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JANJARY, 1926 ]
FOLK-TALES FROM NORTHERN INDIA
45
She was after this continually devising means to carry out her plan, and one day she complained of a severe internal pain. Physicians were called and all sorts of remedies employed, but to no avail. At last an old woman was sent for, and to her the woman explained the state of the case.
The old woman said that she would charm away the disease. So she went to her son and got him to get into a large earthen pot, which she made the husband bring to his wife. The pair remained together for the night, and in the morning the wife told her husband to take away the charm, as she was now quite recovered.
He went off with the pot on his head, and as he was walking along the bazar, his feet Blipped on a place where a sweetmeat-maker had thrown the washings of his pots. The jar was smashed and out came the youth, who ran at the husband, shoe in hand, and cried out :-" What do you mean by throwing your jars on quiet passengers ?"
But the husband remembered the words of his wife, and he knew that she had carried out her threat. So he was abashed and let her do as she pleased in future.
85. The Shalimar Bagh at Lahore. (The following traditional account of the origin of the name of the famous Shalimar
garden at Lahore was told by Shibba Sinh, Brahman of Saharanpur.) The queen of the Emperor Akbar had a brother, who was a useless, dissipated man. She was always pressing her husband to advance her brother to some high dignity, and at last when the Subahdar of Lahore died, she got Akbar to appoint him to the place.
When he reached Lahore, he continued his vicious practices. One day he heard of the beauty of the daughter of a great Mahajan, and sent his emissaries to try and induce her to enter his harem. His love increased when he managed one day to see her bathing. But she resisted all his inducements. At last he sent for her and forced her to consent to name a day for their union.
The girl managed to escape to Delhi, and when she arrived there, she went round the city in a palanquin, with men shouting before her that the Emperor was dead. Akbar heard of this and summoned her before him, when she said :-"An Emperor who does not protect the honour of his subjeots from the lust of his officers is as good as dead."
Akbar was interested in her story and took her with him to Lahore. He interrogated the Governor, who denied the charge. Then he had him and the girl looked up in adjoining cells and placed a guard on the watch. During the night the Governor spoke to her, admitting his fault and promising her his favour, if she would withdraw the charge.
His confession was reported to Akbar, who ordered the execution of his brother-in-law. Hence the garden was called "the place where the brother-in-law was slain" (sdlamdr).
86. A Woman's wit. --- (Told by Lala Khayali Ram of Aligarh.) There was once a woman who was taking a dish of soaked gram flour (sattu) to her husband in the field. On the way she met her lover and they passed some time together. While she was looking another way, he moulded the dough into the image of an elephant and put the cover on the dish. When she brought the dish to her husband and he opened it, he saw the dough elephant and was angry.
Said he : "How can I eat the image of Ganeshji?"
She said: "I will tell the truth. I dreamed last night that you were pursued and nearly killed by a wild elephant. So I consulted a Pandit and he told me to make an image of an elephant in dough and give it to you to eat, and that this would save you from the evil effects of the dream." Her foolish husband believed her and ate the dough elephant,
