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OCTOBER, 1921)
FOLK-TALES OF THE CAR NICOBARESE
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great officers of state then appeared before the king and interceded for Miran Muhammad Shah and the king graciously accepted their advice and pardoned him, and the army moved from before Asîr and set out on its return journey. When the army bad crossed the river of Burhanpur (the Tapti)and enoamped on the southern bank of the river, Miran Muhammad Shah kept his promise and sent the stipulated sum to the royal treasury. The promise had been to pay eight lakhs of Muzaffari rupees to the royal treasury and one lakh to Changiz Khan. When the money came Changiz Khản refused to accept his share, but at length, in accordance with the royal command, he accepted it and distributed it among the troops. Then the royal army marched from the bank of the river and encamped at the town of Balapär. Here Sayyid Shah Mîr199 arrived as an envoy from Ibråhim Qutb Shah with royal and costly gifts and having been admitted to an audience by means of Changiz Khan and other amirs, he undertook in his master's name that whenever the army should march against All Adil Shah, 20.000 hins should be paid to them at each stage by the Sultan of Golconda. The chief men of Vijayanagar also promised that they would contribute seven lakhs of hans to the royal army as na'l-bahd.
(To be continued.)
FOLK-TALES OF THE CAR NICOBARESE. COLLECTED BY THE REV. G. WHITEHEAD.
( Continued from p. 253.)
XIV.--THE STORY OF OT-NYA-HUM-KU. Once upon a time there was a man called Ot-nya-hum-ku. He was a wonderful magician (tö-mi-lūö-no). He knew all the thoughts of other people, and when he went out in the rain he did not get wet.
Once he was sent by his wife to cut down and bring home some pandanus (or bread-fruit), whilst she got the necessary firewood and water ready for cooking the same.
The man went off into the jungle to cut down the pandanus fruit. He climbed the tree, and chopped, and chopped, and chopped. But he could not manage it ; for though he chopped the branch right through, the fruit did not fall, but the branch was joined on again as before. He kept at it all day, but had to go home in the afternoon empty-banded, without his load of pandanus fruit.
His wife was very angry with him when he got home, because she felt she had been made ridiculous by gathering and chopping firewood and drawing water, when there was nothing to cook. She was also tired with having had to wait for him so long.
So, after some altercation, his wife herself went along with him that very evening; and both of them started out for the garden to cut down and bring home the pandanus fruit. The man went up into the tree this time to show his wife how things stood. He severed the branch of the pandanw at one blow of his dah (or chopper); but it became glued on again
When his wife saw what happened, she said: "Certainly this man is indeed a magician !"
So the woman herself then went up into the tree, and chopped down their load of pandamus. They then went back, put the pot on the fire, and cooked the chopped-up pandanus in it.
This appears to have been his second mission to the court of Ahmad.
100 Shah Mirze Isfahant. nagar-F. ii. 269, 270, 337.
