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SANTAL FOLK-TALES,

North. She was the youngest of the sisters. Lelha crept stealthily up, and laid hold of the horse’s mane. The Indar-puri Kuri then exclaimed, “Hands off! Lelha. Hands off! Lelha.” Then Lelha replied, “You Lelha greatly this morning. It is almost dawn, where can you go to escape punishment ?” Then the Indarpuri Kuri said, “Oh! Lelha, We are four sisters, daughters of one mother, I will give you a blessing.” Lelha replied, “ In this way three persons have fled. You also appear the same.” The Indarpuri Kuri said, “We four sisters have one blessing. Place your hand upon my head, and release me.” Lelha did so, and the Indarpuri Sadom on being liberated sailed off into the sky with his Indarpuri rider. Lelha tied the four locks of hair of the Indarpuri Kuris each in a corner of his plaid, as he had before done with the roasted grain. When the day fully dawned he return-ed to his home weeping, for his four brothers seeing the bushes laden with blossom were envious of him, and had hurled him headlong to the ground from off the raised platform on which he sat.

On reaching home his mother said to him, “You see your brothers have beaten you. I warned you against going.” Lelha replied, “What help is there for it? My brothers beat me. No one else did. I must bear it.” His mother said, “Then, why do you let others know ?”

In the morning the raja said, “Last night Lelha was watch-ing. I will go and take a look at the garden.” He went and found a perfect sea of blossom, the sight of which almost over-came him.

It so happened that as the raja gazed upon the fairy scene around him, Koema Jugi turned up, and addressing the raja said, “You are lost in wonder, but if you hang hiras and manis on the branches the whole country will be resplendent. Then your wonder and amazement will be increased twentyfold.”