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MARCA, 1926 )
FOLK-TALES FROM NORTHERN INDIA
98. The Wiles of Women.
(Told by Lala Khayali Ram, Kayasth of Aligarh.) A man one day sent his wife, who was a beautiful woman, to buy somo sugar in the bazar. She went to the shop of a Bania, who fell in love with her, and when he had enjoyed her favours, gave her some sugar for nothing. As she was going home, a boy followed her, and opening the knot of her sheet, stole the sugar, and tied up some earth in its place. Reaching home, she laid her sheet aside, and when her husband looked for the sugar, he found only earth.
Then her husband abused her, but she said :
"I will tell you the truth. As I was coming home, a mad bull escaped in the bazar, and I dropped the sugar. In my hurry I picked up earth instead."
"Thank heaven, my love, that your life at least was saved," he replied, and believed
her.
97. The Dream of the Oplum-eater. (Told by Parmanand, Gaud Brahman of Jataul, Saharanpur District.) An opium-eater onoe lay in his drunken sleep on the roof of his house, and he dreamed that & river was rising in flood all round him and that he and his household would be carried away. So he jumped on a chair and shouted out to his wife :-"Dear one, mind the little ones. The river is rising. There is neither boat nor raft to save us and we shall lose our lives."
With that, in hopes of saving bimself, he jumped from the roof and fell to the ground,
A friend came and helped him up, but the opium-eater pulled himself away angrily and said: "What is the good of saving me when the danger is over! If you had come when the flood reached the roof of my house, you would have been a true friend!"
98. The Oplum-eater's Dispute.
(Told by Thakur Sinh, Ahir of Saharanpur.) Two opium-eaters were once sitting together, half intoxicated by the drug, and one said to the other
"Let us be partners and start a gweetmeat shop. We can eat some sweets when we come to our senses every evening, and we shall also be able to support our families."
"I have a better plan," said the other. "Let us sow our field near the river bank-with sugar-cane, and you and I can sell it to a greengrooer. But we will make it a condition that we may each cut a cane every day, and we can sit there and peel and eat it."
"Who am I," said the first," that I should eat only one sugar-cane. I must have
two."
On this the other in a rage hit him on the head, and they went to the Kotwal for justice, He sent them to the Vazir. The Vazîr said: "Apparently you have not paid the rent for your field."
So they had to pawn their clothes and pay the rent. But when they went to sell their sugar-cane, they could find it nowhere and came home naked and ashamed.
99. The dishonest Perfumer.
(Told by Aziz Khan, Rajput of Saharanpur.) There was once a man who had some money; and as he was going on a journey and was afraid he might lose it, he made it over to an Attar who lived near him, who promised to keep it safely until his return.
When he returned and demanded the deposit, the Attår angrily denied having received any money from him, and when the neighbours came up, on hearing the quarrel, they said: “This man must be a rogue. Who ever heard of his having any money? Besides, the Attår is a most respectable man."
