India Folk Tales
The Magic Fiddle
ONCE
upon a time there lived seven brothers and a sister. The brothers were
married, but their wives did not do the cooking for the family. It was
done by their sister, who stopped at home to cook. The wives for this
reason bore their sister-in-law much ill-will, and at length they
combined together to oust her from the office of cook and general
provider, so that one of themselves might obtain it. They said, "She
does not go out to the fields to work, but remains quietly at home, and
yet she has not the meals ready at the proper time." They then called
upon their Bonga, and vowing vows unto them they secured his good-will
and assistance; then they said to the Bonga, "At midday, when our
sister-in-law goes to bring, water, cause it thus to happen, that on
seeing her pitcher, the water shall vanish, and again slowly reappear.
In this way she will be delayed. Let the water not flow into her
pitcher, and you may keep the maiden as your own."
At noon, when
she went to bring water, it suddenly dried up before her, and she began
to weep. Then after a while the water began slowly to rise. When it
reached her ankles she tried to fill her pitcher, but it would not go
under the water. Being frightened, she began to wail and cry to her
brother:
"Oh! my brother, the water reaches to my ankles, Still, Oh! my brother, the pitcher will not dip."
The water continued to rise until it reached her knee, when she began to wail again:
"Oh! my brother, the water reaches to my knee, Still, Oh! my brother, the pitcher will not dip."
The water continued to rise, and when it reached her waist, she cried again:
"Oh! my brother, the water reaches to my waist, Still, Oh! my brother, the pitcher will not dip."
The water still rose, and when it reached her neck she kept on crying:
"Oh! my brother, the water reaches to my neck, Still, Oh! my brother, the pitcher will not dip."
At length the water became so deep that she felt herself drowning, then she cried aloud:
"Oh! my brother, the water measures a man's height, Oh! my brother, the pitcher begins to fill."
The
pitcher filled with water, and along with it she sank and was drowned.
The Bonga then transformed her into a Bonga like himself, and carried
her off.
After a time she reappeared as a bamboo growing on the
embankment of the tank in which she had been drowned. When the bamboo
had grown to an immense size, a Jogi, who was in the habit of passing
that way, seeing it, said to himself, "This will make a splendid
fiddle." So one day he brought an axe to cut it down; but when he was
about to begin, the bamboo called out, "Do not cut at the root, cut
higher up." When he lifted his axe to cut high up the stem, the bamboo
cried out, "Do not cut near the top, cut at the root." When the Jogi
again prepared himself to cut at the root as requested, the bamboo
said, "Do not cut at the root, cut higher up;" and when he was about to
cut higher up, it again called out to him, "Do not cut high up, cut at
the root." The Jogi by this time felt sure that a Bonga was frying to
frighten him, so becoming angry he cut down the bamboo at the root, and
taking it away made a fiddle out of it. The instrument had a superior
tone and delighted all who heard it. The Jogi carried it with him when
he went a-begging, and through the influence of its sweet music he
returned home every evening with a full wallet.
He now and then
visited, when on his rounds, the house of the Bonga girl's brothers,
and the strains of the fiddle affected them greatly. Some of them were
moved even to tears, for the fiddle seemed to wail as one in bitter
anguish. The elder brother wished to purchase it, and offered to
support the Jogi for a whole year if he would consent to part with his
wonderful instrument. The Jogi, however, knew its value, and refused to
sell it. It so happened that the Jogi some time after went to the house
of a village chief, and after playing a tune or two on his fiddle asked
for something to eat. They offered to buy his fiddle and promised a
high price for it, but he refused to sell it, as his fiddle brought to
him his means of livelihood. When they saw that he was not to be
prevailed upon, they gave him food and a plentiful supply of liquor. Of
the latter he drunk so freely that he presently became intoxicated.
While he was in this condition, they took away his fiddle, and
substituted their own old one for it. When the Jogi recovered, he
missed his instrument, and suspecting that it had been stolen asked
them to return it to him. They denied having taken it, so he had to
depart leaving his fiddle behind him. The chief's son, being a
musician, used to play on the Jogi's fiddle, and in his hands the music
it gave forth delighted the ears of all who heard it.
When all
the household were absent at their labours in the fields, the Bonga
girl used to come out of the bamboo fiddle, and prepared the family
meal. Having eaten her own share, she placed that of the chief's son
under his bed, and covering it up to keep off the dust, re-entered the
fiddle. This happening every day, the other members of the house-hold
thought that some girl friend of theirs was in this manner showing her
interest in the young man, so they did not trouble themselves to find
out how it came about. The young chief, however, was determined to
watch, and see which of his girl friends was so attentive to his
comfort. He said in his own mind, "I will catch her to-day, and give
her a sound beating; she is causing me to be ashamed before the
others." So saying, he hid himself in a corner in a pile of firewood.
In a short time the girl came out of the bamboo fiddle and began to
dress her hair. Having completed her toilet, she cooked the meal of
rice as usual, and having eaten some herself, she placed the young
man's portion under his bed, as before, and was about to enter the
fiddle again, when he, running out from his hiding-place, caught her in
his arms. The Bonga girl exclaimed, "Fie! Fie! you may be a Don, or you
maybe a Hadi of some other caste with whom I cannot marry." He said,
"No. But from to-day, you and I are one." So they began lovingly to
hold converse with each other. When the others returned home in the
evening, they saw that she was both a human being and a Bonga, and they
rejoiced exceedingly. Now in course of time the Bonga girl's family
became very poor, and her brothers on one occasion came to the chiefs
house on a visit.
The Bonga girl recognised them at once, but
they did not know who she was. She brought them water on their arrival,
and afterwards set cooked rice before 'them. Then sitting down near
them, she began in wailing tones to upbraid them on account of the
treatment she had been subjected to by their wives. She related all
that had befallen her, and wound up by saying," You must have known it
all, and yet you did not interfere to save me." And that was all the
revenge she took.
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