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                 OLD
             DECCAN DAYS

                 OR

        HINDOO FAIRY LEGENDS

    _CURRENT IN SOUTHERN INDIA._


   COLLECTED FROM ORAL TRADITION,
            BY M. FRERE.

   WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES,
        BY SIR BARTLE FRERE.


            [Decoration]


            PHILADELPHIA
       J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO.
                1870.


  Lippincott's Press, Philadelphia.




  [Illustration: VICRAM MAHARAJAH--p. 133.]




CONTENTS.


                                                          PAGE
    INTRODUCTION                                             5

    THE COLLECTOR'S APOLOGY                                 12

    THE NARRATOR'S NARRATIVE                                15

     1. PUNCHKIN                                            27

     2. A FUNNY STORY                                       44

     3. BRAVE SEVENTEE BAI                                  51

     4. TRUTH'S TRIUMPH                                     81

     5. RAMA AND LUXMAN; OR, THE LEARNED OWL                98

     6. LITTLE SURYA BAI                                   113

     7. THE WANDERINGS OF VICRAM MAHARAJAH                 129

     8. LESS INEQUALITY THAN MEN DEEM                      161

     9. PANCH-PHUL RANEE                                   164

    10. HOW THE SUN, THE MOON AND THE WIND WENT OUT
          TO DINNER                                        194

    11. SINGH RAJAH AND THE CUNNING LITTLE JACKALS         196

    12. THE JACKAL, THE BARBER AND THE BRAHMIN WHO HAD
          SEVEN DAUGHTERS                                  199

    13. TIT FOR TAT                                        218

    14. THE BRAHMIN, THE TIGER AND THE SIX JUDGES          220

    15. THE SELFISH SPARROW AND THE HOUSELESS CROWS        225

    16. THE VALIANT CHATTEE-MAKER                          227

    17. THE RAKSHAS' PALACE                                236

    18. THE BLIND MAN, THE DEAF MAN AND THE DONKEY         248

    19. MUCHIE LAL                                         258

    20. CHUNDUN RAJAH                                      268

    21. SODEWA BAI                                         280

    22. CHANDRA'S VENGEANCE                                291

    23. HOW THE THREE CLEVER MEN OUTWITTED THE DEMONS      314

    24. THE ALLIGATOR AND THE JACKAL                       326

    NOTES                                                  333




INTRODUCTION.


A few words seem necessary regarding the origin of these stories, in
addition to what the Narrator says for herself in her Narrative, and
what is stated in the Collector's "Apology."

With the exception of two or three, which will be recognized as
substantially identical with stories of Pilpay or other well-known
Hindoo fabulists, I never before heard any of these tales among the
Mahrattas, in that part of the Deccan where the Narrator and her
family have lived for the last two generations; and it is probable
that most of the stories were brought from among the Lingaets of
Southern India, the tribe, or rather sect, to which Anna de Souza
tells us her family belonged before their conversion to Christianity.

The Lingaets form one of the most strongly marked divisions of the
Hindoo races south of the river Kistna. They are generally a
well-favored, well-to-do people, noticeable for their superior
frugality, intelligence and industry, and for the way in which they
combine and act together as a separate body apart from other Hindoos.
They have many peculiarities of costume, of social ceremony and of
religion, which strike even a casual observer; and though clearly not
aboriginal, they seem to have much ground for their claim to belong to
a more ancient race and an earlier wave of immigration than most of
the Hindoo nations with which they are now intermingled.

The country they inhabit is tolerably familiar to most English readers
on Indian subjects, for it is the theatre of many of the events
described in the great Duke's earlier despatches, and in the writings
of Munro, of Wilkes, and of Buchanan. The extraordinary beauty of some
of the natural features of the coast scenery, and the abundance of
the architectural and other remains of powerful and highly civilized
Hindoo dynasties, have attracted the attention of tourists and
antiquaries, though not to the extent their intrinsic merit deserves.
Some knowledge of the land tenures and agriculture of the country is
accessible to readers of Indian blue-books.

But of all that relates to the ancient history and politics of the
former