Folk-tales of Bengal |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
accordingly asked barber Basanta beauty became began Bihangama bird boat bones Brahmadaitya Brahman brother brought Champa Champa Dal child clothes Dalim Kumar dead devoured door Duo queen Durga elder thief elephant father fell flowers forest four friends gave ghost girl give goddess gold mohurs gold stick ground hair hand handi head heap heard hermit hiraman horse hour human hundred husband jackal jewel kataki Keshavati khai killed king and queen king's Lakshmi lived lying maid-servant marriage married mendicant merchant's daughter minister's minister's son morning mudki Natiya-thorn withereth neat-herd night ocean old woman palace Phakir's mother prince princess Rajah's Rakshasi replied returned Rishi river royal ruby Sahasra Sahasra Dal Sannyasi serpent seventh queen silver stick six queens sleep Sobur Sribatsa stood story endeth Swet tank temple thought told took tree village young lady younger thief
Popular passages
Page 263 - So I prophesied as I was commanded, and as I prophesied there was a noise, and behold, a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to its bone.
Page 85 - You know yonder tank ; there is in the middle of it a crystal pillar, on the top of which in deep waters are two bees. If any human being can dive into the waters, and bring up to land the two bees from the pillar in one breath, and destroy them so that not a drop of their blood falls to the ground, then we...
Page ix - 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.
Page 253 - King perceived this, it brought to his mind the son with the moon on his forehead and stars on the palms of his hands...
Page 122 - Bowen, master Connecticut State Grange, and president State Dairy Association, Woodstock, Conn.: I believe that almost every item of our commercial foods is adulterated or contains injurious ingredients, but I have no case now in mind concerning which I could go into court and testify under oath. This has been going on for so long a time that the public have cometo believe that adulteration is necessary.
Page 145 - ... blood. She was born a rat ; I then changed her successively, according to her own wish, into a cat, a dog, a boar, an elephant, and a beautiful girl, Now that she is gone, do you again take into favour your former queen.
Page viii - the swarthy and half-naked peasant on the banks of the Ganges is a cousin, albeit of the hundredth remove, to the fairskinned and well-dressed Englishman on the banks of the Thames.
Page 146 - From this tree will be obtained a drug called opium, which will be celebrated as a powerful medicine through all ages, and which will always be either swallowed or smoked as a wonderful narcotic to the end of time. The opium swallower or smoker will have one quality of each of the animals to which Postomani was transformed. He will be mischievous like a rat, fond of milk like a cat, quarrelsome like a dog, filthy like an ape, savage like a boar, and high-tempered like a queen.
Page 198 - The Brahman thought his wife returned from the tank, and the mother thought that it was her daughter-in-law. Next morning the mother-in-law discovered some change in her daughter-in-law. Her daughter-in-law, she knew, was constitutionally weak and languid, and took a long time to do the work of the house. But she had apparently become quite a different person. All of a sudden she had become very active. She now did the work of the house in an incredibly short time. Suspecting nothing, the old woman...
Page 74 - I will rest satisfied, and not commit any further depredations on your subjects.' Our king had no other alternative than to agree to this condition, for what human beings can ever hope to contend against a Rakshasi? From that day the king made it a rule that every family in the town should in its turn send one of its members to the temple as a victim to appease the wrath and to satisfy the hunger of the terrible Rakshasi. All the families in this neighbourhood have had their turn, and this night...