Loving Laili

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Title:     Loving Laili
Author: Anonymous [More Titles by Anonymous]

Once there was a king called King Dantál, who had a great many rupees and soldiers and horses. He had also an only son called Prince Majnún, who was a handsome boy with white teeth, red lips, blue eyes, red cheeks, red hair, and a white skin. This boy was very fond of playing with the Wazír's son, Husain Mahámat, in King Dantál's garden, which was very large and full of delicious fruits, and flowers, and trees. They used to take their little knives there and cut the fruits and eat them. King Dantál had a teacher for them to teach them to read and write.

One day, when they were grown two fine young men, Prince Majnún said to his father, "Husain Mahámat and I should like to go and hunt." His father said they might go, so they got ready their horses and all else they wanted for their hunting, and went to the Phaláná country, hunting all the way, but they only found jackals and birds.

The Rájá of the Phaláná country was called Múnsúk Rájá, and he had a daughter named Lailí, who was very beautiful; she had brown eyes and black hair.

One night, some time before Prince Majnún came to her father's kingdom, as she slept, God sent to her an angel in the form of a man who told her that she should marry Prince Majnún and no one else, and that this was God's command to her. When Lailí woke she told her father of the angel's visit to her as she slept; but her father paid no attention to her story. From that time she began repeating, "Majnún, Majnún; I want Majnún," and would say nothing else. Even as she sat and ate her food she kept saying, "Majnún, Majnún; I want Majnún." Her father used to get quite vexed with her. "Who is this Majnún? who ever heard of this Majnún?" he would say. "He is the man I am to marry," said Lailí. "God has ordered me to marry no one but Majnún." And she was half mad. Meanwhile, Majnún and Husain Mahámat came to hunt in the Phaláná country; and as they were riding about, Lailí came out on her horse to eat the air, and rode behind them. All the time she kept saying, "Majnún, Majnún; I want Majnún." The prince heard her, and turned round. "Who is calling me?" he asked. At this Lailí looked at him, and the moment she saw him she fell deeply in love with him, and she said to herself, "I am sure that is the Prince Majnún that God says I am to marry." And she went home to her father and said, "Father, I wish to marry the prince who has come to your kingdom; for I know he is the Prince Majnún I am to marry." "Very well, you shall have him for your husband," said Múnsúk Rájá. "We will ask him to-morrow." Lailí consented to wait, although she was very impatient. As it happened, the prince left the Phaláná kingdom that night, and when Lailí heard he was gone, she went quite mad. She would not listen to a word her father, or her mother, or her servants said to her, but went off into the jungle, and wandered from jungle to jungle, till she got farther and farther away from her own country. All the time she kept saying, "Majnún, Majnún; I want Majnún;" and so she wandered about for twelve years.

At the end of the twelve years she met a fakír--he was really an angel, but she did not know this--who asked her, "Why do you always say, 'Majnún, Majnún; I want Majnún'?" She answered, "I am the daughter of the king of the Phaláná country, and I want to find Prince Majnún; tell me where his kingdom is." "I think you will never get there," said the fakír, "for it is very far from hence, and you have to cross many rivers to reach it." But Lailí said she did not care; she must see Prince Majnún. "Well," said the fakír, "when you come to the Bhágírathí river you will see a big fish, a Rohú; and you must get him to carry you to Prince Majnún's country, or you will never reach it."

She went on and on, and at last she came to the Bhágírathí river. There there was a great big fish called the Rohú fish. It was yawning just as she got up to it, and she instantly jumped down its throat into its stomach. All the time she kept saying, "Majnún, Majnún." At this the Rohú fish was greatly alarmed and swam down the river as fast as he could. By degrees he got tired and went slower, and a crow came and perched on his back, and said, "Caw, caw." "Oh, Mr. Crow," said the poor fish, "do see what is in my stomach that makes such a noise." "Very well," said the crow, "open your mouth wide, and I'll fly down and see." So the Rohú opened his jaws and the crow flew down, but he came up again very quickly. "You have a Rakshas in your stomach," said the crow, and he flew away. This news did not comfort the poor Rohú, and he swam on and on till he came to Prince Majnún's country. There he stopped. And a jackal came down to the river to drink. "Oh, jackal," said the Rohú, "do tell me what I have inside me." "How can I tell?" said the jackal. "I cannot see unless I go inside you." So the Rohú opened his mouth wide, and the jackal jumped down his throat; but he came up very quickly, looking much frightened and saying, "You have a Rakshas in your stomach, and if I don't run away quickly, I am afraid it will eat me." So off he ran. After the jackal came an enormous snake. "Oh," says the fish, "do tell me what I have in my stomach, for it rattles about so, and keeps saying, 'Majnún, Majnún; I want Majnún.'" The snake said, "Open your mouth wide, and I'll go down and see what it is." The snake went down: when he returned he said, "You have a Rakshas in your stomach; but if you will let me cut you open, it will come out of you." "If you do that, I shall die," said the Rohú. "Oh, no," said the snake, "you will not, for I will give you a medicine that will make you quite well again." So the fish agreed, and the snake got a knife and cut him open, and out jumped Lailí.

She was now very old. Twelve years she had wandered about the jungle, and for twelve years she had lived inside her Rohú; and she was no longer beautiful, and had lost her teeth. The snake took her on his back and carried her into the country, and there he put her down, and she wandered on and on till she got to Majnún's court-house, where King Majnún was sitting. There some men heard her crying, "Majnún, Majnún; I want Majnún," and they asked her what she wanted. "I want King Majnún," she said. So they went in and said to Prince Majnún, "An old woman outside says she wants you." "I cannot leave this place," said he; "send her in here." They brought her in and the prince asked her what she wanted. "I want to marry you," she answered. "Twenty-four years ago you came to my father the Phaláná Rájá's country, and I wanted to marry you then; but you went away without marrying me. Then I went mad, and I have wandered about all these years looking for you." Prince Majnún said, "Very good." "Pray to God," said Lailí, "to make us both young again, and then we shall be married." So the prince prayed to God, and God said to him, "Touch Lailí's clothes and they will catch fire, and when they are on fire, she and you will become young again." When he touched Lailí's clothes they caught fire, and she and he became young again. And there were great feasts, and they were married, and travelled to the Phaláná country to see her father and mother.

Now Lailí's father and mother had wept so much for their daughter that they had become quite blind, and her father kept always repeating, "Lailí, Lailí, Lailí." When Lailí saw their blindness, she prayed to God to restore their sight to them, which he did. As soon as the father and mother saw Lailí, they hugged her and kissed her, and then they had the wedding all over again amid great rejoicings. Prince Majnún and Lailí stayed with Múnsúk Rájá and his wife for three years, and then they returned to King Dantál, and lived happily for some time with him.

They used to go out hunting, and they often went from country to country to eat the air and amuse themselves.

One day Prince Majnún said to Lailí, "Let us go through this jungle." "No, no," said Lailí; "if we go through this jungle, some harm will happen to me." But Prince Majnún laughed, and went into the jungle. And as they were going through it, God thought, "I should like to know how much Prince Majnún loves his wife. Would he be very sorry if she died? And would he marry another wife? I will see." So he sent one of his angels in the form of a fakír into the jungle; and the angel went up to Lailí, and threw some powder in her face, and instantly she fell to the ground a heap of ashes.

Prince Majnún was in great sorrow and grief when he saw his dear Lailí turn into a little heap of ashes; and he went straight home to his father, and for a long, long time he would not be comforted. After a great many years he grew more cheerful and happy, and began to go again into his father's beautiful garden with Husain Mahámat. King Dantál wished his son to marry again. "I will only have Lailí for my wife; I will not marry any other woman," said Prince Majnún. "How can you marry Lailí? Lailí is dead. She will never come back to you," said the father. "Then I'll not have any wife at all," said Prince Majnún.

Meanwhile Lailí was living in the jungle where her husband had left her a little heap of ashes. As soon as Majnún had gone, the fakír had taken her ashes and made them quite clean, and then he had mixed clay and water with the ashes, and made the figure of a woman with them, and so Lailí regained her human form, and God sent life into it. But Lailí had become once more a hideous old woman, with a long, long nose, and teeth like tusks; just such an old woman, excepting her teeth, as she had been when she came out of the Rohú fish; and she lived in the jungle, and neither ate nor drank, and she kept on saying, "Majnún, Majnún; I want Majnún."

At last the angel who had come as a fakír and thrown the powder at her, said to God, "Of what use is it that this woman should sit in the jungle crying, crying for ever, 'Majnún, Majnún; I want Majnún,' and eating and drinking nothing? Let me take her to Prince Majnún." "Well," said God, "you may do so; but tell her that she must not speak to Majnún if he is afraid of her when he sees her; and that if he is afraid when he sees her, she will become a little white dog the next day. Then she must go to the palace, and she will only regain her human shape when Prince Majnún loves her, feeds her with his own food, and lets her sleep in his bed." So the angel came to Lailí again as a fakír and carried her to King Dantál's garden. "Now," he said, "it is God's command that you stay here till Prince Majnún comes to walk in the garden, and then you may show yourself to him. But you must not speak to him, if he is afraid of you; and should he be afraid of you, you will the next day become a little white dog." He then told her what she must do as a little dog to regain her human form.

Lailí stayed in the garden, hidden in the tall grass, till Prince Majnún and Husain Mahámat came to walk in the garden. King Dantál was now a very old man, and Husain Mahámat, though he was really only as old as Prince Majnún, looked a great deal older than the prince, who had been made quite young again when he married Lailí.

As Prince Majnún and the Wazír's son walked in the garden, they gathered the fruit as they had done as little children, only they bit the fruit with their teeth; they did not cut it. While Majnún was busy eating a fruit in this way, and was talking to Husain Mahámat, he turned towards him and saw Lailí walking behind the Wazír's son. "Oh, look, look!" he cried, "see what is following you; it is a Rakshas or a demon, and I am sure it is going to eat us." Lailí looked at him beseechingly with all her eyes, and trembled with age and eagerness; but this only frightened Majnún the more. "It is a Rakshas, a Rakshas!" he cried, and he ran quickly to the palace with the Wazír's son; and as they ran away, Lailí disappeared into the jungle. They ran to King Dantál, and Majnún told him there was a Rakshas or a demon in the garden that had come to eat them. "What nonsense," said his father. "Fancy two grown men being so frightened by an old ayah or a fakír! And if it had been a Rakshas, it would not have eaten you." Indeed King Dantál did not believe Majnún had seen anything at all, till Husain Mahámat said the prince was speaking the exact truth. They had the garden searched for the terrible old woman, but found nothing, and King Dantál told his son he was very silly to be so much frightened. However, Prince Majnún would not walk in the garden any more.

The next day Lailí turned into a pretty little dog; and in this shape she came into the palace, where Prince Majnún soon became very fond of her. She followed him everywhere, went with him when he was out hunting, and helped him to catch his game, and Prince Majnún fed her with milk, or bread, or anything else he was eating, and at night the little dog slept in his bed.

But one night the little dog disappeared, and in its stead there lay the little old woman who had frightened him so much in the garden; and now Prince Majnún was quite sure she was a Rakshas, or a demon, or some such horrible thing come to eat him; and in his terror he cried out, "What do you want? Oh, do not eat me; do not eat me!" Poor Lailí answered, "Don't you know me? I am your wife Lailí, and I want to marry you. Don't you remember how you would go through that jungle, though I begged and begged you not to go, for I told you that harm would happen to me, and then a fakír came and threw powder in my face, and I became a heap of ashes. But God gave me my life again, and brought me here, after I had stayed a long, long while in the jungle crying for you, and now I am obliged to be a little dog; but if you will marry me, I shall not be a little dog any more." Majnún, however, said "How can I marry an old woman like you? how can you be Lailí? I am sure you are a Rakshas or a demon come to eat me," and he was in great terror.

In the morning the old woman had turned into the little dog, and the prince went to his father and told him all that had happened. "An old woman! an old woman! always an old woman!" said his father. "You do nothing but think of old women. How can a strong man like you be so easily frightened?" However, when he saw that his son was really in great terror, and that he really believed the old woman would come back at night, he advised him to say to her, "I will marry you if you can make yourself a young girl again. How can I marry such an old woman as you are?"

That night as he lay trembling in bed the little old woman lay there in place of the dog, crying, "Majnún, Majnún, I want to marry you. I have loved you all these long, long years. When I was in my father's kingdom a young girl, I knew of you, though you knew nothing of me, and we should have been married then if you had not gone away so suddenly, and for long, long years I followed you." "Well," said Majnún, "if you can make yourself a young girl again, I will marry you."

Lailí said, "Oh, that is quite easy. God will make me a young girl again. In two days' time you must go into the garden, and there you will see a beautiful fruit. You must gather it and bring it into your room and cut it open yourself very gently, and you must not open it when your father or anybody else is with you, but when you are quite alone; for I shall be in the fruit quite naked, without any clothes at all on." In the morning Lailí took her little dog's form, and disappeared in the garden.

Prince Majnún told all this to his father, who told him to do all the old woman had bidden him. In two days' time he and the Wazír's son walked in the garden, and there they saw a large, lovely red fruit. "Oh!" said the Prince, "I wonder shall I find my wife in that fruit." Husain Mahámat wanted him to gather it and see, but he would not till he had told his father, who said, "That must be the fruit; go and gather it." So Majnún went back and broke the fruit off its stalk; and he said to his father, "Come with me to my room while I open it; I am afraid to open it alone, for perhaps I shall find a Rakshas in it that will eat me." "No," said King Dantál; "remember, Lailí will be naked; you must go alone, and do not be afraid if, after all, a Rakshas is in the fruit, for I will stay outside the door, and you have only to call me with a loud voice, and I will come to you, so the Rakshas will not be able to eat you."

Then Majnún took the fruit and began to cut it open tremblingly, for he shook with fear; and when he had cut it, out stepped Lailí, young and far more beautiful than she had ever been. At the sight of her extreme beauty, Majnún fell backwards fainting on the floor.

Lailí took off his turban and wound it all round herself like a sárí (for she had no clothes at all on), and then she called King Dantál, and said to him sadly, "Why has Majnún fallen down like this? Why will he not speak to me? He never used to be afraid of me; and he has seen me so many, many times." King Dantál answered, "It is because you are so beautiful. You are far, far more beautiful than you ever were. But he will be very happy directly." Then the King got some water, and they bathed Majnún's face and gave him some to drink, and he sat up again. Then Lailí said, "Why did you faint? Did you not see I am Lailí?" "Oh!" said Prince Majnún, "I see you are Lailí come back to me, but your eyes have grown so wonderfully beautiful, that I fainted when I saw them." Then they were all very happy, and King Dantál had all the drums in the place beaten, and had all the musical instruments played on, and they made a grand wedding-feast, and gave presents to the servants, and rice and quantities of rupees to the fakírs.

After some time had passed very happily, Prince Majnún and his wife went out to eat the air. They rode on the same horse, and had only a groom with them. They came to another kingdom, to a beautiful garden. "We must go into that garden and see it," said Majnún. "No, no," said Lailí; "it belongs to a bad Rájá, Chumman Básá, a very wicked man." But Majnún insisted on going in, and in spite of all Lailí could say, he got off the horse to look at the flowers. Now, as he was looking at the flowers, Lailí saw Chumman Básá coming towards them, and she read in his eyes that he meant to kill her husband and seize her. So she said to Majnún, "Come, come, let us go; do not go near that bad man. I see in his eyes, and I feel in my heart, that he will kill you to seize me." "What nonsense," said Majnún. "I believe he is a very good Rájá. Anyhow, I am so near to him that I could not get away." "Well," said Lailí, "it is better that you should be killed than I, for if I were to be killed a second time, God would not give me my life again; but I can bring you to life if you are killed." Now Chumman Básá had come quite near, and seemed very pleasant, so thought Prince Majnún; but when he was speaking to Majnún, he drew his scimitar and cut off the prince's head at one blow.

Lailí sat quite still on her horse, and as the Rájá came towards her she said, "Why did you kill my husband?" "Because I want to take you," he answered. "You cannot," said Lailí. "Yes, I can," said the Rájá. "Take me, then," said Lailí to Chumman Básá; so he came quite close and put out his hand to take hers to lift her off her horse. But she put her hand in her pocket and pulled out a tiny knife, only as long as her hand was broad, and this knife unfolded itself in one instant till it was such a length! and then Lailí made a great sweep with her arm and her long, long knife, and off came Chumman Básá's head at one touch.

Then Lailí slipped down off her horse, and she went to Majnún's dead body, and she cut her little finger inside her hand straight down from the top of her nail to her palm, and out of this gushed blood like healing medicine. Then she put Majnún's head on his shoulders, and smeared her healing blood all over the wound, and Majnún woke up and said, "What a delightful sleep I have had! Why, I feel as if I had slept for years!" Then he got up and saw the Rájá's dead body by Lailí's horse. "What's that?" said Majnún. "That is the wicked Rájá who killed you to seize me, just as I said he would." "Who killed him?" asked Majnún. "I did," answered Lailí, "and it was I who brought you to life." "Do bring the poor man to life if you know how to do so," said Majnún. "No," said Lailí, "for he is a wicked man, and will try to do you harm." But Majnún asked her for such a long time, and so earnestly to bring the wicked Rájá to life, that at last she said, "Jump up on the horse, then, and go far away with the groom." "What will you do," said Majnún, "if I leave you? I cannot leave you." "I will take care of myself," said Lailí; "but this man is so wicked, he may kill you again if you are near him." So Majnún got up on the horse, and he and the groom went a long way off and waited for Lailí. Then she set the wicked Rájá's head straight on his shoulders, and she squeezed the wound in her finger till a little blood-medicine came out of it. Then she smeared this over the place where her knife had passed, and just as she saw the Rájá opening his eyes, she began to run, and she ran, and ran so fast, that she outran the Rájá, who tried to catch her; and she sprang up on the horse behind her husband, and they rode so fast, so fast, till they reached King Dantál's palace.

There Prince Majnún told everything to his father, who was horrified and angry. "How lucky for you that you have such a wife," he said. "Why did you not do what she told you? But for her, you would be now dead." Then he made a great feast out of gratitude for his son's safety, and gave many, many rupees to the fakírs. And he made so much of Lailí. He loved her dearly; he could not do enough for her. Then he built a splendid palace for her and his son, with a great deal of ground about it, and lovely gardens, and gave them great wealth, and heaps of servants to wait on them. But he would not allow any but their servants to enter their gardens and palace, and he would not allow Majnún to go out of them, nor Lailí; "for," said King Dantál, "Lailí is so beautiful, that perhaps some one may kill my son to take her away."

Told by Dunkní.

 

NOTES.

FAIRY TALE TRANSLATED BY MAIVE STOKES.

WITH NOTES BY MARY STOKES

LOVING LAILI.

1. Majnún is a celebrated lover, whose love for Lailí or Lailá is the subject of many Eastern poems. In this story he does not play a brilliant part.

2. Lailí's knife is like the sun-hero's weapon (the sun's ray), which lengthens at its owner's pleasure (Gubernatis, Zoological Mythology, vol. II. p. 147).

3. She cuts her little finger. See "the Bél Princess," p. 141, and paragraph 2 of the note to "Shekh Faríd." "The little finger, though the smallest, is the most privileged of the five. It is the one that knows everything." A Piedmontese mother says, "My little finger tells me everything" (Gubernatis, Zoological Mythology, vol. I. p. 166). We have a somewhat similar saying in England. In a Russian story quoted by the same author in the same work (vol. II. p. 151), an old woman while baking a cake, cuts off her little finger and throws it into the fire. From the little finger in the fire is born a strong dwarf who afterwards does many wonderful things. In the tale of the five fingers ("Die Maehr von den fuenf Fingern," Haltrich's Siebenbuergische Maerchen, p. 325), where each finger decides what it will do, the little one says, "I will help with wise counsel." In consequence of this assistance, to this day, "when any one has a wise idea (Einfall), he says 'that his little finger told him that'" (p. 327). In Finnish mythology we again find the little finger. "The Para, also originated in the Swedish Bjaeren or Bare, a magical three-legged being, manufactured in various ways, and which, says Castrén, attained life and motion when its possessor, cutting the little finger of his left hand, let three drops of blood fall on it, at the same time pronouncing the proper spell." ("The Mythology of Finnland," Fraser's Magazine for May 1857, p. 532.)

In Rink's Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo, p. 441, there is an account of Kanak's visit to the man of the moon, where he meets a woman who, he is warned, will take out his entrails if she can only make him laugh. He follows the moon-man's advice, which is to rub his leg with the nail of his little finger when he can no longer keep from smiling, and so saves himself from the old hag. Rishya Śriñga (to return to the land of our fairy tales) threw a drop of water from the nail of his little finger on a Rakshas who, in the form of a tiger, was rushing to devour him. The demon instantly quitted the tiger's body, and asked the Rishi what he should do. He followed the holy man's instructions and obtained môksha (salvation)--see Indian Antiquary for May 1873, p. 142, "The Legend of Rishya Śriñga," told by V. N. Narasimmiyengar of Bangalor.

 

GLOSSARY.

Bél, a fruit; Ægle marmelos.

Bulbul, a kind of nightingale.

Chaprásí, a messenger wearing a badge (chaprás).

Cooly (Tamil kúli), a labourer in the fields; also a porter.

Dál, a kind of pulse; Phaseolus aureus, according to Wilson; Paspalum frumentaceum, according to Forbes.

Dom (the d is lingual), a low-caste Hindú.

Fakír, a Muhammadan religious mendicant.

Ghee (ghí), butter boiled and then set to cool.

Kází, a Muhammadan Judge.

Kotwál, the chief police officer in a town.

Líchí, a fruit; Scytalia litchi, Roxb.

Mahárájá (properly Maháráj), literally great king.

Mahárání, literally great queen.

Mainá, a kind of starling.

Maund (man), a measure of weight, about 87 lb.

Mohur (muhar), a gold coin worth 16 rupees.

Nautch (nátya), a union of song, dance, and instrumental music.

Pálkí, a palanquin.

Pice (paisa), a small copper coin.

Pilau, a dish made of either chicken or mutton, and rice.

Rájá, a king.

Rakshas, a kind of demon that eats men and beasts.

Rání, a queen.

Rohú, a kind of big fish.

Rupee (rúpíya), a silver coin, now worth about twenty pence.

Ryot (ràíyat), a cultivator.

Sarai, a walled enclosure containing small houses for the use of travellers.

Sárí, a long piece of stuff which Hindú women wind round the body as a petticoat, passing one end over the head.

Sepoy (sipáhí), a soldier.

Wazír, prime minister.

Yogí, a Hindú religious mendicant.

[The end]
Anonymous's short story: Loving Laili

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