________________
228
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[August, 1881.
dahildren
FOLKLORE IN THE PANJAB. COLLECTED BY MRS. F. A. STEEL, WITH NOTES BY LIEUT. R. C. TEMPLE,
B.S.C., F.R.G.S., M.R.A.S., &c.
(Continued from p. 159.) No. 9.-FOLK-TALE.
wanted, laying the proper price on the counter Prince Lionheart and his three friends. as there were no shopkeepers. Then they came Once upon a time there lived a king and back to the palace, and Prince Lionheart said: queen, as happy as they could be, but for one "O you Knifegrinder! 'tis your turn to cook trouble-they had no children.
the food. Do so quickly while we take another One day an old faqir came to the palace, and look at the town." said to the queen: "Eat these barley-oorns I No sooner had they gone than the Knife. give you, and in nine months you shall bear a grinder went to the kitchen and began to cook the beautiful little son."
food. Just as it began to send up a savoury The queen did as the faqir bid her, and sure smell, he saw a little figure beside him clad in enongh, in the space of nine months, she bore armour with sword and lance, riding on a gaily the most beautiful prince that ever was seen. caparisoned mouse. They called him Lionheart, he was so brave and "Give me my dinner!" said the mannikin, strong and sturdy.
angrily shaking his lance. "Your dinner! What Now when he grew up Prince Lionheart an idea!" said the Knifegrinder laughing. became restless, and told the king, his father, "Give it me at once," shrieked the little war. that he wanted to travel. The king tried to rior," or I'll hang you to the nearest pipal dissuade him, but the Prince would hear of no- | tree." thing else; so at last he obtained his father's "Wah! Whippersnapper," angwered the consent and set off on his travels. He took with valiant Knifegrinder, "come nearer, and I'll him three companions, a Knife-grinder, a Black crush you between finger and thumb." smith, and a Carpenter."
Without more ado the mannikin shot up into Now when these four valiant young men had
& terribly tall demon. The Knifegrinder fell travelled a short distance, they came to a fine city on his knees, and cried for mercy, but in a trice lying in a deserted jangal. There were tall he was hang on the topmost branch of the houses, broad bacars, and shops full of goods, pipal troe. but not a human being to be seen anywhere. "I'll teach you to cook in my kitchen," said This astonished them very much, but the Knife- the demon, and he gobbled up all the cakes that grinder said: "Oh! I remember now. I have were ready, and disappeared. heard of this. A demon lives here, and will Now the Knifegrinder wriggled so that the let no one come to dwell in the town. We had pipal branch broke, and he came crashing best be off."
through the branches to the ground with no But Prince Lionheart said "Pooh! not till more hurt than a few bruises; but he was terI've had my dinner, for I am desperately ribly frightened, and determined not to cook hungry."
again. Therefore he crept into the sleeping So they went to the shops and bought all they room, and rolled himself up in a quilt. By
Told by a boy who sells eggs, son of Parbid parents. -
J Sherdil Shahrydr Shahrabad is the full name of this Prince. J Lionheart.
4 ppi Shahryar, lit. friend of the city, a title applied to kings: 6.9. the successor of Ardeshir III in Persin, A.D. 629, was called Shahryar. 391 x Shahrdbad, lit. the populator of cities, in allusion to the incidenta in the first part of the tale.-R.O.T.
fagfr," so in the tale, but it is the peculiar power of jögfs to grant sons (see the other tales). A jogf Eherefore is probably the kind of fagfr intended here. R.C.T.
y u le Sahrodia, Panj. knife-grinder, an itinerant journeyman, who, w in the English country districta,
wanders about with a wheel for grinding. This custom apparently extends to Central Asia, as an Afghan or Persian knife-grinder of this description was lately wandering in Firozpur City. La lohar, blacksmith, and 45 i tarkhan, carpenter.-R.O.T.
9 Bhat-see the other tales-a demon. The power however here ascribed to the bhat properly belongs to a dto.-R. C. T.
. U pipal, ficus religiosd. It is sacred among the Hindus and never cut by them. It is used in divination to find out the trath, the liar not daring to pluck the leaves.-R.C.T.
ASO Panj. middhra, (Hind. V baund) of small size, a dwarf, pigmy.-R. C. T.
1
