________________
232
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[AUGUST, 1882.
the jogi's order he had two kinds of khich píll made ready and placed in one dish. One half was sweet khichri, and the other half was very salt.
Now when dinner was served the sweet Whichri side of the dish was put towards the king, but the salt side towards the Snake Woman. She found it very salt, but seeing the king eat away without any remark went on eating also. But after they had retired to rest, when the king by the jogi's orders was feigning
leep, the Snake Woman became so thirsty, so Treadfully thirsty from all the salt food she had eaten, that she longed for water. As there was none in the room she had to go out for it. Now a Snake Woman always resumes her snake shape when she goes out at night. The king could scarcely lie still as he saw the beautiful woman in his arms change to a deadly slimy shake that slid out of the bed and out of the toor into the garden. He followed it softly. It drank of overy fountain by the way, but nothing quenched its thirst till it reached the Dal Lake, where it bathed and drank for hours.
Fully satisfied of the horrible truth the king begged the jogi to show him some way out of the trouble. Whereon the jogi said:
Don't be alarmed. I can save you and destroy this Snake Woman if you will do as I bid you. The king promised, and according to the jogi's orders had an oven made of a hundred different kinds of metal, very large and very strong, with a cover and a padlock. This was placed in a shady spot in the garden, and fastened to the ground with chains. Then the
king said to the Snake Woman, "My heart's beloved ! Let us amuse ourselves with cooking our own food to-day."
She, nothing loth, consented. Then the king heated the oven very hot and set to work to knead bread, but being clumsy at it he found it hard work, so after he had baked two loaves he said to the Snake Woman-"To oblige me bake the bread while I knead it."
At first she refused, saying she did not like ovens, but when the king said: "Oh, I see you do not love me since you will not help me," she set to work with a bad grace to tend the baking.
The king watched his opportunity as she stooped over the oven's mouth to turn the loaves, gave her a shove in, and clapped down the cover and locked it fast.
When the Snake Woman found herself caught, she bounded so that if it had not been for the chains she would have bounded out of the garden, oven and all, and this went on from four o'clock one day to four o'clock the next, when all was quiet. Then the jogi and the king waited till the oven was cold, and when they opened it the jogi took the ashes, and gave the king a small round stone that was in the middle of them, saying, " This is the real essence of the Snake Woman, whatever you touch with it will turn to gold." But the king said "Such a treasure as that is more than a man's life is worth, for it must bring envy and battle and murder with it." So when he went to Atak he threw it into the river near Hoti Mardan."
MISCELLANEA. LAMIA OR AAMIA.
Kashmir a folktale, which she had entitled the What is the Lamia? is the question I propound "Story of the Lamia and the King." Owing to the here in the hope that some of the readers of this uncertainty as to what the Lamia is, the title was Journal will be able to help me to solve it.
altered to "KingAli Mardán Khan and the Some little time ngo Mrs. Steel sent me from Snake Woman," (see p. 230,) there being no doubt
anilar, 000, No. 1.
ouparece-
R
R
" See note to Folklore in the Panjab, No. 1. Sweet khichi consists of rice, sugar, cocoanut, raisins, almonds, cardamomy and aniseed: salt khicht of dal (pulse) and rice.-R.C.T. " Compare the legend of the Bhirt--note 3 aboveR.C.T. " This must evidently refer to the modern Indian pira (Sansk, parsa-mani) or philosopher's stone that turns what it touches into gold. Here we have an origin for it!-R. C. T.
1 Atak on the Indus, better known to Europeans as Attock. Hoti Mardan, a frontier post, is a little to the north-west of Atak on the Lundi River, a tributary of the Indus, which last is always locally known as the Atak River. I do not know that Hoti Mardau, which as
its name rignifies is merely the head quarters of the Muhammadan tribe of the Hote, had ever any connection with 'Ali Mardin Khin, a name with quite a different derivation. Perhaps the similarity of sound has suggested the connection here. I think it is pretty clear that this is an old tale fastenad on to a celebrated man as a peg whereon to hang it. Malraj of Multân, who lived in this century, is another personage on whom such tales are commonly fastened in the Panjab. This tale and those about Múlráj, Sir H. Lawrence, R&mn Singh the Kuks and the very modern legend of Dani and Sakhi Sarwar, which I have given elsewhere (Panjab Folklore ante and Calcutta Review, October, 1881), show how many centuries behind us the natives of India are in mental darkness.-R. C. T.
