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印度

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故事正文 *

There was once a young _bonga_ who dwelt in a cave in the side of a
hill in the jungle; and every day he placed on a flat stone outside,
a pot of oil and a comb and a looking glass and some lamp black or
vermilion; any woman who went to the jungle could see these things
lying there; but they were never visible to a man. After a time the
girls who went to the jungle began to use the comb and looking glass
and to dress and oil their hair there; it became a regular custom for
them to go first to the flat stone before collecting their firewood
or leaves.

One day five girls went together to the jungle and after they had
combed and dressed their hair it happened that one got left behind;
and seeing her alone the _bonga_ came out of the cave and creeping
up quietly from behind threw his arms round her; and although she
shouted to her friends for help he dragged her inside the cave. Her
companions were just in time to see her disappear; and they begged
and prayed the _bonga_ to let the girl go for once; but the _bonga_
answered from within that he would never let her go but was going to
keep her as his wife; and he drew a stone door over the mouth of the
cave. News of the misfortune was sent to the girl's parents and they
came hastening to the place; and her mother began to sing:

"My daughter, you rubbed your hair with oil from a pot:
    My daughter, you combed your hair with a comb with one row of teeth;
    Come hither to me, my daughter."

And the girl sang from within the cave:

"Mother, he has shut me in with a stone
    With a stone door he has shut me in, mother
    Mother, you must go back home."

Then her father sang the same song and got the same answer; so they
all went home. Then the girl's father's younger brother and his wife
came and sang the song and received the same answer and then her
mother's brother and father's sister came and then all her relations,
but all in vain. Last of all came her brother riding on a horse and
when he heard his sister's answer he turned his horse round and made
it prance and kick until it kicked open the stone door of the cave;
but this was of no avail for inside were inner doors which he could not
open; so he also had to go home and leave his sister with the _bonga_.

The girl was not unhappy as the wife of the _bonga_ and after a time
she proposed to him they should go and pay a visit to her parents. So
the next day they took some cakes and dried rice and set off; they were
welcomed right warmly and pressed to stay the night. In the course of
the afternoon the girl's mother chanced to look at the provisions which
they had brought with them; and was surprised to see that in place of
cakes was dried cowdung and instead of rice, leaves of the _meral_
tree. The mother called her daughter in to look but the girl could
give no explanation; all she knew was that she had put up cakes and
dried rice at starting. Her father told them all to keep quiet about
the matter lest there should be any unpleasantness and the _bonga_
decline to come and visit them again.

Now the girl's brother had become great friends with his _bonga_
brother-in-law and it was only natural that when the _bonga_ and his
wife set off home the next morning he should offer to accompany them
part of the way. Off they started, the girl in front, then the _bonga_
and then her brother; now the brother had hidden an axe under his cloth
and as they were passing through some jungle he suddenly attacked the
_bonga_ from behind and cut off his head. Then he called to his sister
that he had killed the _bonga_ and bade her come back with him; so the
two turned back and as they looked round this saw that the _bonga's_
head was coming rolling after them. At this they started to run and ran
as hard as they could until they got to the house and all the way the
head came rolling after until it rolled right into the house. There
was a fire burning on the hearth and they plucked up courage to take
the head and throw it into the fire where it was burnt to ashes. That
was the end of the _bonga_ but eight or nine days later the girl's
head began to ache and in spite of all medicines they applied it got
worse and worse until in a short time she died. Then they knew that
the _bonga_ had taken her away and had not given her up.