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FEBRUARY, 1895.]
THE GUGA LEGEND.
55
Then he rose up and he said to his horse: - "Thou gray one! This is not the day to turn thy back on the foe."
The Rani Bachhal rashed on the battlements and cried :-"My Zahir is going alone to face the enemy!"
Then many a brave warrior hastened to help him, but he turned them all back save Nara Sinha Pinrê and Patiya Chamár. When he saw them behind him, Zahir Diwan said : -
** Even you I cannot take with me till I test your prowess. I will fix my spear in the ground and he that can take it out may follow me."
Both of them succeeded in taking out the spear and they followed their master. As a lion in a pack of jackals, so they fell upon the foe. Nara Siúba Pånţé and Patiya Clamar killed many of the enemy, but at last they fell. Then Zahir Diwan commenced to cut down the enemy and at last they took to flight, Zahir Diwan transfixed Surjan with an arrow and he died, on which Arjun began to cry like a child. Him, too, Zahir Diwan killed. Then he pursued Prithivi Raja and seized him by the scalp-lock. He turned him saddle round and tied him on his horse with his face towards the tail, and so he dismissed him with contempt. Then he cut off the heads of the twin brethren and tied them in his Landkerchief and took their gem necklaces. Thus he returned in triumph.
When he arrived, the Rani Bachhal his mother appeared with a golden dish, on which was a lamp with four wicks and moving it over his head15 asked the result of the fight.
Zahir Diwan angwered :—"The twin brethren have won and I am worsted." Again the Rinî said :- “Tell me the plain truth." He replied: "No battle was fought and still the quarrel was decided.”
On this he took out the necklaces of gems and shewed them to her. Her heart began to beat. Next he opened the handkerchief and shewed her the severed heads. She threw the golden dish on the ground, and he said:
“Mother, now recognise which is the head of Sarjan and which that of Arjun."
She recognised the heads and said : -"Dost thou shew thy pride by killing thy brethren? Dost thou not feel ashamed and disgraced ?"
When he heard these words, Zahir Diwân turned his back upon his mother and went into the jungle.
Then came the month of Sawan, when newly married brides put on gorgeous apparel and swing beneath the trees. But the Rani Surail, wife of Zahir Diwan, did naught but weep and lament, being separated from her beloved. Then Zahir Diwan said to his horse NilA :
" Let us go and see thy brother's wife, who is weeping for thy brother." He came to the gate at night and called to the guards : -"Open." The guard replied: "Who art thou - a thief or a demon ?" He answered: -"Open the door. I am the house-master.” The guard replied: "I will not open the door at night." “One day," answered Zahir Diwan, I will cat thy flesh from off thy bones." And so he returned to the forest.
At this time the Rani Surail saw in a dream that her husband had arrived, and that her watchman would not open the door. In the morning she told him her dream and the watchman wept:
How could I know that he would come? A man came at night and I dared not open the door. Alas for me!"
On this the Râni wept and next night she sat close to the door, and at the same hour her husband came as before and called to the guard.
16 For the wave rite, see op. cit. p. 199.
