Page:The Indian Antiquary Vol 1.pdf/114

 of torpor during the winter. After three months, when the spring arrives, they awake and go about for food.

[MARch 1, 1872.

THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.

90

One of these bears once scented a corpse,

which he disinterred. It happened to be that of a woman who had died a few days before. The bear,

who was in good spirits, brought her to his den, where he set her upright against a stone, and fashioning a spindle with his teeth and paws, gave it to her into one hand, and placed some wool in the other. He then went on growling “mā-mū-mü”

to encourage the woman to spin. He also brought her some nuts and other provisions to eat. Of

course, his efforts were useless, and when she, after a few days, gave signs of decomposition he ate her

up in despair. This is a story based on the playful habits of the bear.

2.—A Bear Marries a Girl. Another curious story is related of a bear. Two

women, a mother and her little daughter, were one night watching their field of Indian corn (makkay,)

against the inroads of these animals. The mother had to go to her house to prepare the food, and or dered her daughter to light a fire outside. Whilst

she was doing this, a bear came and took her away. He carried her into his den, and daily brought her to eat and to drink. He rolled a big stone in front of the den, whenever he went away on his tours' which the girl was not strong enough to remove. When she became old enough to be able to do this

he used daily to lick her feet, by which they be came swollen and eventually dwindled down to mere misshapen stumps. The girl who had be

come of age, had to endure the caresses of her guar dian by whom she eventually became enceinte. She died in child-birth, and the poor bear, after vain efforts to restore her to life, roamed disconsolately about the fields.

with his forepaws, alternately took a pawful of tromba, blew the chaff away, and ate it hastily. The man was one-eyed (sheo blind; (my Ghilgiti used Kyor which he said was a Persian word, but which is evidently Turkish) and ran to his hut to get his gun. He came ont and pointed it at the bear. The animal, who saw this, ran round the blind side of the man's face, snatched the gun out of his hand and threw it away. The bear and the man then wrestled for a time, but afterwards both gave up

the struggle and retired. The man, after he had recovered himself, went to look for the gun, the stock of which he found broken.

The match-string

by which the stock had been tied to the barrel had gone on burning all night and had been the cause of the gun being destroyed. The son of that man still lives at the village, and tells this story which the people affect to believe.

5.—Wedding Festival among Bears. A Mulla of the name of Lal Muhammad, said that when he was taken a prisoner into Chilas, the and his escort passed one day through one of the dreariest portions of the mountains of that inhospit able region. There they heard a noise, and quietly approaching to ascertain its cause, they saw a com pany of bears tearing up the grass and making bundles of it which they hugged. Other bears again wrapped their heads in grass, and some stood on their hind-paws, holding a stick in their forepaws, and dancing to the sound of the howls of the others. They then ranged themselves in rows, at each end of which was a young bear; on one side a male, on the other a female.

These were supposed to cele

brate their marriage on the occasion in question. My informant swore to the story, and my Gl ilgiti corroborated the truth of the first portion of the account, which he said described a practice believed to be common to bears.

3.—Origin of Bears. It is said that bears were originally the offspring of a man who was driven into madness by his in ability to pay his debts, and who took to the hills in order to avoid his creditors.”

4.—The Bear and the one-eyed Man. The following story was related by a man of the name of Ghalib Shah, residing at a villege near Astór, called Parishing. He was one night look ing out whether any bear had come into his tromba (field)f He saw that a bear was there, and that he, obligations, when contracted with a member of the same race, used to be notorious.
 * The scrupulousness of the Gipsies in discharging such

f Tromba—to be made eatable must be ground into flour, then boiled in water and placed in the “chamúl” [in

ſº

ſº

a receptacle under the hearth, an or “popush” has to be kept in this place for one night, after which it is fit

for use after being roasted or put on a tawa [pan] like a Chapáti [a thin cake of unleavened bread] barāo or chitti barão—sour bardo [moro bardo–sweet barão.] t Almost every third man I met had, at some time or other, been kidnapped, and dragged off either to Chlás, Chitral, Badakhshan, or Bukhāra. The surveillance, how

6.—The Flying Porcupine. There is a curious superstition with regard to an animal called Hargin which appears to be more like a porcupine than anything else. It is covered with bristles, its back is of a red-brownish, and its belly of a yellowish colour. This animal is sup posed to be very dangerous, and to contain poison in its bristles. At the approach of any man or ani mal, it is said to gather itself up for a terrific jump into the air, from which it descends, on to the head

of the intended victim. It is said to be generally ever, which is exercised over prisoners, as they are being moved by goat-paths over mountains, cannot be a very effective one and, therefore, many of them escape. Some of the Kashmir Maharájá's who sipahis invaded Dardistan, had been captured and had escaped. They narrated many stories of the ferocity of these mountaineers; e.g., that they used their captives as fireworks, &c., in order to enliven public gatherings. Even if this be true, there can

be no doubt that the sepoys retaliated in the fiercest man ner whenever they had an opportunity, and the only acts of barbarism that came under my observation, during the war with the tribes in 1866, were committed by the invaders.