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30
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
(OOTOBER, 1921
this reply sat in silence and then they said: "Ranjha will never come back." Meanwhile Hîr languished in the house of her father-in-law. She refused to put on jewellery or gay clothes. She ate no food and lay awake all night thinking of Ranjha.
And Sehti her husband's sister spake to her saying: "Sister, what spell has overcome you? You are getting weaker every day. Your colour is fading away. You have become like a dried and parched straw and all your bones stand out. Your conỹersation is gloomy. Tell me the secret of your heart that I may cure it. [So Hir told Sehti all her history and Sehti sat by Hîr and consoled her saying she too had a lover, Marad Baksh a camel driver, and that somehow they must contrive to help each other in their troubles.)
One night Saida full of delight placed his foot on Hîr's bed. Hir thrust him away say. ing: “I have not yet said my prayers." But Saida was wilful and would not heed, so Hir in her distress prayed to her Pir (Holy mar or Saint). The Pir at once appeared and Hir said: "I am the betrothed of Ranjha. My love is pledged to him." So the Pir chastised Saida, broke his bones and tied up his hands and feet. And Saida fell down at the feet of the Pir and begged for mercy saying: “I have sinned."
At the dawn of day Hîr took a bath in the courtyard and she sat with her head drooping downwards in grief thinking of Ranjha. Her heart inclined to God and she remembered her Pir. She meditated on the unity of God and dispelled all idolatry from her mind. Thus wrapped in the deepest contemplation she sat motionless as a statue. When the Five Pirs saw Hîr sitting in devout meditation they at once appeared by the order of God. They awakened her by placing their wand on her shoulder and they said : "Child get up. What grief has overcome you"?
And Hîr gave a deep sigh and tears came from her eyes as she replied: "The love of the Jat whom you gave to me has made me mad. The love of the shepherd has ruined me. God has made you my protector and I come to the Pirs for help in my trouble."
The Pirs were overcome with compassion, and using their spiritual power of ecstacy, they presented the image of Ranjha before Hir, saying: “Child, spread out your skirt and receive the object of your wish," and they added, “ He will meet you in person very soon for so it has been ordained by God."
Here follows in the original a lamentation put into the mouth of Hir in the form of a Barah Mah, i.e., a lamentation of the twelve months. It is not a very good specimen of this kind of composition. There is a specimen of a Barah Mah in Macauliffes translation of the Granth.)
CHAPTER 19.
(Hir sends a message to Ranjha.) After a year bad passed a Jat girl of Rangpur was returning to Jhang Sial to visit her own home and she came to Hir and offered to take any message she might want to send to her parents.
“Shall I tell them," said she," how you like your husband and how you get on with his relations."
And Hir replied: "He is to me as thorns are to silk. The Pen of Destiny has been cruel to me. What can I do? Give my salaam to iny homefolk with folded hands and in the garments of humility and say: You have given me over into the hands of enemies. May my parents be drowned in the deep stream. I will have nothing to do with them. Then geek out Ranjha and say to him: Coine to me or I shall die, I have thrown dust on
