Only last spring the University of Calcutta published The Folk-Literature of Bengal, a reprint of lectures delivered to the University by Mr. Sen as Ramtanu Lahiri Research Fellow. In that book Mr. Sen gratefully expressed his obligations to Mr. Dakṣiṇā Rañjan Majumdār, the Grimm of Bengal. But he modestly omitted to state that he too is a collector of Bengali folk-lore. Indeed, as a lifelong student of popular poetry of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, his attention must have been forcibly drawn to the ancient legends of local deities imbedded in this artless old verse. In his Sājher Bhog he has published six stories which are not without interest to collectors of folk-tales. Two of these indeed are modified versions of tales already recorded. One is taken from the Kathā-saritā sāgara, and another from a Persian source to which Mr. Sen has not given a reference. It is to be hoped that he will repair this omission in a second edition. A third tale is taken from the English of the famous missionary Carey, and a fourth is little more than an amusing anecdote of how an Amir of Afghanistān was misled as to the taste of the Indian mangoe. There remain two excellent tales which the author heard in his childhood, true specimens of village folklore in Eastern Bengal. The first (and best) of these is the horrific tale of the Bhūta Tāpāi. I make a brief summary of it as an example of the wares Mr. Sen has to offer to his readers.
A middle-aged Brāhmaṇ, one cold winter’s night, was crossing a wide plain on his way home. The wind blew shrill and chill, and the wayfarer, Śibu by name, trembled in every limb. Suddenly, on the left of his path, he saw a fire blazing cheerily, and round it a number of people enjoying its warmth. What a temptation to warm himself in good company before continuing his homeward journey! He came near, and feeling the genial influence of the flame from afar, incautiously shouted “Tāpāi, tāpāi,” meaning “I am warmed, I am warmed.”
Alas, the creatures round the fire were maleficent ghosts, hideous, distorted, grinning, sworn enemies of mankind, shouting obscene words with the nasal utterance which marks their race.
