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JUNE, 1906.]
FOLKTALES FROM NORTHERN INDIA.
183
Next day at early dawn the Pandavas beat their drums while the Kauravas slept, and so they wore victorious in the great battle which ensued.
ΧΧΙΙ.
The Saint who brought the Rain.92 There was once a land in which there was no rain for many years, and the people suffered from sore famine. The Rajâ called the Paņdits and consulted them. They said: “The reason the rain does not fall is because there is no piety (dharm) in the land." So the Raja issued a proclamation that all his subjects were to continually repeat the name of Râma and do works of charity. They did so, but still the rain was withheld.
The Raja again summoned the Pandits and consulted them. They said: "On a certain peak of the Himalaya there lives an ascetic who spends his time absorbed in de votion. If he were to come the rain would fall."
So the Râjâ sent his envoys to the saint, but he drove them from his presence and refused to come to the Raja. Then the Râjâ offered a vast reward to any one who could bring the saint to him. Many went on this mission, bat all returned unsuccessful. At last the king's daughter said that she would go and bring the saint. So she went to him and found him, as usual, absorbed in devotion. Then she plucked some jungle fruits and placed them in his water-pot, and after & while he was filled with passion for her and she lived with him and bore a child.
When her child was born she said to him: "Now that you have & wife and child, you must find support for them. Let us go to the conrt of the Raja." So she took him to her father, and as soon as he reached the kingdom, the rain fell abundantly.
ΧΧΙΙΙ.
A Wife who was & Shrew.23 There was once a Panjabi Banyà who had a wife who he supposed was most faithful and obedient. One day he thought that he would test her obedience. So, as it was a feast day, be bought the materials for a good dinner and told his wife to cook it. Meanwhile, he went out on some business and returned very hot and thirsty. He said to his wife : "Give me a drink of water." "Can't you see," she replied, " that I am busy? Go and get it yourself." "I am dying of thirst," he said ; " do give me a drink." "You may die or live," said she, “but I won't leave my work." Soon after he fell from exhaustion into a dead faint. And when his wife looked round she thought he was really dead, but still she would not go to him till she had finished frying the cakes.
After some time, when the cakes were ready, she said to herself: "I had better wait and see the cakes get cool before I attend to him." When they were cool, she thought to herself: "When the neighbours hear he is dead, they will all come running into the house, and some one will be sure to eat the cakes, so I had better oat them myself before any one comes." So she ate all the cakes, and then came and sat beside her husband and began the keening for the dead : “My beloved ! Thou hast gone to Paradise ! Dost thou ever think of her thou hast left bebind on earth P" • The Bany, who had just recovered from his faint, replied : “When I went to heaven I began to think, has she eaten the battermilk as well as the cakes?'” Then he fell on her and began to thrash her, and when she screamed the neighbours came running in and asked him why he was thrashing her, and when he told them what she had done, they said, “ She is an evil wife. We advise you to get rid of her at once." So he kicked her out and took another in her stead. -
Told by Mukund LAI, Kkyaath of Mirzapur. * Told by Kumarpal, Thakor of Bazárt, Mathura District.
