Page:Indian Folklore - Ram Satya Mukhopadhyay.pdf/13

 INDIAN FOLKLORE. I.

HOW DARRAF KHAN BECAME A HINDU.

DARRAF Khan, as the name indicates, was a fol- lower of Islam. He lived in a village on the bank of the Bhagirathi. It was evening, and the setting sun lingered over the treetops of the adjoining forest, as they stood out, against the golden gleam of the sky. The cool breeze which had sprung up from the broad bosom of the holy stream sighed through the dense foliage. The cattle were wending their way home- ward from the pastury, on the outskirts of the forest. The shades were deepening where the trees stood thick, in the forest depth, and the gentle stillness was broken, now and again, by the cawing, here and there, of a homeward bound crow. It was one of the scenes of still life peculiar to rural Bengal.