Folk-tales of Kashmir / by the Rev. J. Hinton Knowles.

  • Knowles, James Hinton.
Date:
1893
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Folk-tales of Kashmir / by the Rev. J. Hinton Knowles. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    presume to do sucli a thing ? ” But the lad was resolute, and valued not his life in the matter. Then said the faquir, “ If you will not be dissuaded, follow my advice, and you will succeed and be preserved. When you meet a tigress aim an arrow at one of her teats. The arrow will strike her, and the tigress will speak and ask you why you shot her. Then you must say that you did not intend to kill her, but simply thought that she would be glad if she could feed her cubs more quickly than before, and therefore pierced a hole in her teats through which the milk would flow easily. You must also say that you pitied her cubs, who looked very weak and sickly, as though they required more nourishment.” Then, blessing him, the faqir sent him on his journey.^ Thus encouraged, the lad walked on with a glad heart, lie soon saw a tigress with cubs, aimed an arrow at one of her teats, and struck it. When the tigress angrily asked him to explain his action, he replied as the faqir had instructed him, and added that the queen was seriously ill, and was in need of tigress’ milk. “ The queen ! ” said the tigress. ‘‘ Do not you know that she is a rdkshasi ? Keep her at a distance, lest she kill and eat you ! ” “ I fear no harm,” said the lad. Her Majesty enter- tains no enmitv against me.” “ Very well. I will certainlv give vou some of mv milk, but beware of the queen. Look here,” said the tigress, taking him to an immense block of rock that had separated from the hill; “ 1 will let a drop of my milk fall on this rock.” She did so, and the rock split into a million pieces! “You see the powder of my milk. Well, if the queen were to drink the whole of what I have just given you, it would not have the slightest effect on her. She is a rdksliasi^ and cannot be harmed by such things as this. However, if you will not believe me, go and see for vourself.” 2 Another reason is given in the story of “The Seven-Legged Beast” in this collection.