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DECEMBER, 1886.]
FOLKLORE IN SOUTHERN INDIA.
369
Then he would rise up and taste something of to be presented to his queen, and disthe roots or fruits he happened to see near appeared. him. In the evening again he would bathe The fruit of his long penance Harijt thus held and sit meditating till midnight. Then thrice in his hand. He cared nothing for the prospect sipping water only he would retire to rest (if of having only daughters. Daughters or sons, rest it deserves to be called) for ten ghatikás. he wanted to have children, and so his desire Such was his daily routine, and in this most had been crowned with success. A thousand severe penance he wasted away by degrees for times happy he felt himself in the prospect before nearly two years. All his ribs began to pro- him, as he returned to his country. Great was ject from his sides, his skin dried up, and one the joy of his subjects and ministers, to see could count his nerves and veins. For all among them again their beloved sovereign. that, he never wavered in his penance.
The king called for his priests, and, fixing an On the first day of the third year after auspicious hour for the presentation of the Hariji commenced his penance, the great god fruit, gave it to his queen. She became pregMahêśvara came to recognize the monarch in nant, and in due course gave birth to four his devotee. Mounting his bull, with Parvati, daughters as beantiful as Rati." And thus his goddess, on his left, he appeared before the Hariji obtained four daughters by the grace royal hermit who literally danced with joy at of God in his old age. Their names we the sight of his long-looked for god!
Gangabai, Yamunkbai, Kamalậbai, and Nilai. "Thy prayers and praises, my good son, He left no stone unturned to give them a have been rising before our throne in Kailasa,
liberal education. Professors for every branch for the past two years, like a pillar of virtue, of learning were appointed, and the girls, and have brought me down to thee to grant before they were in their tenth year, had been thy boon. Ask and thou shalt have." Thus taught the four Védas, the six Sastras, the Bpake Mahóśvara with a smile on his face and the sixty-four kinds of learning, and all the his right arm raised to bless.
rest of it. They became great Panditds, and “My great God," replied the king, "lan- were like four great jewels among the woman. guage has no words to express the great joy kind of those days. and pleasure I have had to-day in that thon One day the old king was seated in the first in thy holiness hast condescended to visit thy storey of his palace to be rubbed over with oil." poor dog. This slave of thy most divine The oil-rabber began to apply the oil to his righteousness has had no child conferred upon head so irregularly and in such a stupid him, though his beard has whitened with age. way, that his daughters, who were looking on at To gain this boon, and thus sweeten the few a distance, were highly vexed, and calling to more years he has to drag out in this world, their mother asked her to interfere, and send he has been propitiating thy divine holiness." the man away. Then they themselves applied
"All men must undergo the miseries of a the oil to their father's head, in so delicate a former life in this one," replied the god. way that the old king did not in the least "However, for thy long penance we have been feel that anything was being rubbed over it. pleased with thee, and grant thee this request. He was exceedingly pleased with them, and Choose then :- A son who shall always be with after sending them away finished his bath. thee till death, but who shall be the greatest fool He now bethought him of Mahêsvara's conin the whole world; or four daughters who shall dition when granting his desire for children,live with thee for a short time, then leave thee that his intelligent daughters should leave him and return before thy death, but who shall before they had been long with him. "How be the incarnation of learning. To thee is will they leave me ? If I give them away in Left to choose between the two." Thus spake marriage, then, of course, they will leave me : Mahêsvara; and Harijf the hermit chose the but if I prevent this, and make some other daughters. The god gave him a mango-fruit arrangement for them I shall avert the
· Four hours. • The abode of Siva,
A
The wife of Kama (the god of Love) and goddess of
South Indian custom, corresponding to a bath.
