Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 4, 1893.djvu/532

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Balochi Tales.

him ; he will get Samri back for you." So he returned thence, and came to Jampur, and went to look for the faqīr, and saw him grazing the donkeys. The faqīr saw the Mochi, and without waiting for him to speak, he said, "Had not Jive Lai power enough to do it himself, that he must send you to me?" The Mochi said, "He did send me to you." Then the faqīr said, "Now go home, and take your ease at your house, and come to me again on the day of the eunuchs' sports at Jampur. When I am dancing in the middle of them, and am happy, come up and give a pull at the hem of my garment." One day, when the eunuchs had a great dance, and the faqīr was intoxicated, and was dancing in the midst of them, the Mochi came up to him and pulled the hem of his garment. On this the faqīr clapped his hands and cried out, "Samri is come! Samri is come!" Just then a number of people came running up to congratulate the Mochi on Samri's return, and said, "Samri has come back, and is sitting at your house." The Mochi comes home and finds Samri sitting there with moist dough on her hands. They asked her how she had come, and she said, "I was at Kilat, and was kneading the dough for Muhabbat Khan's bread, for he loved me so that he would eat no bread made by the hands of anyone else, but I must bake it for him. As I kneaded, a green fly came flying round in front of my eyes. I closed my eyes and waved my hand to drive it away, and I know nothing more but that I found myself back in my house at Jampur."

And so the Mochi and Samri lived happy together, and Muhabbat Khan was left at Kilat.


XVII.

Kismat Pari.

A king who was childless, and asked for the prayers of holy men, was told by one of them to send his wife to the bank of the river, and let her sit there and pray, and God