Indian Antiquary Vol 11

SR No.: 032503
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 396
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 19 MB

Page 315

OCTOBER, 1882.]
FOLKLORE FROM KASHMIR.
287
Princess Shô hpasand, were married and lived ever so happily for ever so long a time.
At last, however, Prince Bahram-i-Ghor began to think longingly of his home, his father the king, his mother the queen, his favourite horse and his hound. Then he begar. to speak of them every evening to the Princess, and sighed and sighed and sighed, till he grew quite pale.
Now the demon Jasdrûl used to sit every night in a little room below that of the Prince and Princess, and listen to what they said : when he heard the Prince talking of his own country he sighed too, for he was a kind. hearted demon and loved the Prince.
At last he asked the Prince one day why he was do pale and sighed so often. Then the Prince answered, —"Oh good demon! Let me go back to see my father and mother, my horse and my hound, for I am weary. Let me and the Princess go, or I will surely take poison and die."
The demon refused at first, but when the Prince persisted, he said, "Be it so, but you will repent and come back to me. Take this hair. When you are in trouble burn it, and I will come to your assistance."
Then very regretfully the demon said goodbye, and instantly Prince Bahrám-i-Ghor and the Princess Shahpasand found themselves outside his native town. But everything was changed; his father and mother were both deadanda usurper had seized the throne, and put a price on Bahrám-i-Ghor's head should he ever return. Luckily no one recognized him, as he, too, had changed much, except an old huntsman. But even he would have nothing to do with the Prince, saying, “It is more than my life's worth."
At last when the Prince begged and prayed, the huntsman consented to let the Prince and Princess live in his house.
"My mother is bliud, and will never see you," said he, "and you can help me to hunt as I used to help you before."
So the Prince Bahrám-i-Ghor and the Princess
Shâhpasand went to live in the huntsman's house in a garret just under the wooden roof,' and no one knew they were there.
Now one day, when the Prince had gone out to hunt as servant to the huntsman, the Princess Shahpasand washed her beautiful golden hair, which hung round her like a shower of gold-thread, and when she had washed it she combed it, setting the window a-jar to let the breeze come in and dry her hair.
Now just then the Kotwall of the town happened to pass by, and casting his eyes upwards saw the beautiful Princess Shahpasand with her shower of golden hair. He was so overcome at the sight that he fell off his horse into the gutter. His servants picked him up, and took him back to the Kotwali, where he raved of the beautifal fairy in the huntsman's cottage. This set all the courtiers and officials wondering if he were not bewitched. At last it came to the King's ears, and he immediately sent down some soldiers to enquire.
"No one lives here," said the huntsman's old mother crossly, "no beautiful lady, nor ugly lady, nor any one at all but myself and my son. However, go to the garret, and see if you like."
Princess Shahpasand hearing this bolted the door, and seizing a knife cut a hole in the wooden roof, and flew out in the shape of a pigeon. So when the soldiers burst open the door they found no one there. Only as the Princess flew past the blind old crone she called out loudly, "I go to my father's house in the Emerald Mountain."
When the Prince returned, and found his beautiful Princess had fled, he was half distracted, but hearing the old woman's story of the mysterious voice, which said, “I go to my father's house in the Emerald Mountain," he became more tranquil. But, considering after a time that he had no notion where the Emerald Mountain was, he fell into a sad state. He cast himself on the ground, and sobbed and sighed. He refused to eat his dinner or to speak any word, but “O my dearest Princess! Omy dearest Princess."
This arguel double-storied house in the hills, or rather describes the ordinary hill village house consisting of a room and a loft under a sloping roof of shingles or alato nooording to the neighbourhood. A Shikari's hut in the plains would be a flat-roofed mud hut of a single room.-R. C. T.
• Kotwal, the chief police officer of a native city; always a person of high standing and authority. See
former stories. Kor14, tho Kotwal's Office, the city police station, a place held in great awo by all natives. -R. C. T.
Koh-i-Zamurrail: but I do not know that any particular region is meant. There is a colobrated Green Mount in the Winter Palace at Pekin, the legendary fame of which may have renched Kashmir. See Yule's Marco Polo, vol. I, pp. 326-7-30.-R. C. T.