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148
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[MAY, 1906.
Some time after the pair went out together and broke into a Thakur's cow-house. The elder thief loosed the shâkur's buffalo and drove it outside. Then he seized his nephew, tied him up with the rope of the buffalo, and went his way.
In the morning the Thakur came into his cow-house, found his baffalo gone, and the boy tied up in its place. "Who tied you here?" he asked. “The man who stole the buffalo," replied the boy. "And who stole the buffalo?" "The man who tied me op here." And though they cross-questioned him till they were tired they could get no more out of him than this:
At last the headman of the village said: "As this fellow will not confess, let us take him to the temple of Bhavani and offer his head to the goddess. Perhaps, she will then tell us who stole the buffalo."
So they took him to the temple, and were just about to cut off his head to offer to the goddess, when his uncle, the thief, came up on a horse and asked what they were about. They told him the whole story, and he said : "Let me take the boy aside and examine him. Perchance, I may be able to find out the truth."
So the thief took his nephew a little way aside and said: "Now, what became of the pigeon's liver. If you refuse to tell me I will leave you at the mercy of these clod-hoppers."
Uncle," the lad replied, "Burely you are old enough to know that pigeons don't have livers." "In truth you have the makings of a master-thief in you," the uncle said. "Jump up on the horse behind me and let us get out of this."
And this was the last the villagers saw of the thieves or the buffalo.
XI.
The Rani and her Lover united in death,11 Once upon a time there was a banker in a certain city who used daily to go out bunting. One day, as he was going to the forest, he saw a Raja who had just married, and was taking his Rani to bio palace. The party had halted in a garder to eat, and just as the lady came out of her litter the banker saw her and fell in love with her. By and by the party started and the banker stood looking after the lady. When she had gone some distance he climbed a tree and continued looking after her, and as she went still further he stood on the highest bough to catch a last glimpse of her, and then in his grief be fell down on his horse which was tied up below and both died immediately.
When the banker did not return that evening his father was anxious about him, and sent men to searcb for him. After a time they came to the garden and found him dead, lying on his horse. They came home and told the sad news to his father, who was overwhelmed with. grief. He directed his servants to burn the body of his son and to erect on the spot a temple of Mahadeva and a rest-house for travellers (Dharmgala).
Close to the garden lived a Faqir, who witnessed all these events, and when the temple was built he lived in the Dharmśála and received alms from travellers.
A year or so after, the Râni, for whose sake the banker had lost his life, came to that place, on her way to her father's house, and halted in the garden. She saw the new temple and the Dbarmśâla, and, remembering that they were not built when she was last at the place, asked the Faqir how they came to be erected. He replied: "These buildings have been erected to commemorate the youth whose ashes lie here." She asked the Faqir how he lost his life, and when she heard the tale, she was filled with love for the youth. So she went to the grave and cried, "O Bhagwan! If my love for the youth who lies here be true, may the earth open that I may be with him!”
11 Told by Adhar Sonar of Dadar, Fatehpur District, N.-W. P.
