II

DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF LINGO

55

With stretched hands, and lifted feet, and with his neck bent down, he danced.

Thus he danced. The old woman looked towards her husband, and said, My old man, my husband,

Surely, that music is very melodious.

I will dance, said the old woman. Having made the fold of her dress loose, she quickly began to dance near the hedge.

rection of

Then Lingo disclosed himself to the giant and became friendly with him. The giant apologised for having tried to 9. Death eat his brother, and called Lingo his nephew. Lingo invited and resurhim to come and feast on the flesh of the sixteen scores of Lingo. nilgai. The giant called his seven daughters and offered them all to Lingo in marriage. The daughters produced the arrow which they had treasured up as portending a husband. Lingo said he was not marrying himself, but he would take them home as wives for his brothers. So they all went back to the cave and Lingo assigned two of the daughters each to the three elder brothers and one to the youngest. Then the brothers, to show their gratitude, said that they would go and hunt in the forest and bring meat and fruit and Lingo should lie in a swing and be rocked by their seven wives. But while the wives were swinging Lingo and his eyes were shut, they wished to sport with him as their husbands' younger brother. his hands and feet till he woke up. them and called them his mothers and nothing and began to embrace him. with wrath and leapt up, and seeing a rice-pestle near he seized it and beat them all with it soundly. Then the women went to their houses and wept and resolved to be revenged on Lingo. So when the brothers came home they told their husbands that while they were swinging Lingo he had tried to seduce them all from their virtue, and they were resolved to go home and stay no longer in Kachikopa with such a man about the place. Then the brothers were exceedingly angry with Lingo, who they thought had deceived them with a pretence of virtue in refusing a wife, and they resolved to kill him. So they enticed him into the forest with a story of a great animal which had put them to flight and asked him to kill it, and there they shot him to death with their arrows and gouged out his eyes and played ball with them.

So saying they pulled
Then he reproached
sisters, but they cared
Then Lingo was filled

But the god Bhagwān became aware that Lingo was not praying to him as usual, and sent the crow Kageshwar to look for him. The crow came and reported that Lingo was dead, and the god sent him back with nectar to sprinkle it over the body and bring it to life again, which was done.

Lingo then thought he had had enough of the four brothers, so he determined to go and find the other sixteen score Gonds who were imprisoned somewhere as the brothers had told him. The manner of his doing this may be told shut up in in Captain Forsyth's version: 1

10. He releases

the Gonds

the cave

and consti

tutes the

tribe.

And our Lingo redivivus

Wandered on across the mountains,
Wandered sadly through the forest
Till the darkening of the evening,
Wandered on until the night fell.
Screamed the panther in the forest,
Growled the bear upon the mountain,
And our Lingo then bethought him
Of their cannibal propensities.
Saw at hand the tree Niruda,
Clambered up into its branches.
Darkness fell upon the forest,

Bears their heads wagged, yelled the jackal

Kolyal, the King of Jackals.

Sounded loud their dreadful voices

In the forest-shade primeval.

Then the Jungle-Cock Gugotee,

Mull the Peacock, Kurs the Wild Deer,

Terror-stricken, screeched and shuddered,

In that forest-shade primeval.

But the moon arose at midnight,

Poured her flood of silver radiance,
Lighted all the forest arches,

Through their gloomy branches slanting;
Fell on Lingo, pondering deeply

On his sixteen scores of Koitūrs.

Then thought Lingo, I will ask her
For my sixteen scores of Koitūrs.
'Tell me, O Moon!' said Lingo,
'Tell, O Brightener of the darkness!
Where my sixteen scores are hidden.'
But the Moon sailed onwards, upwards,
And her cold and glancing moonbeams
Said, 'Your Gonds, I have not seen them.'

1 This extract is reproduced by permission of the publishers, Messrs. Chapman & Hall, London.

II

LINGO RELEASES THE GONDS

And the Stars came forth and twinkled
Twinkling eyes above the forest.
Lingo said, "O Stars that twinkle!
Eyes that look into the darkness,
Tell me where my sixteen scores are."

But the cold Stars twinkling ever,

Said, 'Your Gonds, we have not seen them.'
Broke the morning, the sky reddened,
Faded out the star of morning,

Rose the Sun above the forest,
Brilliant Sun, the Lord of morning,
And our Lingo quick descended,
Quickly ran he to the eastward,
Fell before the Lord of Morning,
Gave the Great Sun salutation-
'Tell, O Sun!' he said, 'Discover
Where my sixteen scores of Gonds are.'
But the Lord of Day reply made-
"Hear, O Lingo, I a Pilgrim
Wander onwards, through four watches
Serving God, I have seen nothing
Of your sixteen scores of Koitūrs."
Then our Lingo wandered onwards
Through the arches of the forest ;
Wandered on until before him
Saw the grotto of a hermit,
Old and sage, the Black Kumāit,
He the very wise and knowing,
He the greatest of Magicians,
Born in days that are forgotten,
In the unremembered ages,
Salutation gave and asked him—
'Tell, O Hermit! Great Kumāit!
Where my sixteen scores of Gonds are.
Then replied the Black Magician,
Spake disdainfully in this wise-
"Lingo, hear, your Gonds are asses
Eating cats, and mice, and bandicoots,
Eating pigs, and cows, and buffaloes;
Filthy wretches! wherefore ask me?
If you wish it I will tell you.
Our great Mahadeva caught them,
And has shut them up securely
In a cave within the bowels
Of his mountain Dewalgiri,

With a stone of sixteen cubits,

And his bulldog fierce Basmāsur;
Serve them right, too, I consider,
Filthy, casteless, stinking wretches!"
And the Hermit to his grotto

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Back returned, and deeply pondered
On the days that are forgotten,
On the unremembered ages.

But our Lingo wandered onwards,
Fasting, praying, doing penance;
Laid him on a bed of prickles,
Thorns long and sharp and piercing.
Fasting lay he devotee-like,
Hand not lifting, foot not lifting,
Eye not opening, nothing seeing.
Twelve months long thus lay and fasted,
Till his flesh was dry and withered,
And the bones began to show through.
Then the great god Mahādeva
Felt his seat begin to tremble,
Felt his golden stool, all shaking
From the penance of our Lingo.
Felt, and wondered who on earth
This devotee was that was fasting
Till his golden stool was shaking.
Stepped he down from Dewalgiri,
Came and saw that bed of prickles
Where our Lingo lay unmoving.
Asked him what his little game was,
Why his golden stool was shaking.
Answered Lingo, "Mighty Ruler!
Nothing less will stop that shaking
Than my sixteen scores of Koitūrs
Rendered up all safe and hurtless
From your cave in Dewalgiri."
Then the Great God, much disgusted,
Offered all he had to Lingo,

Offered kingdom, name, and riches,

Offered anything he wished for,

'Only leave your stinking Koitūrs

Well shut up in Dewalgiri.'

But our Lingo all refusing

Would have nothing but his Koitūrs ;

Gave a turn to run the thorns a

Little deeper in his midriff.

Winced the Great God: "Very well, then,

Take your Gonds-but first a favour.

By the shore of the Black Water

Lives a bird they call Black Bindo,
Much I wish to see his young ones,

Little Bindos from the sea-shore ;
For an offering bring these Bindos,
Then your Gonds take from my mountain."
Then our Lingo rose and wandered,
Wandered onwards through the forest,

II

LINGO RELEASES THE GONDS

Till he reached the sounding sea-shore,
Reached the brink of the Black Water,
Found the Bingo birds were absent
From their nest upon the sea-shore,

Absent hunting in the forest,

Hunting elephants prodigious,

Which they killed and took their brains out,

Cracked their skulls, and brought their brains to
Feed their callow little Bindos,

Wailing sadly by the sea-shore.

Seven times a fearful serpent,
Bhawarnag the horrid serpent,
Serpent born in ocean's caverns,

Coming forth from the Black Water,
Had devoured the little Bindos-

Broods of callow little Bindos
Wailing sadly by the sea-shore-
In the absence of their parents.
Eighth this brood was. Stood our Lingo,
Stood he pondering beside them—
"If I take these little wretches
In the absence of their parents

They will call me thief and robber.

No! I'll wait till they come back here."
Then he laid him down and slumbered

By the little wailing Bindos.

As he slept the dreadful serpent,
Rising, came from the Black Water,
Came to eat the callow Bindos,
In the absence of their parents.
Came he trunk-like from the waters,
Came with fearful jaws distended,
Huge and horrid, like a basket
For the winnowing of corn.

Rose a hood of vast dimensions

O'er his fierce and dreadful visage.

Shrieked the Bindos young and callow,

Gave a cry of lamentation;

Rose our Lingo; saw the monster;

Drew an arrow from his quiver,

Shot it swift into his stomach,

Sharp and cutting in the stomach,
Then another and another;

Cleft him into seven pieces,
Wriggled all the seven pieces,
Wriggled backward to the water.
But our Lingo, swift advancing,
Seized the headpiece in his arms,
Knocked the brains out on a boulder;
Laid it down beside the Bindos,

59