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JANUARY, 1886.]
FOLKLORE IN WESTERN INDIA.
you."
detail the conversation he had with his wife on to which she replied that he was her husthat bright moonlight night; how it had led band. to his real position in life being known; how "That loathsome leper your husband P" she had discarded him ever afterwards; and sneered the princess, with her nose in the air, how, fearing for his head in case the king came "and you are nursing him P" to hear of it, he had run away from his wife, "Oh! despise not my poor husband," cried and had once more taken to his old profession the transformed thag, pretending to be hurt by of pati weaving.
the words of the princess," where does a woman "Never mind what has happened, but come seek for happiness but in her husband, her lord, with us once more to where we take yon," said her master? He has been suffering ever so the thags, "and we shall make it all right for long from this foul disease and I have been
travelling about with him from country to So saying they took him to the river-side and country, vainly hoping that he would profit by gave him a string of beads, bidding him to change of climate; and at last, finding this continue sitting there telling his beads till place cool and pleasant, I have halted here and he was sent for by his wife. They then left by your kind permission, shall stay here for a him, and, purchasing some ghi and gu!' from week or so. Is a woman to desert her husband the bázár, mixed them together. One of the because he is a leper ? Oh no, not for worlds! Ihags covered his body with this composition, I have always thought it my duty to serve and and the other got a litter and placed his be- nurse my sick husband, however wearisome the smeared companion in it. He then dressed task might be." himself in woman's clothes, and, adorning his When the princess heard all this it brought person with rich jewels, transformed himself thonghts of her own husband into her mind, into a very good-looking young woman. Or. and she began to reflect upon her conduct in dering the litter to be carried towards the city, deserting him merely because he happened to he walked alongside of it, chamrí in hand, ward- be a Rivariya by trade, whilst that rich and ing off the flies that sought to reach the beautiful woman, as she took the thag to be, ghi and gu! with which his companion was nursed and ministered to the wants of her covered. On the way he hired three or four husband although he was a filthy leper. The men as attendants, and thus they all walked on more the princess pondered over this incident until they came in sight of the palace the the more she felt how heartless had been her RÂvariya had deserted. Ordering the litter to conduct towards her husband, till at last she be set down on a spot well overlooked by one despatched her horsemen to find him out and of the windows of the palace, he set some of
to exhort him to return to her immediately. the hirelings to cook their food and do such In the meantime she intimated to the thags other work for them.
that she had no objection to their staying where By-and-by, the princess, on coming to know they were as long as they pleased. The horsethat a woman, with an invalid in a litter, had men found the Råvariyå sitting by the river. put up near ber palace, went up to the window side telling his beads, just as the thags had left to have a look at them. Seeing a beautiful him, and succeeded in persuading him to return woman well dressed, and decked with ornaments, to his wife. attending to the wants of the occupant of the A day or two later the fhag who played the litter, she naturally inquired of the mock wo- part of a woman requested the princess to lond man who she was, and what ailed the person him some ten thousand rupees, promising to she was nursing. The disguised thag re- return them when remittances arrived from plied, as though he were & woman, that his country. In her great joy at the restorsshe was a traveller who had broken her tion of her husband to her, and knowing that journey there, and the person she nursed was she was in some measure indebted to the suffering from leprosy. The lady further leper's wife for the happy event, the princess inquired what relation the leper was to her, I hesitated not to give the loan asked for. That
. Ghi is boiled butter : gul is a coarso unrefined engar.
