662 REPORT—1896. 
23. So Balandu is now a bigger village than Dadgo, because it has 
more fertile land than Dadgo. 
24. And thus the inhabitants of Dadgo are very poor. 
25. It is now a very small village, and contains only twenty or thirty 
houses. 
26. It now belongs to Jagnaéth Khutiya, who is one of the heathen 
priests of Puri. 
27. He got it from the king of Chutia Nagpur. 
28. The king presented it to him when he was on pilgrimage to 
Port 
XII. Zale of a Mouse. 
This tale was told by our ayah or nurse, Elisaba, wife of Budhu. She 
came originally from the village of Kachabari, on the south-west side of 
Ranchi. She could neither read nor write, and understood very little 
High Hindi, but could talk fluently in Eastern Hindi. _ 
This tale was written down for-me by my wife, Asa Lakza (‘ Hope 
Tiger’), a Christian Uraon, who could at that time read and write in the 
Deva-nagri character only. She has since come to England and learnt to 
read and write English. She assists me in these studies. 
My wife was told this tale also by Susannah, the wife of Philip the 
carpenter. Susannah is also from the village of Kachabari. 
1. A mouse had a field. 
2. He ploughed it and sowed hemp in it. 
3. In course of time the hemp grew up and blossomed. 
4. The mouse was always watching it. 
5. One day, what happened? Some young women, who were picking 
herbs,! went into that hemp field, and were engaged picking the hemp 
flowers. 
6. At once the mouse cried out, ‘ Who is picking my flowers ?” 
7. The young women heard him erying out and ran away. 
8. Whilst they were running away, the comb of one of them dropped 
in the field. 
9. As the mouse was going along he found the comb and took it home. 
10. When the young women had gone a little distance, they saw that 
one of them had lost her comb. 
11. Then she, whose comb was lost, said to the others, ‘Come along, 
we will go and look for my comb.’ 
12. Then they all went to look for the comb, and wandered about in 
the hemp-field looking for it, but could not find it. 
13. The mouse soon came forward from somewhere or other, and said, 
‘What do you want in my field ?’ 
14, They said, ‘ We are looking for a comb ; give it to us if you have 
found it.’ 
15. He said, ‘Whose comb is lost? If she will live with me then I 
will give it, otherwise I will not.’ 
16. She said, ‘I will go and live with you. Give me my comb.’ 
17. Then he gave up the comb, and took her away to his home. 
18. When they arrived she would not enter his house. 
19. Then the mouse said : 5 
1 By ‘herbs’ would be meant any kind of greens or leaves boiled to eat asa 
relish with rice. 
