Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 13, 1902.djvu/299

 Collectanea. 281

employed on the North Western Railway at Saharanpur, in the North Western Provinces.

Several years ago, his brother, who was then employed as a clerk in the secretariat office at Calcutta, proposed to pay a visit to his wife, then living in the family of his father-in-law, whom he had not seen for some years. He started on his journey to one of the easiern districts of the Presidency of Bengal, and when he arrived within a short distance of the village in which his father-in- law lived, he halted at the shop of a confectioner by the wayside. He entered into conversation with his host, who asked him where he was going. The Babu told him that he was on his way to visit his father-in-law. On this the confectioner expressed as- tonishment, and told him that some short time before his father- in-law and the other members of his family had been carried off by cholera, and that it was commonly reported that they still lived in the house in the form of Bhuts, or malignant spirits, because no one was left to perform the necessary funeral rites.

The Babu, an intelligent man, who spoke and wrote English well, laughed at this story, and continued his journey to the house of his relations. All was quiet when he reached the house ; but he entered and found his father-in-law sitting in the reception- room. There was nothing unusual in his appearance, and the only thing he noticed was that the old man answered him in nasal tones. This the Babu supposed to be merely the result of old age. Soon after the ladies of the family appeared, who washed his feet and entertained him with sweetmeats and sherbet, as Bengali women do when a relative pays them a visit. He was surprised, however, to observe that they too spoke with a nasal twang. But when he remembered what the confectioner had told him, he could not help feeling some anxiety.

When evening came, the ladies told him to go and cook his supper for himself. This again was unusual, as the cooking for a guest is always done by the ladies of the family. He asked the reason, and they told him that they were under a vow of fasting and could eat nothing that day. Of course, as he afterwards saw, their real objection to cook was the dread of fire and the aversion to touch iron cooking utensils, which all Bhuts feel.

So he set about cooking for himself, and as he was boiling the rice and was about to salt it, they shouted to him to desist, as under their fasting vow the use of salt was forbidden in the house.