________________
50
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[OCTOBER, 1922
her friends, and Hiro with her dark painted eyes, and Darshani and Daropti from the hills with their “Achna Gachna ” and queer hill jargon. There was Nur Begum from Kandahar who spoke Persian, and Kammoo from Baghdad who spoke Arabic, and Nur Bibi and Thakur Bibi who sang ravishing songs..
They laughed and sang and played games together, and one of them took a sharp thorn from an acacia bush and pricked Hir's foot. Sehti bit it with her teeth and caused blood to flow, and they pretended Hir had been bitten by a snake. And Hir wept and cried and rolled on the ground saying: "I am dying; call somebody to cure me." Her face grew yellow and her eyes became pale, she clenched hex teeth and fainted.
And Sehti raised a cry: "The bride has been bitten by a black snake." So the girls put her on a bed and brought her home and all the people of the village left their work and gather. ed together to see her. Never was such a crafty swindle found in any book. They shaved the very beard of Plato. Satan came and salaamed and said: "I have been outmatched by these girls."
The people of the village when they saw Hir said: "A venemous snake has bitten her. Her breath comes quick; the poison has run into every vein of her body.” Some said: "Give her butter and milk;" others said: “ Search out an enchanter who knows powerful spells.”
And the Kheras brought hundreds of Fakirs and Hakims and enchanters and they gave her cunning drugs. They brought Tiriak snakes from Hazara and amulets and incense. They applied milk of "AK" to the wound, powdered metals and ourds of milk which no woman or man had ever cast eyes upon. They spent bags of money trying to cure the bride.
And Hir's mother-in-law beat her breast and said: "These cures do no good. His is going to die. Hir's fate will soon be accomplished."
And Sehti said: “This snake will not be subdued by ordinary spells. There is a very cunning Jogi in the Kalabagh garden in whose flute there are thousands of spells. Cobras and Krites bow down before him and hooded snakes and crested snakes stand in awe of him. All evil spirits and Jinns fly away at his word "
So Ajju said to Saida : "Son, brides are precious things. Go to the Fakir and salaam him with folded hands."
So Saida got ready his shoes and girt up his loins and took a stick in his hand and walked rapidly to the garden where the Jogi was. He was as yellow as astraw from anxiety about Hir. And he caught the feet of the Jogi and implored him saying: "My wife went into a cotton field to pick cotton and a black snake bit her. She is writhing with pain day and night. We have tried all the physicians and enchanters but to no purpose. Sehti has told us of you and the whole family has sent me to call you."
When the Jogi heard Saida's voice his heart leapt within him and he suspected that Sehti and Her had invented some cunning strategem.
And the Jogi spake to Saida and said: "Who can avoid destiny ? Snakes bite according to the decree of destiny. Holy men who live like hermits in the jungle have no concern with the affairs of this world and shrink from the company of women. The snakes of Jhang Sial oboy no one's enchantment. What if the Jatti die? Then the fakir will be happy. Fakins should not go near women. Why should we treat your Jatti ! We have ruined our own family. Why should we concern ourselves with yours, you whore's son ?"
And Saids fell at his feet and implored him to come and heal Hilt, saying: "She wept when she got out of the marriage palanquin. She would have nothing to say to me or to any of my family. If I touch her she raises & cry. I cannot come near her bed as she shrinks from me in feat. She is always weeping."
