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256
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[SEPTEMBER, 1884.
FOLKLORE IN SOUTHERN INDIA.
BY PANDIT . M. NATESA SABTef. III.-THE SOOTHSAYER's son.
his elder brother, and started for Bandra. Ho जन्मप्रभृति दारिद्यं दशवर्षाणि बन्धनम् ।
went by the middle of the Dakhan, avoiding
both the coasts, and went on journeying and समुद्रतीरे मरणं किञ्चित् भोगं भविष्यति ॥
journeying for weeks and months, till at last Thne a Soothsayer when on his death-bed he reached the Vindhya mountains. While passwrote the horoscope of his second son, and ing that desert he had to journey for a couplo bequeathed it to him as his only property, leav- of days through a sandy plain, with no signs of ing the whole of his estate to his eldest son. life or vegetation. The little store of provision The second son pondered over the horoscope, with which he was provided for a couple of and fell into the following contemplations : days, at last was exhausted. The chombu, which
"Alas, am I born to this only in the world? he carried always full, replenishing it with The sayings of my father never failed. I have the sweet water from the flowing rivulet or seen them prove true to the last word while plenteous tank, he had exhausted in the heat of he was living; and how has he fixed my the desert. There was not a morsel in his hand horoscope ! Janma prabhsiti dáridryam ! From to eat; nor a drop of water to drink. Turn my birth poverty! I am not to be in that his eyes wherever he might be found a vast miserable condition alone. Dasa varshami desert, out of which he saw no means of escape. bandhanam: for ten years, imprisonment
Still he thought within himself, "Surely my fate harder than poverty; and what comes father's prophecy never proved untrue. I must next? Samudratiné maranam : death on the sea survive this calamity to find my death on some shore, which means that I must die away from ses-coast." So thought he, and this thought home, far from friends and relatives on a 108- gave him strength of mind to walk fast and const. The misery has reached its extreme try to find a drop of water somewhere to height here. Now comes the funniest part of slake his dry throat. At last he succeeded, the horoscope. Kichit bhôgan bhavishyati- or rather thought that he succeeded. Heaven that I am to have some happiness afterwards ! threw in his way a ruined well. He thought What this happiness is, is an enigma to me that he could collect some water if he let down To die first, to be happy for some time after !
his chombu with the string that he always What happiness? Is it the happiness of this carried noosed to the neck of it. Accordingly world? So it must be. For however clever he let it down; it went some way and stopped, ond may be, he cannot foretell what may tako and the following words came from the well, place in the other world. Therefore it must "Oh, relieve me! I am the king of tigers dying be the happiness of this world, and how can here of hunger. For the last three days I havo that be possible after my death? It is im- had nothing. Fortune has sent you here. If possible. I think my father has only meant | you assist me now you will find a sure help in this as a consoling conclusion to the series of me throughout your life. Do not think that calamities that he has prophesied. Three I am beast of prey. When you have beportions of his prophecy must prove true; the come my deliverer I can never touch you. fourth and last is a mere comforting statement Pray kindly lift me up." Gangadhara, for to bear patiently the calamities enumerated, that was the name of the Soothsayer's second and never to prove true. Therefore let me go son, found himself in & very perplexing to Bånåras, bathe in the holy Ganga, wash away position. "Shall I take him out or not? my sins, and prepare myself for my end. Let If I take him out he may make me the first me avoid sea-coasts, lest death meet me there morsel of his hungry mouth. No; that he in accordance with my father's words. Come will not do. For my father's prophecy never imprisonment: I am prepared for it for ten came untrue. I must die on & sen-coast and years."
not by a tiger." Thus thinking, he asked the Thus thought he, and after all the funeral tiger-king to hold tight the vessel, which he obsequies of his father were over, took leave of accordingly did, and he lifted him up slowly.
