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AUGUST, 1921)
HIR AND RANJHA
21
catches his ass. They tore off his beggar's girdle and threw him on the ground. They beat him on the back and over the head. Their blows resounded like the hammers of the coppersmiths. They pulled out his hair and blackened his face with soot. They broke his cups and cooking pots.
Kaidu cried out like a thief in the hands of the constable, and in his rage he bit them, scratched them and tore thier clothes into ribbons. But the girls crowded round him and kept him at bay, even as the Police guards encircle Lahore. They then burnt his hut and let the dogs and the chickens loose all over his property.
And with blazing torches they went off triumphantly to announce their victory to Hir. How can I describe the prowess of these fair beauties? It was as if the royal armies had returned to Lahore after subduing Muttra. And Kaidu with blood flowing from his wounds and with torn clothes raised a great hue and cry saying: "I come for justice. Administer justice, O assembly of elders! They have set fire to my hut. Dogg and cocks and hens have looted my opium and bhang. They have broken my pots and pans and the bowl my master gave me. They have thrashed me and humbled me before the whole world. I am wearied with weeping. I will lay my complaint before the whole world. I will seek justice from the Kazi."
And Chuchak turned to Kaidu and said: "Go away cripple. You are the prince of rogues and are always seeking quarrels. You worry people and then come and howl before the elders. You tease girls and then try and get them into trouble."
And the elders sent for the girls and asked them why they had beaten the poor lame fakir. "Had they detected him in any wrong doing?"
The girls put their fingers into their mouths with amazement and replied: "He is a lewd and wicked fellow. He pinches our cheeks and handles us in a mighty unbecoming fashion. He spies out our coming and goings and he chases us as a bull chases a buffalo."
Then Hir and her companions came before Milki and complained saying: “We are your humble servants. Kaidu is a mad dog to be spurned. Why do you not drive him away? We have not touched him. Why do you not believe us? It is indeed a strange word. He treats us outrageously and picks a quarrel with us, and then you go and console him with soft words. You are kind to a quarrelsome knave like him and make your daughters stand before the village elders. This is a new kind of justice. We are your humble obedient servants."
And Kaidu again made a great hue and cry before the assembly and asked for redress and justice. And the elders advised him to be patient and quiet, saying: “The girls have behaved exceedingly foolishly. The fakir has been very hardly dealt with." Then they scolded the girls and consoled the cripple, promising to build him a new hut and to give him more 'post' and 'bhang' and all the things the girls had destroyed. And Kaidu grumbled and was discontented in his heart and muttered: "These olders have lost faith and have abandoned justice. They shew partiality to their daughters. It is a poor consolation they have given me. Verily it is a case of: 'A blind king and oppressing officials.!"
And Chuchak answered Kaidu sharply and said: "Our village elders are not men without shame or fear of God. We do the thing that is just, and hate the thing that is evil. Let me see with mine own eyes that your story is true and I will cut the throat of the wicked jade and turn the shepherd out of the country."
