{"product_id":"tales-of-the-punjab-folklore-of-india-gb-6145","title":"Tales of the Punjab: Folklore of India","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eTales of the Punjab: Folklore of India\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMany of the tales in this collection appeared either in the Indian\r\nAntiquary, the Calcutta Review, or the Legends of the\r\nPunjab.  They were then in the form of literal translations, in\r\nmany cases uncouth or even unpresentable to ears polite, in all\r\nscarcely intelligible to the untravelled English reader; for it must\r\nbe remembered that, with the exception of the Adventures of Raja\r\nRaslu, all these stories are strictly folk-tales passing current\r\namong a people who can neither read nor write, and whose diction is\r\nfull of colloquialisms, and, if we choose to call them so,\r\nvulgarisms.  It would be manifestly unfair, for instance, to compare\r\nthe literary standard of such tales with that of the Arabian\r\nNights, the Tales of a Parrot, or similar works.  The\r\nmanner in which these stories were collected is in itself sufficient\r\nto show how misleading it would be, if, with the intention of giving\r\nthe conventional Eastern flavour to the text, it were to be\r\nmanipulated into a flowery dignity; and as a description of the\r\nprocedure will serve the double purpose of credential and excuse, the\r\nauthors give it,premising that all the stories but three have been\r\ncollected by Mrs. F. A. Steel during winter tours through the various\r\ndistricts of which her husband has been Chief Magistrate.\nA carpet is spread under a tree in the vicinity of the spot which the\r\nMagistrate has chosen for his darbr, but far enough away from\r\nbureaucracy to let the village idlers approach it should they feel so\r\ninclined.  In a very few minutes, as a rule, some of them begin to\r\nedge up to it, and as they are generally small boys, they commence\r\nnudging each other, whispering, and sniggering.  The fancied approach\r\nof a chuprs, the 'corrupt lictor' of India, who attends at\r\nevery darbr, will however cause a sudden stampede; but after a\r\ntime these become less and less frequent, the wild beasts, as it were,\r\nbecoming tamer.  By and by a group of women stop to gaze, and then the\r\nquestion 'What do you want?' invariably brings the answer 'To see your\r\nhonour' (p ke darshan e).  Once the ice is broken, the only\r\ndifficulties are, first, to understand your visitors, and secondly, to\r\nget them to go away.  When the general conversation is fairly started,\r\ninquiries are made by degrees as to how many witches there are in the\r\nvillage, or what cures they know for fever and the evil eye,\r\netc.  At first these are met by denials expressed in set terms,\r\nbut a little patient talk will generally lead to some remarks which\r\npoint the villagers' minds in the direction required, till at last,\r\nafter many persuasions, some child begins a story, others correct the\r\ndetails, emulation conquers shyness, and finally the story-teller is\r\nbrought to the front with acclamations:  for there is always a\r\nstory-teller par excellence in every villagegenerally a boy.\nThen comes the need for patience, since in all probability the first\r\nstory is one you have heard a hundred times, or else some pointless\r\nand disconnected jumble.  At the conclusion of either, however, the\r\nteller must be profusely complimented, in the hopes of eliciting\r\nsomething more valuable.  But it is possible to waste many hours, and\r\nin the end find yourself possessed of nothing save some feeble variant\r\nof a well-known legend, or, what is worse, a compilation of oddments\r\nwhich have lingered in a faulty memory from half a dozen distinct\r\nstories.  After a time, however, the attentive collector is rewarded\r\nby finding that a coherent whole is growing up in his or her mind out\r\nof the shreds and patches heard here and there, and it is delight\r\nindeed when your own dim suspicion that this part of the puzzle fits\r\ninto that is confirmed by finding the two incidents preserved side by\r\nside in the mouth of some perfectly unconscious witness.  Some of the\r\ntales in this volume have thus been a year or more on the stocks\r\nbefore they had been heard sufficiently often to make their form\r\nconclusive.\n\u003cb\u003e ......Buy Now (To Read More)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eProduct details\u003ch3\u003e\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eEbook Number\u003c\/b\u003e: 6145 \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor\u003c\/b\u003e: Steel, Flora Annie Webster \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eRelease Date\u003c\/b\u003e: Jul 1, 2004 \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat\u003c\/b\u003e: eBook \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage\u003c\/b\u003e: English \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"booksdeli.com","offers":[{"title":"Steel, Flora Annie Webster,1847-1929 \/ eBook \/ English","offer_id":43215317565597,"sku":"gb-6145-ebook","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0619\/5648\/9373\/products\/6145.jpg?v=1671282522","url":"https:\/\/booksdeli.com\/products\/tales-of-the-punjab-folklore-of-india-gb-6145","provider":"booksdeli.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}