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JULY, 1881.]
A LEGEND OF KRISHNAGIRI.
191
asleep. The letter he had stuck into his hat- he said he was to greet her kindly from Peter band, and the hat he pulled over his face. So the Pedlar, and to say that she was to carry out when the robbers came back--for in that what was written in the letter as soon as ever house twelve robbers had their abode-and she could." saw the lad lying on the bed, they began to This was accordingly done, to the no small wonder who he could be, and one of them took dissatisfaction of Peter the Podlar. the letter, and broke it open, and read it.
The termination of the story of Damannaka “Ho! Ho!' said he; this comes from resembles that of Phalabhůti in the XXth Peter the Pedlar, does it ? Now we'll play him Taranga of the Katha Sarit Ságara, and its a trick. It would be a pity if the old niggard European parallels, the tales of Fridolin, made an end of such a pretty lad.'
Fulgentins, &c. " So the robbers wrote another letter to Peter Sagarapota arranges a second time with the the Pedlar's wife, and fastened it under his | Chandâla Khadgila, that he is to kill Damanhat-band while he slept; and in that they wrote, naka, whom he will send to the temple of the that, as soon as ever she got it, she was to make a goddess of the city. But as the bridegroom and wedding for her daughter and the miller's boy, bride are going to the temple of the goddess, and give them horses and cattle and house- Samudradatta the son of Sågarapota meets hold staff, and set them up for themselves in them, and insists on performing the worship in the farm, which he had under the hill; and if their stead. “Having taken the articles for he didn't find all this done, by the time he offering, Samudradatta went off, and as he was came back, she'd smart for it ;-that was all entering the temple of the goddess, he was
"Next day the robbers let the lad go, and despatched by Khadgila who had gone there when he came home and delivered the letter, before."
A MUSALMAN LEGEND OF KRISHNAGIRI IN SALEM.
BY . LEFANU, M.C.S., SUB-COLLECTOR, SALEM. Two tombs on a hill at Krishnagiri, regarded ever, continued the fight, driving the enemy in by Musalmans with much veneration, are waited confusion before them, until they reached the on by a faqir who levies fees from visitors. summit, when the mother of Krishna Raja, seeing The legend is that one Akbar Pasha came from the portent, exclaimed, “What! do headless the north, oncamping west of Krishnagiri, and bodies fight P" at which sound the trunks fell besieged the fort which was defended by and were buried in the solid rock by supernatural Krishna Raja. The siege was prolonged for six agency. Tipu Sultân visited the spot, and months, daring which Akbar suffered heavy loss, granted a tajir which is now held by the faqir. and began to despair of success, for which he The heads are buried below the hill, and when an prayed to Allah, who appeared to him in a dream, epidemic breaks out, a collection of sugar is made and told him that in his camp were two religious from people of all castes and offered over the men who were the only persons capable of leading grave, which has never been covered by a proper a successful attack on the fort. As a sign where- tomb, as all who attempted to do so were warned by the truth of the dream would be demon- in a dream to desist from their attempts. In a strated, Akbar was warned that a heavy storm field just outside Krishnagiri is the tomb of would come, in which every tent would be level Akbar Singh and Avan Singh, two famous Rajled and every light in camp extinguished except puts reputed to have formerly been rulers of those belonging to the persons indicated. This Krishnagiri. accordingly came to pass, and after the storm By a strange coincidence, in the number of two faqirs, Sayyid Pasha and Sayyid Akbar, were the Indian Antiquary for June 1879 is given a found reading the Koran in their tent by the translation, by Major J. W. Watson, Kathiawad, light of a lamp. They undertook to lead the of an old poem on the fall of Somanath, in forlorn hope, and battle was given on a Friday, which is embodied a myth closely following that the leaders, at an early stage of the fight, both above parrated in its main particulars. In it losing their heads. The headless tranks, how. ! the place of Akbar Pasha is taken by Salţân
