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JUNE, 1906.]
FOLKTALES FROM NORTHERN INDIA,
179
FOLKTALES FROM NORTHERN INDIA.
Collected by William Crooke. (Continued from p. 150.)
XIV.
The Wiles of Women 15 There was once an evil woman who sent for her lover while her husband was away, and Was sitting with him in the courtyard when her husband suddenly returned. She blew out the lamp at once and threw her sheet over her lover. When her husband came in, he asked her why she was sitting in the dark. She said: "Why should I keep a lamp burning in such an evil quarter of the town? We must remove at once to some other place." He asked her the reason for this sudden resolve and she said: “If we live bere we shall lose our good name as the wife of our neighbour, the potter, did. One night, in the absence of her husband, she admitted her lover and they were sitting together, when her husband returned and she blew out the light and covered her lover with her sheet. Then she did this." - And with the word she threw the sheet over her husband's head while her lover escaped. "This was what she did," said she, "and managed to get her lover away."
The poor husband was such a fool that he never suspected what she was about.
i
xv.
God's Care of His Creatures.16 A fowler was once ort catching birds in the jungle when suddenly he heard some partridges calling in a bush. So he made a plan. He loosed his hawk to hover over them and prevent them from escaping. Then he set fire to the bush and sat outeide on the path by which they must escape, with his bow and arrow ready to kill them. Now there was a black snake also in the bush, and when he heard the crackling of the fire he crept out and bit the fowler in the foot. When he felt himself bitten, he let his arrow fly and it struck and killed his hawk, Then heavy shower suddenly appeared and the fire was put out and the partridges saved from destruction. Hence the lines of the poet :
Jako rákhai Saiyan, mári na sakai koi :
Bál na banká karisakai, jo jag bairí hoe. “Him whom the Lord protects none can kill: even if the whole world be his enemy, they cannot even bend a hair of his head."
XVI.
The Julaha and the Mouse.17 There was once a Jalâha who went to bring his wife home from her father's house. When he came in he saw a moose ranning about, and, wishing to show his bravery, he took op
18 Told by Parmanand, Gaur Brahman, of Jataal, Saharanpur District, and recorded by Pandit Ramgharth Chaube.
16 Told by Kasht Din, Kayasth of Sarh, Cawnpur District, and recorded by Sandar Lal, master of the village school at Sarh.
1. Tola by Kohari Sinh of Shamsabad, Farrukhabad Distriot.
