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327. Pydwal z'w. An inventive tongue. Au imaginative, lying tongue. 176 R Rdckhis dohah iah Unras garah. All day the watchman has to watch, but just twenty minutes is enough for the thief to steal. Cf. Sir Kenneth's brief absence from the Mount of St. George, during which the standard of England was stolen. — " The Talisman.'* Ch. xiii. Gar is really twenty-four minutes. A collection of terms used in Kashmir for indicating the different spaces and divisions of time may be interesting to some readers : — Brunz. Tsyah Gar Pahar Doh Doh-rdt Haftah •Pachh Ret Warih a second, {lit., just a flip of the finger) . = 12 or 13 brunz. = 60 tsyuhs. = 7| gars. = 4 pahars. =: 8 pahars (i.e., our full day of 24 hours). = 7 full days. our lunar month), our year of 12 lunar Ad rdt (or nisf shab) Patim pahar Kukar bang Gazal (Muhammedans) 2 haftahs. 2 pachhs {i. e 24 pachhs (i.e. months). = Midnight. = 3 o'clock A. M. = Cockcrowing. Brahma Muhurta(Educated > = Just before daybreak. Hindfis) ) Nyuk, njruk, gdsh (Unedu- \ cated Kashmiris.) f ^ Daybreak. Sunat (Muhammedans) ( ^ Prabhdt (Educated Hindus) ) Subh = Sunrise. Ad koj = about 2^ hrs. after sunrise Koj = about 4.J hrs. after sunrise Khandawav Koj = about 11 o'clock A. m. Dd pahar Mandeni (especially Hin- ^ ^ Midday dus). Sanskrit. Madhyan- dena Peshin (Pcshi in the Panj4b) = about 2 o'clock P. M. Seh pahar = about 3 o'clock p. m. Nimuz (Muhammedans) | _ ^^^^^ 3,30^ ^,^^^^ p Mimuz (Hindus) M. (At this time during the long days the schoolmaster shuts his school for half-an-hour or so, that his pui)ils 177 may have time to go and eat a little food. If yon asked a lad on coming from the school at snch a time where ho was going, he would invariably reply. To Mimuz or Nimuz, i.e., to hia afternoon meal.) Digar (Digar in the Panjib) = about 4 o'clock p. m. (Tliis ia aometimes distinguished as bod digar and lukut digar, referring respectively to a little time before and after the period.) Ad digar = Sunset. Sham = Evening. Khuphtan = Night. Bedtime, about 0-30 o'clock p. M. Sometimes the Sanskrit word veli is added thus : — " Ad rdtuk vola" " Kuknr bingih handih vel4" ; but this is more a Panjdbi than a Kashmiri form of expression. — Vide Note 714, Vol I., " Panjdb Notes and Queries" ; also Note 1011, Vol. II. Rangari wdnuk hhum akis khut tah beyis hut. The dyer's vessel was a success to one and a failure to another. The dyers have great earthen pots in which they prepare many gallons of dye at a time — sometimes they prepare as much as will last for six months. When the dye is ready for standing a cover ia placed upon it and it is left perfectly still for twenty days. During these days should the weather be too hot or too cold the colour will nut properly settle, and so much of the half-year'a work will be Rpoilt. Rangari wursah. A dyer's story (therefore not to be believed), Ranijur. Dyers in the valley are generally Muhammedans. They have an ancient custom of agreeing beforehand amongst themselves that if the dye doea not mix properly with the water, and after a time give forth a bad smell, (because it must corrupt before it is fit for use) they will go out and tell as many, and as great, lies as they can, until the dye-water does begin to stink. Some of the lying stories which they invent are very clever and interesting, and are believed in by not a few of the over-credulous people of Srinagar. I speak experimentally, having myself been the subject of one of these dyer's stories. Ras laginam tah das Ualinam. May I get ease and be free from laziness. A Kashmiri prayer frequently ejaculated at the commencement of any work. 23 178 Rasak rust halah gav thasah rust chhan. Rice without soup is like a carpenter without sound. Rdsti bagair gatshih surisui hadd rachhun. Besides (having) righteousness we must put a limit upon everything, {i. e., have moderation). Rat myuni kdngar tah wuchh myini tuk ! Take my kangar and see my paces ! A man with a proud walk. Rat wandai tah puj-wdnuk. I will offer to you the blood of the butcher's shop. Kind at the expense of another. Rdt wuttm Gangahbal tah pagah nah yurahbal. At night he arrives (in his thoughts and plans) at Gangdbal, but on the morrow he does not even get to the landing place. Always planning and never doing. Gangahal is a stream tributary to the Sindh river ; a holy lake near the top of Mount Haramuk. Rdtas waninas Lail ; pagah dupnas " Suh ley ah wdtiheh Majnunas "? In the night the story of Lail was told to him, and on the morrow he said, "What relation will she be to Majnun?'* A dullard. Lail or Lail6. is the name of a lady frequently alluded to in the East. The loves of Laila and Majnun are celebrated in a fine Persian poem by Nizami. Rdtuk wddah sor nai rud ** Wulai gdsah grakaney Last night's promise was not kept, ** Come, O grass-cutter." Promises are like pie-crust, made to be broken. Rawah zat thawah katih ? A ragged rawah, where shall I spread it ? A poor braggart. Rawah is a covering made from the fur of some animal, generally black, and imported from the Panjdb. Raz daz tah wuthini chlies aii. The rope is burnt (coal-black), but the twist is there (plain enough) . A man deposed or injured, but still harbouring bad thoughts. 179 Razi gas tah sotn mi'tr. A yard of rope and a stick — strike. Strict and swift justioo. Thoro is a talo concerning Avantivarman, eUtas Wainadat alia9 RAjd Vcn, ono of the ancient kings of Kashmir, in which a piece of rope and a small stick are represented as falfilling the duties of detective, police-officer, chaprdsf, Ac If any man or boast or birtl had done wrong, the stick and the rc^)0 would at onco hasten to thorny the stick would beat the offender, and the rope would bind him and bring him, her, or it, before the king for justioo. Cf. *' Indian Fairy Tales," the story of " The Riji's Son and the Princess LabAm/' p. 156. " Hero the BdjA's son found four faqlrs, whose teacher and master had died, and had loft four things, — a bod, wliich carried,, whoever sat on it, whithersoever he wished to go ; a bag, that gave its owner as much water as ho wanted, no matter how far ho might bo from a tank ; and a stick and a rope, to which its owner had only to say, if any one came to make war on him, ' Stick, beat oa many men and soldiers as aro here,' and the stick would boat them and the ropo would tie them up." Cf. also " Folk-tales of Bengal," th& story of '• the boy whom seven mothers suckled," p. 131. " The boy took down the cage from the ceiling, as well as the club and rope. Having well secured the bird, he addressed the club and ro))e- thus : — " O, stout club ! O, strong ropo ! Take me at onco to the other side." In the twinkling of an eye the boy was put on that side of the ooean. Similar quotations also might bo mado fn>m *' Wide-awake Stories," p. 294, •* Old Deccan Days," pp. 174-175, •• Fairy Tales from Brentano," pp. 146-154. Cf. also Wolf, Beitrago zor Doutschen Mythologie, 1., p. IS. ** A lad sets out on a journey, having in his possession three wonderful things, — a buok-goat that spits gold, a hen that lays golden eggs, and a table that covors itself, without anybody's help, with the choicest food. A rascally innkeeper steals these treasures from the lad, and puts worthless trash in their place; but a stick that jumps out of a bag in wfiich it is usually concealed, goes to work of its own accord upon tho innkeeper's back, and with such effect that the lad gets his own again. The stick then returns of itself to its owner's hand." Mr. Walter K. Kelly, in his most interesting book, "Curiosities of Indo-European Tradition and Folk-lore," oommonting upon this last quotation, writes : — *' The tablo in this story is the all-nourish- ing cloud. The buck-goat is another emblem of tho clouds, and the gold it spits is the golden light of tho sun that streams through the fleecy coverings of the sky. Tho hen's golden ogj^ is the sun itself. Tho demon of darkness has stolen these things ;. tho cloud gives no rain, but hangs dusky in tbo sky, veiling the light of tho sun. Then the lightning spear of the ancient 8torm god Odin leaps out from thu bag that concealed it, tho robber falls, the rain patters down, tho sun shines onco more.