THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
86
one of the doors, he entered it, and found himself in a most magnificent apartment. Through it he saw an open space that appeared to be the garden of the castle, but there was in it only one tree of excessive height and which was entirely composed of pearls and corals. The delighted sportsman filled his sack in which he carried his corn and left the place, hoping to enrich himself by the sale of the pearls. As he was going out
of the door he saw an
innumerable crowd of serpents following him. In his agitation he shouldered the sack and attempted to run, when a pearl fell out. This a serpent at once swallowed and disappeared. The sports man, glad to get rid of his pursuers at any price, threw pearl after pearl to them, and in every case it had the desired effect. At last, only one serpent remained, but for her [a fairy in that shape?] he found no pearl, and, urged on by fear, he hastened to his village–Tarsing, which is at the very foot of the Nanga Parbat. On entering his house he found it in great agitation ; bread was being distributed to the poor as they do at funerals, for his family had given him up as lost. The serpent still followed and stopped at the door. In despair, the man threw the corn-sack at her, when lo! a pearl glid ed out, which was eagerly swallowed by the ser pent which immediately disappeared. However, the man was not the same being as before. He was ill for days, and in about a fortnight after the events narrated, died,—for fairies never forgive a man who has surprised their secrets.
2.—The Fairy who Punished Iſer Human Lover. It is not believed in Astor that fairies ever marry
[MARch 1, 1872.
reproaching him, struck him in the face.
But she
had scarcely done so when despair mastered her heart, and she cried out in the deepest anguish, that “he now must die within four days.” “However,” she said, “ do shoot one of these animals, so that people may not say that you have returned empty handed.” The poor man returned crest-fallen to his home, lay down and died on the fourth day. C.—DAYALs—Wizards AND WITCHEs. The gift of second sight, or rather the intercourse with fairies, is confined to a few families in which
it is hereditary. The wizard is made to inhale the fumes of a fire which is lit with the wood of
the chili" (Panjābi, padam) a kind of firewood which gives much smoke.
Into the fire the milk
of a white sheep or goat is poured. The wizard inhales the smoke till he apparently becomes in sensible. He is then taken on the lap of one of the spectators who sings a song which restores him to his senses. In the meanwhile, a goat is slaughtered and the moment the fortune-teller jumps up, its bleeding neck is presented to him, which he sucks as long as a drop remains. The assembled musi cians then strike up a great noise and the wizard rushes about in the circle, which is formed round
him, and talks unintelligibly. The fairy then ap pears at some distance and sings, which, however, only the wizard hears. He then communicates her sayings in a song to one of the musicians who explains its meaning to the people. The wizard is called upon to foretell events and to give advice in cases of illness, &c. &c. The people believe that in ancient times these Dayals invariably spoke cor rectly, but that now scarcely one saying in a
human beings, but in Ghilgit there is a legend to
hundred turns out to be true.
that effect.
make a livelihood by their talent which is con
A famous sportsman, Kilá Lori, who
never returned empty-handed from any excursion, kept company with a fairy to whom he was deeply attached. Once in the hot weather, the fairy told him not to go out shooting during “the seven days of the summer,”—the “Caniculars"—which are called
Barda, and are supposed to be the hottest days in Dardistan. “I am,” said she, “obliged to leave you for that period, and mind you do not follow me.” The sportsman promised obedience and the fairy vanished, saying that he would certainly die if he attempted to follow her. Our love-intoxicated Nimrod, however, could not endure her absence.
On the fourth day he shouldered his gun and went out with the hope of meeting her. Crossing a range he came upon a plain, where he saw an immense gathering of game of all sorts and his beloved fairy milching a “Kill” [markhor], and collecting the milk in a silver vessel.
The noise which Kibá
Lori made caused the animal to start and to strike
out with its legs, which upset the silver vessel. The fairy looked up, and to her anger beheld the dis obedient lover. She went up to him and, after
Wizards do not now
sidered its own reward.
D.—HISTORICAL LEGEND of THE ORIGIN of GHILGIT. There are few legends so exquisite as the one
which chronicles the origin or rather the rise of Ghilgit. The traditions regarding Alexander the Great, which Vigne and others have imagined to exist among the people of Dardistan are unknown to, at any rate, the Shiná race, excepting in so far as some Munshi accompanying the Mahārājá's troops may, perhaps, accidentally have referred to it in conversation with a Shin. Any such information would have been derived from the Shikandarnāma
of Nizāmi, and would therefore possess no original value. There exist no ruins, so far as I have gone, to point to an occupation of Dardistan by the soldiers of Alexander. The following legend, how ever, which not only lives in the memories of all the Shin people, whether they be Chilásis, Astoris, Ghilgitis, or Brokhpa–ſthe latter, as I discovered, living actually side by side with the Baltis in Little Tibet], but which also an annual festival comme
- Elsewhere called “ clai.”
