Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 10, 1899.djvu/477

 The Folklore in the Legends of the Panjab. 437

celebrated historical legend of Mirza and Sahiban is witness. Briefly, Sahiban, a daughter of the Panjabi Siyals, eloped with Mirza, the Kharal, and was overtaken by her tribe and strangled. The subsequent feuds were so severe that it became unlucky to have daughters, and an extensive practice arose of strangling female infants in memory of Sahiban. This is an instance where folk-notions have actually affected history.

Now, the predatory portion of the priesthood has every- where been most careful to keep alive and foster the folk- notions of sin, misfortune, and ill-luck, because out of them arises the most prolific source of all of a good livelihood for themselves. Sins must be expiated ; sinful bodies must be purified ; the priest is always ready to secure expiation and purification, and to guide the ceremonies enjoined in either case. Ceremonial bathing, as a result of the notion of the holiness and cleansing powers inherent in water, is the great panacea in India ; and out of the holy bathing- places perhaps more wealth has been transferred from the laity to the coffers of the priestly classes than from any- thing else that has been invented for the ghostly benefit of the people.

After providing the personages and setting the story going in a definite direction, the next thing necessary is to keep up the interest by the process known to adverse re- viewers as padding, and to the sympathetic as valuable incidents. Those in the Legends are, as might be expected, of the stock description ; scraps of well-known verses or tales, or references to stock notions about this world and its affairs. From the very nature of the circumstances under which they are introduced they offer the most undiluted folklore with which the narrators are imbued, and are thus often the most valuable part of a tale to the student. Thus, there are everywhere valuable references to the miraculous origin of that puzzle to the peasantry, a pearl or precious stone, or even a bright flower. Rubies are the products of