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AUGUST, 1882.]
FOLKLORE FROM KASHMIR.
231
Gardens, and she, nothing loth, lived there "Go home to your master, and tell him King with the king, who became so enamoured of 'Ali Mardân Khân has his box, and will keep it her that he forgot everything else.
till he comes to fetch it himself." Now it so happened that the servant of a So the servant set off to his master, but as holy jogi was coming back from Gangabal' he had not the magical box, it was two years where he went every year to draw water for and a half before he reached home. All this his master. As he passed the wall of the time King 'Ali Mardan Khan lived with the Shalimar Gardens he saw the tops of the foun- Snake Woman and forgot everything else in tains that flashed in the sun like silver, and he the wide world. Yet he was not happy: a said to himself “What wonder is this? I will strange white look came into his face and a go and see." So he put the vessel of water on stony look into his eyes. the ground, and went in to see. There amid the Now, when the servant told his master, the fountains and the trees he wandered astounded jogi, what had happened, he was very angry at their beauty, till wearied out he fell asleep. with him, but as he could not live without the
Now the king was walking in the garden, box which enabled him to get the water from and saw the man asleep, and noticed that he Gangabal he set off to the Court of King 'Ali held something fast in his right hand.. Stoop- Mardân Khân; when he arrived there the king ing down he gently removed it, and found it gave him the box as he had promised. was a small box containing a sweet-smelling Then the jogi said, “Oh king, you have been ointment. While he was looking at it the gracious to me, now in my turn I will do man awoke, and missing his box began to you a kind action. Tell me truly, had you weep and wail. But the king bade him be always that white scared face and those stony comforted, and showing him the box, told him '1 eyes P" it should be returned to him safely if he told "No," said the king, and hung his head. faithfully why he prized it so much. Then the “Tell me," said the jogi,“ have you any man said: "O great king, the box is my master's, strange woman in the palace P" and contains a precious ointment of many Then the king, who felt a strange relief in virtues. So long as I have it in my hand, no telling the Jogi all about it, recounted the harm can happen to me, and it enables me to go whole story from the beginning. Then said to Gangåbal and return with the water to my the jogimaster in so short a time that he is never "Oh king, she is no hand-maiden of the without the sacred element."
Emperor of China. She is nothing but a “Tell me truly," said the king, "is your Wásdeo, a Lamid, 1o the two hundred years' master indeed such a man? Is he indeed such old snake who has the power of taking the a holy saint ?"
form of a woman." Then said the servant “He is indeed such & The king was very angry at first, but when man, and there is nothing in the wide world he the jogi insisted, he began to be afraid, and at does not know."
last promised to do as he was bid, and so find Then the king became curious to see this out the truth of the matter. holy man, so he said to the servant :
Therefore, that very evening according to
• At Srinagar, made by Jahangir, who preceded 'Ali Mardán Khla by & generation, being Shah Jahan's father. Moore has immortalized these gardens, the scene of the loves of Jahangir and Nar Mahal: "And oh ! if there be an Elysium on earth,
It is this, it is this." There are some ShAlim Ar gardens near Lahor on the Amritsar Road made by Ranjit Singh.-R.O.T. • See note Panjab Folklore ante passim.-R. C. T.
A holy lake on the top of Mt. Haramukh (16,905 ft.) in the North of Kashmir. It is one of the sources of the Jhelam River and the scene of an annual fair about 20th August. Ince's Kashmir Handbook.-R.C.T.
Jogte keep ointments and unguents to propitiate certain gods with, c.9. Mahadev, Párbati, Mahabir (Handmin), Bhairava, Kali, &o.-R.C.T.
As a matter of fact 'Ali Mardan Khan, like all the Mughal Emperors and Governors, merely stayed the
summer in Kashmir. Indeed his journies to and fro gave rise to an extravagance that has become historical R.C.T.
10 For Lamid, nee note 3 above, also p. 232. Wdades Vhau deva a descendant of Vasudeva. The connection of this word with snakes is not at first apparent, and it seems to be confined in this sense to Kashmir. Vasudeva was the earthly father of Krishna, and therefore of his elder brother Balarama, who was equally a Vasudeva with Krishna Now Balarama is in classical legend much mixed up with Sesha (now Sesh Nag) the serpent who supports the world and is king of the serpents or nlgas, and with Vásuki, the king of the snakes, who was wound round Monnt Meru at the churning of the ocean, now known as Bisak Ng : and lastly Ananta the infinite, the serpent whose legend combines that of Sesha and V Asuki, is mixed up not only with Balarima but also with Krishna. Hence I fancy the modern W Aadev, a mythical serpont.-R. C. T.
