Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 10, 1899.djvu/433

 The Folklore in the Legends of the Panjah. 393

superior peasantry set fire to a neighbour's dwelling with the same view.

The whole category of nostrums known to Indian folk- wisdom, and it is a very wide one, is employed by those who are so unhappy as to be barren or son-less, to avert or overcome the misfortune. Every kind of supernatural being, god, godling, hero, saint, wise-woman, wizard, demon, devil, ogre, exorcist, and the like can grant or procure sons. The faith in the givers and the power to give is boundless and ineradicable, going back to the dawn almost of Indian folklore. But, astonishingly varied as are the nostrums tried, the oldest and still the favourite in story is the giving of something to eat to the would-be mother — flowers, fruit, rice, grains, seeds, and so on. Prayer and saintly intercession are also common in the Legends, more or less consciously introduced for the glorification of high places; and of course holy wells, pools, tanks, shrines, tombs, graves, and other spots, out of which money can be made by way of fees, are notorious for fulfilling the wishes of the disappointed.

Sons born in response to vows, intercession, faith in nostrums, intervention of holy personages, and so forth, are almost always heroes, ushered into the world with the cus- tomary portents and acting in the ordinarily heroic manner. It is only, therefore, by considering what the possession of sons means to a native of India that one can grasp the full import to an Indian audience of such a story as that of the Baloch hero, Jaro, in the Mir Chakur legend, who slew his two sons in fulfilment of a rash vow.

Apart from, though closely connected with, purely ima- ginary heroes, or beings round whom a mass of myth has collected, by far the most important class of popular heroes in North India are the saints and holy personages, Hindu and Muhammadan. The holy man, godling, or saint of Northern India is precisely the demon or devil {bhiita) of South India. There is at bottom no difference between