Other editions of book Folk - Tales of Bengal Illustrated by Warwick Goble

In my Peasant Life in Bengal I make the peasant boy Govinda spend some hours every evening in listening to stories told by an old woman, who was called Sambhu’s mother, and who was the best story-teller in the village. On reading that passage, Captain R. C. Temple, of the Bengal Staff Corps, son of the distinguished Indian administrator Sir Richard Temple, wrote to me to say how interesting it would be to get a collection of those unwritten stories which old women in India recite to little children in the evenings, and to ask whether I could not make such a collection. As I was no stranger to the Mährchen of the Brothers Grimm, to the Norse Tales so admirably told by Dasent, to Arnason’s Icelandic Stories translated by Powell, to the Highland Stories done into English by Campbell, and to the fairy stories collected by other writers, and as I believed that the collection suggested would be a contribution, however slight, to that daily increasing literature of folk-lore and comparative mythology which, like comparative philosophy, proves that the swarthy and half-naked peasant on the banks of the Ganges is a cousin, albeit of the hundredth remove, to the fair-skinned and well-dressed Englishman on the banks of the Thames, I readily caught up the idea and cast about for materials. But where was an old story-telling woman to be got? I had myself, when a little boy, heard hundreds—it would be no exaggeration to say thousands—of fairy tales from that same old woman, Sambhu’s mother—for she was no fictitious person; she actually lived in the flesh and bore that name; but I had nearly forgotten those stories, at any rate they had all got confused in my head, the tail of one story being joined to the head of another, and the head of a third to the tail of a fourth. How I wished that poor Sambhu’s mother had been alive! But she had gone long, long ago, to that bourne from which no traveller returns, and her son Sambhu, too, had followed her thither. After a great deal of search I found my Gammer Grethel—though not half so old as the Frau Viehmännin of Hesse-Cassel-in the person of a Bengali Christian woman, who, when a little girl and living in her heathen home, had heard many stories from her old grandmother. She was a good story-teller, but her stock was not large; and after I had heard ten from her I had to look about for fresh sources. An old Brahman told me two stories; an old barber, three; an old servant of mine told me two; and the rest I heard from another old Brahman. None of my authorities knew English; they all told the stories in Bengali, and I translated them into English when I came home. I heard many more stories than those contained in the following pages; but I rejected a great many, as they appeared to me to contain spurious additions to the original stories which I had heard when a boy. I have reason to believe that the stories given in this book are a genuine sample of the old old stories told by old Bengali women from age to age through a hundred generations.CONTENTS1.Life’s Secret2.Phakir Chand3.The Indigent Brahman4.The Story of the Rakshasas5.The Story of Swet-Basanta6.The Evil Eye of Sani7.The Boy whom Seven Mothers suckled8.The Story of Prince Sobur9.The Origin of Opium10.Strike but Hear11.The Adventures of Two Thieves and of their Sons12.The Ghost-Brahman13.The Man who wished to be Perfect14.A Ghostly Wife15.The Story of a Brahmadaitya16.The Story of a Hiraman17.The Origin of Rubies18.The Match-making Jackal19.The Boy with the Moon on his Forehead20.The Ghost who was Afraid of being Bagged21.The Field of Bones22.The Bald Wife

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This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.

This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.

This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. This text refers to the Bibliobazaar edition.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

‘Folk Tales of Bengal’ is a wonderful collection of classic stories, containing thirty-two colour illustrations, by Warwick Goble. The narratives were collated by the Reverend Lal Behari Day (1824 – 1892); a Bengali Indian journalist, who converted to Christianity, and became a Christian missionary himself. He was a well-respected folklorist, and immersed himself in Bengali culture. The twenty-two stories of ‘Folk Tales of Bengal’ include: ‘The Indignant Brahman’, ‘The Evil-Eye of Sani’, ‘The Story of Swet-Basanta’, ‘A Ghostly Wife’, ‘The Origin of Rubies’, ‘The Match-Making Jackal’, and many more.

There was a king who had two queens, Duo and Suo. [1] Both of themwere childless. One day a Faquir (mendicant) came to the palace-gateto ask for alms. The Suo queen went to the door with a handful ofrice. The mendicant asked whether she had any children. On beinganswered in the negative, the holy mendicant refused to take alms, asthe hands of a woman unblessed with child are regarded as ceremoniallyunclean. He offered her a drug for removing her barrenness, and sheexpressing her willingness to receive it, he gave it to her with thefollowing directions:--"Take this nostrum, swallow it with the juiceof the pomegranate flower; if you do this, you will have a son in duetime. The son will be exceedingly handsome, and his complexion willbe of the colour of the pomegranate flower; and you shall call himDalim Kumar. [2] As enemies will try to take away the life of yourson, I may as well tell you that the life of the boy will be bound upin the life of a big boal fish which is in your tank, in front of thepalace. In the heart of the fish is a small box of wood, in the box isa necklace of gold, that necklace is the life of your son. Farewell."In the course of a month or so it was whispered in the palacethat the Suo queen had hopes of an heir. Great was the joy ofthe king. Visions of an heir to the throne, and of a never-endingsuccession of powerful monarchs perpetuating his dynasty to thelatest generations, floated before his mind, and made him glad as hehad never been in his life. The usual ceremonies performed on suchoccasions were celebrated with great pomp; and the subjects made louddemonstrations of their joy at the anticipation of so auspicious anevent as the birth of a prince. In the fulness of time the Suo queengave birth to a son of uncommon beauty. When the king the first timesaw the face of the infant, his heart leaped with joy. The ceremonyof the child's first rice was celebrated with extraordinary pomp,and the whole kingdom was filled with gladness.

‘Folk Tales of Bengal’ is a wonderful collection of classic stories, containing thirty-two colour illustrations, by Warwick Goble. The narratives were collated by the Reverend Lal Behari Day (1824 – 1892); a Bengali Indian journalist, who converted to Christianity, and became a Christian missionary himself. He was a well-respected folklorist, and immersed himself in Bengali culture. The twenty-two stories of ‘Folk Tales of Bengal’ include: ‘The Indignant Brahman’, ‘The Evil-Eye of Sani’, ‘The Story of Swet-Basanta’, ‘A Ghostly Wife’, ‘The Origin of Rubies’, ‘The Match-Making Jackal’, and many more.

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