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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[JULY, 1924
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11, The Rant and the snake. (Told by Gajadhar Misra of Bhua Kalan and recorded by Chheda Lal,
Khapraha school, Jaunpur.) There was once a Raja who had two wives ; the elder he used to neglect, and loved the younger. One day the neglected Rani was sitting weeping in the courtyard, when a snake appeared before her. She took a jar and shut up the snake in it. She put the jar away and thought nothing of it, till one day she was looking for something in the house, and by chance she put her hand into the jar, and the snake bit her, so that she became insensible. When they went to the Raja and told him, he was much distressed and sent a message to say that he was coming at once to see her. Hearing this she recovered and said, "One never knows what may help one in trouble. The snake that I imprisoned has been the means of reconcilir.g me to my husband."
12. The woman and her child.
(Told by Pandit Ramnath of Saharanpur.) A woman with her child was once passing through a village notorious for the wicked. ness of its inhabitants. She was afraid, and putting the child on her shoulder walked along with her eyes downcast. A man saw her and quietly followed her. She did not hear him walking behind her, and as she went along he kept giving sweets to the child. After a timo he shouted out, "Help, brethren! This woman is carrying off my child." She protested that the child was her own. So the olders of the village collected and said, "Make the man and woman sit down, and give the child to a third person ; towards whichever of the two claimants the child stretches out its hands, to that one the child properly belongs." When the child saw the man who had given it sweets, it stretched out its hands to him, and ali the people said, "Surely the child belongs to him." Soon after he gave the child back to the woman and said, "I merely wished to show you that the ; eople here are both fools and knaveg. It went to me because I gave it sweets-sweets are dearer to a child than its mother." Hence they say, Khai mith , mdi nahin mith (Food is sweeter than a mother).
13. How the dancing-girl was outwitted.
(Told by Pandit Chandrasekhara, Zilla School, Cawnpore.) . There was once a dancing-girl, who lived in a Brahman village, and one morning when she looked outside her door, she saw all the Brahmaus engaged in offering oblations to their dead ancestors. When she enquired what they were doing, they said :-"This is Pilri. páksha or the fortnight sacred to the sainted dead, and we pour water in their honour." Thinking it would be a good thing if she did the same for her own ancestors, she sent for one of the Brahmans and asked him to officiate as her priest. He refused to act for so improper a person, and she could find no Brahman in the whole village who would perform the rites for her.
At last a Bhanr or buffoon thought he would take a rise out of her. So he dressed himself up as a learned Pandit, put on a big turban and a sacred thread, and with a bundle of books under his arm walked past her door. He fell into conversation with her and said, "I am a very learned Brahman just come from Benares- I am looking about for a wealthy olient." So she induced him to stay in her house, and fed him well and gave him a handsome present. And daily he made her perform the oblations to her ancestors, while he mum. bled some gibberish which she thought were the appropriate texts. At last when the beromony was over and he had got as inuch as he could out of her, he departed, Addrossing her as he went in the following verse :
