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DECEMBER, 1921)
LIFE SKETCH OF LALESHWARI.
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changed. The wicked Sayyid onquired and came to know of her possessing a purse of gold coins. He not only deprived her of her purse, but charged her of having stolen it from him. The case came up before Timur who well knew the source from which the old woman had got the contested gold. The Sayyid and his numerous witnesses who were also Sayyids took solemn oaths before Timur that the woman had stolen the bung. He, of course, dismissed the case and restored the purse to the poor woman. Indignant at the brazen-fs.cedness of the Sayyids, he announced that all Sayyids residing in his kingdom must prove their purity by passing through the order of riding a hot iron-horse. This dreadful test alarmed the Sayyids and they strove to escape it by flight. Only Mir Sayyid Ali, who was a saint of high order, is said to have gone successfully through the ordeol. He then came from Hamedan (Persia) to Kashmir in 1379 A.D. On seeing Lal Ded coming out of a furnace of fire attired in clothes of gold his pride of riding a fire-horse was humbled, and he became a constant companion of hers.
(3) Once there was a performance of actor: at Pâmpur, to witness which a large crowd of people had gathered. Lal Dad also, in her usual nude condition, went to see it. Her father-in-law called her back to her house and scolded her for her want of modesty and decenoy. She excused herself by saying that there was no human being there, to avoid whose look it might have been necessary to cover herself. He laughed cynically at this. But she asked him to look out from the window if what she said was true or not. He looked out and lo! he saw no human being, but only a number of fowls, sheep and goats collected there.
(4) Once Sidh was performing the austere penances of chandráyun; that is to say, he had kept a fast which was to continue for 40 days. Lal Ded came to his house and enquired from his wife what he was doing. She replied—" Suh chhu karán zaf” (he is doing moditation). Lal Ded cried out : "Nah, Nanda Margih diuthas guris taf" (no, his pony got a kick at Nanda Marg). Sidh overheard this and was ashamed, as his mind had really gone astray in the midst of meditation, thinking at that moment of his pony which he had sent for grazing to Nanda Marg.3 Lal Ded then invited him to see how she was practising the penance. On the full-moon day she entered a well-cleaned room and standing up motionless, put an earthen pot underr.eath her feet and another on her head As the moon waned her body diminished, until on the fifteenth day of the dark fortnight the two pots joined each other. Sidh was daily observing this. When the two pots closed he raised the upper pot, and found something like quick-silver in it trembling and then put down the lid again. As the moon waned, her body also began to increase, and on the full-moon day she was again what she was before. Sidh was astonished at this, and told her that he had lifted up the upper pot when they had met and had seen something like mercury trembling in the lower pot. He asked her in wonderment what it was and why it was trembling. She answered, hinting at the insignificance of his own vaunted penances." It was I that was trembling lest even this austere perance might be unacceptable
3 A similar story is told of Bâwa Nanak. He attended a prayer meeting at the request of a Muhammadan Sirdar. The congregation bent, knelt, and bowed while P&wa Nának stood still. At the end he was asked why he did not join in the prayer and he reinarked that the priest at whose bending, kneeling and bowing the congregation moved was all the while thinking of his own mare and therefore he was waiting till his mind turned towards God. The priest's mind had actually gone astray as stated by B&wa Nanak.
