.
into the house of the woman who nursed them while their mother was alive, to drink some water, and the slaves, armed with daos and bows and arrows, came and found them there, and told them how the king had ordered them to be killed that the queen might bathe in their blood. Turi, who was a little the bigger, wept very auch at hearing this, and lamented his ill fate, but his younger brother Basanta did not understand that he was to be killed, and went on playing. So the king's slaves put Turi and Basanta in front of them and went away. On the road Turi said to them, "Sirs, do not kill my little brother, only kill me; be does not understand anything about it, and you see he is still laughing." He fell at their feet and entreated them much, till at last they felt pity for him, and one of them proposed to let the boys go, and kill a dog and put its blood in a chunga and take it to the king instead. The other slaves agreed to this; and all went togethe: into a lonely forest, where they killed the dog and released Turi and Basanta, telling them they must never return to the kingdom, as the king their father would suppose them to be dead. So they returned to the king with the dog's blood, and told him it was the blood of his sons, and he made the queen bathe in it, and as there was nothing really the matter with her she was very soon well, and the king was much pleased at her recovery.
In the meantime Turi and Basanta travelled a long way, and became very hungry and thirsty, so that they plucked young leaves off the trees to eat. They journeyed on till sunset, when they stopped beneath a tree for the night, and the elder brother told the younger to lie down and he would keep watch. The younger brother spread his cloth on the ground and was soon asleep, while Turi sat at the foot of the tree and collected some wood, and struck a light by rubbing sticks together, and made a fire. Now a pair of parrots had perched in that tree, and about midnight the cock called to the hen: "Listen, wife! What will happen to the man who eats you ?" And she answered: "The man who eats me will first experience great distress, and afterwards great happiness; but what will happen to the man who eats you?" The cock replied: "He will
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be very happy and will be made king." Turi heard all that the two parrots had said, and he took a knife from his cloth and made a bow and arrow, and killed both of them at one shot, and they fell to the ground.
He roasted them while his brother Basanta was still asleep, but, as he did not wish to eat them both himself, he put them aside till his brother should wake.
A little after midnight he became very sleepy, and, as there were many tigers, hears, and wild boars in the jungle, he woke his brother and told him to keep watch, but he was so sleepy himself that he quite forgot to eat the birds he had roasted. Basanta afterwards found them, and, thinking his brother had put them there for him, he put the cock aside and ate the hen, which was fate to bring sorrow upon him, and when he had finished eating, morning came. Turi rose up, and Basanta said he had eaten one bird himself, and put the other aside for him: so Turi ate the one by which happiness was promised. After they had eaten, the two brothers set out for another country, and travelled together for a long way till the sun became very hot, and Basanta feeling thirsty asked his brother for water, but Turi told him they could not find it there on the top of a mountain, and they must go on a little further. So they went on till Basanta grew so hungry and thirsty that he could not move another step, and he sat down on the mountain and asked his brother to search for water for him, and Turi went to look for it.
Now the king of that country was dead, and his principal elephant had gone into the jungles to search for a new king.* Turi, hearing the sound of water, had gone in the same direction, and as he was coming down the side of the mountain he met the elephant, who deter mined to make him king and stood before him in the path. Turi went to one side to pass, but the elephant followed him to the same side and then sat down in front of him, and continued to follow him and sit before him, so that the boy might climb on his back. At last Turi told him that he was going to search for water for his brother Basanta, and asked him to leave the road. The elephant told him to climb on his back and he would take bim; but as soon as Turi mounted, the animal took him
This was a common custom, or at all events is supposed to be so: conf. Ind. Ant. vol. III. p. 11.