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MAY, 1906.]
FOLKTALES FROM NORTHERN INDIA.
145
Then he knew that the Sadhû was the deity, and falling at his feet worshipped him. Bhagwan asked him to choose what boon he pleased. But the Râjâ said: "All I desire is that my fatber, mother, and myself may be admitted to thy heaven." So a heavenly chariot appeared and all three were transported to paradise.
v.
The Coolie and the Jinn.5 There was once a poor coolie who was coming home to his dinner. On the path before him he saw two snakes fighting, and the larger snake was just about to kill and devour the smaller one, when the coolio,struck it with his mattock, and the small snake crept into some brushwood and disappeared. When he had eaten his food, the coolie went to pray in the mosque, and as he was leaving, a beautiful youth accosted him and said: "Pray wait a little, as my father is coming to call on you." "Who am I that any person should call on me?" replied the coolie. Just then a magnificent-looking old man came up and salated the coolie. "Who am I," he asked, "the meanest of the mean, that any one should salute me?" Said the old man: "You bave conferred the greatest possible favour upon me. I am the king of the Jinn, and this youth is my son. I have a mortal foe, one of the Jinn. He turned my son into a snake and was about to slay him when you saved his life. Now I intend to reward you, so lie awake to-night and keep the matter secret." The coolie went home and told his wife. All she said was, "Some one is making a fool of you."
But the coolie stayed awake, and just at midnight be heard something fall in the courtyard of his house, and when he went out to see what it was, he found that it was a purse of gold, and several more fell at his feet. He woke his wife and showed her the treasure. She said: "If anyone sees you with so much money they will say you stole it. Better bury all the purses but one." The coolie obeyed her, and with the money in one purse he bought cows and oxen, and when his neighbours asked him about it he said: “I have raised a loan from a Mabâjan." So he prospered, and by and by he dog up the rest of the money and became a very wealthy man, and to the day of his death he never told any one of the lack which had befallen him.
VI.
The Hunter and the Deer. A hunter went out one day into the forest and saw a pair of deer grazing. He planned. how to kill them. So he set fire to the grass on one side, on another he posted his hound, on the third laid a snare, and on the fourth stood himself with his spear in bis hand. When the deer tried to escape, the male fell into the snare, but the hind escaped. When she saw that her mate had been captured she came back, and standing before the hunter she said: "I know that thy food is flesh, and so has it been ordered by Bhagwân. But my mate whom thou hast caoght is lean, while I am fat. Kill me in his stead and let him go alive. Perchance thou hast never heard the saying: -
"NU akaj kari jo manukh sajain jag par kdj,
Jagat ubh kari vash bimal, surpur sajain samdj." " Those who at & sacrifice to themselves do good to others, win true glory in this world, and when dead, can arrange the seats for their company in the city of the gods."
When the hunter heard these words he was filled with compassion, released the deer, and gave up banting for the remainder of his life.
* Told by Mahab noht, Musalman, and recorded by Zafar-ullah of Sikandra, Aligarh District. • Told by Bachau Koera, of Mirzapur.
