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146
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[MAY, 1906.
VII. Allah Bakhsh the Domon, and the Saint Abdul Qadir Jilani. When the Saint Abdul Qadir Jilani was staying at Pirân Kalyar, near Rúrki, in the Saharanpur District, Allah Bakhsh, the noted demon, who frequented that neighbourhood, attacked, or, as the phrase runs, "mounted on the head" of the wife of the man at whose house the saint's bread used to be cooked. The man, when he found that his wife was under the influence of the demon, took her to the saint.
The saint said to the demon : "What do you mean by coming to the place where my bread is baked ?"
The demon answered: "I will not come again as long as your honour stays here." The saint again asked: "Why do you not come on my head ?"
The demon replied: "I have nothing to do with the Maqbul Ilahi or the accepted of God."
Again the saint asked: "Why do you not come on the heads of the women of the household of the righteous ?" "They," replied the demon, "are under the protection of the Almighty, and I cannot touch them."
So the demon departed in fear and never returned as long as the saint remained in that neighbourhood.
VIII.
A Woman's wiles.? There was in the city of Kanchanpûr a banker who had a daughter named Jay Sri, and when she grew up she was married to Jay Mohan, the son of the Raja. She lived with her father after her marriage, and had a lover of her own. One day her husband came to see her, and she professed the deepest love for him: but at night when he was asleep she left him and went to visit her lover. On the way a party of thieves saw her and followed her. When she went into the house she saw tbat her lover lay dead from the bite of a snake. She lay down beside him and began to weep and lament him.
Now there was a demon in a tree close by, and when he saw her he was overcome by her beauty and he entered into the corpse of her paramour. When she saw him, as she thought, revived, she was delighted, and they stayed together till near dawn. As she was leaving, the demon seized her and out off her nose.
She came home covered with blood and lay down beside her husband, and when it was daylight she called out to her father and said: "My husband has cut off my nose."
So the prince was seized and condemned to death, and as they were carrying bim to execution, one of the thieves saw bim, and when he heard what had happened began to weep. They took him to the Râjâ, and when the tale was told they went and found the woman's lover dead and covered with blood. The prince was released and his wicked wife was put to death with torture.
The Two Blind Men. Two blind men were sitting together, one of whom was blind from his birth, the other had become blind after he had grown up. The second asked the first if he would eat rice-milk if he got some. The other asked what sort of thing rice milk was. His friend said: "It is wbite." The other asked: "What is white?" "It is like the heron." "What is the heron
Told by Bal Govind, Bråbman of Tarinpar, Sitapur. • Told by Nannhe, tailor, and recorded by Rahmatullah, teacher of the school at Baksiya, Badaun District.
