Santal (South Asian people) -- Folklore; Santali literature -- Translations into English; Tales -- India
After some days, the demon went to visit a friend, and Jhore divesting
himself of the demon girl's clothes, went to where the demon had at
first found him, and began to swing as before. Presently a tigress
approached him and said, "Oh! brother, the hair of my cubs has
grown very long, I wish you to shave them to-day." Jhore replied,
"Oh! sister, boil some water, and then go to the spring to bring
more." The tigress having boiled the water, went to the spring. While
she was away, Jhore poured the boiling water over the two cubs,
and scalded them to death. He made them grin by fixing the lips
apart, and propped them up at the door of the tigress' house. On her
return as she drew near, she saw her cubs, as she fancied, laughing,
and said to herself. "They are delighted because their uncle has
shaved them." Setting down her water pot, she went to look at them,
and found them dead. Just then the demon came up, and she asked him,
"Whom are you seeking to-day uncle?" He replied "I am seeking Jhore,
he has caused me to eat my own daughter. Whom are you seeking?" The
tigress replied, "I also am seeking Jhore; he has scalded my cubs
to death."
The two then went in search of Jhore. They found him in a lonely part
of the forest preparing birdlime, and said to him, "What are you doing,
Jhore?" He replied, "I look high up, and then I look deep down." They
said, "Teach us to do it too." He answered, "Only I can do it." They
asked him a second time, and received the same reply. On their begging
him a third time to teach them, he said, "Well, I shall do it." He
then put some of the birdlime into their eyes, and fixed their eyelids
together, so that they could not open them. While they were washing
their eyes, he ran away. As soon as they had rid themselves of the
birdlime, they followed him and found him distilling oil from the
fruit of the marking-nut tree. They said to him, "What are you doing,
Jhore?" He replied, "I look deep down, and then high up." They said,
"Teach us also." He replied, "Only I can do it." They asked him again,
and he said, "Well I will do it." He then poured some of the oil he
had distilled into their eyes. It burned them so, that they became
stone-blind.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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