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22
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[ AUGUST, 1921
And Kaidu muttered to himself: "I will grind Hir's flesh into small pieces like bhang, and I will make a rope of the hair of the shepherd." And he replied to Chuchak :" If you do not beat her after seeing her shame with your own eyes, then the assembly of elders are liars." So Kaidu revolved in his own mind how he might catch Hir and Rânjha in the forest and bring Chuchak to see them, for he reflected: "Who will punish his daughter merely on what I say? Who will set the village on fire to avenge the loss of one sheep?"
So Kaidu lay in ambush in the forest like a closed fist. He hid himself like a dog in the bushes. The next morning Rânjha drove the cattle into the forest, and after two watches of the day had gone, Hîr and her companions in their scarlet clothes came into the forest. The forest was all ablaze with the beauty of the Sial girls. And the girls played "Toss the red handkerchief" (Lal Kachorni) together and then went back to their homes. Ranjha and Hir stayed behind and slept together peacefully in the forest. And Kaidu spying them together alone ran off to the village as fast as his crippled legs would carry him, and said to the assembly of the elders: "Come and see strange things in the forest."
CHAPTER 14.
(Chuchak finds Ranjha and Hir in the forest.)
Chuchak muttered to himself: "We have been dishonoured before the whole assembly." And he saddled his horse and took a spear in his hand. It shone like lightning. The clatter of his galloping sounded from afar in the forest. And Hir heard the noise and was afraid of the coming of her father. And she said to Rânjha: "Get up, my father is coming." Then she wept and said: "I shall not come again here so forgive me." And she hurried from Rânjha's side.
Mehr Chuchak was tortured to frenzy on seeing them alone in the forest. He said: "See the tyranny of God. Women are roaming about here alone in the forest." Shame pierced his heart. He quivered with rage and said: "I will break your legs in two and cut off your head. Only thus will the scandal Be stopped."
And Hir turned towards Ranjha and said: "Shepherd, leave your buffaloes and go away to your home. No one in future will care for you or bring your food. Forgive me, my father, for what has happened. I am your own dear daughter and it is not meet for men of gentle birth to bring about their own disgrace by publishing abroad their daughter's defects."
Chuchak stood bewildered like a saint that has drunken deeply of bhang, and he bethought him that Hir ought to be given away in marriage soon.
Now when Rânjha became a shepherd and tended the buffaloes of Chuchak, news was taken to his brethren in Takht Hazara. The brothers of Rânjha wrote to the Sials saying: "You have employed the son of Mauju Chaudri as a shepherd. How strange are the doings of Almighty God. He left us in anger and we have been searching for him day and night. All his fields have been made ready for cultivation; we have bushels of grain ready for him when he returns, the produce of all these years that he has been away. He has been in our minds always, and our wives who were his comrades are weeping for him. He has cut off our nose by becoming a grazier of buffaloes. We shall be grateful to you if you will send him back; otherwise we shall have to come with a special embassage to lay our request before you."
