________________
AUGUST, 1925]
FOLK TALES FROM NORTHERN INDIA
35
62. The Magic Fish.
(Told by Lakshman Prasad, Brahman, Jalesar, Etah District.)
Famine broke out in the land and grain sold at the price of pearls. All the people began to die of starvation, when one day in the river beneath the city there appeared an enormous fish. Many thousand maunds in weight was he, and so large that he could not be covered by the water, and his body stretched from bank to bank. When the people saw the fish, they all ran to the river and began to cut off pieces of his flesh, which they cooked and ate. Now there were in the city an old Brahman and his wife, and they too were sore afflicted by the famine. The old woman said to her husband-" Why should we die of hunger, when all the people of the city feed on the flesh of this fish? Go you and get a share." The old Brahman went at the order of his wife, and he took with him a basket and a knife. When he came to the place where the fish lay, he saw that much of his flesh had been cut off and there were great holes in his body; but he was still alive. When the Brahman saw his state he was moved to pity, and the fish said-" Why do not you, like all the other men of the city, cut off some of my flesh'?" The Brahman answered-"I fear the Lord Narayan, who has ordered me to eat no flesh and to touch naught save the fruits of the earth." The fish answered-"Thou art a man of piety I will now give thee two rubies, one of which sell and buy food; the other keep for me, until I demand it from thee."
The Brahman took the rubies and went to another city. One of them he sold and gave food to his family, until the famine had passed. Then he came back to his own city; and meanwhile the fish had been reborn and become the Raja of the city. He, remembering how the people had treated him, began to treat them with the most extreme cruelty. When the Brahman returned, he was going to salute the Raja; but the people said-"Why do you approach this tyrant? He will surely do thee mischief." But he went and stood before the Raja who said-" Where is that which I entrusted to thee?" The Brahman knew not what he meant. At last the Raja said-" Where is the ruby, which I gave thee by the river bank?" The Brahman knew that the fish had become a Raja and gave him the ruby. The Raja said-"Thou alone of all my subjects didst treat me with mercy in the days of my affliction. Now I will make you my chief Pandit. As for my people, I will revenge my wrongs upon them all the days of my life." But the Brahman besought him in the name of Narayan, and he forgave their offence.
63. The Fate of the Slattern Wife.
(Told by Dharm Das, Schoolmaster, Lalitpur).
The wife of a certain Bania was a wretched slattern, and did not know how to cook anything. One day, as he was setting out for his shop, he said, "Cook some curry for din. ner." So she procured all the materials and put them in a pot to boil. By and by the stuff began to boil over, and as she did not know what to do, she ran to a neighbour and asked her advice. "Put a little pebble in the pot," said she. But the slattern wife put in a big stone which smashed the pot, and all the curry was spilt on the floor.
On her husband's return, she scraped up as much as she could and placed it before him: but it was so full of mud that he could not touch it. Being a good-natured man, he said, "You must do better next time. I will take away the pieces of the broken pot." She would not let him do this, but put the broken pieces on her head and tried to go out. Now the door was so low that she had to bend her head, and so the pot slipped and a lot of curry ran over her clothes. "Wait," cried her husband, "I will call a washerman, and he will clean it for you."
