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She went ofE straight to the butcher's shop, and there soaked her tsadar, or wrap, in some blood lying about, and then went and washed it in the part of the river opposite the king's palace. Akbar noticing this, enquired the reason of the blood. She replied : *' No, I have not murdered any one ; but yesterday Bir Bal was delivered of a child in the house." Akbar said : " Can a man bear a child" ? The girl answered : " Can a bullock give milk ?" Bir Bal was exalted to still greater honor and power on accoont of this shrewdness of his daughter. Readers will probably be disgusted at the ridiculousness of this story, but at Basle so late as the fifteenth century great excitement was caused by the announcement that a cock had laid an egg. I may be pardoned, perhaps, for qaoting the following from " Cham- bers's Book of Days" : — " At Basle, in 1474, a cock was tried for having laid an egg. For the prosecution it was proved that cocks' eggs were of inestimable value for mixing in certain magical preparations ; that a sorcerer would rather possess a cock's egg than be master of the philosopher's stone ; and that in Pagan lands Satan employed witches to hatch such eggs, from which proceeded animals most injurious to all of the Christian faith and race. The advocate for the defence admitted the facts of the case, but asked what evil animals had been proved against his client, what injury to man or beast had it effected ? Besides, the laying of the egg was an involuntary act, and as such, not punishable by law. If the crime of sorcery were imputed, the cock was innocent ; for there was no instance on record of Satan having made a compact with the brute creation. In reply, the Public Prosecutor alleged that, though the devil did not make com- pact with brutes, he sometimes entered into them ; and though the swine possessed by devils, as mentioned in Scripture, were involun- tary agents, yet they nevertheless were punished by being caused to run down a steep place into the sea, and so perished in the waters. The pleadings in this case, even as recorded by Hammer- lein, are voluminous ; we only give the meagre outlines of the prin- cipal pleas ; suffice it to say, the cock was condemned to death, not as a cock, but as a sorcerer or devil in the form of a cock, and was with its egg burned at the stake, with all the due form and solem- nity of a judicial punishment." Bir Balun kat, Bir Bal's ram. One day in reply to some ministers who were slandering Bir Bal, Akbar said : '* Never mind, if Bir Bal is a Hindu, he is a wise and 83 clftver man, and worthy of the confirlenoe. which I ha^o in him Shall I prove to you his wisdom jituI shrewdness ? Cull all the ministers. " Aklmr then fjnve to each minister a ram. and onlered them to feed each his ram for the space of two months, and to take care that at the ond of that period, they should not be henvier t)r lijfbter than thoy were then at that raomeut. Ue also caused the name of each mluister and the weight of bis ram to be written down. Bfr Bal took his ram and fed it in the nsnal way, hut constantly kept a dog iwar it. Tke coaseiiuenco was that the poor ram from very fear did not become any fatter or thinner, but was altojfether in ittdtu uno at the erul of the allotted time. Some of the other ministers ti^nve their rams grass in the morning', and not at night ; and gome fed their rams one day nnd not the next day ; an<l in variona other way.-* thoy tried to keep them in Ihe same condition ; but at the end of the two month**, when all the ministers and their rams were again assembled before Akbar, only Bfr Bal's ram was found to bo the right weight. " Did I not tell yon," said the king, "that ho was wiser and better than you all ? " *' liir Bal's ram." These words are quoted, when any person coun- teracts whatever good he may have done, by performing some evil work, e.g., a Kashmfrf would cite these words against n man who WTW especially liberal to a servant one day, and legged him severely in a fit of temper on the following day. JRlfhis gi'isah diy'.r. Money for cutting grass to an idle man. Wages to a servant, who has very little work. Bod ai I'sik audui totih ckhuh bodui. If a great mnn becomes half (i.e., comes down in the world) still he is great. Jfort^Hit n^n miUat ginus. Bod badih jt't/ir kadih ; aup badih tah tup kidih. If a man of good family becomes great, he will give pensions in land (to the people) ; but if an ignoble man becomes great, he will take out the very hairs of their heads. Bod k'Wtat kurhak ? zik modyav, *' Who made you a great man V* " Death " {i.e., Relations died and left you their position and money). Persian. — Kas na Duinad darsard monk gardad kat-Khudd. Bod mynnd gaUhik kkyun tah bad kath gaUhih nah karani. Tou must eat a big mouthful, but you mustu*t do much work. (Oh, no!) Spokeu sarcastically to a lazy dependant. 5 34 Boi ffav h^ni binih gayih ihani. Brother is (hard like) a stone, and sister is (soft as) butter. Bor chhuh jahannanmk jjor. A burden is one of hell's storeys. This saying is rather against the idea that the coolie thinks his load a trifle. Bozit zur tnh dishit un. Be as the deaf man hearing and the blind man seeing. A little paternal advice to a child — " Be as if yon had heard and seen nothing." Brogas dapyiiky " Tuhth chhii haj. *' Dupanak, " Nah tah kyah chhum syud .'*" They said to the heron, " Your bill is crooked." He replied, " Am I not all crooked ?" Bhojpuri. — " HahsuA lie tun terh Tcdhe ?" " Ato apnd gauh se." Bruri hindi gyav hhenah chhum nah lagan tyut, yut hruri hindi lui gilahwanah. I am not so angry at the cat eating the ghi, as I am at her shaking her tail. " 'Twas not the loss that I minded so much as the man's rudeness and impenitence." Persian. — Zi roghan khurdan e gurhana ndlam, zi dum jumbidanash dshufia hdlam. Brr'ri hund hal hyuh, athih nah yiwun huiisih. Like the secundine of a cat, no one can get it. A man here, there, and everywhere — no finding him. Hindus think that whoever succeeds in obtaining the after-birth of a cat will become exceedingly rich and prosperous. Only three or four persons in the whole city have been known to get it, and they all are very wealthy. As soon as this precious treasure is obtained it is put into a jar we)l covered over and kept in the house. Blessed are the people in whose dwelling it is placed. Bruri znn. The cat's moon. '' Such excitement, as that I could not sleep or do anything." Natives say that cats are fond of the 'moon, and get more and more excited as she increases. They remain out all the night and disturb the whole neighbourhood with their shrieks and depredations. 1 he London Review says : — The Egyptians worshipped the cat as a symbol of the moon, not only because it is more active after sunset, but from the dilation and contraction of its orb, symbolical of the waxing and waning of the night -goddess. 35 Brnris nah ^* bishtah, *' tah hunts nak " durah ;'' tyut chhuh nek ! He has not even a " bislitah" for the cat, nor a " durah" for the dog — so good is he ! Ho wouM not hurt a worm. Bishtah is a sound for driving away cata, Durah is a sound for driving away dogs. BrurUai pakah ychan saran rozakan nak pachhin. U the cat grew wings, the water-fowl could not Uve in the hikes. A cunning tyrannical fellow chooked from doing much harm by siokness or |M)verty, Ac. Persian. — Gurba e mis\in agar par ddshtef tukhm i gunjitfhk az jahdn bard:Ukte. Brimjih ckhhittik Walur puzun ! Sweeping away the waters of the Walur Lake with the branches of the Briniij ! Vrendt'c la lnnc avec U dents. Bror mi'irun. To beat the cat. Pour cncournjer les autres. Tirimti. — Dhi nidrun putoh le tarag. A fiittiur on the occasion of his son's marriage gave him a little BiHJciul mlvice. " You aro going to bo married, my son ; and you will wish that your wife should bo quiet and submissive to you in all matters. Follow the advice, which I now give you. Procure a cat, and one night after your marriage so arrange that the animal shall be in the sleeping room at the time, when you and your wife retire to rest. You will go to the room as usual, and on entering it you will ])rotend to bo very much surprisotl and annoyed that the cat, should be found there, and you will draw your sword at once and slay it.