Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 10, 1899.djvu/440

 400 The Folklore in the Legends of the Panjab.

inexhaustible supply to an inexhaustible capacity for absorb- ing it is a natural step; and so we find voracity extraordinary in many a quaint form to be a common capacity of heroes, gods, and ogres alike ; indeed, of the last, as the enemy of the heroic tribe, it is the usual attribute or sign.

In opposition to the beneficent powers the converse powers to destroy life or inflict injury in an extraordinary way naturally appear in many an ingenious form ; and with these may be classed the great family of saintly curses and nightmares or terrifying dreams. " He that can help can also injure," " the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away," are propositions involved in the glorification of every kind of hero. They are constantly brought forward in the Legends with as much emphasis as possible, the saints helping and injuring, giving and taking away and giving back again almost in the same breath. Precisely as blessings can be conferred vicariously, so can injuries be similarly inflicted ; and as a consequence of this idea a town fire is attributed to the fettering of a saint by its ruler. And lastly, just as it is necessary for the bards and singers to glorify the saints, and to inculcate a sense of their power for mischief, so it is also necessary, since bards are usually attached to particular saints, to maintain their individuality. Hence the peculiar habit of attributing stock miracles to certain saints. To explain : Dhanna, the Bhagat, is always connected with the story of making a god out of a stone ; Rode Shah with the well-known greenness of the dtid-gva.ss in the dry weather ; Guru Gugga with speaking from his mother's womb ; Sakhi Sarwar with several performed at his shrine ; and Gorakh- nath with a whole string of them performed in *' the Land of Karu."

The very large number of miracles that occur in the stories of saints, universally common as these stories them- selves are, is due to the attitude of the native mind every- where towards the marvellous. A miracle in India does not excite much wonder, and is to some extent looked upon as a