Page:Romantic Tales from the Panjáb.djvu/91

Rh fields, she went to him, and sat down by his side, and spoke to him, thus:&mdash;

"O father, I have engaged a servant for you. He grazes buffaloes and understands them. Well content will he be with a pakka of four yards and a bhûra of eight yards, nor during twelve years will he ever ask for more. No buffalo touched by his rod will ever bring you a bull-calf. He sits on a rock or he stands on a mound, and when he plays on his flute all the herd will follow him home."

"Very well, daughter mine," said her father. "All this is very good. What more need we ask from God? He is a good man you say. No buffalo touched by him but brings a she-calf, and, besides all this, you say that when he likes he plays on a flute, and that when he plays all the whole herd comes trooping home to the sound of his music. This is very good, my dear, and we will take him and keep him, so bring the lad hither to me."

The next day, therefore, Hîr brought Rânjha home to her father's house and he was at once engaged. At first he had charge of the horses, but the work was irksome to him, and after a time he complained to Hîr and said, "You never promised to make me a horse-keeper, Hîr, and the work does not suit me at all. Ask your father therefore to give me charge of his herds of buffaloes, for that was the bargain." And when she had spoken to her father, saying, "O Father, Rânjha is weary of keeping the horses, and he was promised only the buffaloes," her father at once answered, "Hîr, my daughter, it was a mistake of the steward, and you can send him to our island of Bela to take care of the buffaloes there."

So to Bela Rânjha went, and there he became the sole