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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 Hindoo sovereigns of these regions very little is known to the
general reader, though from their power, and riches and long-sustained
civilization, as proved by the monuments these rulers have left behind
them there are few parts of India better worth the attention of the
historian and antiquary.

Of the inner life of the people, past or present, of their social
peculiarities and popular beliefs, even less is known or procurable in
any published form. With the exception of a few graphic and
characteristic notices of shrewd observers like Munro, little
regarding them is to be found in the writings of any author likely to
come in the way of ordinary readers.

But this is not from want of materials: a good deal has been published
in India, though, with the common fate of Indian publications, the
books containing the information are often rare in English
collections, and difficult to meet with in England, except in a few
public libraries. Of unpublished material there must be a vast amount,
collected not only by the government servants, but by missionaries,
and others residing in the country, who have peculiar opportunities
for observation, and for collecting information not readily to be
obtained by a stranger or an official. Collections of this kind are
specially desirable as regards the popular non-Brahminical
superstitions of the lower orders.

Few, even of those who have lived many years in India and made some
inquiry regarding the external religion of its inhabitants, are aware
how little the popular belief of the lower classes has in common with
the Hindooism of the Brahmins, and how much it differs in different
provinces, and in different races and classes in the same province.

In the immediate vicinity of Poona, where Brahminism seems so
orthodox and powerful, a very little observation will satisfy the
inquirer that the favorite objects of popular worship do not always
belong to the regular Hindoo Pantheon. No orthodox Hindoo deity is so
popular in the Poona Deccan as the deified sage Vithoba and his
earlier expounders, both sage and followers being purely local
divinities. Wherever a few of the pastoral tribes are settled, there
Byroba, the god of the herdsmen, or Kundoba, the deified hero of the
shepherds, supersedes all other popular idols. Byroba the Terrible,
and other remnants of Fetish or of Snake-worship, everywhere divide
the homage of the lower castes with the recognized Hindoo divinities,
while outside almost every village the circle of large stones sacred