The Boy Who Found His Father

: Part I.
: Folklore Of The Santal Parganas

There was once a boy who used always to cheat when playing Kati

(pitch and toss) and for this the village boys with whom he played used

to quarrel with him, saying "Fatherless orphan, why do you cheat?" So

one day he asked his mother why they called him that name and whether

his father was really dead. "He is alive" said she "but a long time

ago a rhinoceros carried him off on its horn." Then the boy vowed

that he woul go in search of his father and made his mother put him

up provisions for the journey; and he started off taking with him an

iron bow and a big bundle of arrows.



He journeyed on all day and at nightfall he came to a village; there he

went up to the house of an old woman to ask for a bed. He stood at the

threshhold and called out to her "Grannie, grannie, open the door." "I

have no son, and no grandchildren to call me grannie," grumbled the

old woman and went to open the door to see who was there, and when she

opened the door and saw him, she said "Ho, you are my grandson." "Yes,"

answered he, "I am your grandchild." So she called him inside and gave

him a bed to sleep on. The old woman was called Hutibudi; and she and

the boy sat up late talking together and then they lay down to sleep;

but in the middle of the night he heard the old woman crunching away

trying to bite his bow to pieces. He asked her what she was eating:

"Some pulse I got from the village headman," "Give me a little to

try" he begged. "I am sorry my child, I have finished it all." But

really she had none to give, however she only hurt her jaws biting

so that she began to groan with pain: "What are you groaning for,

Grannie?" said the boy; "Because I have toothache" she answered: and

in truth her cheeks were badly swollen. Then he told her that a good

cure for toothache was to bite on a white stone and she believed him

and the next morning got a piece of white quartz and began to bite on

it; but this only broke her teeth and made her mouth bleed so that the

pain was worse than before: then the boy jeered at her and said. "Did

you think, Grannie, that you could bite my iron bow and arrows?"



So saying he left her and continued the search for his father and

his road led him to a dense jungle which seemed to have no end, and

in the middle of the jungle he came to a lake and he sat down by it

to eat what was left of the provisions he had brought: as he sat,

he suddenly saw some cow-bison coming down to the lake: at this he

caught up his bow and arrows in a hurry and climbed up a tall sal

tree: from the tree he watched the bison go down to the water to drink

and then go back into the jungle. And after them tigers and bears

came down to the water: the sight of them frightened him and he sang:--





"Drink your fill, tiger,

I shall not shoot you.

I shall shoot the giant rhinceros."





and they drank and went away. Then various kinds of birds came and

after them a great herd of rhinceroses and among them was one which

had the dried up body of the boy's father stuck on its horn. The boy

was rather frightened and sang





"Drink your fill, rhinceroses,

I shall not shoot you

I shall shoot the giant rhinceros."





and when the giant rhinceros with the body of his father stooped its

head to drink from the lake, he put an arrow through it and it turned

a somersault and fell over dead: while all the other rhinceroses

turned tail and ran away. Then the boy climbed down from the tree and

pulled the dead body of his father off the horn of the dead animal and

laid it down at the foot of a tree and began to weep over it. As he

wept a man suddenly stood before him and asked what was the matter,

and when he heard, said "Cry no more: take a cloth and wet it in the

lake and cover your father's body with it: and then whip the body

with a meral twig and he will come to life." So saying the stranger

suddenly disappeared; and the boy obeyed his instructions and behold

his father sat up alive and rubbing his eyes said "I must have been

asleep a very long time." Then his son explained to him all that had

happened and gave him some food and took him home.