,,folk ,,tales ,,of ,,sind ,,and ,,guzarat ,,by ,c4 ,a4 ,,kincaid1 ,c4,v4,o41 ,i4,c4,s4 ,officie de l',instruction ,publique4 ,,the ,,daily ,,gazette ,,press1 ,,ltd41 ,,karachi4 #aibe4 ,to ,,jean ,,louis ,,rieu1 ,c4 ,s4 ,i41 ,i4 ,c4 ,s41 ,commissioner-in-,sind4 this book is inscribed in memory of an unclouded and greatly valued friendship lasting for over thirty years4 8,satan is the only true lover1 all others are mere prattlers4 ,out of his great love for his ,lord1 the shining one 7,satan7 incurred disgrace40 ,shah ,latif4 ,commentator4--,god needed opposition to make ,him realise ,his almighty strength4 ,to give ,god full possession of it1 ,satan sacrificed himself and rebelled1 although he knew that he would thereafter be punished eternally4 ,,author',s ,,preface4 ,most of the articles collected in this little book have appeared in the 8,daily ,gazette0 or the 8,times of ,india40 ,they are reprinted with the kind permission of the ,editors4 ,i do not claim for them any merit beyond the fact that they touch the fringe of an unexplored country4 ,my hope is that they will lead others more competent than ,i am and with greater opportunities than ,i have had1 to delve into the vast treasures of folklore possessed by the ,province of ,sind4 ,the four ,guzarati stories have been added1 because although they come from a different part of ,india1 they are still folk tales and belong to the same category as the ,sind tales4 ,i am indebted to ,mr4 ,amritlal ,chunilal1 ,vakil of ,kapadwanj1 for the originals of the ,guzarati stories4 ,c4 ,a4 ,k4 ,,foreword4 ,be the fact good or bad for the ,province1 fact it is4 ,the beauties of ,sind are not for the stranger1 or casual visitor4 ,he1 perhaps merely seeking the shortest and quickest route to some temporary post up ,north1 or possibly to his permanent home in the damp1 grey ,west1 notices only torrid heat1 arid wastes1 blinding glare1 suffocating dust1 and a coastal ,port somewhat reminiscent of ,suez or ,port ,said4 ,not for him the enchanting views from the little islands at ,bhukkar1 or from the banks of the lower reaches of the ,indus below ,hyderabad4 ,not for him the green grain fields and shady forests that fringe the great river between ,larkana and the late ,capital4 ,not for him the scent of the old ,kumbar ,road1 or the myriad bird life of the ,munchar ,lake4 ,not for him the moonlight on the great desert on our ,eastern frontier2 or the sunrise from the ,indus delta1 throwing its golden shafts across ,karachi's beautiful lagoon to the rugged sky-line of the ,hub hills4 ,but for the old ,sindhi these things mean much4 ,further1 nobody who has lived long in ,sind1 can have failed to be affected not only by its beauties1 but by the atmosphere of romance that pervades the whole ,province4 ,it meets one on every side--north1 south1 east and west4 ,but little imagination is required to picture the argosies of bygone centuries sailing silently down the river past the green fields of ,kushmore3 or the old caravans from ,kandahar with their strings of stately camels slowly emerging from the foot of the ,bolan ,pass on their way to ,shikarpur3 or the buggalas of old ,nearchus nestling in the ,chinna ,creek in the shelter of the ,oyster ,rocks during the monsoon1 patiently awaiting the arrival of the ,great ,alexander shortly to appear at the ,ghizree mouth of the ,indus on the conclusion of his triumphal progress through ,western ,asia6 ,then1 too1 think of the circumstances leading up to the birth at ,oomerkot of that infant who was afterwards to be one of the greatest rulers in ,indian history1--the mighty ,akbar4 ,here are materials for romances galore4 ,we are not dependent1 however1 simply on historical incidents to stimulate our imaginations4 ,though the vagaries of the ,indus and the severity of the hot season in the interior combine quickly to obliterate man's puny strivings for permanency1 material evidence exists in many places of the great vitality and culture of those who have lived before us in this ancient land of ,sind4 ,the beautifully coloured and perfectly glazed tiles and pottery of ,hala bear testimony to an art lost to the present generation of ,sindhis2 whilst the ornamented graves and temples which can still be seen in many parts of the ,province1 reveal the existence in the past of a ,god-fearing people with well developed notions of sculpture and architecture4 ,who can regard the wonderful tombs on the ,makli ,hill at ,tatta or the ruins of the great city of ,brahmanabad without realising that those responsible for these things must have been1 in their day1 well advanced in social and civilised life1 and deserving of the respect of the present generation4 ,it is about certain leaders--religious and political--of these peoples of the bygone centuries that the ,hon4 ,mr4 ,justice ,kincaid has compiled the stories that have been reproduced in the following pages4 ,the stories which have been passed on from generation to generation1 are1 like the legends of the ,west1 to some extent mythical1 but no doubt based on actual incidents in the past which1 in the repeated telling1 have been added to and embroidered in a way calculated to impress the minds of the simple folk who heard them2 and thus their remembrance and transmission to later generations has been assured4 ,mr4 ,kincaid has well caught the spirit of the stories1 and his transcriptions are in his happiest style4 ,the thanks of every patriotic ,sindhi will go out to him for thus preserving in the printed page the legends that have grown up around some of the more celebrated figures and remains of ancient ,sind4 ,but we hope that ,mr4 ,kincaid's good work will not cease yet4 ,the investigations of the ,archaeological ,department of the ,government of ,india have recently brought to light facts that have turned the eyes of the whole world towards the valley of the ,indus4 ,searching amongst the ruins of northern ,sind1 ,mr4 ,rakhaldas ,bannerji has discovered at ,mohenjo ,daro in the ,larkana ,district buildings and domestic articles that seem to indicate the existence in ,sind of an advanced civilisation some thousands of years ago6 ,this discovery is confirmed by the unearthing1 almost at the same time1 of similar remains #djj miles away at ,harappa in the ,montgomery ,district of the ,punjab4 ,these remains include 8houses and temples1 massively built of burnt brick1 and provided with well constructed water conduits covered with marble slabs4 ,the smaller antiquities include a quantity of pottery--painted and plain1 terra cotta1 toys1 bangles of blue glass1 paste and shell1 new types of coins 7or tokens71 curious stone rings and dice40 ,further1 there are a number of engraved and inscribed seals bearing inscriptions in a hitherto unknown pictographic script4 ,a careful comparison has now confirmed the surmise that these antiquities are closely connected and contemporary with the ,sumerian antiquities of southern ,mesopotamia1 dating from the third or fourth millennium before ,christ4 ,and so the conclusion has been arrived at that the peoples of ,sind and the ,punjab were living in 8well-built cities in a relatively mature civilisation with a high standard of art and craftsmanship and a developed system of writing #e1jjj years ago40 7vide ,sir ,john ,marshall1 ,director-,general of ,archaeology in ,india's communications to the ,pioneer and to the ,times in ,november and ,december1 #aibd74 ,whether any trace of this remote civilisation can be detected in any of the old legends at present current among the country-folk of ,sind1 it is impossible to say4 ,we hope that ,mr4 ,kincaid will be able to continue his investigations into these matters1 and will give to the public all that he can find4 ,with the translation of the pictographic script on the recently discovered seals1 some clue or connection with later civilisations may possibly be traced4 ,a fascinating vista of ,sind1 i4e41 the land of the ,indus1 as the cradle of modern ,civilisation has been opened up1 7for ,sumerian culture was probably the source of ,babylonian1 ,assyrian and ,western ,asiatic culture74 ,it is to be hoped that the ,government of ,india will continue its investigations with redoubled energy1 and will further explore the rich plains on both banks of the ,indus4 ,m4 de ,p4 ,webb4 ,london1 #afth ,december1 #aibd4 ,,contents4 ,i4--,,sind ,,folk ,,stories4 ,page4 #a4 ,lal ,shahbaz #g #b4 ,udero ,lal #ab #c4 ,jinda ,pir #ah #d4 ,abdul ,latif1 the author of ,shah ,jo ,risalo #bb #e4 ,makhdum ,niamat ,ullah and ,makhdum ,nuh #bh #f4 ,haidarabad #cb #g4 ,brahmanabad ,i #ce #h4 ,brahmanabad ,,ii #ch #i4 ,the ,eighth ,key #de #aj4 ,the ,noose of ,murad #ec #aa4 ,the ,makli ,hill #eg #ab4 ,larkana #fb #ac4 ,two love ,tragedies #fe #ad4 ,swami ,vankhandi of ,sadh ,belo #fh ,,ii4--,,guzarat ,,folk ,,stories4 #ae4 ,king ,mansing of ,sirohi #ge #af4 ,the ,wisdom ,seller #hj #ag4 ,magadha and ,rupvati #he #ah4 ,rupsinh and the ,queen of the ,anardes #ij ,,iii4--,,round ,,about ,,nasik4 #ai4 ,round ,about ,nasik #aje #bj4 ,july and ,december #aaa ,,folk ,,tales ,,of ,,sind ,,and ,,guzarat4 ,i4 ,,sind ,,folk ,,stories4 ,,lal ,,shahbaz4 ,a ,,sind ,,saint4 ,sehwan is known to ,englishmen chiefly as a handy station for those who wish to shoot on the ,manchar lake4 ,in the summer it enjoys an unenviable reputation for heat4 ,the bare rocks of ,lakhi known as the ,bagothoro are said to end the last struggles of the monsoon4 ,indeed the ,lakhi pass is known locally as the gate of the infernal regions2 and an often quoted ,persian couplet about ,sehwan runs as follows3 8,when both ,sehwan and ,sibi grill so well ,what good was there1 ,o ,lord1 in making ,hell80 #a ,but besides its fame as a sporting and a roasting centre1 ,sehwan has an immense reputation for sanctity4 ,within its confines repose in mighty state the earthly remains of the greatest saint of all ,sind1 worshipped alike by ,musulmans and ,hindus1 the renowned ,lal ,shahbaz1 the ,red ,peregrine ,falcon of the ,indus valley4 ,lal ,shahbaz's real name was ,hazrat ,sayad ,usman ,shah ,marwandi4 ,he was born at ,marwand in ,afghanistan in ,a4,h4 #ech4 ,his father ,makhdum ,sayad ,ahmed ,kabir was a powerful noble and a great friend of the king of ,tabriz4 ,from his earliest years1 so it is said1 the boy shewed a great leaning towards things spiritual4 ,before his twelfth year he had already made the blind see1 the deaf hear and the dumb speak4 ,when ,lal ,shahbaz reached manhood1 he insisted on leaving his father's house and started on a pilgrimage4 ,he first went to ,baghdad where he stayed at the court of the monarch ,sayad ,ali4 ,when he wished to leave1 ,sayad ,ali implored him to remain at ,baghdad for ever4 ,but the religious call was too insistent and with three friends1 ,sheikh ,bahawaldin1 ,sheikh ,farid ,ganj ,shakar and ,makhdum ,jalaluddin1 ,lal ,shahbaz set off for the ,persian ,gulf4 ,in an island in the ,gulf lived a fakir named ,sheikh ,jalal whose austerities had won him supernatural gifts4 ,lal ,shahbaz determined to reduce him to obedience and make him his disciple4 ,no boats were available so ,lal ,shahbaz threw his 8kishta0 or begging bowl into the water and it became a boat4 ,into it the four friends stepped and rowed for ,sheikh ,jalal's island4 ,about half way the boat stopped dead and no matter how hard the saints plied the oar1 it declined to move4 ,at last ,lal ,shahbaz realised that the island fakir had cast a spell on them4 ,but he could only have done that1 if one among them was not a true anchorite and was still thinking of the joys of this world1 while pretending to have given them up for ever4 ,lal ,shahbaz told this to his friends and asked them whether they had one and all given up the world wholly4 ,they protested their complete unworldliness4 ,but as the boat still refused to budge1 ,lal ,shahbaz went through their pockets4 ,in the pocket of ,sheikh ,bahawaldin he found1 as ,i regret to say1 a brick of solid gold1 which the saint was keeping against a rainy day4 ,lal ,shahbaz threw it overboard4 ,once freed from this sordid freight1 the boat began again to move4 ,as they drew near the island1 ,lal ,shahbaz saw ,sheikh ,jalal looking at them through a window of his castle4 ,to punish him for stopping the boat1 ,lal ,shahbaz made the window grow so small that it gripped the fakir's neck as if in a vice4 ,sheikh ,jalal yelled for mercy1 but it was not granted him until he had owned himself beaten and had promised to become an obedient and humble follower of ,lal ,shahbaz4 ,the great saint acquired his appellation of ,lal ,shahbaz1 by two remarkable miracles4 ,after the defeat of ,sheikh ,jalal1 ,lal ,shahbaz and his three companions went to ,mecca and ,medina4 ,as they were returning from the blessed vision of the prophet's tomb1 they halted one night in a town on the coast of ,arabia4 ,sheikh ,farid ,shakar ,ganj went to buy bread for the party4 ,unhappily the baker's wife conceived an unholy passion for the young man4 ,like a true ascetic he rejected her odious advances with the icy disdain of ,saint ,joseph4 ,the baker's wife thereupon behaved after the manner of ,potiphar's consort4 ,she began to scream that ,sheikh ,farid ,shakar ,ganj had tried to outrage her4 ,the unhappy anchorite was seized1 dragged before the governor and condemned to instant execution4 ,lal ,shahbaz heard of it and took immediate steps to rescue his innocent friend4 ,he changed one of his two remaining friends into a deer and bade him run towards the gallows4 ,the crowd ran madly after the deer to catch it4 ,lal ,shahbaz turned his second friend into a lion4 ,it charged the executioners roaring terribly4 ,they fled incontinently4 ,lastly the ,saint changed himself into a peregrine falcon and swooping down picked up ,sheikh ,farid ,shakar ,ganj and bore him to a place of safety4 ,by this miracle the ,saint got the name of ,shahbaz1 the ,sindhi word for a peregrine falcon4 ,how did he obtain the title of ,lal8 ,it was this way3 ,a certain ,murshid once challenged ,shahbaz's friends to bathe in a caldron of boiling oil4 ,they not unnaturally declined the challenge1 whereupon the ,murshid mocked them as unworthy impostors4 ,they sorrowfully told their master of their discomfiture4 ,on the instant he accepted the challenge and going to the ,murshid's house1 leapt into the boiling oil4 ,he stayed so long at the bottom of the cauldron that his rival owned himself beaten4 8,come out10 he cried1 8you are indeed a ,lal among ,lals 7a ruby among rubies704 ,the master rose triumphantly out of the oil4 ,he had suffered no harm from the immersion1 but the heat of the oil had turned his robe crimson4 ,that robe he wore to his dying day and was in the end buried in it4 ,so he came to be known as ,lal ,shahbaz4 ,after his journey to ,mecca and ,medina1 ,lal ,shahbaz came to ,sind4 ,he wandered until he came to a spot still called #8,lal jo ,bagh' or the garden of the ruby1 two miles from ,sehwan4 ,sehwan was1 however1 already a holy town and its worldly minded fakirs dreaded that the advent of so famous a mendicant would reduce their earnings4 ,they sent him a cup full to the brim of milk1 that he might know that just as the cup could hold no more milk1 so ,sehwan could hold no more anchorites4 ,lal ,shahbaz sent to those worldly minded ones a fitting answer4 ,he made a flower float on the milk and returned the cup1 thereby shewing to the fakirs that there was still room for yet another holy man and that the newcomer meant to be above the others1 even as the flower was above the milk4 ,after this event ,lal ,shahbaz spent most of his time in ,sehwan4 ,his friend ,sheikh ,bahawaldin left him and went to ,multan4 ,before leaving he offered to ,lal ,shahbaz and the latter accepted the hand of his daughter4 ,not long afterwards ,lal ,shahbaz learnt in a trance of the death of his prospective father-in-law4 ,he went to ,multan and asked ,sheikh ,bahawaldin's son1 ,sadaruddin for his betrothed4 ,sadaruddin refused4 ,the ,saint thereupon cursed him and vowed that the girl should wed no one else1 but would find an instant resting place in paradise4 ,shortly afterwards the poor girl died and ,lal ,shahbaz returned to ,sehwan4 ,he died on the #bast of the month of ,shaban #fej ,a4,h4 at the ripe age of #aab2 and the anniversary of his death is kept as a great festival4 ,from all quarters of ,sind come fakirs and musicians and dancing girls to dance before the shrine of the mighty anchorite4 ,the chief feature of the celebration is the marriage of ,lal ,shahbaz to his lost bride4 ,now why do ,hindus worship at his shrine8 ,that is perhaps the strangest part of the story4 ,in #ef ,b4,c4 lived the great king ,vikramaditya of ,dharmanagar or ,ujjain1 the ,arthur of ,hindu historical legends4 ,at his court lived the nine gems of learning and his valour and his arms reduced all ,india to subjection4 ,once upon a time he resolved to disguise himself and see with his own eyes how his viceroys governed his provinces4 ,he appointed to be his regent during his absence his younger brother ,brartrahari4 ,one day the ,goddess ,parvati gave to a devout old couple in ,ujjain an apple1 that conferred immortality on anyone who ate it4 ,the old couple preferring riches to immortality sold the apple to the regent for a great price4 ,the regent gave it to his youngest and prettiest wife4 ,she unfortunately had a lover and she gave the apple to him4 ,he in turn presented it to a dancing girl1 who sold it back to ,brartrahari4 ,the regent thereby discovered his wife's infidelity4 ,in a rage he flung away the apple and abandoning his office1 became an anchorite4 ,according to the local legend1 he wandered until he came to ,sind1 where he became a devoted worshipper of ,shiva4 ,he called his abiding place ,shivisthan or the place of ,shiva4 ,from ,shivisthan has come the modern name ,sehwan4 ,brartrahari lived at ,sehwan until he died and by his life and death made the spot holy4 ,the ,musulman invasion swept away the temple of ,shiva1 but the memory of the pious recluse lingered on2 and when ,lal ,shahbaz came and worked miracles at the spot where ,brartrahari had lived1 the ,hindus declared that ,lal ,shahbaz was his reincarnation4 ,the miraculous powers of ,lal ,shahbaz did not die with him4 ,after his death streams of molasses1 sugar and milk are said to have spurted from the wall of his tomb4 ,these articles he meant for the use of the poor of ,sehwan only4 ,nor did he mean that any should take more than one helping in any one day4 ,sad to relate1 his pious wishes were brought to nought by the greed of the townspeople4 ,poor and rich alike rushed to profit by the dead saint's bounty and none confined himself to a single helping4 ,in disgust the dead saint bade the streams dry up and all that now remains of them is a group of stones that look exactly like petrified sugar molasses and milk4 ,these the guardians of the shrine shew to wondering pilgrims as proof positive of the legend's truth4 ,,udero ,,lal4 ,udero ,lal was born on ,cheti ,chand1 the first day of the ,sindhi month ,cheti and also the first day of what is known as the ,chaitradi year--the year that begins with the month of ,cheti or ,chaitra instead of the month of ,kartak4 ,in ,udero ,lal's honour the ,government offices throughout ,sind are closed4 ,so in common gratitude every ,government officer ought to enquire who ,udero ,lal was4 ,he was the son of an aged couple called ,ratno and ,devki1 who lived at ,nasarpur4 ,ratno hawked cooked gram and was a devout worshipper of the ,indus river4 ,they had two sons already1 but had long passed the age when married couples hope for more children4 ,ratno was sixty and ,devki over forty1 when ,udero ,lal was born4 ,but ,udero ,lal's birth was due to divine interposition4 ,the cause of it was as follows3-- ,in the year #ici ,a4,d4 one ,marak was governor of ,tatta4 ,he was a bigoted ,musulman and he suddenly resolved to convert to ,islam the whole ,hindu population under him4 ,he proclaimed by beat of drum1 that he would kill every ,hindu1 who did not change his faith within twenty-four hours4 ,so alarmed were the ,hindus that1 so the story runs1 all their cooking pots fell from their shelves2 and exclaiming that a camel had entered the king's head #b1 they went in a body to his minister ,aho4 ,through him they gained a fortnight's respite4 ,at that time1 so the legend has it1 the ,indus flowed past ,tatta4 ,on its banks the despairing ,hindus gathered and prayed to the great river to save them from the hands of ,marak4 ,at the same time they vowed that if no answer was vouchsafed to their prayers within a week1 they would throw their children into the stream4 ,on the fourteenth day they would with their wives in their arms throw themselves into it and thus escape the cruelty of ,marak4 ,on the seventh day when they were on the point of drowning all their babies1 they saw the river god himself rise from the waves1 a beautiful figure1 all of snow-white foam4 ,he bade the ,hindus no longer despair4 ,he had heard their supplications and within the allotted fortnight he would be born in the house of ,ratno1 the gram hawker4 ,he bade them warn ,marak of his approaching birth4 ,they did so and the wicked governor sent ,aho to seize the baby directly it was born4 ,the child ,udero ,lal arrived on the last day of the fortnight4 ,aho was about to seize it1 when it changed instantly into a youth of sixteen1 then into an old man and once more into an infant4 ,aho was dumbfounded and his hatred and unbelief changed to love and faith4 ,he begged the child to return with him to ,marak1 so as to convince him also4 ,the babe replied 8,go back to ,tatta4 ,there stand on the banks of the ,indus and call me and ,i shall come40 ,aho went back to ,tatta and told ,marak4 ,the governor was frightened out of his wits1 still he ordered ,aho to go to the river bank and call on ,udero ,lal to rise from the river4 ,aho did so and as the words left his lips1 a tall beautiful youth1 riding a noble steed1 rose from the river and behind him followed thousands of soldiers and horsemen1 chariots and war elephants4 ,the terrified minister fell at ,udero ,lal's feet and begged him to send away the mighty army that followed in his footsteps4 ,the youth turned round and dismissed his warriors4 ,a moment later the great army had vanished into the depths of the ,indus4 ,aho led ,udero ,lal into ,marak's presence and told him the marvels that he had witnessed4 ,marak instantly seated ,udero ,lal on his right hand and craved his advice4 ,udero ,lal bade him to cease from his cruelty to his ,hindu subjects4 ,but while ,marak listened with pious looks to ,udero ,lal's words1 his heart was full of black treachery4 ,after he had escorted with all reverence the beautiful youth to one of his palaces1 he ordered his soldiers to surround it4 ,for he now plotted to convert to ,islam not only his ,hindu subjects but ,udero ,lal also4 ,but it was idle to strive to bind the ,indus river4 ,when the kazi and the surgeon came to convert him he had vanished4 ,the indignant ,marak resolved not to give his ,hindu subjects a day's more grace and announced that he would convert or kill them all that very evening4 ,they went to ,ratno's house4 ,there they found ,udero ,lal1 once more a baby in the cradle4 ,they prayed to the divine child and he bade them go to the river and sit in a temple that they would find there4 ,when all the ,hindus had assembled1 a fearful thunderstorm burst and fire from heaven consumed the palace of the governor and the houses of his officers4 ,marak1 ,aho and the kazi1 although badly burnt1 escaped from the conflagration and ran to the river4 ,there they saw a splendid temple and in it were seated ,udero ,lal1 once more a beautiful youth and round him thousands of ,hindus1 perfectly sheltered from the storm that had fallen on ,tatta4 ,the three wicked men fell at ,udero ,lal's feet and ,marak took a mighty oath never again to harass the ,hindus4 ,udero ,lal then bade the winds be still and the storm at once passed away4 ,udero ,lal vanished and so did the magic temple4 ,but the ,hindus built on the spot a real one of stone that stands to this day4 ,lights burn in it day and night and it is known as the ,khudio temple or the temple of ,refuge4 ,when the ,hindus went to ,nasarpur to tell ,ratno and ,devki how their child had helped them1 they found ,udero ,lal once more a baby sleeping peacefully in his cradle4 ,nothing further happened until ,udero ,lal was a little boy of six1 when his mother ,devki thought that he might help his father by hawking cooked gram too4 ,she gave him a tiny jar of cooked gram and bade him hawk it through the streets of ,nasarpur1 taking payment either in cash or in kind4 ,that evening ,udero ,lal brought back a huge pot full of grain and gave it to his mother4 ,this went on for several days until his parents grew more and more curious to know how he got grain many times its value for the cooked gram4 ,next day they followed him and they saw their little son go to the river bank and dip the jar of cooked gram into the water4 ,when he pulled it out again1 it had become a great pot brimming over with grain4 ,when ,udero ,lal was ten and old enough to be invested with the sacred thread1 he asked to be given a guru4 ,he took his father and mother to the river bank and found sitting near it the great ,god ,shiva4 ,udero ,lal went up fearlessly to the mighty ,god and told him that he had come in search of a guru4 ,the god replied 8,why do you1 who are the guru of gurus1 want a guru80 ,udero ,lal pleaded that even ,vishnu's avatars1 such as ,rama and ,krishna had had their gurus1 why then should one be denied to him8 ,it so chanced that the saint ,gorakhnath passed by at that moment and ,shiva bade him take ,udero ,lal as his pupil4 ,gorakhnath did so and taught him all his holiness and wisdom4 ,now ,udero ,lal had a cousin called ,phugar1 who was greatly attached to him4 ,he made ,phugar his disciple and taught him the learning which he had received from ,gorakhnath4 ,one day to test ,phugar's faith he told him that he wished to be alone and meditate4 ,but ,phugar refused to leave his master's side4 8,will you plunge with me into the ,indus80 asked ,udero ,lal4 8,where you go1 ,i go10 was the reply4 ,udero ,lal took his cousin's hand and dived into the river4 ,a few minutes later they came to the surface and found themselves in mid-stream between ,rohri and ,sukkur4 ,in front of them was a little island on which they climbed4 ,this was the famous island of ,zinda ,pir1 of whom more hereafter4 ,master and pupil stayed there some weeks until ,udero ,lal learnt that ,ratno and ,devki were both very ill at ,nasarpur4 ,he reached his birthplace in time to bid them farewell4 ,but their deaths preyed on his mind and he longed to rejoin the mighty river from which he had sprung4 ,he first called to him his elder brothers ,somo and ,bhayandev and bade them give up the things of this world and like ,phugar become his disciples4 ,but though they promised always to worship light and water1 they would not give up all and follow him4 ,udero ,lal then declared that ,phugar would be his only disciple4 ,he called him and gave him the following seven gifts3-- ,a ,var or ring that fulfilled every wish of the wearer4 ,a ,jot or lamp that gave to him who looked into its flame a vision of the ,most ,high4 ,a ,kanta or quilt that guarded the wearer from demons and from human weapons4 ,a ,deg or cooking pot that remained always full of food4 ,a ,tegh or sword that put to flight the five evil passions--kam or lust1 krodh or anger1 lobh or greed1 moh or love of the things of this world and ahankar or selfishness4 ,a ,jhari or pitcher that remained always full of ,ganges water4 ,a ,daklo or musical instrument that reproduced the songs sung in heaven4 ,when twelve years old ,udero ,lal bade ,phugar choose a spot1 whereon to build him a temple1 as he meant soon to leave the earth4 ,phugar chose an open field owned by a ,memon4 ,the saint asked the ,memon to give him the land4 ,the ,memon refused but offered to sell it4 ,udero ,lal scratched with his spear the surface of the earth and shewed the astonished ,memon treasures of gold and silver4 ,then he drove his spear deep into the ground and it became a mighty kabar tree4 ,the ,memon was so startled that he went away to take counsel of his wife4 ,on his return he bade the saint take the field as a gift4 ,all he asked1 was that he might be the majavar or attendant of ,udero ,lal's tomb4 ,the saint blessed him and promised him that his life long he would never lack food4 ,udero ,lal took another spear and smote the ground with it4 ,up spouted a fountain of clear water4 ,he mounted his horse2 the earth opened in front of him4 ,spurring his horse he leapt into the yawning pit4 ,at first ,phugar was broken-hearted and nearly died of grief4 ,one night he saw in a dream ,udero ,lal who bade him put away his grief and build a temple on the spot where the saint had vanished4 ,where the water had spouted from the ground he was to sink a well and near it to build a rest-house4 ,when the saint's wishes were known1 all ,nasarpur flocked to ,phugar's aid4 ,even the wicked ,marak and his minister and kazi offered their help4 ,but while the ,hindus wished to build a temple1 ,marak and the ,musulmans wished to build a mosque and quarrels broke out between them4 ,at last they resolved to take the advice of ,udero ,lal himself4 ,all one night they kept vigil until they heard a voice that said 8,in my sight there is neither caste nor creed40 ,pacified1 they built both mosque and temple4 ,of the temple ,phugar was made guardian and ,marak named the ,memon the mujavar of the mosque4 ,from that day on1 lamps have burnt night and day in both temple and mosque4 ,the rest-house built by ,phugar may be seen to this day and near it is the well1 which grateful pilgrims have called ,balambho or the well of ever-running water4 ,,jinda ,,pir4 ,in my last chapter ,i related how the saint ,udero ,lal and his disciple ,phugar1 after diving into the ,indus near ,nasarpur1 came to the surface between ,rohri and ,sukkur and landed on a rocky island4 ,the island is still there and bears on its rounded back a temple to ,zinda ,pir4 ,according to the ,hindus ,zinda or the living ,pir is none other than ,udero ,lal4 ,according to the ,musulmans he is somebody quite different4 ,according to the ,musulmans1 the river ,indus flowed once past ,alor and not past ,rohri4 ,somewhere in the tenth century ,a4,d4 a ,hindu king called ,dalurai ruled at ,alor4 ,he and his brother ,sasu ,rai practised every kind of abomination4 ,such were their wickedness and their vigour that they enforced the jus primae noctis on every young lady1 who was married within their dominions4 ,on one occasion a pious ,musulman merchant named ,shah ,hussein was going down the ,indus1 so that he might sail from its mouth to ,arabia and visit ,mecca4 ,with him journeyed his beautiful daughter4 ,on the way they stopped at ,alor and the beauty of the merchant's daughter was noised abroad and reached the ears of ,king ,dalurai1 who instantly demanded that she should be sent to his palace4 ,but neither ,shah ,hussain nor his daughter had any wish that she should become the concubine of a ,hindu king4 ,they both prayed fervently to ,zinda ,pir4 ,he appeared in a vision to the young girl and bade her and her father board their boat and weigh anchor4 ,they did so and the stream at ,zinda ,pir's command1 changed its course and leaving ,alor1 brought the boat and its burden to ,rohri4 ,when ,shah ,hussain awoke next morning1 he was close to ,udero ,lal's island4 ,to it he moored his boat and built the temple1 that stands there to this day4 ,on it are the words 8,darga ,ali40 ,these give the date #cda ,a4,h4 or #ifa ,a4,d4 ,the above tale explains the foundation of the temple but it does not tell us who the saint himself was4 ,earnest ,christians will hear with surprise that he is none other than their old friend the prophet ,elijah4 ,they will probably exclaim with ,molire's ,m4 ,gronte 8,mais que diable allait-il faire dans cette galre80 ,it was this way4 ,according to the ,islamic legend1 ,elijah was in a former life a very holy man indeed1 named ,balya ,ebn ,malkan4 ,because of the colour of his garment1 he was also known as ,al ,khisr or the ,prophet of the ,green robe4 ,balya ,ebn ,malkan was the contemporary of ,moses and in ,chapter #ah of the ,koran we find him going with ,moses on a most interesting circular tour4 ,the story is shortly this4 ,once the great ,jewish sage was preaching to his people with such wisdom and eloquence that at the close of his sermon1 they asked him whether there was any man in the world wiser than he was4 ,conscious of his great powers1 he replied in the negative4 ,that night ,god appeared to him in a dream1 rebuked him for his vanity and told him that his servant ,al ,khisr was wiser than he was4 ,moses asked where he could meet this paragon of wisdom4 ,god answered that ,moses would find ,al ,khisr near a rock where two seas met4 ,if ,moses took a fish with him in a basket1 the spot where he missed the fish would be the place where the prophet of the green robe dwelt4 ,moses took ,joshua and a fish with him and in due course missed the fish and found the prophet4 ,moses asked leave to be ,al ,khisr's disciple and to learn his wisdom4 ,al ,khisr answered that if ,moses came and suffered all that ,al ,khisr did without asking any questions he could be his disciple1 but not otherwise4 ,moses promised to do so and the two prophets went to the sea shore and boarded a ship4 ,al ,khisr at once made a hole in the bottom of it4 ,moses indignantly asked whether he wanted to drown every soul on board4 ,but his companion sternly reminded ,moses of his promise and left the ship4 ,a little later they met a youth4 ,al ,khisr struck him so violently on the head that he died at once4 ,moses angrily asked why he had taken an innocent life4 ,al ,khisr again rebuked him and went his way to a city4 ,there they saw a crumbling wall which the citizens could not repair4 ,al ,khisr touched the wall with his hand and it became as if it had been newly built4 ,moses asked him why he did not claim from the citizens a rich reward4 ,al ,khisr then turned on his unfortunate disciple and cast him forth4 8,three times0 said ,al ,khisr1 8you have broken your promise and questioned my acts4 ,you are not worthy to be my pupil4 ,i made a hole in the ship to save it from the king's men4 ,had it been seaworthy1 they would have taken the ship by force and given the owner nothing4 ,i killed the youth1 because although the son of true believers1 he was himself an unbeliever and ,i feared lest he should corrupt the faith of his parents4 ,i repaired the wall for nothing1 because hidden under it was a treasure1 which a righteous man had buried there before he died4 ,he left two orphan sons and it is ,god's will that when they reach man's state1 they shall find their father's treasure40 ,during ,al ,khisr's existence as ,balya ,ebn ,malkan he found and drank the waters of immortality4 ,that was why as ,elijah he did not die1 but was transported to heaven in a fiery chariot4 ,and because he drank the waters of immortality1 he is always connected with running water2 and with what nobler stream1 could he be associated than the ,indus1 as it passes through the ,sukkur gorge8 ,to-day the special duty of ,zinda ,pir is to help the ,indus boatmen when in distress4 ,his functions are thus similar to those of the ancient ,dioscuri1 of whom ,macaulay wrote3 8,safe comes the ship to harbour ,through billows and through gales ,if once the great twin brethren ,sit shining on the sails40 ,the ,indus is terribly dangerous in ,july and ,august1 when the mighty river swollen by the melting snows of the ,himalayas comes tearing and tossing through the gorge4 ,so one who has seen the ,indus in flood can never forget the sight4 ,it is then that the boatmen pray to ,al ,khisr4 ,to attend more closely to their prayers1 ,al ,khisr comes in person to his temple and for forty days sits in a little niche specially reserved for him4 ,the niche has comfortable cushions and in front of it is laid a copy of the ,koran4 ,the saint is invisible1 but the mujavars or attendants of the mosque or temple know that he has been there2 for when the forty days begin they place in front of the niche the ,koran open at the first page and when the forty days are past1 they find the ,koran open at the last page4 ,elijah has in his leisure moments read the ,koran from cover to cover4 ,,abdul ,,latif1 the ,author of ,,shah ,,jo ,,risalo4 ,abdul ,latif's grandfather ,shah ,karim was a ,sayad of ,matari and so celebrated for his piety that his mausoleum at ,bulree in the ,karachi ,district is still the scene of an annual fair4 ,shah ,karim was born in #aeeh ,a4,d4 and died it is said in #affj ,a4,d4 ,the tale runs that while ,shah ,karim was yet a boy1 he met a fakir in a mosque4 ,the fakir had been a soldier1 but the awful consequences of war had so preyed on his mind that he had deserted the army4 ,shah ,karim became the spiritual follower of this fakir and grew up so renowned a saint that it was commonly said that whereas ,bahawaldin1 a rival saint1 could make a live man dead1 ,shah ,karim could make a dead man alive4 ,shah ,karim removed to ,bulree and had three sons1 one of whom ,shah ,habib was the father of ,abdul ,latif1 the subject of our article4 ,the date of his birth is to be found in the ,persian line on his mausoleum4 ,gardeed mahw ishk wujoode ,latif ,meer4 7,the spirit of the lordly ,latif was absorbed in love74 ,according to the ,abjad system1 this gives the date of his death as #agea ,a4,d4 ,as he was sixty-three when he died1 he was born in #afhh ,a4,d4 ,he thus lived to see the establishment of the ,kalhora dynasty1 the invasion of ,nadir ,shah in #agci and that of ,ahmad ,shah ,durani in #agdh4 ,abdul ,latif fell in love with a beautiful ,moghul girl1 the daughter of one ,mirza ,beg4 ,he was said to be a descendant of ,mirza ,jani ,beg of the ,turkhan dynasty1 whose tombs are among the ,makli ,hills4 ,abdul ,latif serenaded the lovely girl in verses written by himself1 until he was ordered off the premises by her father4 ,undefeated1 he turned himself into a pigeon and cooed his love to the fair maiden from the trellis of her balcony4 ,even so ,mirza ,beg with a father's vigilance pierced his disguise and threatened to set his falcons on ,abdul ,latif1 unless he flew away4 ,the unhappy ,abdul ,latif went and sat on a sandhill and watched the house of the ,moghul girl with such devotion from afar1 that the sandhill grew round him until it had covered all but his head4 ,a goatherd ,jam by name who passed saw his head sticking out4 ,he told ,abdul ,latif's father1 ,shah ,habib1 who had his son dug up4 ,but ,abdul ,latif was still beside himself with amorous passion4 ,he went to a carpenter and induced him to hollow out a tamarisk tree1 that stood by itself in a cemetery4 ,latif got inside the hollow tree and looked out on the world through a single cleft4 ,in vain ,shah ,habib sought everywhere for his son4 ,at last his lamentations touched the heart of the carpenter1 who shewed him his son's hiding place4 ,shah ,habib took his son home1 but an evil fate overtook the carpenter4 ,as a punishment for betraying ,abdul ,latif's hiding place1 he became a leper4 ,shah ,habib licked the sores1 so that they healed1 all save one obstinate one that remained open on his forehead4 ,abdul ,latif did not stay long in his father's house1 but began to wander about ,sind4 ,one day he came to ,lakhpat4 ,there he saw some ,sami fakirs worshipping an idol1 probably of ,parvati4 ,they were pouring milk over it and as they did so1 they repeated 8,o ,grandmother1 drink this milk40 ,but the idol being of stone1 hearkened not at all4 ,latif went into the village1 bought a bowl full of milk and stood close to the idol4 ,in one hand he held his shoe and then he said to the idol 8,o ,grandmother of the ,samis1 drink this milk or ,i shall beat you with this shoe40 ,the idol no longer hearkened not4 ,terrified at the threat1 it drank up all the milk in the bowl4 ,the ,sami fakirs were filled with wonder and envy4 ,after ,abdul ,latif had left the spot1 they plotted to kill and eat him1 so as to obtain his supernatural powers4 ,they invited him to a feast1 intending to make their guest the principal dish4 ,but ,abdul ,latif by his inner knowledge guessed their wickedness and departed4 ,as he journeyed he met another fakir1 whose beautiful face was haggard and worn1 as if with care4 ,as the fakir walked1 he cried always 8,jhal fakir1 ,hal fakir 7,take it fakir1 go fakir740 ,abdul ,latif asked him why he did it4 ,the fakir refused to tell him1 unless ,abdul ,latif promised to help him to win what he sought4 8,if10 said the fakir1 8,i win my goal through your help1 ,i shall get you a ,burat or letter of salvation40 ,the saint gave his promise and the fakir told him what ailed him4 ,some months before he had met a jungle tribe and had daily begged from them4 ,whenever he did so1 a lovely maiden of the tribe had given him alms and as she gave them1 she repeated these words 8,jhal fakir1 ,hal fakir40 ,the beauty of the girl's voice and face had burnt into his brain4 ,when the tribe left1 he could think of nothing but of her and he set out to seek her4 ,as he went1 he repeated her words in the hope of finding her4 ,abdul ,latif by his inner knowledge soon located the jungle tribe4 ,with the fakir he went to their camp and began to recite to them his verses4 ,they were so charmed with the verses that they asked him to name his reward4 ,he told them to send the lovely girl to the hut wherein he had put his humble belongings4 ,the girl was sent and in the hut the fakir awaited her4 ,their eyes met1 but the storm of passion that swept over both of them was too mighty for their strength to bear4 ,they fell back lifeless into ,abdul ,latif's arms4 ,he called the girl's parents and told them the tale of the fakir's wooing and its tragic end4 ,at his request the man and the maiden were buried in the same grave4 ,that night ,abdul ,latif watched by the grave1 for he had not yet received the ,burat or letter of salvation4 ,at midnight a woman's hand rose from the grave and offered him a letter4 ,but ,abdul ,latif doubted the virtue of a ,burat that came from a woman4 8,i shall not take the ,burat10 he said1 8unless he who promised it to me gives it40 ,the girl's voice answered that that was impossible4 ,the fakir for very shame1 she said1 dared ask nothing from ,god4 ,he had not been able to hide his love but to the whole world had told his sorrows4 ,her love had been as ardent as his1 but she had had the strength to hide it4 ,it was at her request that ,god had given the ,burat and the saint must take it from her hands4 ,another time ,abdul ,latif went to ,kotri and there exposed the impostures of the ,mullas who surrounded the governor ,lalla ,beg4 ,at their instigation the cruel ruler ordered ,abdul ,latif to be impaled and then cut to pieces4 ,when the executioners went to ,shah ,latif's house to seize him1 they found him already dead and dismembered4 ,as they returned to tell ,lalla ,beg1 they saw the saint standing in the roadside alive and well4 ,they spoke of these marvels to ,lalla ,beg1 who at once remitted the sentence4 ,abdul ,latif1 before he started on his wanderings1 had1 because of his unsatisfied love for the ,moghul girl1 cursed the whole tribe of the ,moghuls1 who then lived in ,sind4 ,all this time his curse had been quietly working4 ,one by one they had died off1 including the hard-hearted ,mirza ,beg4 ,of all the ,moghul children only one boy ,gulla by name survived and the beautiful girl1 whom ,abdul ,latif loved4 ,freed from her father's cruelty by his death1 she no longer hesitated but sought out and found her lover4 ,with her she took her kinsman ,gulla4 ,abdul ,latif overjoyed at her coming recalled his curse and ,gulla lived to be the ancestor of many ,moghuls thereafter4 ,abdul ,latif1 or as we should now call him ,latif ,shah1 did not settle down to enjoy his wedded happiness at ,varsum1 where ,shah ,habib had lived and where he himself had been born4 ,near it was the tomb of an earlier saint ,nuh ,halani4 ,the jealous spirit of the dead saint envied ,latif ,shah's happiness and glory4 ,nuh ,halani's spirit haunted ,shah ,latif night and day4 ,in despair ,shah ,latif sought the aid of ,bahawal ,hak1 a holy man of ,multan4 ,he advised him to consult ,sayad ,mahmad ,massum ,shah4 ,the latter in turn advised him to migrate to ,bhitta1 then a desolate mound of sand4 ,latif ,shah obeyed the ,sayad1 but even at ,bhitta--tantaene animis caelestibus irae--he was not safe from persecution4 ,nuh ,halani changed the spirit of a former disciple into a huge snake and bade it bite the unhappy ,shah ,latif4 ,but the latter prayed to ,sayad ,mahmad ,massum ,shah and with his aid and his own sanctity1 he tamed the snake and kept it in a cage1 as a trophy of his victory4 ,nuh ,halani's descendant ,makhdum ,mahmad ,zaman could not bear the sight4 ,he redeemed the snake at the cost of a vast stretch of country and turning the snake again into a spirit1 sent it back to do service to ,nuh ,halani in the house of ,hades4 8,happy is the wooing that's not long in the doing10 is an old ,english proverb and perhaps it was of the long delay in the union of ,shah ,latif and his bride1 that they were not blessed with children4 ,two legends are told to account for this calamity4 ,one is that ,shah ,latif drew after him the son of one ,jani1 who in anger cursed the saint that his wife should bear him no sons4 ,latif ,shah accepted the curse and consoled himself with the remark that his disciples were his sons4 ,the second legend is that ,latif ,shah's wife1 a year after marriage1 was expecting a child4 ,after the manner of women in delicate health1 she had strange longings4 ,one day she sent her maid-servant to a great distance to get a certain kind of fish4 ,latif ,shah missed the maid-servant and asked whither she had gone4 ,on learning what had happened1 he flew into a rage--if ,i may say such a thing of so holy a man4 ,he cursed his unborn child1 saying 8,if the child gives all this trouble now1 what terrible trouble it will give when it is grown up6 ,may such a blossom be nipped in the bud40 ,the child was still-born and no other came to soothe the poor mother's grief4 ,it was at ,bhitta that ,shah ,latif wrote the ,shah jo ,rasalo4 ,when he had finished it1 his two faithful disciples ,tamar and ,hashim brought it to him4 ,as he read over the lines in which he had told the sorrows of ,saswi1 he exclaimed that the verses did not truly convey a spiritual meaning1 but were full of sinful passion4 ,as he said this1 he flung the great work into the ,kirar ,dandh1 a lake close by4 ,his horrified disciples beseeched him to let them write the ,shah jo ,rasalo from memory4 ,reluctantly he consented and the ,shah jo ,rasalo was saved4 ,shah ,latif died in #agea at the age of #fc1 three years after ,ahmad ,shah ,durani's invasion4 ,the saint's body lies in a splendid tomb designed by a celebrated mason of ,sukkur1 under the orders of ,ghulam ,shah ,kalhoro4 ,the door with silver bars was added by ,mir ,mahmad and a deep well for the use of pilgrims was sunk in the courtyard by one ,laung ,fakir4 ,the ,pir of the tomb is the descendant of ,jam the goatherd1 who found ,shah ,latif buried up to the neck in sand4 ,every ,friday night pilgrims keep watch by the tomb and sing passages from the saint's immortal poem4 ,this custom had its origin in a dream dreamt by his disciple ,hashim4 ,after his master's death1 he was ill of fever and could not get well4 ,one night ,shah ,latif appeared to him in a vision and bade him recite on the following ,friday some lines from the ,shah jo ,rasalo4 ,he did so and was cured4 ,,makhdum ,,niamat ,,ullah ,,and ,,makhdum ,,nuh4 ,early in the #ahth century the greatest saint in ,sind was ,makhdum ,niamat ,ullah1 the father of a still greater religious luminary1 the famous ,makhdum ,nuh4 ,so renowned was ,makhdum ,niamat ,ullah that an ancient fakir more than a hundred years old and known as ,la ,ikhtyar or the ,independent ,one was so affected by the stories told of the saintly ,makhdum ,niamat ,ullah1 that he gave up his independent life and went to ,torio in the ,hala taluka on the chance of seeing the object of his admiration4 ,torio was not ,makhdum ,niamat's usual place of residence1 but ,la ,ikhtyar had had a vision that it would be at ,torio that he would see the ,desired ,one4 ,after some weeks ,makhdum ,niamat ,ullah did go to ,torio on business and passed ,la ,ikhtyar1 as he sat on his cot4 ,at once the old fakir recognised the passer-by from the radiant glow on his countenance4 ,the fakir got off his cot and made the saint sit on it and knelt at his feet4 ,but as ,makhdum sat1 the fakir's tame birds of which he had a large number suddenly flew away4 ,the saint asked the reason and was told that he would be the father of a son who would love to shoot birds4 ,when the fakir's pets learnt this1 they had flown away in terror4 ,after bidding the fakir goodbye1 ,makhdum ,niamat ,ullah walked into the bazaar4 ,as he passed a ,hindu's shop1 the owner's wife fell so desperately in love with him1 that she begged him to take her away from her husband and marry her4 ,the saint could not stoop to such wickedness2 but to get rid of her importunities1 he promised to fetch her away that very night4 ,he left her and went to take a siesta in the shade of a high wall1 some streets away4 ,as he slept1 a certain ,amin1 the chief of the ,lankas1 passed by on his way to ,lower ,sind4 ,he had with him a comely marriageable daughter1 who at once fell in love with the sleeping saint4 ,amin woke up ,makhdum ,niamat ,ullah and offered his daughter to him in marriage4 ,the saint gladly accepted the offer and was married to the beautiful girl the same evening4 ,next morning the ,hindu woman saw the saint and going up to him1 reproached him for not keeping his tryst4 ,the saint explained that he was now a married man and must cleave to his wife4 ,he1 however1 blessed the amorous ,hindu lady and nine months from that very day1 she presented to her husband a son called ,zabhar4 ,on the same day as ,zabhar was born1 the wife of ,makhdum ,niamat ,ullah presented her lord with a son1 the celebrated ,makhdum ,nuh4 ,even as a tiny baby1 ,makhdum ,nuh shewed his precocious saintliness4 ,when only six days old1 he compelled the fakir ,la ,ikhtyar1 who was his devoted slave1 to go through the ceremony of becoming his disciple4 ,the fakir lived until his infantile preceptor was five years old2 then he died at the ripe age of #ajf and his tomb may still be seen at ,old ,hala4 ,his reputation for independence has survived him and many persons who are in difficulties still visit his tomb and ask the ,independent ,one for his advice4 ,makhdum ,nuh took to the ,koran1 as the proverbial duck takes to water4 ,at the age of seven he knew the mighty book by heart4 ,at the age of fourteen he was vouchsafed a vision of no less a personage than ,mahomed himself4 ,as ,makhdum ,nuh was washing in the river his slate on which he had written some lines of the ,koran1 he saw a boat approach4 ,in it were the ,prophet1 his son-in-law ,ali and ,huzrat ,isa or ,jesus4 ,the boat stopped and the ,holy ,prophet called ,makhdum ,nuh by name4 ,the boy went up to the boat and ,jesus took his slate and wrote on one side of it fourteen lines4 ,then ,ali took it and wrote on it eighteen lines and the boat glided away4 ,the astonished ,makhdum ,nuh took his slate to his teacher1 who found that what was written on it far transcended even his understanding4 ,he asked his pupil what hand had written the lines4 ,makhdum ,nuh told him about the three strangers in the boat2 thereupon his teacher guessed what had happened and embraced the boy1 as one to whom the ,prophet had vouchsafed a vision4 ,makhdum ,nuh became when he grew up1 as prophesied by the fakir1 a great bird-shot2 but he also worked many and mighty miracles4 ,his most famous achievement was connected with the great mosque at ,tatta4 ,this mosque had been built at a cost of many lakhs of rupees by the orders of the ,moghul ,emperor4 ,when it was completed1 the faithful noted with dismay that it did not correctly face the ,kaaba4 ,this was too dreadful for words2 for unless a mosque faces the ,kaaba properly1 it is useless4 ,the faithful1 too1 of ,tatta had been bragging loudly to their neighbours about their future mosque and they now would be exposed to their mocking laughter4 ,the faithful of ,tatta appealed to ,makhdum ,nuh4 ,he called to his aid another holy man ,ali ,shirazi and they assailed ,allah with continuous and soul-compelling prayers4 ,at first nothing happened and the faithful began to murmur discordantly at the failure of the two saints4 8,but verily0 as the ,koran has it1 8some suspicions are as sins40 ,another half hour's steady prayer and the great edifice began to quiver4 ,makhdum ,nuh then called on all true ,musulmans present to tie ropes to the building and pull it round2 and lo6 and behold6 under the combined pressure of the prayers of the saints and the pushings of the faithful1 the great mosque turned round slowly and then stopped dead4 ,it had come to face exactly in the true direction of ,mecca4 ,even a man so holy as ,makhdum ,nuh could not escape from the malice of mankind4 ,he had two great friends ,muzaffar and ,salar4 ,salar had promised his daughter in marriage to ,muzaffar's son4 ,unhappily a quarrel broke out between these two eminent men and ,salar refused to give his daughter4 ,now in ,sind marriageable girls are few and this was a home thrust4 ,muzaffar complained to ,makhdum ,nuh1 who after hearing both sides ordered ,salar to keep his promise4 ,salar obeyed1 la mort dans l'me2 but he vented his spleen by cursing the said saint in the following quatrain3 8,o ,makhdum1 you have done an act not pleasing to ,god2 ,you have set at nought what ,god had ordained4 ,you will suffer by having your corpse put in three different places after your death40 ,the curse of this impious blasphemer was unhappily fulfilled4 ,the river ,indus twice threatened the spot where ,makhdum ,nuh had been buried4 ,the second time the river approached so rapidly that the disciples had to remove their master's body in broad daylight instead of at night1 as was seemly4 ,heaven1 however1 came to their help4 ,as they began to lift the body from the grave1 the sky became overcast and a mist as thick as a ,london fog spread over the land1 so that none could see the decaying remains of one who in life had been strong and beautiful4 ,the saint's body found its last resting place about two miles to the west of ,old ,hala4 ,a small town has sprung up round the tomb and is known as ,murtazabad4 ,a beautiful mausoleum now stands over ,makhdum ,nuh's grave and the cupola over it was erected in #agie ,a4,d4 by ,mir ,fateh ,ali ,khan ,talpur4 ,on the tomb were engraved the following words in order to silence possible slanderers of the dead man3 8,if the wind were to blow furiously all over the world ,it could never extinguish the lamp of those accepted by the ,most ,high4 ,men who spit on a lamp1 lit by ,almighty ,god soon find that they have in their folly1 set fire to their own beards40 ,according to my chronicler1 these lines had an excellent effect4 ,they were the proper stuff to hand out to the back-biters4 ,,haidarabad4 ,haidarabad was once known as ,nerankot and the king of it was ,raja ,neran4 ,he had a beautiful daughter1 who1 from the exquisite skill with which she darkened her eyes with ,kanjal or lampblack1 reddened her cheeks with rouge and coloured her finger nails with henna1 was known as ,nigar or the ,painted lady4 ,her courage was1 if possible1 greater even than her beauty4 ,she scorned to ride camels or horses1 as other well born ,hindu ladies did4 ,the only beast she would bestride was a lion and every evening outside ,nerankot she might have been seen riding a splendid maned lion1 who1 when bridled by her1 was as docile as the meekest ambling palfrey1 to the touch of her finger on the reins4 ,nor would she suffer cowardice in others4 ,she vowed and made public her vow that she would wed no man who feared to saddle and mount a lion4 ,it so happened that ,shah ,makai and ,haidar ,ali came about this time to ,sind4 ,shah ,makai's real name was ,shah ,mahmud2 but because he lived at ,maka or ,mecca1 he was known as ,shah ,makai4 ,haidar ,ali's real name was ,ali4 ,but1 because as a child he had torn to pieces a live snake with his bare hands1 he was called ,haidar ,ali or the ,ali who tore the 8,hai0 or snake4 ,his fortune was as great as his childhood foretold2 for in due course he became the son-in-law of the holy prophet and the fourth ,imam of the ,faithful4 ,as the two friends journeyed through ,sind1 they came to hear the fame of ,nigar's beauty and courage4 ,straightway they hastened to ,nerankot and one evening ,shah ,makai saw the lovely girl astride of her lion1 riding outside the walls4 ,he fell madly in love with her4 ,then he heard that she had vowed not to marry anyone1 unless he could tame and mount a lion4 ,shah ,makai as a true and devout believer1 had but little difficulty in performing this feat and the next time that ,nigar rode abroad1 she saw to her surprise and pleasure ,shah ,makai astride of a maned lion1 hardly less majestic than her own4 ,she asked him who he was2 and learning that he had broken in the lion for love of her1 she vowed that she would wed him and no other4 ,shah ,makai sought an audience of ,neran ,raja and asked for his daughter's hand4 ,nigar1 too1 pressed her father to give his consent to the marriage4 ,but the proud king's heart was as hard as stone and although he heard the full tale of ,shah ,makai's courtship1 he refused to give his daughter to one who was not a ,hindu1 but a ,mleccha4 ,with contumely he drove ,shah ,makai from his ,court4 ,when ,nigar vowed that in spite of her father she would wed the bold ,arabian1 ,raja ,neran threw her into a well and had a huge stone put over its mouth4 ,the evil news reached ,shah ,makai4 ,he tried to move the stone2 but it was so big1 that even he1 saint though he was1 failed4 ,he implored the help of ,haidar ,ali4 ,to that pillar of ,islam the task was light4 ,he mounted his white mule ,dhul ,dhul and made it dance on the top of the stone4 ,then he dismounted and throwing himself at full length on the ground1 he prayed ,allah to remove it4 ,he had hardly finished his prayer1 when the stone rolled aside and ,nigar with ,haidar ,ali's help was able to climb out of the well4 ,he gave her to ,shah ,makai1 who carried her off in triumph4 ,but ,haidar ,ali cursed the wicked ,neran2 and stretching wide the five fingers of his right hand made the bhundo sign at him4 ,not long afterwards the curse was fulfilled4 ,the ,arabs landing on the sea coast of ,sind swept through the land1 stormed ,nerankot and killed ,raja ,neran4 ,for many centuries ,nerankot lay in ruins4 ,then the wise and pious ,ghulam ,shah ,kalhoro came to the spot and deeming it well fitted for the site of his capital city1 he rebuilt ,nerankot4 ,while the new fortress was building1 he raised a small mud stronghold close to the spot where ,shah ,makai and the beautiful ,painted ,lady were in their old age buried side by side4 ,when ,nerankot was finished1 ,ghulam ,shah ,kalhoro went to live in it and renamed it ,haidarabad after ,haidar ,ali4 ,he gave his mud stronghold to the ,fakirs who guarded ,shah ,makai's tomb4 ,up to ,burton's time a lion--said to be a descendant of ,nigar's riding lion--used to be kept in a cage under a tamarind tree1 close to ,shah ,makai's last resting place4 ,the tree still stands1 but the lion has vanished4 ,the rise in the price of lion's food was no doubt the cause of its disappearance4 ,about a quarter of a mile from the tomb of ,shah ,makai is another small but holy building known as ,shah ,kadam4 ,within it are preserved the stones on which ,haidar ,ali's white mule ,dhul ,dhul did its miracle-working dance4 ,its hoof marks may still be seen stamped deep in the stone4 ,by its side a slab bears the marks of ,haidar ,ali's hands1 knees1 feet and forehead1 which he made when he prostrated himself in prayer before ,allah4 ,and a third stone bears the marks of the saint's fingers and thumb when he made the bhundo at ,raja ,neran4 ,so violent was the ,imam's curse that it has lived on1 monumentum aere perennius4 ,the well into which ,nigar was thrown is one of the three inside ,nerankot1 but none could tell me with certainty which it was4 ,perhaps the most interesting relic of that golden time is a great 8djar0 tree that grows near ,shah ,makai's tomb4 ,the guardian of the shrine assured me that it had grown from a bit of stick1 which the saint had one day used as a toothbrush and then carelessly thrown aside4 ,,brahmanabad4--,i4 ,the ruined town of ,brahmanabad1 probably the most interesting spot in ,sind1 lies about eleven miles from ,shahdadpur4 ,a road sufficiently good for a ,ford ,car leads thither and a run there on a cold weather morning is a bracing and exhilarating experience4 ,when ,brahmanabad is reached one sees1 as far as the eye can range1 an endless waste of brick ruins1 the site of a once mighty city4 ,it flourished in the time of ,alexander4 ,it was still great in the eighth century when ,mahomed ,kasim invaded ,sind4 ,what caused its downfall8 ,the whole question was admirably discussed in #ahed by ,mr4 ,bellasis of the ,indian ,civil ,service4 ,his conclusion was that the city had been overwhelmed by an earthquake1 which at the same time changed the bed of the ,indus1 formerly close by the city walls and the source of its greatness4 ,the destruction of ,brahmanabad1 wrote ,mr4 ,bellasis1 was so complete that it could not have been caused by a fire or by a hostile force4 ,there were1 moreover1 no signs of fire4 ,there were quantities of jewellery among the ruins1 which neither fugitive inhabitants nor an enemy would have left4 ,at the same time there were many skeletons visible in corners and doorways--the skeletons of men and women overwhelmed1 no doubt1 as they sought to escape4 ,the skeletons have long ago gone to manure the neighbouring fields1 just as the bricks of the houses in which they once lived are to be found in the villages round about4 ,still we may safely accept the evidence of ,mr4 ,bellasis as well as the accuracy of his conclusions4 ,but if ,brahmanabad was overwhelmed by an earthquake1 what were the circumstances attending it8 ,we have no historical record4 ,but there exist two legends--a ,musulman and a ,hindu legend4 ,they differ widely from each other1 only agreeing in this that the end of ,brahmanabad came because of ,god's wrath at the wickedness of its ruler1 ,dalu ,rai4 ,i shall relate the ,musulman legend first4 ,it is to be found in the ,tufat-ul-,kiram and runs somewhat as follows3 ,once upon a time there ruled over the city of ,brahmanabad a ,hindu king1 called ,dalu ,rai 7,may ,allah confound him67 whose wickedness is still well remembered in the land of ,sind4 ,he had1 however1 a brother called ,chota ,amrani1 who had given up kufar or ingratitude and had won immortal happiness by embracing ,islam4 ,he had left ,brahmanabad and had committed to memory the whole ,koran and also all the customs of the ,true ,believers4 ,on his return to the city his relatives wanted him to marry2 but ,king ,dalu ,rai said with a cruel sneer 8,he is a renegade4 ,let him go on a pilgrimage to ,mecca and there wed the daughter of some famous ,arab2 but he shall not marry the daughter of any ,hindu subject of mine60 ,chota ,amrani feared to stay longer in ,brahmanabad1 so he set out on a pilgrimage to ,mecca4 ,after many hardships and dangers he reached the ,holy ,city4 ,as he walked through the streets1 he passed a shop1 wherein a woman1 instead of attending to her customers was reading aloud the ,koran4 ,chota ,amrani stopped to listen4 ,the woman saw him and asked him why he did not pass on4 8,i have stopped10 said ,chota ,amrani1 8to listen to the words of ,holy ,writ4 ,i have learnt the ,koran by heart2 but if you will teach me its various readings1 ,i shall become your slave40 8,nay10 said the woman1 8,i am not fit to teach you4 ,i have a teacher of my own4 ,she is a maiden and you cannot enter her home in a man's dress4 ,but if you change your clothes and dress like a girl1 ,i shall take you to her40 ,chota ,amrani who was still quite young and without any beard on his chin1 agreed4 ,he dressed up as a girl and was taken to the house of the learned maiden by the woman in the shop4 ,the maiden's name was ,fatima and she readily undertook the instruction of the foreign girl1 who had come from so far off to see ,mecca4 ,one day the shopwoman asked ,fatima some questions concerning the marriage of her daughter4 ,fatima1 who was skilled in astrology as well as in matters religious1 answered the questions with ease4 ,chota ,amrani then to test the maiden said 8,as you can tell the future of others1 you can surely tell your own future40 ,fatima replied 8,my fate is to be married to a man from ,sind40 8,but when80 asked the astonished visitor4 8,in no long time10 replied ,fatima4 8,but where is the man80 asked ,chota ,amrani4 ,fatima pretended to consult her astrological books and said with a smile 8,you are the man40 ,then she added 8,begone and come no longer in the garb of a girl4 ,put on a man's dress and ask formally for my hand1 for ,i am destined to be yours40 ,chota ,amrani1 abashed at the penetration of his disguise1 went away and returned dressed as a man4 ,he formally asked for the hand of ,fatima4 ,his request was granted and she became his wife4 ,after two or three months had passed1 ,chota ,amrani told ,fatima that he must take her back with him to ,sind4 ,fatima made no objection and they set sail for the land of the ,indus river4 ,when they reached ,brahmanabad1 they found that ,dalu ,rai had recently issued a law that every young married woman should be brought to his couch for at least one night4 ,he therefore demanded that ,chota ,amrani should send ,fatima to his palace4 ,chota ,amrani refused and ,dalu ,rai did nothing for the moment4 ,but one day when ,chota ,amrani was absent from the city1 ,dalu ,rai forced his way into his brother's house and tried to seduce ,fatima4 ,the noble lady virtuously resisted all his efforts to lead her astray and fortunately before he could use violence to her1 ,chota ,amrani returned4 ,he drove the wicked king from his house and instantly left ,brahmanabad with ,fatima4 ,as he left1 a voice from heaven was heard to say 8,this city will soon be swallowed because of its king's wickedness4 ,let those who are warned flee from the accursed spot or keep watch against the day of atonement40 ,a few obeyed and shook from their feet the dust of the doomed city1 but most of the people paid no heed4 ,the first night the city was spared1 because an old woman working at a wheel kept awake all night1 as the voice had commanded4 ,the second night an oil presser kept watch unceasingly4 ,but the third night the inhabitants forgot the divine warning4 ,suddenly1 while all slept the entire city was swallowed up4 ,of all its splendid buildings only one minaret remained1 as an example and a warning to other kings and peoples4 ,,brahmanabad4--,,ii4 ,now let us turn to the ,hindu legend which ,i came across in a ,sind magazine4 ,it ran as follows3-- ,once upon a time ,brahmanabad1 now a heap of ruins1 was the glory of all ,sind4 ,it stood on an oasis in the desert2 and to guard its people from sudden raids by desert tribes1 one of its kings had built round it a great wall4 ,beneath the wall flowed the river ,indus1 on whose waters the merchant ships of ,brahmanabad carried the city's commerce up and down ,sind4 ,inside the walls were rich houses1 countless gardens1 and a mighty tower1 that served as a landmark for miles around4 ,about a mile and a half from ,brahmanabad was the royal suburb of ,dalor in which stood the king's palace and the quarters of his guards4 ,some five miles from ,brahmanabad stood the suburb of ,depur4 ,therein lived the ministers with their public offices and their record-rooms and storehouses4 ,along the banks of the river was a collection of huts1 wherein lived a wild gipsy tribe known as ,madu4 ,they lived by selling milk and ghi to the rich burghers of ,brahmanabad4 ,the reigning ,king ,amrai was beloved by his people and when his queen died1 he would not give her place to another4 ,he devoted his life to the upbringing of their only son1 prince ,dalu ,rai4 ,unhappily so evil was the lad's nature1 that the more care the king spent on him the worse he grew4 ,he gathered round him a band of bad companions and all day and every day the royal palace resounded with the cries of the prince's victims4 ,at last the king out of all patience1 shut up his son in the tall tower which looked over the country round ,brahmanabad4 ,but the fickle mob at once turned round4 8,what a cruel father60 they cried4 8,fancy treating thus the heir to the throne60 ,king ,amrai consulted his ministers and they advised him to free his son1 but at the same time to put in charge of him some wise and virtuous old man1 who by example and precept would show him the error of his ways4 ,king ,amrai thought their advice good and freeing the prince1 appointed a wise old man to look after him and to teach him4 ,although the king said nothing to ,dalu ,rai1 the latter guessed1 when an aged pandit called on him1 that he was in some way to be over him4 ,he instantly resolved to treat the old man in such a way that neither he nor any other old man in the kingdom would accept the post again4 ,he pretended to listen with the greatest attention to all the old man's words and seemed so eager to do what was right1 that the sage thought the prince the most charming of pupils4 ,after some hours of talk1 the prince made his master dine with him4 ,during the meal the old man talked as one inspired2 and as he talked1 the prince's servants filled his glass over and over again with drugged wine4 ,before the meal was over the poor old pandit was fast asleep4 ,the prince had him put to bed and as he lay asleep1 the prince's barber shaved off the sage's moustaches and stuck in their place crow's feathers4 ,next morning when the old man awoke1 he passed his hand over his face and found the horrible thing that had been done to him4 ,he rose1 fled from the prince's house and threw himself at ,king ,amrai's feet and told him of the prince's cruel trick4 ,the king soothed the old man as best he could2 but he was so affected1 that he never shewed himself in the ,darbar ,hall again4 ,the prince was thus free to act as he pleased4 ,one evening he and his good for nothing companions went out a-hawking4 ,game was scarce and their hawks caught nothing4 ,at last they reached a well near a ,madu hamlet not far from the town4 ,vexed at their ill luck1 they loosed their hawks at some tame pigeons that belonged to the villagers and happened to be circling near the well4 ,all the pigeons but one took shelter in their dovecotes4 ,one pigeon flew into the air followed by the prince's hawk4 ,for some time the two birds soared in the air1 one unable to rise above the other4 ,at last the hawk's strong wings bore it above the pigeon and it made its swoop4 ,the frightened pigeon dropped like a stone to the ground at the feet of a ,madu maiden of #af1 who was filling her jar at the well4 ,the girl picked up the pigeon and stroking its feathers put it in her bosom4 ,the hawk robbed of its prey1 flew back to perch on the wrist of the prince's huntsman4 ,the prince rode up to the girl and with an evil smile on his lips1 told her that she might keep the pigeon4 ,he would not hunt it now that it had taken shelter in her bosom4 ,the girl turned on him scornfully and said 8,a fine hunter you are to hawk a tame pigeon60 ,the prince pretended to be sorry for what he had done and then asked the girl to give him a drink of water from her jar4 ,but the ,madu maiden disliking his looks and tone1 told him to get one of his servants to fetch water for him4 ,but the prince pressed her1 pleading that their horses were restive4 ,reluctantly the girl went close to him to give him a cup of water4 ,suddenly he caught her by the waist and swung her in front of him4 ,a moment later he and his companions were riding as fast as they could to the prince's palace4 ,some ,madu men ran after them but in vain4 ,the prince carried off the girl and the men with him said in jest 8,the prince's hawk lost its prey1 but the prince had better luck60 ,as the party neared the palace1 they passed an aged ,brahman1 who1 hearing the cries of the struggling girl1 begged the prince to free her4 ,but ,dalu ,rai only snarled at him to mind his own business4 ,the ,brahman1 who was a mighty anchorite1 flew into a passion and cursed him4 8,as a punishment for your cruelty10 he cried1 8you will never live to be old4 ,your city will be destroyed and you will perish with it so suddenly1 that you will not have time to give even a handful of grain in charity60 ,the prince paid little heed to the anchorite's curse1 but bore his prey inside the palace4 ,there he found everyone excited as the princess had just borne her lord a son4 ,but the prince pushed past his servants and took the ,madu girl to a distant part of the palace and there tried to win her consent4 ,but she scornfully rejected his promises of rich clothes and fine jewels4 ,at last when he had lost all patience and was about to offer her violence1 he heard a knock at his door4 ,it was a messenger who brought the news that ,king ,amrai was dead4 ,at the same time he told the prince that ,banbho1 one of his associates wished to speak to him most urgently4 ,the prince was unwilling to leave the ,madu girl1 but he could not refuse so grave a message1 especially as ,banbho was not only the wickedest but by far the wisest of his evil companions4 ,the prince went out1 locked the door behind him1 and took ,banbho into another room4 ,the news ,banbho brought was of the gravest4 8,the news ,i bring1 my ,prince10 he said slowly1 8is as bad as it can be4 ,unless you act at once this palace of yours is certain to become your prison4 ,the late king was angry with you1 as you know1 and before he died1 he had engraved as his will on a brass plate that you were never to sit on the throne4 ,in your stead the ministers were to put your son if you had one1 and if not1 your distant cousin4 ,now that a son has been born to the princess1 think what a handle your enemies will have against you6 ,they will put you in prison and make your infant son king of ,brahmanabad4 ,you must act at once60 ,banbho's plan was simple4 ,it was to proclaim the prince as king in ,brahmanabad and then to gallop with every available man to ,depur where the ministers had assembled to carry out the late king's wishes4 ,banbho taking some men with him1 first rode through the streets of ,brahmanabad1 shouting 8,victory to ,dalu ,rai ,maharaj60 ,the crowd at once caught up the cry and were soon shouting 8,victory to ,dalu ,rai ,maharaj0 through every lane and byway in the city4 ,this done1 ,banbho returned to the prince's palace and he and the prince and his companions and all the guards whom they could muster1 set off together at headlong speed for ,depur4 ,while ,banbho was thus rousing his master to action1 the prime-minister and the commander-in-chief and the principal nobles of ,brahmanabad were seated together in one of the council rooms of ,depur4 ,the prime-minister1 respected above all for his age and wisdom and for his faithful service of the late king1 put before his colleagues the brass plate of ,king ,amrai and proposed that they should take instant steps to seize the person of ,dalu ,rai and put his newly born son on the throne4 ,several of the nobles objected strongly4 ,for all their respect for the late king and their dislike of ,dalu ,rai1 they disliked still more the coronation of a newly born infant with all the dangers of a long regency4 ,while they were in high debate1 the commander-in-chief heard a noise in the courtyard and guessing its cause1 said with a smile and a shrug of his shoulders3 8,i am afraid we are too late1 gentlemen4 ,the prince has come in person to settle the succession40 ,dalu ,rai and ,banbho followed by their troopers rushed up the stairs and ,banbho knocking at the door1 demanded entrance in the king's name4 ,receiving no answer1 he caught up a heavy pickaxe and with a single blow broke open the lock4 ,the door flew open and the prince and his men rushed in4 ,many of the nobles at once joined him4 ,but the chief minister and a few others remained seated4 ,as the prince stepped forward1 the prime-minister gave him the brass plate on which was engraved his father's will4 ,the prince read it and glowing with rage 8from his topknot to his toenails10 rushed at the old man4 ,both sides drew their swords4 ,a fight ensued1 but it was soon over4 ,the prime-minister and the commander-in-chief lay dead on the ground and the rest surrendered4 ,dalu ,rai would at once have gone back to the ,madu maiden2 but ,banbho who 8had a crow's wisdom0 prevailed on him to spend the day and the following night on the late king's funeral ceremonies4 ,all day long and all that night ,dalu ,rai's thoughts were far away with his unhappy captive4 ,next morning ,banbho pressed him to hold a ,darbar and win over the state officers and townspeople by concessions and gifts4 ,but ,dalu ,rai could restrain himself no longer4 8,you spoiler of pleasure60 he cried angrily to ,banbho1 8,i am not going to hold a ,darbar6 ,tell my officers that ,i am too stricken with sorrow to hold one40 ,with these words ,king ,dalu ,rai left ,banbho to manage as best he could1 and rode off with all speed to the conquest of the ,madu maiden4 ,unluckily for him1 he had carelessly left behind him his dagger when summoned by ,banbho4 ,the ,madu girl had picked it up and when the wicked king would have caught her in his arms she pointed the dagger at him and threatened to stab him if he came near her4 ,as he stood uncertain what to do1 he heard cries outside his palace 8,maharaja6 ,maharaja60 ,dalu ,rai went to the verandah and looking down saw his courtyard full of frightened people4 8,maharaja1 save us60 they cried4 8,brahmanabad will be destroyed40 ,dalu ,rai looked towards the horizon and saw a huge mass of sand like a tidal wave advancing on ,brahmanabad4 ,the sky was as black as pitch4 ,the sun was hidden and the ,indus had left its course and seemed to be fleeing before the sandstorm4 ,as he gazed at the fearful scene1 a voice cried3 8,to-day ,brahmanabad shall perish because of its ruler's wickedness60 ,the king remembered the anchorite's curse and would have ridden away leaving his city and his people to their fate4 ,but as he walked to the door a youth with drawn sword barred his way4 8,who are you80 asked the king4 8,i am your death10 was the grim answer4 ,the king had no other wish but to flee from the doomed town2 but the youth would not let him pass4 ,at last the king drew his sword and the two men fought4 ,the youth was skilled in swordmanship but even so he was no match for ,dalu ,rai1 who was a master of the art4 ,in a few minutes the king drove his sword through the youth's heart and bending over him dragged him into the ,madu maiden's room4 ,as he did so1 the girl drove her dagger into his back4 8,why did you strike me80 asked the dying king4 8,was the youth your kinsman80 8,he was my betrothed10 said the girl with white lips and blazing eyes4 ,the king fainted and life left him4 ,the girl took some wood from the hearth where a fire was burning and lit the drapery in the room4 ,in a few minutes it was blazing4 ,the fire spread to the rest of the palace and it was soon a burning mass4 ,at the same time the sand reached the walls of ,brahmanabad4 ,the burghers sought flight in all directions1 but flight was useless4 ,the sandwave caught them and stifled them1 until at last there was not a living soul left in ,brahmanabad4 ,the curse of the anchorite had been fulfilled to the letter4 ,,the ,,eighth ,,key4 ,once upon a time there ruled over ,sind a king1 who throughout his reign had been distinguished for wisdom and justice2 but he had grown old and had only one son1 born to him by one of his queens1 when he was in the evening of his life4 ,his darling wish was to see his son of an age to succeed him before he died4 ,but as kings even are only pawns in the hands of the great chessplayer1 his hope was never fulfilled4 ,feeling death approach1 he sent for his chief minister and gave him the eight keys of his eight treasure chambers4 8,guard the throne for my son10 said the dying man1 8and when he is of an age to rule by himself1 give him seven of the eight keys2 but do not give him the eighth until he has ruled for five years40 ,the chief minister promised faithfully to do his master's bidding and the old king died in his arms4 ,the young prince was duly raised to the throne and the chief minister watched over him as if he had been his own son4 ,when the prince came of age1 he succeeded to a rich and prosperous kingdom and the minister handed over to him1 just as the old king had desired1 seven out of the eight keys4 ,with the seven keys the prince opened seven treasure vaults and found them chock full of silver and gold pieces and precious stones of every description4 ,he was pleased beyond measure2 and he felt deeply grateful to the faithful minister1 who had discharged his trust so well and while keeping the people happy had made their king rich beyond the dreams of avarice4 ,for a time all went well2 then some evilminded old man1 who envied the chief minister1 told the king that there were really eight treasure vaults and that the minister had not handed over the eighth key1 so that he might keep for himself the contents of the eighth treasure vault4 ,in a great rage the young king sent for the chief minister and demanded on pain of instant death the eighth key4 ,the old statesman fell at his young master's feet and telling him with many tears the whole story handed him the eighth key4 ,the king was so excited at the tale1 that he snatched away the key and running as fast as he could to the eighth treasure vault1 turned the key in the lock and flung open the door4 ,to his amazement the room was absolutely bare1 save for the portrait of a beautiful girl1 that hung on one of the walls4 ,the king's eyes ran round the empty room and then they rested on the face in the picture4 ,there they stayed until the youth fell so deeply in love with the beautiful girl1 that he grew gradually fainter and at last swooned away4 ,the minister and the courtiers sprinkled rosewater over their prostrate master and at last revived him2 but he vowed that unless the minister promised to bring him the lovely picture maiden1 he would not only refuse to reign1 but would starve himself to death4 ,the old minister was dismayed at the state of the king and soothed him by telling him that he would at once set out to fetch the beautiful girl4 ,he loaded a vessel full of merchandise of all descriptions and with some chosen companions weighed anchor and set sail for the open sea4 ,they touched at various ports1 but although they shewed the chief men there the portrait found in the eighth chamber1 none recognised it4 ,at last after the voyage had lasted a whole year1 they reached a distant haven and there they shewed their picture4 ,the people standing by clapped their hands and cried out 8,why1 it's our own princess60 ,the minister was taken to the king and queen who shewed them their daughter and all agreed that she was the original of the portrait4 ,the minister told the king that he was a merchant and after giving the king splendid gifts stayed in the country until he had sold all his merchandise4 ,he then turned his prow homewards and many months later he was able to tell his king that the lovely picture maiden had been found4 ,without a moment's delay the king vowed that he would seek her himself4 ,again filling the vessel with merchandise1 the king1 the minister and the some band of trusty companions went on board and weighing anchor1 they set sail for the distant land wherein the princess dwelt4 ,after a voyage of several months and many hardships1 they reached it and the minister again presented himself in the guise of a merchant before the princess' father4 ,on his earlier visit the minister had learnt that the princess was very fond of toys2 so he had brought for her a number of toys1 in the making of which the people of his country were very skilled4 ,there were toy dogs that ran for miles1 toy lions and tigers that roared horribly1 toy partridges that rose with a whirr just like live ones1 toy pheasants that flew up slantwise into the air and toymen who walked about and talked just as if they had been real4 ,the princess gave a cry of delight on seeing all these wonderful play-things2 but the minister said 8,these are nothing to what you will see1 if you will visit our ship4 ,my master the merchant who is on board would only let me bring the commonest toys ashore40 ,the princess was wild to see the other toys and taking six maid-servants with her went with the minister to the seashore and aboard the ship4 ,there the young king received her with the greatest courtesy and respect and began to shew her other toys4 ,but as she was looking at them and clapping her hands at each fresh one1 the crew quietly cut the anchor cable and were out to sea1 before the princess or her friends on shore had any idea what was happening4 ,when the poor princess found that she had been taken captive1 she wept bitterly1 but the king soothed her and told her how he had fallen in love with her picture and had sailed across half the world to win her4 ,at last she dried her eyes and promised to be his queen directly the ship brought them to his country4 ,the journey took many weary months1 but at last they were only three days sail off and the king and betrothed1 as happy as possible1 together were walking up and down the deck1 hand in hand4 ,the chief minister was sitting in the bows straining his eyes trying to get a glimpse of the land4 ,now among the old man's many accomplishments was the power to understand the speech of birds4 ,as he looked landwards1 he saw a parrot and a maina fly to the ship and perch in the rigging4 ,after a little while the maina felt dull and begged the parrot to tell her a story4 ,at first the parrot demurred1 then he said3 8,there is a story going on before your very eyes4 ,you see how happy the king and queen seem to be8 ,well1 the king has only three more days to live6 ,when he lands three days hence1 he will be met by his officers and his troops1 his elephants1 his horses and his chariots4 ,he will be given the most beautiful horse of all to ride2 but that horse is not really a horse at all1 but a demon4 ,directly the king is on its back1 it will fly away with him into the air and will then drown him by flinging him into the sea40 ,the maina was affected to tears by this story2 for she loved the parrot dearly and knew how the princess would grieve at the loss of her betrothed4 8,is there no way10 cried the maina1 8by which the king can be saved80 8,yes1 my beloved10 answered the parrot1 8there is one way4 ,if someone goes up to the horse just before the king mounts it and cuts its head off1 the king will be saved4 ,but do not repeat what ,i have told you2 for if anyone repeats it1 one third of his or her body will be turned into stone40 ,the parrot and the maina then flew away1 leaving the minister1 who had understood all that they had said1 a prey to the cruelest anxiety4 ,next day the parrot and the maina flew back to the ship and perched in the rigging4 ,the minister on seeing them went back to his seat in the bows of the ship1 so that he might listen to what they said4 ,the maina said 8,tell me1 please1 what will happen to the king1 if he escapes from the demon horse8 ,will he not wed the princess and live happily ever afterwards80 8,nay1 my heart's desire10 said the parrot1 8the king and the princess will never1 ,i fear1 be happy together4 ,even although the king escapes from the demon horse he will still be in the gravest peril4 ,during the wedding the king will see a beautiful gold plate4 ,he will be so pleased with it1 that he will pick it up and pass it round among his courtiers to collect alms for the ,brahmans1 who are conducting the ceremony4 ,but he will not live to pass the plate to all his courtiers1 for it is poisoned and as he passes it round1 the poison on it will enter the pores of his skin and will kill him in a few seconds40 ,the poor maina was as much upset at this story as she had been at the other4 8,is there no way10 she sobbed1 8to save the poor king80 8,yes1 my beloved10 answered the parrot1 8if anyone were to put on gloves and snatch away the plate before the king can handle it1 he will be saved4 ,but do not repeat what ,i have told you1 for if you do1 a third of your body will be turned into stone40 ,shortly afterwards1 the parrot and the maina flew away1 leaving the minister sadder even than he had been the previous day4 ,the next day1 which was the last of the voyage1 the disheartened minister went and sat in the prow of the ship1 to hear anything more that the parrot might say to the maina4 ,he had not been seated more than a few minutes before the two birds came and perched a few feet above his head4 8,dear ,parrot10 said the maina1 8if the king is not poisoned by the plate1 will he and the princess not even then marry and live happy together ever afterwards80 8,nay1 well beloved1 even then the king will not live long enough to make the princess happy4 ,after the wedding ceremony1 the king and the princess will be so tired that directly their heads touch the pillow1 they will go off to sleep4 ,while they are asleep1 a snake that lives in the roof of the bridal chamber will drop poison from his fangs on to the princess' cheek4 ,when the king wakes out of his first sleep and kisses the princess1 he will touch the poison with his lips and will die instantly40 ,the maina was dreadfully sorry to hear this new danger and asked tearfully whether there was no way by which the king could escape from that death also4 8,yes1 well beloved10 said the parrot1 8there is one chance of his escape1 but it is so remote that the king is sure to die4 ,if someone were to hide himself in the bridal chamber until the poison fell and kissed the princess' cheek1 the king would be saved2 nor would his saviour die either if he drank at once a large glass of milk4 ,but do not tell anyone about this1 for if you do a third of your body will be turned into stone40 ,the two birds then flew away4 ,the minister was in despair1 but he was a brave and loyal man and he resolved to save his master1 even if it cost him his life4 ,when the king landed and tried to mount the demon horse1 the minister drew his sword and with a single stroke cut its head off4 ,the king was very angry and asked the minister why he had done it2 but the minister dared not explain for fear of a third part of his body being turned into stone4 ,the king could not understand it1 still in view of the minister's great services he forgave him4 ,the wedding ceremonies of the king and his bride were celebrated with great splendour2 and in the middle of them1 the king seeing a beautiful gold plate stretched out his hand to take it and to collect alms for the officiating ,brahmans4 ,the minister at once pushed past the king and with a gloved hand1 seized the golden plate and threw it far away into a running stream4 ,the king was still more angry especially as the minister1 afraid of being turned into stone1 would not say why he had done it4 ,after the wedding ceremonies were over1 the king and queen tired out with the fatigues of the day went to rest2 and so sleepy were they that directly their heads touched their pillows1 they fell asleep4 ,the minister1 however1 had hidden himself behind a screen in the bridal chamber4 ,he saw the snake come out of his hiding place in the roof1 wriggle along a beam and then drop poison on the face of the sleeping queen4 ,he stepped up to the bed1 kissed the poison off the queen's face and then took a deep draught of milk4 ,the queen woke up on feeling the kiss and roused the king4 ,they were both very angry at seeing the minister in their room and the king called to his guards to seize the minister and hang him early next morning from the battlements of the palace4 ,the guards seized the poor old minister and took him to prison4 ,there the old man asked to see the king before he died1 as a last favour4 ,the king had not the heart to refuse it4 ,the minister was taken in chains to the royal palace and there he poured out the whole truth4 ,but as he related how the parrot had warned him about the demon horse1 his feet and legs turned to marble2 then as he told about the poisoned plate1 his body as far as his armpits turned to marble2 lastly when he had finished the tale of the poison dropped by the snake1 his head and shoulders became marble1 too4 ,the king was at first too astonished to do anything and then he wept bitterly at the awful fate that had overtaken his loyal and faithful servant4 ,he put the petrified body in a room in his palace and daily for several years prostrated himself at its feet to shew his sorrow4 ,in course of time the queen bore him a son and every day he used to bring the little boy into the minister's room to shew him what a good and true servant he had once had4 ,one day when the little boy was three years old1 the very same parrot and maina1 that had perched in the ship's rigging1 flew into the minister's room and began talking to each other4 ,the king just because he was standing close to the minister was able to follow what they were saying4 ,the parrot said to the maina 8,the king is very sad at the fate of his minister2 but he could bring him back to life now1 if he wanted to40 8,how could he80 asked the maina4 ,the parrot answered 8,if he kills his own son and sprinkles his blood over the stone body1 the minister will become flesh and blood once more40 ,the king thought long and deeply where his duty lay2 at last he felt that he owed more to the faithful minister who had saved his life three times than to his son4 ,he drew his sword1 cut off the little boy's head and sprinkled his blood over the marble body4 ,the minister at once came to life again4 ,nor was this all4 ,the minister learning of the death of the little prince prayed so earnestly to ,god to bring him back to life that his prayer was granted4 ,the king then took the minister and the little prince to the queen's room and told her all that had happened4 ,she agreed that the king had acted rightly1 even though his act would but for ,god's mercy1 have cost her her son4 ,the minister once more resumed his duties2 and he and the king1 the queen and the little prince lived together happily for ever so long afterwards4 ,,the ,,noose ,,of ,,murad4 ,near the small town of ,naushahro in the district of ,nawabshah1 there is an old fort called ,murad jo ,killo or ,murad's ,fort4 ,it is a big place1 but crumbling to ruins2 still the walls that remain are so wide that three men1 so it is said1 can sleep on them side by side4 ,there is also in that part of the country a proverbial saying1 used when anyone grumbles at his lot1 8,does he want ,murad jo phaho0 7the noose of ,murad74 ,now this is the tale that is told both of the fort and of the proverbial saying3 ,somewhere in the early part of the eighteenth century1 when ,nur ,mahomed ,kalhoro was ruler of ,sind1 he had as jamadar or headman of his grass-cutters a certain ,murad1 known as ,murad ,ganjo or ,murad the ,bald4 ,so completely had his hair vanished1 that you might have looked all over his head from north to south and from east to west and then any other way you liked1 but you would not have found a single hair on any part of it4 ,murad used daily to inspect the grass-cutters' work and when on this duty1 he noticed an old half-mad woman called ,fatima4 ,for some days he paid no attention to her4 ,then it occurred to him that the old woman might be a witch or sorceress1 whom it might be well to propitiate2 so he reverently went up to her and asked for her blessing4 ,the old woman looked at him attentively and then blessed him1 adding 8,murad the ,bald1 you will become a kardar10 or as we should say nowadays a tapedar or talati4 ,murad thought no more about the prophecy until one day ,nur ,mahomed ,kalhoro1 in return for ,murad's honesty and hard work1 promoted him from jamadar of grass-cutters to be a kardar4 ,murad was now quite certain that the old woman was a real sorceress1 one to be made much of in every way4 ,for many months he brought her daily small gifts of food or money2 then he summoned up courage to ask again for her blessing4 ,again the old woman looked at him intently1 blessed him and added 8,murad the ,bald1 you will be a naib subha10 or as we should say nowadays a ,deputy ,collector4 ,not many months passed before ,nur ,mahomed ,kalhoro1 still more pleased with ,murad's steady and faithful work1 promoted him to be a ,naib ,subha4 ,there is a ,french proverb which says ,l'apptit vient en mangeant1 that is to say the greedy are never satisfied2 and ,murad began to feel soon that the post of ,naib ,subha was far beneath his merits4 ,he plied the old woman with more valuable gifts and for the third time asked her blessing4 ,she looked intently at him as before and blessing him for the third time said 8,murad the ,bald1 you will become a subha0 or as we should say a ,collector of a district4 ,murad the ,bald not very long afterwards was given charge of a district1 thereby reaching a post far above his deserts4 ,he was still an ignorant1 unlettered boor and for a time he was fully satisfied with his office4 ,he built the great fort known as ,murad jo ,killo and seemed perfectly contented4 ,but after a year or two be began to think that the old woman1 who had raised him so high1 might raise him higher still1 might make him a king or perhaps even emperor of ,delhi4 ,after all stranger things had happened before and 8,allah alone knoweth all40 ,tortured by his insatiable greed1 ,murad the ,bald showered jewels and gold on the old woman and for the fourth time asked for her blessing4 ,but this time a terrible thing occurred4 ,instead of the fixed kindly look1 that she had been used to give him1 her eyes flashed with demoniac fury and instead of a blessing1 she cursed him 8,murad the ,bald10 she screamed at him 8you will rise higher still1 you will be hanged40 ,poor ,murad left the witch as she raved and gnashed her teeth and going home1 tried in vain to put the matter out of his mind4 ,now it so happened that the ,afghan ruler of ,multan1 ,nadir ,khan by name1 lost the youngest and most beautiful of his wives4 ,she fell in love with one of her lord's servants and ran away with him right out of the ,multan province into ,murad's district4 ,she took with her a huge diamond and a priceless manuscript on surgery and medicine4 ,murad the ,bald came to hear of the arrival of the two fugitives and promptly took from them the diamond and the manuscript1 which he stored in the royal treasure house of ,nur ,mahomed ,kalhoro4 ,the queen and her lover1 fearing that they might themselves be detained and given over to ,nadir ,khan1 fled from ,sind pretending that they were going on a pilgrimage to ,mecca4 ,in the meantime the indignant ,nadir ,khan in vain looked all over his kingdom for his missing queen and servant4 ,at last he learnt that she and her lover had fled into the lands of ,nur ,mahomed ,kalhoro4 ,nadir ,khan summoned his army and marching to the frontier1 demanded the surrender of the queen and her lover1 the diamond and the manuscript4 ,nur ,mahomed ,kalhoro enquired of ,murad and learnt that the guilty couple had fled1 but that the diamond and the manuscript were safe in his treasury4 ,he sent back the manuscript and the diamond4 8,these came into our hands10 he wrote1 8but they do not belong to us4 ,the guilty couple have fled1 so we cannot return them1 but take the manuscript and the diamond since they are yours4 ,we do not want them nor do we wish for war4 ,nevertheless1 if you are bent on war1 we shall accept your challenge4 ,we shall gladly shew you how strong are our arms and how sharp are our swords40 ,nadir ,khan liked ,nur ,mahomed's answer and instead of war there was peace1 and instead of battles and skirmishes there were visits and reviews and banquets4 ,nevertheless ,nadir the ,afghan was not quite sure that ,nur ,mahomed ,kalhoro had not seized his beautiful queen and hidden her in some deep recess of his own harem4 ,he sent for ,murad and begged him to speak the truth3 8,if my queen and servant have really gone to ,mecca1 it is useless to search for them here2 but if ,nur ,mahomed ,kalhoro is secretly keeping my queen1 then ,i shall slay him and give his throne to the man1 who tells me the whole truth40 ,as ,murad listened to the words of the ,afghan1 ,satan the ,stoned seized his five senses4 ,forgetting all his master's kindness and favours1 he thought to himself that there now stretched in front of him an open and easy road to a throne4 ,with seeming reluctance he confessed that the queen and her paramour had never left ,sind4 ,nur ,mahomed ,kalhoro had taken the queen to be his concubine and had cut off the head of her paramour with a single stroke of his sword1 just as if he had been a buffalo4 ,nadir the ,afghan believing ,murad and angry at what he believed to be the double dealing of ,nur ,mahomed ,kalhoro1 resolved to march into ,sind and to seat ,murad on the throne in his place4 ,he had gone only one march when the news reached him that his missing queen and her lover had been found in the country of a neighbouring ,raja1 who was sending them back in chains to their master4 ,nadir the ,afghan was now as angry with ,murad as he had been with ,nur ,mahomed ,kalhoro4 ,he told the latter the lying tale told by his subha ,murad4 ,mahomed ,nur was shocked at the ingratitude of the base born wretch on whom he had lavished favours4 ,his horsemen rode out and seized ,murad the ,bald and at the king's orders1 hanged him from the battlements of his own fortress4 ,so ended the fortunes of the greedy and faithless adventurer2 and that is why men say to-day that it is better to be contented with one's lot than to rise so high that in the end one dangles from the end of a rope forty or fifty feet above the ground4 ,,the ,,makli ,,hill4 ,most ,english visitors to ,tatta go there for the shooting only and ,i should be the last to blame them4 ,below the ancient fort of ,kalankot near ,tatta is a lake of the same name4 ,it is quite shallow and overgrown with tall reeds1 the home of innumerable duck4 ,they rise all round1 as one is poled in boats through lanes cut among the reeds and quick eye and hand are needed before they can be bagged4 ,but close to the bungalow are a number of ancient tombs2 and as no record of their owners is to be found on the walls1 a few facts about them may prove interesting to future visitors4 ,the tombs are built on a ridge known as the ,makli ,hill4 ,two derivations of the name are given4 ,some say that the hill owes its title to a pious woman called ,makli who lived and was buried on it4 ,others say that a holy man gave it the name of ,makli because he deemed it ,maka laali or the threshold of ,mecca4 ,whatever the true origin may be1 let us take the tombs from north to south and put down what we know about them4 ,the farthest to the north is a brick tomb on a masonry plinth1 plastered and white-washed4 ,beneath it lie the earthly remains of ,sayad ,ali ,shirazi4 ,great saint though he was1 he would long ago have been forgotten1 save for the fact that for a moment his career touched that of the great ,akbar4 ,the ,emperor ,humayun1 defeated in battle after battle by the great ,afghan soldier ,sher ,shah1 fled to ,sind4 ,after trying in vain to establish himself at ,sehwan and ,bukkur1 he started for ,bikanir1 only to learn that the ,chief meant to hand him over to his enemy4 ,he turned back and made his way first to ,jasalmir and then through the desert to ,umarkot4 ,most of his companions died of thirst4 ,the others losing in their misery all respect for their leader1 let him walk so that his wife1 ,akbar's mother1 should ride4 ,at last with only seven attendants he reached ,umarkot and there on the #adth ,october #aedb ,akbar was born4 ,humayun had neither gifts to distribute to his friends nor clothes in which to wrap the baby4 ,the first difficulty he overcame by breaking a pod of musk and letting its perfume spread among his guests1 at the same time exclaiming with prophetic truth that his baby boy's fame would diffuse itself through the world like the fragrance of the musk4 ,the second difficulty he met by cutting ,akbar's first garment out of the coat of ,sayad ,ali ,shirazi1 who had been sent by the people of ,tatta with gifts and greetings4 ,ali ,shirazi lived for thirty years afterwards and the date of his burial is inscribed on his tomb1 viz41 #ageb ,a4,d4 ,south of the ,sayad's tomb is that of ,makli1 the eponymous heroine of the hill1 and south of ,makli's is that of ,jam ,nindo4 ,it is easily distinguished as it has no roof and its stones were evidently taken from some ancient ,hindu temple4 ,jam ,nindo or the ,little ,jam was the founder of ,tatta4 ,his real name was ,jam ,nizam-ud-din and he was a ,samma by caste4 ,here we must go back into early ,sind ,history4 ,when the ,afghan ,emperor ,ala-ud-din ,khilji conquered ,sind1 a ,rajput tribe named the ,sumras were in possession4 ,subdued then1 they successfully revolted in the reign of ,ghazi-ud-din ,tughlak4 ,in the middle of the #adth century1 however1 they were ousted by another ,rajput tribe the ,sammas4 ,the latter ruled ,sind from #acej ,a4,d4 to #aeba ,a4,d4 ,but until ,jam ,nindo's time they did not live at ,tatta4 ,they lived at ,samui three miles to the northwest4 ,when ,jam ,nindo had established his power and cleared the land of robbers1 he thought he would build a new town1 8wherein happiness might remain for ever40 ,he chose a site to the east of the ,makli ,hill and on a day picked out by the ,brahmans1 he founded his city1 ,tatta4 ,there he ruled for at least fifty years and was buried on the ,makli ,hill4 ,another ,samma chief buried there was ,jam ,tamachi4 ,he was the ,jam who loved the fisher maiden ,nuri and was the ancestor of the ,jadeja ,raos of ,cutch4 ,but it is not possible to say with certainty which his tomb is6 #c ,jam ,nindo's son and successor was ,jam ,feroz4 ,but the new ,jam loved too warmly the beauty of his dancing girls and the jokes of his jesters to be a good ruler4 ,the result was that in #aeba ,a4,d4 he was driven from his throne by ,shahbeg ,arghun1 who had himself been driven from ,kandahar by the lion-hearted ,babar4 ,in #aecf ,a4,d4 ,shah ,hussein ,arghun succeeded his father ,shahbeg and was the ruler of ,sind when ,humayun fled to it and ,akbar was born4 ,in #aeed he died and ,mirza ,isa ,tarkhan1 the founder of the ,tarkhan ,dynasty1 became master of ,tatta4 ,it is to his tomb to which we come1 shortly after saying goodbye to ,jam ,nindo's4 ,isa ,khan's last dwelling place stands in a large courtyard close to an old mosque4 ,the tomb is entirely of carved stone with perforated slabs let in here and there4 ,it was in ,mirza ,isa's time that the ,portuguese sacked ,tatta4 ,it seems that in #aeee ,mirza ,isa ,khan quarrelled with ,sultan ,mahmud the ,governor of ,bukkur by whose aid he had become ,king of ,sind4 ,isa ,khan sent an envoy to ,goa to ask help from the ,portuguese4 ,the fame of that nation in ,india was then at its height4 ,only a few years before they had helped the ,king of ,guzarat to drive out ,humayun and in return had received ,bassein and the whole ,province of the north including ,salsette ,island4 ,with their aid ,isa ,khan felt sure that he could humble ,sultan ,mahmud4 ,on the other hand1 no doubt1 the ,portuguese ,governor-,general dreamed visions of a second northern province on the banks of the ,indus4 ,he sent a fleet of #bh ships with #gjj men under ,pedro ,baretto4 ,the gallant ,pedro duly sailed up the ,indus and reaching ,tatta asked for orders4 ,in the meantime1 however1 ,isa ,khan had in several actions instilled into ,sultan ,mahmud ,khan a sense of his inferiority and had forced him to sue for peace4 ,isa ,khan sent word from ,bukkur that he no longer needed ,portuguese help4 ,pedro then asked for the cost of the expedition1 estimated1 ,i dare say1 on a liberal scale4 ,isa ,khan politely refused to pay4 ,dom ,pedro flew into a rage1 sacked ,tatta1 killed #hjj people1 took away two millions sterling and left the town in flames4 ,isa ,khan rebuilt the town but he entered into no more alliances with the ,portuguese4 ,he ruled prosperously until #aegb ,a4,d4 when he died and was buried on the ,makli ,hill4 ,on ,isa ,khan's death his son ,mahomed ,baki succeeded him4 ,his tomb is a small ruined brick enclosure1 the one immediately to the north of ,tural ,beg's1 of whom ,i shall say a word or two later4 ,isa ,khan's tomb is a poor thing compared with his father's and his son's1 but then so was ,mahomed ,baki himself4 ,for twelve years he gave the good people of ,tatta a dreadful time4 ,to slit their ears and noses and shave off their beards was the favourite pastime of his leisure moments4 ,to hang them1 impale them and throw them under the feet of his elephants was the serious business of his life4 ,at last in #aehd1 having lived to see his daughter returned with thanks by the ,emperor ,akbar1 he committed suicide4 ,to him succeeded his son ,jani ,beg1 whose tomb is the southernmost of all4 ,it is of brick1 faced with glazed blue and green tiles4 ,it has a perforated window above the door and there are geometric tracery windows also on the four sides4 ,by the time ,jani ,beg had succeeded his father1 the genius of ,akbar was at its zenith4 ,sultan ,mahmud of ,bukkur yielded to the great ,emperor his sovereignty without a blow4 ,but ,jani ,beg was of sterner stuff4 ,entrenching himself behind the river ,phito1 he withstood for some months the imperial forces4 ,driven from his trenches he fell back on the great fort of ,kalankot2 but that ,akbar should not use ,tatta as his base1 he destroyed it and left the emperor a smouldering ruin4 ,yet brave as he was1 he had at last to kiss the stirrup of the world conqueror1 was graciously received and confirmed as imperial governor of ,tatta4 ,he died there in #aeii4 ,the ,emperor confirmed in his place his son ,ghazi ,beg4 ,the latter lived until #afab1 when he was murdered4 ,his body was buried in the same tomb as ,jani ,beg and the common grave was for many years the scene of a curious pilgrimage4 ,both father and son were renowned as poets and musicians and childless couples who desired off-spring1 used to visit their tomb and try and win the favour of their spirits by songs and instruments4 ,but efficacious as his spiritual aid may have been in procuring sons for barren women1 poor ,ghazi remained childless himself4 ,he had no son and with him the ,tarkhan dynasty of ,sind ended4 ,the ,moghul emperors thereafter ruled ,sind through governors appointed directly from ,delhi4 ,the ,tomb of ,diwan ,shurfa ,khan1 the minister of one of these governors1 ,amirkhan by name1 is one of the best preserved on ,makli ,hill4 ,another less well preserved1 but even more imposing tomb1 that of ,nawab ,isa ,khan1 dates from the same period ,a4,d4 #afbh-afdd4 ,it has an upper storey to which leads a flight of stairs4 ,to the east of ,isa ,khan's tomb are the graves of the ladies of his ample ,zanana4 ,to the south of ,isakhan's tomb is quite a small one1 that of ,mirza ,tural ,beg4 ,it appears that he misused his position by artificially forcing up the price of grain and then selling his stock at a large profit4 ,he was so hated in his life-time that he took the precaution to build his own tomb4 ,but even so he did not escape infamy4 ,he was nicknamed the 8,dukario0 or 8,famine ,man0 and every one who passed his grave used regularly to heave a stone at it4 ,in time the stones were piled up right to the stone canopy above it4 ,fortunately for the 8,famine ,man0 the ,public ,works ,department have taken charge of his tomb and have removed the stones4 ,but his memory is still detested and his present address is believed to be somewhere in the very centre of the flaming halls of ,iblis4 ,,larkana4 ,a few miles from ,larkana at a place called ,fatehpur is a handsome mosque4 ,in its courtyard hang innumerable bells4 ,i long tried in vain to learn its history but at last ,i obtained from ,mr4 ,bherumal1 ,inspector of ,excise1 the following legend4 ,the town of ,larkana derives its name from the tribe of ,larak and was probably at one time called ,larakanjo got or the village of the ,larak tribesmen4 ,they were followers of a family known to history as the ,kalhoras1 whose family name ,abbassi lent strength to their claim that they were sprung from the loins of ,abbas1 the uncle of the holy ,prophet4 ,after the conquest of ,sind by ,akbar1 it became a province of the ,moghul empire2 but with the decline of the imperial power1 authority relaxed and disorder grew4 ,of this disorder the ,kalhoras took advantage4 ,the first great ,kalhoro was ,adam ,shah1 who 8drank the sherbet of martyrdom at ,multan0 or in simpler language was killed in an obscure fight with the ,moghul governor of that city4 ,adam ,shah's grandson ,shahlal ,mahomed was the famous saint1 whose memory still lives in the ,fatehpur mosque4 ,his first and perhaps greatest--certainly his most useful--miracle was the digging of the ,ghar canal that runs past ,larkana town4 ,he did not dig it with a spade4 ,his methods were simpler and more efficient4 ,he mounted a ,kando or thorn tree4 ,once firmly seated in its upper branches1 he made the wretched vegetable drag its roots from ,larkana to ,kambar1 a distance of twelve miles4 ,in the deep hollow caused by the progress of the ,kando tree1 flowed the obedient water4 ,the stream so created came to be known as the ,shahlal ,wah or the canal of ,shahlal ,mahomed4 ,many years later ,mian ,nur ,mahomed ,kalhoro widened the ,shahlal ,wah and changed its name to ,ghar canal1 i4e41 the canal broken by the tree driven by the ,saint's superhuman powers4 ,the ,ghar canal bears this name to the present day and the tree which ,shahlal ,mahomed used as his humble instrument is still pointed out on the bank of the ,chilo canal in the ,kambar taluka4 ,the miracle of the ,ghar canal was followed by so many others that the imperial governor became alarmed at the ,saint's growing fame and power4 ,he reported the facts to ,aurangzeb and obtained that emperor's leave to shorten ,shahlal ,mahomed's stature by a head4 ,after a mighty resistance the ,saint was taken captive and executed4 ,the governor put his head in a wooden box and sealing it sent it in charge of a police guard to the emperor's camp4 ,when the police guard reached ,lahore they out of curiosity opened the box1 in order to see what the head looked like4 ,the lid was no sooner lifted than the head flew out and made its way through the air to ,shahlal ,mahomed's favourite village of ,fatehpur1 wherein the ,saint's body lay buried4 ,the police guard were so alarmed at the strange behaviour of the head that they dared neither return to ,larkana nor go on to ,delhi4 ,they buried the empty box in ,lahore and building a shrine over it1 appointed themselves its guardians4 ,the emperor1 however1 who was eagerly expecting the sealed box1 got disturbed at its delay4 ,he sent a body of troops to ,lahore to find out what had happened to it4 ,at first they could find out nothing4 ,at last hearing of the new shrine1 they went there and extorted from its guardians the whole truth4 ,they then dug up the ground and unearthed the box4 ,opening it they found it1 not only to their own amazement but to that of the quondam police guard1 by no means empty4 ,it contained another head of ,shahlal ,mahomed exactly similar to the one that had flown away4 ,the troops carried away box and head and showed them to ,aurangzeb4 ,convinced of the miracle1 the devout emperor felt sure that he had killed a ,saint4 ,to show his repentance of his cruel deed1 he had a tomb built at ,delhi over the box and the head4 ,in the meantime1 the ,larak tribe and the other countless disciples of ,shahlal ,mahomed had built the mosque at ,fatehpur over the holy man's body and true head1 once more in union4 ,thus the great saint is honoured by no less than three tombs1 one at ,fatehpur1 where lie his real head and body1 a second at ,lahore where the empty box was buried and disinterred1 and a third at ,delhi where the second head lies4 ,the descendants of ,shahlal ,mahomed were the famous ,kalhoro ,mirs who ruled ,sind until overthrown by the ,talpurs4 ,their capital was ,haidarabad but they always loved ,larkana for the sake of their ancestor2 and the fame of its prosperity and wealth under the ,kalhoros is still preserved in the well-known couplet ,hujie ,nano ,ta gumh ,larkano ,if you have money 7to spend7 then go to ,larkana4 ,,two ,,love ,,tragedies4 ,,kutteji ,,kabar ,,and ,,mausum ,,shah4 ,one of the highest peaks of the ,baluch mountains along the frontier of the ,larkana district is known as the ,kutteji kabar4 ,this is the tale they tell about it4 ,once upon a time a rich ,brohi hillman owned a very faithful and obedient dog4 ,the ,brohi was at one time rich1 but from one cause or another he lost his wealth and of all his riches nothing was left to him but his dog4 ,one day when he had no money left1 he mortgaged his dog for a hundred rupees to a bania of the neighbourhood4 ,before leaving it1 he bade his hound serve its new master as faithfully as it had served him4 ,the dog wagged its tail as if it fully understood what the hillman told him4 ,several months passed by and the dog was as obedient to the bania as it had been to the ,brohi4 ,one night a band of fierce robbers broke into the house of the bania1 over-powered the inmates and carried off the savings of the merchant's life-time4 ,after the robbers had left1 the bania began to mourn and beat his breast4 ,in an hour or so the dog came to him and tugged at his coat4 ,the bania abused and beat it for not having guarded him against the robbers4 ,but the dog continued so to pull at his coat1 that the neighbours advised him to go with the dog and see what it wanted4 ,the dog led by the way for a mile or so until it came to a torrent bed1 when it began to dig in the ground with its paws4 ,the bania and his neighbours also began to dig2 at last they came upon the bania's safe with his money secure inside it4 ,the dog seeing that it could not fight with success against a band of armed robbers1 waited until they had left and then followed them until it saw them conceal their plunder4 ,then it went back to tell the bania4 ,the latter was so touched at the dog's fidelity and sense that he tied round its neck a letter to the ,brohi4 ,in it he told his debtor that he cancelled his debt and asked him to take his dog back free of incumbrances4 ,then he told the dog to go back to its master4 ,off it went wagging its tail and barking delightedly at the thought of seeing its old master4 ,now it so chanced that the ,brohi hillman had by working in the plains saved a sum sufficient to pay off his debt and he was returning to the hills to do so4 ,on the way he met his hound4 ,it rushed towards him in a transport of joy4 ,but the hillman who knew nothing of the dog's conduct and did not notice the letter round its neck1 thought that it had disgraced him by running away from his creditor before he had paid his debt4 ,a man of high honour1 he grew very angry and holding out the fingers of his right hand made the bhundo sign in the dog's face4 ,this deadly and contemptuous insult was too much for the poor dog4 ,it fell at its master's feet and died on the spot4 ,the ,brohi tried in vain to bring it back to life4 ,as he tried1 he saw the bania's letter round its neck and learnt too late how innocent the dead dog had been4 ,in his grief1 he bore the dog's body to the highest peak of the neighbouring mountains and buried it there4 ,for some time he remained by the tomb as its majawar or guardian4 ,then he sickened and died also4 ,but the peak is still known as ,kutteji kabar4 ,another love story of a different kind is told of the minaret of ,mausum ,shah1 that looks down from a great height on the thriving town of ,sukkur and the splendid river ,indus1 as it runs through its two limestone banks4 ,a certain ,musulman called ,mausumshah fell in love with one of the bania girls of ,sukkur1 whose beauty is renowned through all ,sind4 ,but he was a ,musulman and the lady was a ,hindu4 ,the lady would not join ,islam and he could not1 if he would1 become a ,hindu4 ,yet unless one or the other became a convert1 marriage between them was impossible4 ,the lady moreover had little liking for her ,musulman wooer1 although perhaps a little flattered by his pressing attentions4 ,to be rid of his ardent importunities1 she bade him build a minaret1 two hundred feet high before he aspired to her hand4 ,but she had not realised the passion of the unhappy ,mausum ,shah4 ,he set to work1 collected stones and coolies and before the ,hindu lady was very much older1 she saw to her horror a splendid minaret rising above the ground4 ,in a few more months it was finished and ,mausum ,shah full of pride and love went to claim the hand of his beloved4 ,but as ,francis the ,first1 an experienced judge of the fair sex1 used to say 8,souvent femme varie1 fol qui s'y fie10 and the lady proved as untractable as ever4 ,in spite of her former implied promise she still refused to wed a circumcised barbarian4 8,i did not say that ,i would marry you10 she said 8when you had finished the minaret4 ,i only wanted you to build it that you might throw yourself from the top60 ,cruelty could go no further2 and the broken-hearted lover ascending the minaret1 took a last view of the splendid panorama unrolled before his eyes and plunged head first from the pinnacle4 ,legend1 however1 relates that he never struck the ground1 nor was he dashed to pieces4 ,a divine hand caught him as he fell and put him safely on his feet4 ,his love for the beautiful ,hindu girl had died within him4 ,he had seen the selfish heart that beat within her beautiful body4 ,giving up the things of this world1 he became an anchorite and taught the precepts of ,islam until death overtook him4 ,he was buried at the foot of the tower from which he had once thrown himself4 ,and to this day his tomb and those of his disciples may be seen there by the visitor to ,sukkur4 ,,swami ,,vankhandi ,,of ,,sadh ,,belo4 ,the early history of ,sadh ,belo is closely connected with that of the famous ,swami ,vankhandi4 ,swami ,vankhandi had been incarnated once in the seventeenth century1 for we find him receiving worship as early as #agaj4 ,we1 however1 are only concerned with his second incarnation1 which occurred in or about ,a4,d4 #agfd4 ,in the later descent on earth he lived and practised yog or asceticism at ,muran ,jharee in the territory of ,h4,h4 ,the ,maharaja of ,nepal4 ,while he was still a young man his reputation for holiness spread far and wide2 but it aroused the envy and malice of another anchorite of ,muran ,jharee named ,gusai ,sanyasi ,sadhu4 ,at last ,gusai could contain himself no longer and made his way to the court of the ,maharaja4 ,there he told his sovereign that a certain sadhu of ,muran ,jharee had vowed by his austerities to destroy the kingdom4 ,he warned the ,maharaja that for several months the ,sadhu had touched neither food nor water and he begged his master to destroy the ,sadhu before it was too late4 ,the ,maharaja was alarmed and sent an army to take prisoner the seditious anchorite and bring him to ,kathmandu1 the chief town of ,nepal4 ,when the army appeared at ,muran ,jharee1 they found ,swami ,vankhandi absorbed in contemplation4 ,as they watched him their own warlike spirit ebbed away and they were filled with a great calm2 without saying a word they waited until the ,swami thought fit to lift his eyes towards them4 ,the ,nepal ,general then told the ,swami that he had received orders to take him prisoner and humbly implored his pardon4 ,the ,swami forgave him and told him that he would go on ahead of the army and wait for them at ,kathmandu4 ,with these words the ,swami vanished and although the ,general and his officers searched for him everywhere1 they could not find him4 ,at last they returned to ,kathmandu and just outside the walls1 they found the ,swami sitting in a deep religious trance1 in the shade of a banian tree4 ,they did not disturb him but went straight to the ,maharaja1 to whom they told all that had happened4 ,the ,maharaja saw that he had been deceived by the wicked ,gusai and drove him from the town2 then he asked for the pardon and blessing of ,swami ,vankhandi4 ,the ,swami saw that the ,maharaja had truly repented and forgave and blessed him4 ,then he vanished and in the twinkling of an eye was once more to be seen at his own place in ,muran ,jharee4 ,many and great were the miracles recorded of ,swami ,vankhandi1 but the one that will interest ,english readers most is the summary way in which he dealt with a certain ,captain ,pauk ,wales1 a gentleman whom ,i have not been able to trace in ,english works of reference4 ,in #ahbb ,swami ,vankhandi after many pilgrimages to the holy shrines of ,india came to ,sind4 ,cholera was then raging in ,haidarabad1 but the ,swami's presence proved sufficient to drive it away4 ,from ,haidarabad he went to ,khairpur and ,rohri and seeing ,sadh ,belo island in the river ,indus near ,sukkur resolved to settle there and found a monastery4 ,there he lived for twenty years until such time as ,sir ,charles ,napier conquered ,sind and appointed ,captain ,pauk ,wales as ,collector of the ,shikarpur district4 ,captain ,pauk ,wales1 wholly ignorant of the power and fame of the ,swami1 thought that ,sadh ,belo island would be an ideal place for a collector's bungalow4 ,with ,captain ,pauk ,wales1 action followed swiftly on the heels of thought4 ,he sent for masons and building materials and began to build a bungalow4 ,but every morning that he went to look at the work1 he found that during the night it had been levelled with the ground4 ,he was convinced that the masons and the ,swami were acting in collusion and he set a guard of ,english soldiers over ,sadh ,belo4 ,although the soldiers never closed their eyes all night1 ,captain ,pauk ,wales next day found that not only had the masonry work been thrown down in the night1 but that the bricks1 mortar and all the building materials collected by him had vanished4 ,in a rage he went up to the ,swami and roundly abused him4 ,while ,captain ,pauk ,wales was swearing horribly1 the ,swami1 shocked beyond measure1 vanished into thin air4 ,that night both ,captain ,pauk ,wales and his wife were seized with internal pains of an agonising description4 ,after a night of anguish ,mrs4 ,pauk ,wales advised her lord and master to beg the ,swami's pardon4 ,for a long time the ,swami could not be found1 but with the aid of the townspeople1 he was eventually traced to a spot outside ,sukkur1 where he was quietly singing to himself4 ,captain ,pauk ,wales threw himself at the ,swami's feet and promised never more to interfere with his holy island4 ,swami ,vankhandi lived on to the ripe age of a hundred4 ,feeling himself nigh to death1 he sent for his disciples and warned them of his approaching end4 ,he told them that he would hold his breath until his soul departed4 ,when they thought him dead1 they should put a pat of butter on his forehead4 ,if it did not melt1 it meant that he had ceased to live4 ,they should then throw his corpse into the ,indus river4 ,the disciples faithfully carried out their master's wishes and when the pat of butter did not melt on his forehead1 they threw his body into the great river4 ,they had barely done so1 when a rich merchant of ,shikarpur came to ,sadh ,belo with a precious necklace of pearls for ,vankhandi1 of whose death he was unaware4 ,learning that ,vankhandi was no more1 the merchant refused to return to ,shikarpur and infinitely firm of purpose1 he vowed to sit by the edge of the river and neither to eat nor to drink until the ,swami came himself to accept the necklace4 ,on the second night the ,swami in a dream promised that he would appear before his devoted follower the next day4 ,fortified by the vision1 the ,shikarpur merchant sat on by the edge of the stream4 ,at noon the body of the ,swami rose out of the ,indus and the merchant put the necklace round its neck4 ,the body then lay on the bank and the merchant called to him the anchorites of the place1 who once more consigned reverently the body of the ,saint into the whirling waters of the mighty river4 ,,ii4 ,,guzarat ,,folk ,,stories4 ,,guzarat ,,folk ,,stories--,i4 ,,king ,,mansing ,,of ,,sirohi4 ,king ,mansing of ,sirohi was a very brave ,rajput2 but he had one fault4 ,he was greatly addicted to opium1 of which he used to drink daily vast quantities from the hand of his favourite queen4 ,now it so happened that the ,emperor of ,delhi came to ,rajputana and camped outside the walls of ,sirohi4 ,all night long the emperor and his nobles drank deep and revelled1 while beautiful dancing girls sang to them lascivious songs4 ,the noise of the music and the dancing could be heard from ,king ,mansing's palace2 and all one night1 as the king slept1 his favourite queen sat up and listened to it4 ,when ,mansing awoke1 his queen gave him his opium4 ,as he drank it1 she talked about the wonderful revels of the emperor and the noise of his music and the lights that blazed all night in his camp4 ,at first ,mansing paid no heed to his queen's chatter2 but at last he got cross and told her not to mention in his presence the name of the ,mleccha emperor4 ,the queen was so infatuated with what she had seen and heard that she would not stop1 but began to compare the gaiety of the emperor's camp with the dullness of life in ,sirohi4 ,at last the king lost all patience and boxing his wife's ears told her that if she thought so much of the emperor's camp1 she had better go there4 ,the queen left the room in a rage and all that day brooded over the king's words4 ,that night she took her maid with her and stole out of the palace and through the city walls into the emperor's camp4 ,when she reached his tent1 she sent her maid to tell the emperor4 ,he was listening to the singing of his dancing girls and the music of his players2 but as soon as he learnt that the queen was outside1 he stopped the music and the singing and had the queen brought before him with the greatest respect4 ,as she entered the tent the whole company rose and greeted her4 ,the emperor asked her why she had come4 ,she replied 8,grant me a boon1 shelter of the world1 and ,i shall tell you40 ,the emperor replied 8,the boon is yours2 you have but to name it40 ,the queen told the emperor all that had happened and claimed as a boon that the emperor should marry her4 ,after she had spoken1 she took the emperor's cup in her hands and drank from it1 thus breaking her caste in the sight of all4 ,the emperor had no wish to quarrel with ,king ,mansing of ,sirohi1 but having made the queen a promise1 he had to keep it4 ,he called the kazi and married the queen4 ,the same night he left ,sirohi and marched back to ,delhi4 ,the king had seen the queen leave his room in a rage1 but he thought no more of the matter until next morning1 when she did not come with his opium4 ,he sent for her2 but as she did not come he called her maids and forced from their trembling lips the truth4 ,the king said nothing1 but swallowing a prodigious quantity of opium1 he put on his armour and summoned his chiefs and nobles4 ,when they had assembled1 he told them that the emperor had seduced his queen and then like a coward had run away to ,delhi4 ,the chiefs and nobles all vowed vengeance and bade the king call out his troops4 ,at noon the king held a great parade2 but when he came to count his warriors1 he found that they barely numbered #f1jjj4 ,on hearing this1 the king's minister ,motishah told him that he could do nothing with only #f1jjj men against the #abj1jjj men led by the emperor4 8,what then can ,i do80 cried the king4 8,let us go to ,delhi in disguise10 said ,motishah4 8,there we shall be able to hit on some plan to win back the queen40 ,the king agreed2 and disguising themselves as two ,rajput soldiers1 he and ,motishah rode from ,sirohi to ,delhi4 ,at ,delhi they put up with a mali woman1 who worked in the imperial gardens4 ,from her they learnt that the emperor fearing a rescue1 had dug round the queen's palace no less than seven trenches4 ,of these six were filled with water and the inner one with fire4 ,outside the trenches he had built a mighty wall4 ,that night the king and ,motishah disguised as mendicants1 but with swords and shields hidden beneath their yellow robes sallied forth to the queen's palace4 ,on coming to the wall1 ,motishah climbed on to the king's shoulders and thence on to the wall4 ,he let down his turban and by its means hauled the king after him4 ,as both could swim1 they easily crossed the six water trenches4 ,they had hoped to find the fire-trench burning low at night4 ,but the king's guards before going home had filled it with fresh wood and it was burning fiercely4 ,motishah threw his shield into the middle and jumped on to it4 ,but so great was the heat that he soon felt that his legs would be burnt off4 ,so keeping his right leg on the shield1 he kept his left leg as high as he could1 to save it from the flames4 ,he supported himself on his spear while the king sprang on his shoulders and leapt to the far side of the trench4 ,near the palace was a tall palm tree4 ,mansing climbed it and reaching the top1 tied his turban to one of the branches4 ,he then swung on his turban to and fro until he was able to swing into one of the windows of the upper storey of the palace4 ,he tied his turban to the window sill and went inside4 ,in a room close by he saw his queen sleeping with the emperor4 ,at first he felt so angry that he would have killed them both1 as they slept4 ,then he remembered that he was a ,rajput and that it was wrong to kill a helpless enemy4 ,so he woke the queen and with the point of his sword at her throat1 he made her get up without waking the emperor4 ,tying a rope round her arms and legs and throwing her like a bundle across his back1 he swung back to the palm tree by his turban and slid to the ground4 ,poor ,motishah's right leg was by this time all but burnt off2 but when he saw the king coming back he put his left leg on the shield and over his shoulders the king climbed across the fire trench4 ,but he could not save his minister4 ,no sooner had ,mansing reached safety than poor ,motishah fainted and falling into the trench was burnt to ashes4 ,mansing swam with his queen on his back across the six water trenches4 ,by the aid of ,motishah's turban1 which still hung from the wall1 he climbed over it and pulled his wife after him4 ,he seated her on his horse and mounting ,motishah's mare1 galloped off towards ,sirohi4 ,when they had ridden some fifty miles1 ,mansing stopped to have his morning dose of opium4 ,he then discovered for the first time that he had dropped his opium box inside the emperor's palace4 ,addicted as he was to the drug1 he could do without food1 but he could not do without his opium4 ,it would have been useless for him to ride further1 for he would have fallen off the saddle4 ,after stamping on the ground several times with rage1 he tied his queen to a tree4 ,then he lay down on the ground and covering his head with a sheet fell asleep4 ,in the meantime the emperor had awakened and had missed the ,sirohi queen4 ,he asked his guards and his servants and searched everywhere for her but in vain4 ,then his eyes fell on ,mansing's gold opium box4 ,he picked it up and saw engraved on it the name 8,mansing40 ,he summoned to him his nobles and called for a volunteer to chase ,mansing and bring him back alive4 ,a ,musulman noble famed for his courage rose1 saluted the emperor and promised to bring the king back alive4 ,he galloped towards ,sirohi and after riding #ej miles overtook the king and queen4 ,mansing still lay asleep4 ,the ,musulman noble untied the queen but he refused to kill ,mansing1 although she begged him to4 ,he must bring him back alive1 the ,musulman said4 ,he would give the king opium and then take him back to ,delhi4 8,if you give him opium10 said the queen1 8you will never take him alive1 he will kill you40 ,the ,musulman did not heed her1 but mixing opium with water he poured it down ,mansing's throat4 ,directly ,mansing recovered his senses1 he refused to go back to ,delhi4 ,he sprang on his horse and fought the ,musulman4 ,but ,mansing was still faint from his long privation and the ,musulman disarmed him and tied him to a tree4 ,leaving the queen to guard her husband the ,musulman went down the steps of a well to wash his face and hands4 ,the queen seeing her chance1 picked up ,mansing's sword as it lay on the ground and struck a blow at his head4 ,mansing jerked his head aside4 ,the blade missed his head and grazing his side cut through the rope which bound him4 ,in a moment he was free4 ,rushing at the queen1 he twisted the sword from her hand and tied her to the tree4 ,he mixed himself some more opium4 ,then arming himself with sword and shield1 he went to the mouth of the well and challenged the ,musulman to a second fight4 ,the ,musulman came out of the well1 but now that ,mansing had had his full dose of opium1 no one in the world could have beaten him4 ,with a single sweep of his sword he severed the ,musulman's head from his body4 ,then tying his wife's hands and feet to her horse1 he rode back with her in triumph to ,sirohi4 ,there all the nobles and common people rejoiced at the king's feat of arms and were very angry with the queen1 who had first left him and then had tried to kill him4 ,mansing had her tied to a pillar in the market place4 ,there everyone threw bricks and stones at her or hit her head with their shoes4 ,she soon died and her body was burnt outside the city walls4 ,the emperor was very angry when he heard that ,mansing had killed the brave ,musulman noble4 ,he raised a great army and marched against ,sirohi4 ,yet small though the ,sirohi army was1 it won repeated victories over the ,moghul troops4 ,at last the emperor challenged the king to a duel1 but the emperor was no match for the ,rajput king4 ,he was soon wounded and disarmed4 ,as the price of his life1 he agreed to make a treaty by which he gave great wealth and wide lands to the king of ,sirohi4 ,,guzarat ,,folk ,,stories--,,ii4 ,,the ,,wisdom ,,seller4 ,once upon a time there lived a poor ,brahman1 who earned a tiny income as a clerk4 ,he had one son1 a bright1 clever boy1 who went to school and was a favourite alike of boys and masters4 ,he might have risen to great learning1 had his father lived4 ,unhappily before the boy had left school the poor ,brahman died4 ,the boy had to leave school and try to keep his mother and younger brothers and sisters4 ,at first he became a candidate for a clerkship in a public office4 ,but this brought him no pay2 and although he wrote petitions in his spare time1 he only earned thereby ,rs4 #c or ,rs4 #d a month4 ,this sum was not enough to keep him and his family from starving4 ,one day he resolved to seek some other way of earning a living and this is what he did4 ,he went into the town and hired the smallest shop he could find4 ,he spent the few annas he had in the world in buying some writing paper1 an ink pot1 a bottle of ink1 a pen and an empty box4 ,over the shop he got painted the words 8,,wisdom ,,seller40 ,all round him were jewellers' shops1 cloth shops1 green-grocers' shops4 ,the other dealers waited for customers1 but the green-grocers shouted to the passersby 8,pumpkins6 ,pumpkins6--three pice a pound60 ,the ,brahman boy thought that he would do as the green-grocers did and when any one passed1 he called out at the top of his voice1 8,wisdom6 ,wisdom6 ,all kinds6 ,all prices60 ,at first the passersby could not make out what he meant4 ,when they understood1 they did not think of buying his wares4 ,they crowded round his shop and laughed at him4 8,who would buy wisdom10 they cried1 8especially from a lad like that80 ,but the ,brahman boy did not mind them at all4 ,he went on shouting at the top of his voice 8,wisdom6 ,wisdom6 ,all kinds6 ,all prices60 ,for several days he made no money at all2 but at last the whole city got to hear of the new shop and four or five passersby stopped and bought an anna or two worth of wisdom4 ,he was thus rather better off than when he had been an unpaid clerk2 but he knew that when the novelty wore off1 he would get no more customers4 ,still he did not despair4 ,it so happened that a certain ,nagar lived in that city4 ,he was really very stupid2 but he had inherited a large fortune from his father and so he thought himself very clever4 ,just to show off1 he called his only son ,,vidhya or ,,learning4 ,but in spite of this grand name1 the son was just as stupid as the father4 ,one day ,vidhya passed the ,brahman boy's shop and heard him shout 8,wisdom6 ,wisdom6 ,all kinds6 ,all prices60 ,so foolish was he1 that he thought wisdom was a sort of vegetable4 ,he first asked its price per pound4 ,the ,brahman boy said 8,i sell not by weight1 but by quality40 ,vidhya then put two pice on the counter and said he would take half an anna's worth4 ,the boy wrote on a piece of paper 8,it is not wise to stand and watch two people fighting40 ,he then tied the paper inside ,vidhya's scarf and took the money4 ,vidhya went home and said to his father 8,i have bought some wisdom for two pice and it is tied inside my scarf4 ,let us undo the knot and look at it40 ,his father did not understand1 but undid the knot and finding the paper read 8,it is not wise to stand and watch two people fighting40 ,he was very angry and said to his son 8,well1 you are a fool6 ,fancy paying two pice for this nonsense6 ,why1 every one knows that it is not wise to stand and watch two people fighting40 ,in a great rage the ,nagar walked to the ,brahman's shop and began to call out 8,rogue6 ,thief6 ,cheat6 you did my son out of his money1 just because he was a foolish boy4 ,give me back the two pice1 or ,i shall call the police60 ,the ,brahman kept his temper and said quietly3 8,why are you so angry about nothing8 ,i did not make your son give me the two pice4 ,he asked me to sell him so much wisdom and ,i did so4 ,give me back my wisdom and take back your money40 ,at once the ,nagar threw the paper at the ,brahman and cried3 8,now give me my money60 ,the ,brahman said 8,no1 ,i said ,i would give you back your money if you gave me back my wisdom4 ,you only offer me the paper4 ,if you want your two pice back1 you must sign a document1 binding your son never to abide by my advice and always to stand and watch people fighting40 ,the passersby took the side of the ,brahman boy4 ,the ,nagar signed the document and went away with his two pice1 very pleased to get them back so cheaply4 ,two or three months later each of the king's two queens sent her maid to buy her some groceries4 ,they both went to the same grocer and both tried to buy the same article4 ,as the grocer had only the one sample they began to quarrel so fiercely that the grocer in a fright took to his heels and ran out of the shop4 ,but the two maids went on quarrelling4 ,just then ,vidhya strolled up and saw the quarrel4 ,before meeting the ,brahman boy he would have run away2 for stupid though he was1 he knew it was unsafe to stand and watch a fight especially between the two queens' maid-servants4 ,but he remembered the promise made by his father1 so he went close up and watched4 ,one of the maids noticed him and called on him to witness that the other maid had struck her4 ,the other maid retorted that so far from giving blows1 she had received any number of them2 and she1 too1 called on ,vidhya to be her witness4 ,at last they separated and the maid-servants and ,vidhya went to their several homes4 ,the two maids went to their mistresses and exaggerated what had happened4 ,the queens in turn became furious and sent their maids to complain to the king4 ,at the same time each sent word to ,vidhya that if he did not depose in favour of her maid-servant he would be beheaded4 ,vidhya was very frightened and told his father4 ,the two talked the matter over all that day and all the next night1 but they could not find a way of escape4 ,at last ,vidhya said 8,let us ask the ,brahman boy1 who sells wisdom2 if he really has any to sell1 he may help me out40 ,as a last resort1 the ,nagar agreed and father and son went to the ,brahman boy's shop and told him what had befallen ,vidhya4 ,the ,brahman boy asked for a fee of ,rs4 #ejj4 ,on getting the money1 he told ,vidhya to feign insanity and to pretend that he did not understand what the king asked him4 ,next day the king heard the case4 ,the king questioned him closely1 but no question would he answer4 ,he merely gabbled all the time1 until the king lost all patience and drove him out of the court room4 ,very pleased with himself1 ,vidhya ran home and to all whom he met he praised the wisdom of the ,brahman boy1 whose fame thus spread through the whole city4 ,the ,nagar was at first delighted at his son's escape2 then he began to reflect that his son must always feign insanity or the king would learn that he had been tricked and would certainly cut ,vidhya's head off4 ,he went to the ,brahman boy1 who asked for another fee of ,rs4 #ejj which the ,nagar paid4 8,vidhya should go to the king10 said the ,brahman boy1 8when he is in a merry mood and tell him the whole story4 ,when he is in a good temper1 he will laugh at it and forgive him40 ,vidhya followed the advice and one day finding the king in a good humour he confessed everything4 ,the king laughed heartily and forgave him4 ,then he sent for the ,brahman boy and asked him whether he would sell him wisdom and1 if so1 at what price4 8,yes10 said the boy1 8,i shall be very proud to sell the king wisdom2 but my fee will be one lakh40 ,the king paid the lakh and got in return a paper on which the boy had written3 8,do nothing without thinking deeply first40 ,the king knew the advice to be excellent and dismissing the young ,brahman1 he had the words embroidered on all his clothes and engraved on all his plates1 cups and dishes4 ,a few months later the king fell very ill4 ,the prime minister eager to get rid of him1 urged the doctor to put poison in the royal medicine4 ,the doctor agreed and gave the king a poisoned draught4 ,as the king lifted his gold cup to his lips1 he saw engraved on it the words 8,do nothing without thinking deeply first40 ,without suspecting anything he thought over the words and lowering the cup looked intently at its contents4 ,the doctor's guilty conscience made him fear that the king guessed that the medicine was poisoned4 ,he threw himself at his master's feet and confessing everything1 prayed for mercy4 ,the astonished king called the guard and had the doctor seized4 ,he sent for the prime minister and bade him drink the poisoned medicine4 ,the minister in his turn threw himself at the royal feet and begged for mercy4 ,but the king had him hanged on the spot4 ,he then sent for the doctor and after rating him soundly1 banished him from the kingdom4 ,lastly he made the ,brahman boy1 whose wisdom had saved his life1 ,prime ,minister and loaded him with honours4 ,,guzarat ,,folk ,,stories--,,iii4 ,,magadha ,,and ,,rupvati4 ,once upon a time there was a town called ,avanti on the banks of the river ,kshipra4 ,it was a famous town and in it lived very many rich men4 ,but all the inhabitants were not rich1 some were very poor4 ,among the latter was a pious old ,brahman called ,vishnupriya or dear to the ,lord ,vishnu4 ,he had two sons named ,deval and ,madhav4 ,the former he married to a proud and lovely girl called ,rupvati4 ,for ,madhav he got a pure and saintly girl called ,magadha4 ,in course of time the good old ,brahman died and after his death the family became so poor that the two brothers resolved to leave ,avanti and seek their fortune elsewhere4 ,before they left1 they handed over the whole management of the house to ,rupvati4 ,even ,madhav said to ,magadha in ,rupvati's presence 8,you must obey ,rupvati in everything4 ,she is my elder brother's wife4 ,you are but a foolish1 ignorant girl4 ,she is clever and wise in the ways of the world40 ,magadha was not vexed at what her husband said4 ,she felt sure that what he ordered was for the best and she promised to do everything that ,rupvati told her4 ,now ,rupvati for all her beauty was really a bad hearted woman and directly her husband had gone1 she began to take as her lovers all the handsome young men of the neighbourhood4 ,but she feared that ,magadha would tell tales about her1 so she resolved to turn her out of the house4 ,she told ,magadha that she had been born under an unlucky star and was the cause of her husband's and her brother's poverty4 ,after rating her well1 she beat her and pushing her into the street slammed the door in her face4 ,poor ,magadha was at first broken hearted at the way ,rupvati had treated her4 ,but after shedding some tears1 she took courage and began to earn her living as a day labourer4 ,from time to time1 too1 she used to go to ,rupvati's house and work for her2 for so gentle was her nature that she never bore ,rupvati any ill-will4 ,one day in ,purshotam ,mas she saw ,rupvati worshipping the ,god ,krishna4 ,as she had never seen this done before1 she asked ,rupvati to tell her all about it4 ,rupvati flew into a temper and screamed at her 8,you wretched girl1 fancy not knowing how to worship ,shri ,krishna6 ,why your very presence is a sin60 ,with these words she drove her sister-in-law into the street4 ,as poor ,magadha was going home in tears1 she met one ,bhamini1 a friend of ,rupvati and just as unkind and cruel as she was4 ,bhamini asked her why she cried4 ,magadha told her4 ,but ,bhamini instead of taking ,magadha's part1 thought it a good chance to play a cruel practical joke on her4 ,she told her that it was ,purshotam ,mas and that therefore she should worship the ,god ,krishna4 8,most people10 added ,bhamini1 8bathe in a river and burn a ghee lamp in a corner of their house in front of images of ,krishna and ,radha4 ,thereafter they feed ,brahmans4 ,but ,i know a much better way to worship ,krishna than that4 ,choose the dirtiest1 nastiest pool that you can find4 ,bathe in it and after bathing eat nothing but cold1 stale food4 ,next worship the pipal tree1 thinking all the while of ,krishna and ,radha4 ,then give to ,brahmans alms wrapped in pipal leaves40 ,now this was all wrong2 for ,shri ,krishna does not live in the pipal tree1 which is only the abode of devils4 ,but the cruel ,bhamini hoped that in this way ,magadha would incur both ,god's displeasure and the curses of the ,brahmans4 ,poor ,magadha was far too trusting to guess ,bhamini's wickedness and went home very pleased with her new knowledge4 ,she looked about until she found a pool full of dirty rain water and swarming with water insects4 ,she bathed in it1 then worshipped a pipal tree1 thinking all the while of ,shri ,krishna4 ,lastly she went home and ate some cold1 stale food1 which she had put by on purpose4 ,having done this for several days she invited #ajh ,brahmans to dine at her house4 ,after she had invited them1 she suddenly remembered that she had no money with which to buy them food1 still less to give them alms afterwards4 ,she did not know what to do1 so she prayed all that night and all next morning to the ,god ,krishna to help her honour the ,brahmans when they came4 ,a little before noon the #ajh ,brahmans began to collect outside ,magadha's house4 ,but poor ,magadha1 who had no dinner to give them1 had not the heart to go to the door and welcome them2 so she just stayed inside and prayed to the ,god ,krishna4 ,at last the ,brahmans got very angry and said 8,what is the use of waiting outside this wretched little hut8 ,even if the door was opened1 there would be nothing inside to eat40 ,they were about to go away when three other ,brahmans came up and one of them asked which was ,magadha's house4 ,hopes of a good meal once more sprang up in the breasts of the #ajh hungry guests and they pointed it out to the newcomers4 8,we are guests10 they said1 8but she has shut her door in our faces4 ,are you her relative80 ,the ,brahman who had spoken1 said 8,yes1 ,i am ,magadha's brother and these two are our kinsmen4 ,please wait outside and ,i shall go in and see4 ,my sister must be getting ready your dinner40 ,with these words he went inside the house1 but he found nothing ready4 ,in the middle room was poor ,magadha1 praying with all her might to the ,god ,krishna to help her4 8,why do you not serve the dinner for the #ajh ,brahmans80 asked the newcomer4 8,there is no worse sin than to send away ,brahmans hungry from your door40 8,i know that10 replied poor ,magadha1 8but what can ,i do8 ,i have no food and no money to buy any40 8,look in your kitchen10 said the newcomer1 8and you will find plenty of food40 ,magadha looked and sure enough the kitchen was as full as it could be4 ,she was so pleased that she began cooking at once2 and two maid-servants1 whom she had never seen before helped her and swept the floor of the dining room and got baths ready for the ,brahmans2 when dinner was ready the newcomer called in the #ajh other ,brahmans and he and his two kinsmen served the dinner on leaves1 which turned into gold plates when the guests touched them4 ,the ,brahmans had never eaten so rich or so big a dinner before4 ,they got back their good spirits and instead of cursing poor ,magadha1 they blessed her from the bottom of their hearts4 ,as they rose to go1 the newcomer gave each guest a packet of pipal leaves as a parting present4 ,the guests thought this a very odd 8dakshina0 but when they opened the leaves they found them full of diamonds and pearls and rubies4 ,when all the guests had left1 ,magadha begged the three ,brahmans who had so wonderfully helped her1 to have their meal also4 ,they excused themselves1 pleading that they had already eaten4 ,but they pressed ,magadha to eat and she did so4 ,directly she had finished1 her eyes were opened and she saw the three ,brahmans and the two maid-servants as they really were4 ,for the ,brahman1 who had said he was her brother was none other than ,shri ,krishna himself and his two so called kinsmen were his two friends ,uddhav and ,akrur2 while the two maid-servants were ,shri ,krishna's queens ,rukmani and ,satyabhama4 ,magadha threw herself at ,shri ,krishna's feet2 but the great ,god raised her and said 8,the ceremonies you performed in my honour were all wrong4 ,but ceremonies are of little value4 ,the true worth of worship is in faith2 and your faith was such that ,i granted you your prayers40 ,with these words he took ,magadha by the hand and led her back with him to his heaven ,vaikunth4 ,but what happened to the wicked ,rupvati and ,bhamini8 ,they were very properly punished4 ,rupvati in order to humble poor ,magadha still more1 had on the same day asked another #ajh ,brahmans to dinner1 intending to give them a splendid feast and get their blessing1 while poor ,magadha fell under the curses of her #ajh guests4 ,but the very opposite happened4 ,rupvati cooked her dinner and had her house swept and garnished and went out to welcome her guests4 ,but when she took them into her house there was nothing to eat at all4 ,all the fine dinner which she had cooked for them had gone4 ,she looked everywhere but she could not find it4 ,at last she had to send the ,brahmans away as hungry and cross as could be4 ,as they went they called down the most frightful curses on her1 so that she died soon afterwards and went straight to ,hell4 ,nor did ,bhamini fare any better4 ,the ,god ,krishna was very angry with her for telling ,magadha to worship him in the way she did4 ,she lost all her money and became very poor2 and when she died she went to ,hell too1 and she and ,rupvati are still there1 keeping each other company4 ,,guzarat ,,folk ,,stories--,,iv4 ,,rupsinh ,,and ,,the ,,queen ,,of ,,the ,,anardes4 ,once upon a time there was a great king of ,guzarat1 who died leaving two sons ,phulsinh and ,rupsinh4 ,on the father's death ,phulsinh mounted the throne4 ,in no long time he died leaving a widow and no children and ,rupsinh became king of ,guzarat1 although still a little boy4 ,phulsinh's widow would have burnt herself on her husband's pyre had not the townspeople bidden her live and care for their child king4 ,the widowed queen was very wise and clever4 ,so deft was she with her fingers that she could dress her hair with oil and afterwards press the hair so skilfully that not a drop of oil remained in it4 ,on a day when ,rupsinh was a lad of fifteen1 he lay asleep with his head resting on the lap of the queen4 ,as he slept1 she dressed his hair with oil and then began to squeeze it out4 ,by chance she pulled out one of ,rupsinh's hairs4 ,rupsinh awoke and said crossly3 8,you are not so clever to-day as usual with your fingers1 or you would not have pulled out my hair40 ,the queen said with a laugh3 8,yes1 ,i am getting old and make mistakes4 ,if you want someone who will never make mistakes1 you had better marry the queen of the ,anardes40 ,the queen was only joking1 for the ,anardes were a race of fairies4 ,but ,rupsinh took her words in earnest and cried 8,marry the queen of the ,anardes1 then1 ,i will6 ,and till ,i have done so1 ,i shall neither eat nor drink inside my kingdom40 ,the poor queen regretted bitterly her words and begged the young king to pay no heed to them4 ,but the headstrong boy would not mind her4 ,he told his grooms1 to saddle his horses4 8,shew me10 he said to the queen1 8the house of the queen of the ,anardes4 ,if not1 ,i shall seek her without your aid4 ,i shall ask my way and with ,god's help ,i shall find it40 ,the widowed queen was greatly grieved at the way the boy king had taken her words2 still1 she thought it best now to help him on his way1 rather than to thwart him4 ,she said3 8,if you will go1 my ,king1 then heed my words carefully1 for the road is long and full of perils4 ,trust none whom you meet or you will perish miserably4 ,on leaving the palace gates ride to the north4 ,in three days' time you will come to a dense forest4 ,ride boldly into it and in its very heart you will find a lake4 ,but beware of the lake and do not bathe in it or drink its waters4 ,if you do1 you will die2 for the lake is a fairies' lake and no mortal who bathes in it or drinks its waters can live4 ,ride therefore past the lake until you come to a great mountain4 ,avoid the mountain2 for near it lives a monstrous elephant2 and should it see you1 it will trample you to death4 ,beyond the mountain you will come to ,thugtown1 a town full of thugs and cheats4 ,they will kill you if they can4 ,if you can outwit the men of ,thugtown1 you will come next to a beautiful wood4 ,here above all be on your guard1 for the wood is peopled by demons who live on human flesh4 ,beyond the demon's wood lie the lands of the ,princess ,phulpancha4 ,she is so called because her weight is only that of five flowers4 ,in her country you will surely die2 but if someone will drop on your body three drops of ,amrita1 or ambrosia from the bottle that ,i give you1 you will come back to life4 ,such are the perils that await you1 yet if you still wish to go1 take with you my blessing40 ,as the widowed queen spoke1 her voice trembled and the tears rolled down her cheeks1 for she loved ,rupsinh as if he had been her own son4 ,she put in the youth's hands a bottle of ,amrita4 ,he took it1 bowed his head to her feet1 mounted his horse and spurring it along the northern road was soon out of sight4 ,three days later ,rupsinh saw1 as he rode1 the forest of which the widowed queen had spoken4 ,he rode into it and rejoiced in the shade of the great trees overhead4 ,suddenly he saw in front of him1 like a sheet of silver1 a beautiful lake4 ,forgetting what the widowed queen had said1 he let his horse walk to the edge and quench its thirst4 ,a moment later he heard a noise of wings above him4 ,he looked up and saw a great company of fairies on horseback flying towards the lake4 ,the young king in a fright turned his horse's head towards the road and tried to spur it into a gallop4 ,but the poison of the fairy lake was killing the poor horse and after trying feebly to answer to the spur1 it fell down dead4 ,the king undid the girths and taking with him the saddle ran to a big tree close by and climbed into its branches4 ,the fairies had not seen him1 so they dismounted2 tied their horses to trees and plunged gaily into the fairy lake4 ,rupsinh slipped down from his tree and slipped noiselessly to where the queen of the fairies had tethered her horse and put his saddle on its back4 ,he jumped on it and galloped off4 ,the fairies did not notice their loss until they came out of the water4 ,the queen was in great distress2 and she and other fairies followed ,rupsinh's tracks until they came near the elephant mountain4 ,far off they saw ,rupsinh galloping away on the fairy queen's horse4 ,they called to the elephant to stop him1 as he was a horse thief4 ,the elephant ran after the king and caught him and his horse in its mighty trunk4 ,carrying them to the mountain1 it tried to crush them to death against one of its steep sides4 ,the young king was in despair4 ,then regaining courage1 he slashed so fiercely at the elephant's trunk with his sword that it let him and the horse go4 ,rupsinh galloped away until he reached ,thugtown4 ,at its gate he saw an old man sitting4 ,as the king rode up1 the old man rose and with great courtesy said 8,welcome1 ,thakor4 ,your father married you when a child to my daughter2 and yet you have never come to see her until now40 8,this is ,thugtown10 thought the king1 8and the old man must be one of the thugs who live there40 ,still ,rupsinh could not but return the old man's greeting4 ,he said 8,my father died so long ago that ,i cannot remember him at all1 nor anything he did4 ,it was only the other day that ,i heard from a kinsman that my father had married me to your daughter4 ,i at once set out to claim my bride40 ,the old man bade the king enter the town and stay at his house1 that he might meet his daughter4 ,they entered the town gates together4 ,at the old man's door his four young sons came out and greeted the king as their brother-in-law4 ,at night they would have led him to a room at the top of the house4 ,but the king guessed that in the night they meant to throw him from the window4 ,he said he could not sleep anywhere but on the ground floor4 ,he was so obstinate that the old man at last put a bed for him in the verandah on the ground floor1 while he and his sons slept in rooms off it4 ,the king kept awake all night4 ,it was well he did so4 ,the queen of the fairies1 who had never ceased to follow her horse's tracks1 came to the old man's house and saw ,rupsinh lying in the verandah4 ,she tied a magic thread round his ankle and ran to the stable to mount the horse which the king had stolen4 ,but ,rupsinh untied the thread and tied it round the ankle of the old man4 ,he had no sooner done so1 than the magic thread became quite taut4 ,the fairy queen had mounted her horse and riding off dragged the old man after her4 ,she never thought of looking back1 but galloped straight off to the elephant mountain4 ,there she threw him before the elephant1 who at once trampled the old man to death4 ,in the meantime ,rupsinh drew his sword4 ,going to the beds of the four sons1 he sternly demanded his horse4 ,one of the four sons went to the stable to saddle it4 ,as it was not there1 ,rupsinh made him give him one of the old man's own horses instead4 ,he then rode as fast as he could out of ,thugtown4 ,rupsinh rode north for some hours when he saw in front of him a beautiful wood4 ,he at once recalled the widowed queen's warning about the demons who lived in it4 ,he entered it4 ,suddenly he saw two demons fighting together4 ,when they saw the king they stopped fighting and began to laugh4 ,rupsinh laughed back and then asked them what amused them4 8,we have not tasted human flesh10 said one of the demons1 8for twelve years4 ,when we saw you we laughed for joy4 ,but why did you laugh80 8,i am a messenger of the god ,shiva0 said ,rupsinh4 8,the parchment on one of his drums is torn and he sent me out to get two demon skins with which to repair it4 ,the drum is so big that the skin of one demon would not be enough4 ,so when ,i saw two demons in front of me1 ,i laughed for joy40 ,rupsinh drew his sword and rode at the demons as if to skin them alive4 ,in an agony of fear they begged him to take the skin of their blind uncle instead4 8,one demon's skin will not do10 said the king sternly2 8besides the skin of a blind demon would sound hollow40 ,the demons in despair offered ,rupsinh a large ransom1 but he would not accept it4 ,at last they offered him a flying machine known as a pavanpavdi4 8,in it10 they said1 8you can fly all over the sky and whenever you see a demon on earth1 you can come down and skin him40 ,the king took the pavanpavdi and tied it on to his horse's back and rode on until he crossed the borders of the ,princess ,phulpancha's country4 ,some time later he reached her town and lodged with an old woman who owned a garden outside the city4 ,the king had not been there many days before the princess came to hear of him4 ,one day as he rode under her window her maid-servants whispered to her1 8,that is the young king1 my ,princess40 ,phulpancha on the spot fell in love with him4 ,one day ,rupsinh came to his lodging1 hungry and thirsty1 and asked the old woman to cook him some food at once4 ,the old woman said that she could not1 as she was weaving garlands for the ,princess ,phulpancha4 ,the king bade the old woman cook his dinner while he wove the garlands1 which he did very skilfully4 ,he then took off his diamond ring and hid it in one of them4 ,when his dinner was ready1 he ate it and the old woman went to the palace with the garlands4 ,as the ,princess put them round her neck1 her fingers touched the diamond ring4 ,she knew that it must have been sent to her by ,rupsinh1 as he lodged with the old woman4 ,some days later ,rupsinh left his lodging and dressed as a poor ,rajput1 went to the court of ,phulpancha's father and asked for service4 ,the old king was pleased with ,rupsinh's speech and bearing and made him chief of the guards round the ,princess' palace and paid him three gold pieces a day4 ,in this manner ,rupsinh came to see the ,princess almost daily and told her all about himself4 ,some days later came the weighing of the ,princess ,phulpancha4 ,it was the custom of the land that once a year the ,princess should be weighed on a pair of magic scales4 ,if no man but the king had seen her during the previous year1 her weight would only be that of five flowers4 ,but if a man had seen her1 her weight would be that of an ordinary girl of her age and height4 ,at the appointed hour ,phulpancha sat on one of the scales1 while the weigher put five flowers on the other4 ,instead of the five flowers balancing the ,princess1 her scale clung obstinately to the ground2 and it was not until two maunds had been put in the other1 that the ,princess began to move upwards4 ,the old king made enquiries and came to know that ,rupsinh had several times spoken to ,phulpancha4 ,instantly he had ,rupsinh hanged1 from the branch of a tree4 ,fortunately before entering the king's service1 ,rupsinh had told the old woman of the garden about the ,amrita4 ,hearing of the poor young king's execution1 she went at night and sprinkled three drops of ,amrita over his body4 ,rupsinh came to life again4 ,but the old woman fearing the old king's anger would not take him back4 ,rupsinh was at first at his wit's end4 ,then he remembered the demons' pavanpavdi and seating himself in it he rose in the air and flew northwards4 ,after some time the young king came to a big garden in the midst of which was a palace seven stories high4 ,he entered the palace and ran upstairs until he reached the seventh storey4 ,on the top stair was seated an aged anchorite who said to him1 8,welcome ,rupsinh40 ,the king was astonished that the anchorite should know his name and he asked the anchorite how he knew it4 8,my inner knowledge1 my son1 tells me your name4 ,i also know that your brother's widow anxiously awaits your return4 ,i know1 too1 that you are fated to win the queen of the ,anardes40 ,the king begged the anchorite to bless him4 ,the anchorite did so and added1 8,to-morrow ,i shall go to bathe in a pool in the palace gardens4 ,when ,i do so1 watch carefully the pomegranate trees in the orchard4 ,you will see the pomegranates on them suddenly open and from each one will come out an ,anarde4 ,they will play and dance together in the garden and she to whom the others will pay deference is their queen4 ,after a time they will go back to their hiding places4 ,note carefully the fruit which the queen enters4 ,then go down into the garden1 pick it and take it back with you4 ,but do not look behind you1 as many others before you have done1 or you will be turned into stone40 ,next morning the ascetic went to bathe and ,rupsinh did as the ascetic had told him4 ,he watched the pomegranate trees and soon from each fruit there dropped to the earth a tiny fairy4 ,one of them1 slightly bigger than the others1 was clearly their queen4 ,they played and danced for a time4 ,then they ran back to their hiding places4 ,the pomegranates closed and hid their fairy lodgers from view4 ,the king1 however1 had seen which pomegranate held the queen4 ,he went into the garden1 plucked the fruit and turned back to the palace4 ,voices all round him cried out1 8,strike him6 ,kill him60 ,but remembering the anchorite's words1 he never once looked round until he had reached the palace door4 ,then he turned and saw the anchorite trying to soothe the other ,anardes1 for it was their voices which the king had heard4 8,it was fated that one of you should wed a mortal4 ,what was fated has happened4 ,so cease from troubling the king and his bride and give them your blessing instead40 ,when he had calmed the fairies1 he went to the king and said1 8,my son1 start at once homewards and tarry nowhere on the road4 ,shew the pomegranate to no one until you reach your city40 ,the king mounted his horse without delay and started on his homeward journey4 ,in no long time he saw an ascetic1 who for #gjj years had been doing penances1 in order to win the queen of the ,anardes4 ,the king saluted the anchorite1 who asked him whether he had won his goal4 ,the king foolishly shewed the anchorite the pomegranate and let him take it in his hand4 ,the sage put it under his foot and when ,rupsinh asked for it back1 sternly bade the prince begone4 ,the king grew angry and threatened to take it back by force4 ,the anchorite turned towards a big tree close by and consumed it with a single fiery breath4 ,he then said to the youth with a mocking laugh3 8,when ,i can blast a tree with a single breath1 do you think that ,i fear you for all your valour8 ,for #gjj years ,i have sought to win the queen of the ,anardes4 ,i shall not give her up40 ,but seeing how downcast ,rupsinh looked1 he gave him a wand and said 8,this is a magic wand4 ,take it4 ,it will beat anyone whom you hate or fear and in battle it will always give you victory40 ,the king took the wand1 although he thought it a poor exchange for the queen of the ,anardes1 and going sadly to his horse got ready to mount it4 ,as he put his foot in the stirrup1 the wand spoke to him with a human voice1 8,o ,king1 you do not know my name4 ,it is ,lalia ,lath4 ,for #gjj years ,i have faithfully served the anchorite and now he has given me away in exchange for a woman4 ,if you bid me ,i will give my old master a sound beating40 ,rupsinh1 who felt very cross with the anchorite for stealing the queen of the ,anardes1 was delighted and said 8,yes1 give him a beating1 the sounder the better40 ,the wand then flew from the king's hand and began mercilessly to belabour the old sage1 until in his pain and fear he threw away the pomegranate and begged for mercy4 ,the king picked up the fruit and with it the wand and he resumed his journey4 ,several days later he reached his capital4 ,there he took out of the pomegranate the queen of the ,anardes1 who had by this time become reconciled to marrying ,rupsinh4 ,after greeting his sister-in-law1 the widowed queen1 he began to make everything ready for his marriage to the fairy queen2 and in due time their wedding was celebrated with the greatest pomp and splendour4 ,unhappily in the crowd that watched the wedding was a pretty sweeper girl1 called ,rukhi and deeply skilled in black magic4 ,she fell in love with the young king's handsome face and was filled with jealous rage at the happy look on the face of the queen of the ,anardes4 ,she devised a cruel plot1 to kill her4 ,she sought and obtained service in the palace1 where the fairy queen shewed her the greatest kindness4 ,one day the king1 weary with the chase1 fell asleep4 ,the fairy queen had to go to a neighbouring well1 to fetch water for her bath4 ,she did not like to leave the king alone1 so she asked ,rukhi to watch by him until she came back4 ,rukhi promised to do so1 but a minute or so later she followed her mistress to the well and pushed her in4 ,then she returned to the palace and by her magic made the king believe that she was the queen of the ,anardes4 ,but she could not so deceive the widowed queen4 ,one day the latter in open durbar challenged ,rukhi to go back inside the pomegranate4 ,but ,rukhi was too clever to be caught4 ,she answered with ready wit3 8,i can no longer do that1 sister1 now that ,i am wedded to a mortal40 ,she then complained to the king that the widowed queen always tried to vex her4 ,so ,rupsinh quarrelled with his sister-in-law and drove her out of the palace4 ,now out of the well into which the fairy queen had fallen1 there grew a most beautiful lotus4 ,the gardener picked it and gave it to the king1 who in turn gave it to ,rukhi4 ,the latter by her magic knew that the lotus had sprung from the body of the ,anarde queen4 ,she pulled off all its petals and threw it out of the window4 ,the flower fell into a bed of soft earth and in a month or two there had sprung up a splendid mango tree that bore delicious fruit4 ,rukhi had the tree cut down but before it was felled1 a bania had picked one of the mangoes and given it to his wife to eat4 ,a year later she bore him a beautiful little baby girl4 ,as the little girl grew up1 she became the living image of the queen of the ,anardes4 ,rukhi guessed that she must have sprung from the mango1 which had sprung from the lotus that had grown in the well1 where the poor queen had been drowned4 ,rukhi began to complain of a bad pain and told the king that she had been bewitched by the bania girl and would not get well while the girl lived4 ,the king had the bania girl hanged outside the eastern gate of his city4 ,another marvel then happened4 ,the girl's head changed into an image of the ,god ,shiva and her body into an image of the ,goddess ,parvati4 ,her right eye turned into a cock sparrow and her left eye into a hen sparrow4 ,her two legs turned into two plantain trees4 ,when ,rukhi heard of this1 she got terribly afraid that the king would pass that way and see what had occurred4 ,she told him never to pass by the eastern gate or the spirit of the witch girl would possess him4 ,the king did not pass that way for a long time2 but one day his horse ran away with him and took him to the eastern gate4 ,he saw there a noble temple to the ,god ,shiva4 ,he went inside to pray4 ,as he prayed1 he heard the hen sparrow say to her mate3 8,the king of this city is a fool0 and thereupon she told the cock sparrow the whole tale of the queen of the ,anardes4 8,this very night10 continued the hen sparrow 8the queen will come out of one of the plantain trees1 into which the bania girl's legs have changed4 ,she will worship the ,god ,shiva1 re-enter the plantain stem and never again be seen on earth40 ,the king heard the story and resolved to stay there all night4 ,he did so and at midnight he saw one of the plantain stems open4 ,out of it came the queen of the ,anardes4 ,she began to pray to the ,god ,shiva4 ,before she had ended her prayer1 the king caught her by the hand4 8,who are you80 cried the queen 8and why do you take my hand80 8,i am your husband ,rupsinh10 replied the king penitently4 8,i have been blind and cruel4 ,but pray forgive me and ,i shall live with you always40 ,the queen was unwilling to stay1 but ,rupsinh held her firmly all night by the hand4 ,next morning the king's ministers and the widowed queen missing him1 went in search of him4 ,when they found him at the temple1 the king told his sister-in-law all that had happened and begged her forgiveness also4 ,the widowed queen1 to test the story1 shewed the pomegranate to the fairy queen and bade her hide herself inside it4 ,she did so4 ,the widowed queen called to her and she came out4 ,the widowed queen had no longer any doubts4 ,she buried the pomegranate in the earth and went back with the king into his city4 ,there the king called together the townspeople and before them all repudiated the sweeper woman ,rukhi4 ,he then had her hanged on the very spot where the bania girl had been executed4 ,after thus ridding himself of ,rukhi1 he sent for the ,princess ,phulpancha and married her as well as the queen of the ,anardes4 ,in their company and that of the widowed queen1 the king lived happily for ever so many years afterwards4 ,,iii4 ,,round ,,about ,,nasik4 ,the ,nasik golf course with its many traps for the unwary1 the club house with its friendly welcome1 the dak bungalow embowered in trees are well known to the golf-loving ,bombay resident4 ,but there is another part of ,nasik1 its river1 which is to him an unknown province4 ,yet pilgrims go there in thousands from all parts of the peninsula4 ,bones of dead men1 who died a hundred leagues away are brought almost daily to be thrown into its waters4 ,on its banks may be seen at any time young ,brahmans practising ,prayanam or breathing exercise or doing the ,achaman rite1 that is to say sipping water while repeating the name of some particular deity4 ,there too may sometimes be seen the naked anchorite to whom the whole world stands in lieu of a garment2 and he is not the least unhappy4 ,as the ,sanskrit verse has it 8,courage is his father1 ,forgiveness is his mother1 ,tranquility is his wife2 ,truth is his son1 ,mercy is his sister1 ,self-restraint is his brother1 ,earth is his bed and the eight directions are his dwelling place40 ,let us therefore leave the golf course and the club house and wander together along the banks of the holy river4 ,in the first place how did the ,godavari come to ,nasik8 ,once upon a time the river ,ganges was brought down from heaven by the austerities of ,king ,bhagiratha of ,ayodhya1 so that he might perform the funeral rites of his kinsmen1 the sixty thousand sons of ,king ,sagar4 ,to prevent the ,ganges destroying the earth1 the ,god ,shiva caught her in his hair as she fell and kept her there for a whole year4 ,well the ,ganges is a lady as well as a river and after some time ,shiva's queen1 ,parvati1 grew bitterly jealous of the fair woman1 whom her husband carried continually in her hair4 ,she consulted her son the elephant-headed ,ganpati4 ,that wise one found a solution for the difficulty4 ,it so happened that at this time a rishi of extraordinary powers and merits named ,gautama lived near what is now the bed of the ,godavari river4 ,to supply his limited needs he cultivated a little rice field4 ,ganpati turned himself into a cow and wandering towards ,gautama's rice field began shamelessly to eat the holy man's scanty crop4 ,gautama1 justly enraged1 rose and with his staff admonished sharply the cow1 that respected so little his sanctity4 ,this was what ,ganpati had foreseen4 ,he fell dead on the spot4 ,the news spread that ,gautama had killed a cow4 ,the neighbourhood was deeply shocked4 ,then through ,parvati's and ,ganpati's combined contrivance1 the monsoon failed4 ,the cause was clear4 ,the rishi had killed a cow and the gods to punish him for this fearful sin had withheld the rains4 ,the neighbours going in a body to the guilty rishi dilated on the sin that he had committed1 until they had extracted from him a promise that he would by his austerities obtain water for their crops4 ,gautama to fulfil his promise went through the most incredible penances in honour of the ,god ,shiva1 until the latter asked the rishi what he wanted4 8,i want some of the ,ganges water for the country side10 replied the sage and he told ,shiva the story of the sin which he had inadvertently committed4 ,the ,god smiled as he heard the tale1 because he guessed how it had come to pass4 ,to humour his queen and at the same time to oblige the rishi1 he released a part of the ,ganges river at ,trimbak and it became the ,godavari4 ,the neighbours of ,gautama sowed their crops1 the ,ganges having lost the fairest portion of her waters lost half her beauty and ,parvati ceased to be jealous4 ,having brought the ,godavari to ,nasik let us next consider why ,nasik rather than other spots along the river bank is so holy4 ,the reason is that it was at ,nasik that the hero ,king ,rama of ,ayodhya built his hermitage4 ,the tale runs that his father ,king ,dasharatha1 urged thereto by his queen ,kaikeyi1 drove his eldest son ,rama into exile1 so that her son ,bharata might succeed to the throne4 ,the intrigue failed because ,prince ,bharata refused to oust his eldest brother4 ,but ,rama in order to abide by his father's words went with his brother ,laxman1 and his wife ,sita1 to live at ,panchvati or ,nasik4 ,there they built themselves a hermitage and there ,rama performed the funeral ceremonies of his father1 when the latter died of grief at the loss of his son4 ,it was there1 too1 that ,laxman cut off the nose of a female demon called ,surpanakha who fell in love with ,rama and tried to kill ,sita in the hope of winning ,rama's undivided affections4 ,ravana1 ,king of ,ceylon1 was the brother of ,surpanakha and when his mutilated sister came shrieking to his court1 he promised her that she should be avenged4 ,to carry out this promise1 he called in the aid of another demon named ,maricha4 ,the latter disguised himself as a deer with a golden hide and with horns glittering with precious stones4 ,sita attracted by the beautiful beast begged ,rama to go and kill it and fetch her the hide and the horns4 ,rama agreed but before he went1 he drew with his finger two long lines which together formed a sort of enclosure4 8,if you stay inside these two lines10 he said to his wife1 8no harm can come to you4 ,if you stray beyond them1 ,i shall not be able to protect you40 ,sita promised to stay within the two lines and ,rama and ,laxman went in pursuit of the golden deer4 ,instantly ,king ,ravana who had been hovering in the sky inside his aerial car1 descended to earth and assuming the form of a mendicant approached the hermitage of ,sita and asked her for alms4 ,sita invited him to come to the door4 ,but intending evil as he did1 he could not cross the lines which ,rama had drawn4 ,so he answered haughtily that a religious mendicant did not run after alms4 ,those who wanted his blessings had to come to him4 ,he accepted alms not as a favour received but as a favour conferred4 ,the unsuspecting ,sita unwilling to enrage the holy man went towards him1 crossed the southern line and handed ,ravana the alms4 ,at once he reassumed his proper guise and seizing her by the hair threw her into his chariot and carried her off to his island kingdom of ,lanka4 ,the two lines are visible to this day and are known as the ,aruna and ,varuna streams4 ,the chief temple in ,nasik is known as ,kapileshwar4 ,this is the story told of it4 ,on one occasion the goddess ,parvati for fun put her hands over her husband ,shiva's eyes4 ,but the great god was in no humour for fun4 ,he opened his third eye and with it burnt up the sun1 the earth and last but not least ,brahmadev's fifth head4 ,when ,shiva had recovered his temper1 he restored the sun and the earth1 but he was not able to restore ,brahmadev's fifth head4 ,as a punishment for burning up another god's head1 he was condemned always to see it dancing before his eyes4 ,the punishment was a very severe one and to rid himself of the horrible vision1 ,shiva wandered all over ,india visiting in vain shrine after shrine4 ,at last he came to the banks of the ,godavari and sat down to rest under a tree4 ,as he sat he overheard a conversation between a young bull and a staid old cow1 its mother4 8,to-morrow10 said the old cow1 8our master will put a ring through your nose and yoking you to a plough will make you work for the rest of your life40 8,indeed1 he will do nothing of the kind10 said the wicked young bull4 8,if he tries1 ,i shall gore him to death40 8,o1 you cannot gore him to death10 said its mother deeply shocked4 8,he is a ,brahman40 8,never mind10 said the abandoned young bull1 8,i know how to purify myself even from the deadly sin of ,brahmahatya or ,brahman murder40 ,the ,god ,shiva was greatly interested in this talk4 ,he thought to himself that if the bull could purify itself from ,brahman murder1 he 7,shiva7 could1 by doing what it did1 purify himself from the sin of having burnt off one of ,brahmadev's five heads4 ,next morning he returned to the spot1 where he had heard the conversation4 ,in a little time the ,brahman came and tried to fasten the ring in the young bull's nose4 ,the graceless beast threw him on his back and gored him to death4 ,from being pure white1 it became jet black with sin4 ,however1 it did not mind a bit1 but galloping off with its tail in the air1 plunged into the pool where ,rama had performed the obsequies to his dead father4 ,it became at once pure white1 such was the holiness of the water4 ,the tip of its tail1 however1 which it had held high in the air to shew its defiant spirit1 remained black4 ,the ,god ,shiva watched the incident closely and immediately afterwards plunged also into the water4 ,the same moment the ghastly vision which had haunted him disappeared4 ,close to the spot where these events happened was built the temple of ,kapileshwar or the god of the head4 ,it is a temple to the ,god ,shiva and commemorates his punishment and his release4 ,it is the only temple in ,india where no bull kneels reverently in front of the ,god4 ,for whereas in other spots the bull is regarded as ,shiva's servant1 here the bull is regarded as the great god's guru or teacher2 for he taught the god to get rid of the vision that haunted him4 ,another fact proves the truth of the above story4 ,ever since1 all white ,deccan bulls have had black tips to their tails4 ,at a little distance from the river is a pool known as ,indra's pool4 ,the tale told about it is the following3 ,once upon a time there lived another great rishi also called ,gautama4 ,he had a charming and virtuous wife called ,ahalya4 ,unfortunately her beauty caught the fleeting fancy of the ,god ,indra4 ,he made to her certain improper proposals which she indignantly rejected4 ,he then plotted with the moon to overcome her resistance4 ,the moon rose two hours earlier than he 7for the moon is masculine in ,india7 should have done4 ,gautama anxious to worship the sun before he rose went to the river bank to bathe4 ,the moment he went1 ,indra took his form and bade ,ahalya rise and go with him4 ,she thinking that it was her husband did as she was told4 ,but just then ,gautama detected the moon peeping over the horizon to see the fun4 ,he at once ran back to the hermitage and caught ,indra in the very act of going off with his wife4 ,he held a summary trial1 turned his wife into a stone1 painted a black patch on the moon's face and made a thousand sores come on ,indra's body4 ,this state of things endured for several hundred years until one day ,king ,rama's foot touched by accident the stone that had been ,ahalya4 ,she at once resumed her former shape4 ,rama took her to her husband and made him forgive her4 ,the ,god ,indra took courage at this and begged ,gautama to forgive him too4 ,the rishi turned his sores into eyes1 but told him that1 as he had behaved in a manner unbecoming a god1 he never would be worshipped again4 ,indra went sadly away and at the rishi's command bathed in the pool of which ,i have spoken1 and his sores all became eyes4 ,but never since has he been worshipped in ,india4 ,lastly the moon begged for mercy4 ,but the rishi would not abate a jot of his punishment and he wears a black smudge to this day4 ,,july ,,and ,,december ,when the wild ,indian rains hide the hilltops and the plains-- ,teeming rain1 steaming rain1 blotting out the sky-- ,when the breakers leap and fall at the bidding of the squall1 ,then ,i think me of ,england1 of ,england in ,july4 ,i wander in my dreams by her meadows and her streams-- ,olden streams1 golden streams flowing towards the sea-- ,and ,i see their tiny billows as they lap against the willows1 ,and the red rose is blowing--,ah6 'tis there ,i would be4 99 99 99 ,but when ,autumn with a sigh in ,december turns to die1 ,she's a dark land1 a stark land1 grim and chill and grey4 ,when they lie the sodden leaves on the choking1 dripping eaves ,and the window panes are blurred1 then 'tis well to go away6 ,yes1 'tis well to go away where there's sunshine all the day1 ,where down from the hills blows the dry1 crisp wind1 ,where one hears the wild duck whirring and one sees the rushes stirring ,and the hog deer's in the forests by the waterways of ,sind6 99 99 99 ,then she'll come across the brine1 dear lady love of mine 7,steamship1 dreamship6 bring her safe again67 ,and the white clouds above1 they will greet my ladylove1 ,and the blue skies will laugh as she speeds across the main4 ,and the great seas will roar on the gleaming ,arab shore1 7,white rocks1 bright rocks smile at her from me67 ,while the trade wind blows1 just to fan her as she goes1 ,till ,i see her kerchief waving1 as ,i stand upon the quay4 ,,notes #a ,the ,persian runs3--,shiristan o ,sibi ,sakhti chira dozakh pardakhti4 #b i4e4 ,that he had gone mad4 #c ,for the story of ,jam ,tamachi and ,nuri1 see 8,tales of ,old ,sind0 7,oxford ,university ,press74