TALES FROM THE PUNJAB.*
Mn. SWYNNERTON'S Romantic Tales from the Panja is a book that will probably take as strong a hold upon the imaginations of the generation now in the nursery as the Arabian Nights has taken on the imaginations of elder generations. It is not, however, in any sense a book especially for the nursery. On the contrary, it is a handsome volume, with sumptuous paper and fine type, a critical introduction addressed to people of culture, and an appendix that will appeal to antiquarians and scholars. But the stories it contains—the primitive legends of the Punjab—or should we follow Mr. Swynner- ton's example and .write it " Panjoh " P—these will} commend themselves not only or chiefly to the scholars and the anti- quarians and the people of culture, but to all boys and girls with the passion for romance that is proper to their years. Two of the tales in particular are of the kind that are never new and never old, and therefore never stale,—the legend of Ritja Rasedu, and the I love-story of " Mr and Rtinjha." Rasidu is one more incarnation of the universal hero of the oldest times. He wanders like Ulysses and like Ulysses has a pretty talent for craft, he does mighty labours like Hercules, kills giants like our homely Jack, loves like Arthur and like Arthur is betrayed; and finally, like Roland, dies in battle. Brutality and pathos, magnanimity and meanness, are impartially depicted ; trifling incidents of poignant reality and utter simplicity alternate with monstrous achievements and wild improbabilities ; birds and beasts talk ; " gins " interfere at critical moments; nothing, in short, is left out that belongs to primitive romance. And, through all, one feels the beat of the two supreme motives, love and adventure. The Ra,sfilu legend is the apotheosis of adven- ture. The triumph of love is in "Hir and Rilnjha." And therefore "Hir and Ranjha " is even more popular among the natives of the Punjab than the more ambitious epic. But for the modern English reader the interest of the volume is not entirely shut up in the tales. The introduction tells us how Mr. Swynnerton discovered them—in what circumstances he first heard them told :— " They were gathered at odd times and in different places, as the exigencies of the public service permitted, during two or three successive cold seasons, and of many a winter's night they were veritably the entertainment, when after duty was over for the day and dinner had been duly despatched, we lighted our pipes and sat listening and scribbling, while a group of Muhammadan story-tellers, squatting on the floor within glow of our log-fire, enjoyed the pleasant hours quite as much as our- selves."
That is Mr. Swynnerton's general description of how he got the stories, and it accounts very well for the delightful crisp- ness of the style in which they are told. One feels that they have been taken from living lips, not from books; and though we read them in flowing translation, it is translation from which the life has not been beaten out by any attempt to embellish or modify the originals. A curious and pleasant feature of some of the most important legends is the mingling of verse with prose. The main narrative is in prose. But in dialogue, and wherever the situation is especially dramatic or impassioned, verse is used. The effect is delightful, and the cause, as Mr. Swynnerton explains, is probably a matter of profound historical interest. There is every reason to believe that these tales come down from the earliest days of Aryan
- • Romantic Tales from tha Panjlib. With Illustrations by Native Hands. Col- lected and Edited from Original Sources by the Rev. Charles Swynnerton, '.S.A., Senior Chaplain to the Indian Government (Retired). London ; A. Constable and Co. [218. net.]
immigration. They must have been the written literature of the tribes of the Punjab before the Greeks came. They sur- vived the Scythian irruptions. They were still, in all proba- bility, .written, poems when .the Mussulman devastated the land. But in the wholesale destruction of temples and schools and libraries made by the Mahommedans all books must have perished; and from thaftime forward the tales of the Punjab lived only in the memory of such bards as escaped from the massacre, and were tolerated by the conquerors for the value of the entertainment they could give by reciting and singing the history, true and fictitious, of their ancestors. In this way, carried down the stream of time by the memories of uneducated singers—men of• low caste lightly esteemed among the Mussulmans—these stories have suffered a measure of corruption and lost the integrity of their original form. But the crucial points, "the purple patches," have retained the metrical form, and still to-day, whenever a story-teller recites the legend of Rasolu or the love-story of "hr and Riinjha " to a group of villagers, all the audience joins in chorus to sing the parts that are still preserved in metre.
It was by chance, and in most picturesque circumstances, that Mr. Swynnerton first heard "Hir and Rinjha " recited :—
"Riding one day along the mountain-road that leads from Abbottilbad to the village of Bagnata, perched high over the precipitous• sides of the Dh6r, I turned aside at Damtaur intent on the acquisition of Graeco-Bactrian coins, which a few years ago were plentiful enough over the whole of that once-classic region, and entered the narrow tortuous streets of the village. As I advanced I could distinguish the rhythmical beating of a tom-tom varied with the strains of a suringa, and now and then the vociferous singing of some professional bard. These things told me of festival, they proclaimed the fact that the whole village was en fgte in honour of the nuptials of some dusky maiden. And, in point of fact, when I arrived at the open space in front of the hujra, or general guest-house, I found assembled there a company of the wedding-guests, all of the nobler sex, who were standing or squatting under a huge lapel-tree, listening to the black-bearded minstrel, Sher, son of Mirza, whose fame abounded over all that country-side."
The legend of Rilja Rasklu, " Panjib paladin without a peer," was just coming to an end in the mouth of the bard :-- "I was just in time before dismounting to catch the hero's dying speech, which, being in verse, was duly sung to the scrap- ing of an ancient family viol, when his auditors, greedy for more, set up the cry: 'Hit and Ranjha! fir and Rinjha! 0 excellent
mintsi, tell us the story of Hir and Rtinj ha ! ' The -idlers in the rude verandahs around moved nearer to the original group : from the shadows of blank walls and places unknown emerged several grey beards, casting their cotton togas about their stately forms as they approached ; timid-faced girls, darkly veiled, gazed from housetops, or peeped from neighbouring doors ; and some staid matrons, returning home with pitchers of river-water on their graceful heads, shyly came to a halt between sunlight and shade, if so be they might catch fragments of a love-tale which to them especially, though ever old, was ever new."
The tale of "fir and Rtinjha " has points which link it curiously with the Greek legend of "Hero and Leander." Ranjha swims across a stream to Hir, and the stream broadens into a dividing gulf. Then it is altogether out of rule that in the title the name of the woman should precede that of the man. And this happens both in "fir and Riinjha " and in "Hero and Leander." And, finally, there is an obvious jingling resemblance between the very names. All things point to a far-back kindred origin. But though Mr. Swynnerton notes these things suggestively, he does not attempt to work out a scientific theory of origin. He dwells with more gusto upon the nature• of the sentiment inspiring the tales, especially in the ease of fir and Ritnjha. The love of Hir is the love of a free woman, therefore the story is not of Mahommedan invention. She will wed. the man of her choice, and supernatural powers befriend her. Her marriage is solemnised in a mystic dream, but she insists on its reality, and when her parents try to force her into another marriage, she resists with a constancy comparable to that of Shakespeare's Juliet. Then, in the supreme moment, " gins " or angels come to the redene, and the faithful pair are miracu- lously carried up into the sky. Another tale, the "Legend of Puran Baghat," repeats the motive of Phaedra -and Hippolytus Animal life plays a large part in all the stories. Here is an extract whicli shows that Indian monkeys bore the same character in primitive times that Mr: Kipling gives them now. In the course of a romantic quest, Prince Ahmed asks the way of an old.goklsmith; and the answer is that the way is full of difficulties for such a itripling . :05-First of all, you must pass through jungles full of tigers and monkeys and huge birds of prey.'—' If I die,' said the Prince, go I must . What do you advise P '= First of all,' said the old man, 'when you come to the country of the tigers, be not afraid, but go forward, and say unto them, "In the name of God !" Then they will allow you to pass, and none will molest you. Again, when you getto the country of the great birds, say in like manner, "For the sake of God! and they too will let you pass. But the monkeys will not obey that charm. Therefore be careful to take with you some grain, as much as you can carry, and when they begin to swarm about you, scatter it on the ground, for monkeys are greedy folk, and they will stop to fill their mouths, and meanwhile you can pass safely. through."
The parrot is the scandal-monger, the horse the faithful friend and servant. All the illustrations are by native hands. In the human 'figures one finds more character than charm, but the humbler creatures are all enchanting,—the monkeys especially, in spite of their ungodly greediness.
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