Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 13, 1902.djvu/275

 Balochi Folklore. 259

One legend as to the origin of the Gurchanis represents that a certain Hot, who was with Mir Chakar, went out to hunt the wild ass in the desert, but met with no success He, however, found a child in the desert and brought him home. The women called to him to know whether he had killed a wild ass, on which he pointed to the child and said, "This is the wild ass" (in Balochi, " Gor esh"). Hence the child was called Gorish, and the Gorishani or Gurchani are his descendants. Most legends, however, represent this Gorish as a descendant of Doda and a branch of the Dodai tribe. Doda was a King of Sind of the Somra tribe (for this there is probably a historical basis). He was driven out of his country and had to swim across the Indus, and came half frozen to the tents of Salhe, a Rind, who, to revive him, put him between the blankets with his daughter Mudho. Salhe afterwards gave Doda his daughter in mar- riage, and adopted him as a Baloch, although he w^as a Rajput. It is somewhat remarkable that a real Somra Doda, King of Sindh, lost his kingdom and had to flee across the Indus, and a remarkable story, evidently of folklore origin, is told of his adventures by the chroniclers.^ It is perhaps allowable to identify the legendary Baloch Doda with this personage.

A few names suggest what is possibly a totemic origin, although I cannot offer any definite opinion on this point Two sections of the Durkanis bear such names, viz., Szah- phadh, or Blackfeet, and Gandu-gwalagh, or small red ants. The Mazari tribe (meaning Tiger's sons) has perhaps some such origin. It is noticeable that the device on the banner of the Baloches, as mentioned in Firdausi's great poem, the Shahnama, written at the end of the tenth century, was a tiger.

, Sometimes the ballads turn on religion, and tales of the saints are told, or legends of the celebrated shrines. The

See Elliott and Dowson's History of India, vol i., pp. 221-223, where the whole story is given.

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