Indian Antiquary Vol 51

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 358

THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[JULY, 1922
And when Ranjha saw her coming, he said: "This is either a fairy that I see or it is Hir the Sial."
And Hir salaamed with folded hands and caught Ranjha's feet, saying: “Embrace me, Ranjha, for the fire of separation is burning me. My heart has been burnt to a cindër. I return your deposit untouched. Since I plighted my troth to you I have embraced no other man. Let us go away together my beloved wherever you will. I obey your orders." And Hir threw herself round his neck.
The moth was burnt in the flame. Out of the smoke the fire was kindled. Like mad things they swung together in the intoxication of Love. The poison of Love ran fire through their blood. The news of their meeting spread through all the world where the drums of Love were beaten.
Then Hir left Ranjha and consulted Sehti how she might arrange to meet him again: "You will get Murad," said she," and I will get my lover. Let us make some plan to meet our lovers, so that I may spend the rest of my life with Ranjha ; for youth and beauty are but the guests of a few days. Let us enjoy them while we can."
Now when Hir came back to her house after seeing Ranjha in the garden, her girl friends Raeban and Saifan saw her heightened colour and they said to her : "Sister, what has befallen you that your forehead shines like a rose. Your complexion is like the down on a golden oriole. When you get out you were as one dead and now your beauty is ravishingly alive. Your eyes gleam with happiness like the leaping water of a stream. Somebody has set the well of beauty in motion. Your breast is heaving under your red shirt. Somebody has kissed the lamp-black off your eyes. Somebody has been celebrating the high festival of Id in the garden of Kalabagh. The hungry have been filled and fakins have fed to their hearts content. Pearls that Saida never touched have been polished by others to-day. Per. haps Ranjha has looted your garden of all its fruit."
And Hir replied to her girl friends : "Why are you teasing a poor girl like me! I have a touch of asthma and that is why the colour comes into my cheeks. I ran after a runaway calf and that is why the strings of my skirt are loose on both sides. My sides are red because I was lying face downwards looking over the top of my house. I was sucking at my lips and that is why the colour has come off them. I was looking down the path leading to my home and a calf came down the lane and pressed me against the side of the house. That is why I have scratches on my body. I swear nothing else has happened. Why do you tease me and say what is unseemly?”
The girls replied: "Sister, the colour of your eyes is red like blood. Your beauty is like the flowers in spring. The Kheras have been put to confusion to-day."
Hir replied: "Some spell has come over my mind to-day. And I do not feel inclined to work. I must have walked over some magic plant by mistake or some wizard has cast his enchantment over me. The red cloths of the Kheras soem to me like flames of fire today."
The girls replied: "Ho, Ho! To-day the Panjab has fallen into the hand of Kandharis. Some one has looted your beauty to-day."
Hir replied: "Sisters, why do you teaze me with your taunts ? I was knocked over by a buffalo in the way and he tore off all my bangles and earrings : he chased me with loud ruars. I was going to run away in fright just as girls run away when they see their intended husbands. Thanks to my good fortune I met a fakir who took me safely back to the village."
And the girls replied: "Sigter, this bull has been pursuing you for a very long time. It is curious he tramples on nobody's fields but yours and only steals your grapes. This ball has bome from Hazara and is at the present moment lying distraught in the garden crying "HÍR, HIR."
And Hir said: "Sisters, I am not happy among the Kheras. God and the prophet are my witness."