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MARCH, 1694.1
FOLKTALES OF HINDUSTAN; No. 10.
81
“Go to the Raja and say that, in order that you may be able to go to the land of the dead you must have a house filled with fuel. In this you must be burnt and your spirit can go to Yamaraj."14.
This was done, and meanwhile Balwanti Râni had made an underground passage from this place to her own house, and when the fuel was lit the Bhuiyai escaped to his home, where he lived six months, starving himself, and living in the dark, and letting his hair and beard grow. When six months passed, he came out and said to the Raja, “Yâmaraj is a bad place. Look at my condition after being there six months, and only think what your parents must be, who have been there twelve years !"
So the Raja determined to go and visit his parents bimself, and he had a house filled with fuel and lighted. But he was burnt to death, and the Bhuiya took possession of all the Raja had, and ruled his kingdom for many years with justice and wisdom.
Notes. The BhuiyAs are a Dravidian tribe residing along the Vindhya-Kaimur ranges and in Chatia Nagpûr. There is a good account of them in Dalton's Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal, p. 139 ff. This story was told by one of the most primitive members of the tribe, who, when I met him, was engaged in making catecho in the heart of the jungle. The story is curious, but obvionsly bears traces of Hinda influence. Thus, the part or fairy comes from Paramèsvara, here equivalent to Indra, at whose heavenly court (Indrásan) the fairies assemble. The robbery of a portion of her robe is one of “ Robbery from fairy land" cycle, and the cloth is thas equivalent to the Oldenburg Cup or the Luck of Edenhall (Hartland, Science of Fairy Tales, 149, sqq.)
The prejudice against taking fairy food, or food bronght from the other world, is common in folklore. We have it in the pommegranate of Proserpine, and in numerous other instances. (Hartland, loc cit, 43, sqq).
The Bhuiya's search for the fairy robe is on the same lines as the Argonautic Expedition, which the comparative mythologists take to mean the search for the lost sunlight, that bas been absorbed by the darkness. (Cox, Introduction to Mythology and Folklore, 260, sq9).
The palace of Balwanti Rânt is guarded like the garden of the Hesperides : or as the water of life is watched by lions in the Arabian Nights Story of Prince Aḥmad and the Fairy Paribânů.
The ääni has her flying couch, which appears constantly in the Katha Sarit Ságara (I. 259, 278, 386, etc.), and is also found in the flying horse of the Arabian Nights (Lady Burton's Edition, II. 496, etc.); and her magic wand is like Aaron's rod, and is found in various forms all through Indian folklore (Temple, Wideawake Stories, 418). The magic rubbish-basket is a new form of the inexhaustible pot (Temple, loc cit, 423: Tawney, Katha Sarit Ságara, II. 2), which in European folklore becomes a purse, hat, &c. (Jacob's Folklore Congress Reports, 1891, p. 93).
The story then diverges into the Cycle of “Hero Tasks" (Tawney, loc cit, 1. 195, 361; II. 632).
No. 10. - The Story of Prince Danda and the Prince88.1 There was once a king, who had an only son, and on the day that the prince was born the king's mare also had a foal. So the king shut up the mare and foal in a room, and supplied them with food and water through a pipe from outside, and once a day a groom used to come in and tend them both.
The king called his son Danda and arranged his betrothal (mangni), but unfortunately he did so while the prince was still a child. When the prince grew up, he became acquainted with the son of the wazir, but they were not great friends. The prince was very fond of amusing himself with the pellet bow (gulbl), and became an excellent shot. In his garden was a well, and
** The kingdom of Yams, king of death.
1 A folktale told by Maht Aba, an old Muhammadan woman of Mirzipur : recorded by E. David, Native Christian
