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FEBRUARY, 1903.)
FOLKLORE IN THE CENTRAL PROVINCES.
Brahma complied with her request, and thus Gandse became possogged of his slephant's head, as we see to the present day.
No. 21.- The Bird and the King. A tiny little bird uttering melodious sounds sat on the terrace of a king's palace. The king was very pleased and called out to an attendant and said, “ Put the bird into a golden cage and give it the sweetest seeds to eat."
Scarcely was the bird imprisoned in the cage, than another bird of the same kind, uttering the wildest cries, came and sat on the terrace. Displeased with these discordant sounds, the king called out to an attendant to kill it.
The order was about to be executed, when the first bird, in great bumbleness of spirit, said: “0, what are you doing? O just king, listen to the words of the unprotected, revoke your order."
अहं मुनीनां वचनं श्रुणोमि श्रुणोति राजान् मनाथ वाक्यम् न तस्व दोषी न च म गुणी वा
संसर्गजा दोषगुणा भवन्ति. . "I have lived in the abodes of saints, and listened to their sweet talk, while this my brother was brought up by a butcher, and learnt his unearthly notes from the cries of animals when being slaughtered. It is neither his fault, nor do I possess merit. Good or bad (in persons) is the outcome of association." Satisfied with the explanation, the king revoked his order for the death of the other bird.
No. 22. - The Prabhús and the Horse. The Prabhas are irritated beyond measure if called Godai-kavu (i.e., horse-eaters). The following story is told to account for the epithet :
Once upon a time a great famine fell on the land, and some Prabhas, in their hunger, concerted together and killed a horse for its flesh. Greatly afraid of being excommunicated, they hastily buried the bones, and, making the horse's tail to stick out of the ground, raised an alarm of "goda gaila, goda gaila, pátáláth, the horse has gone, the horse has gone, to the nether regions."
Note.
The Prabhts are a prosperous and wealthy caste. Their women are renowned for their beauty, which Nârâyana Varma notices. They are Hindus, and they do not eat horse-flesh. The only people in India who eat horse-flesh are the Dhors of Haidarabad (Deccan) and some Musulmans. There is a regular market in Haidarâbâd for horse-flesh, and the street where that is sold is known by the name of the Nakhts or Horse-flesh Street.
No. 23. - How the English Got a Hold in India. First of all the English landed in Madras, and applied to the Nawab of that place for land equal to a sheepskin. The Nawab, thinking that the land applied for was not much, gave his permission. Whereupon the cunning Englishmen cut a sheepskin into very thin strips, and, joining them on to one another, encircled the whole place with this leather-string and the Nawab felt bound by his word. Thus did the English come to possess the first land in India. which they angmented from time to time by slow conquests.
(To be continued.)
Narrated by the writer's mother, the lato M. Tulsemma.
