1854.] On the Ballads and Legends oftlie Punjab. 133 



Pour thousand years the shepherd's throne whence he afar might 



view 

 His fleecy charge : the granite stone in a storm of music flew. 

 Ploughing the earth four fathoms down and hurling splinters far, 

 Huge trunks of trees and rocks upthrown to dim day's golden star, 

 No courser's speed had then avail'd, but that the monster's sight, 

 Dazzled by palsying terror fail'd, the missile err'd in flight : 

 Clearing a province at a bound, th' enormous mass bowl'd on, 

 Till in blue Sootlej depths profound firm fixt an islet lone. 



Now fled the Slinger dire apace, but first up-caught and bore 

 Beera's form of matchless grace, pale as the lily flower. 

 Pehoon in Tera's footsteps fled, till heav'd Guudgurh in sight, 

 But Aba* (19) Sinde inviting spread, his sheeted silver bright : 

 He wades, imbibes the ice-cold flood, then turns an anxious eye, 

 "Where dread (20) Aornos' forests nod far mid the azure sky : 

 Thither he fain had fled but pain unnerv'd his giant pride ; 

 He sank to rise no more again, from that cold gliding tide. 

 There, when his latest breath was past, his wounded brother came 

 And pil'd the rocks and forests vast to hide his giant frame ; 

 And still the (21) tomb his name retains, an islet rock that now 

 Mid Aba Sinde' s full, azure veins up rears its castled brow. 



Fleet on the Slinger's traces came Bussaloo's noble horse 

 That steed of purest strain and fame, unmated in the course. 

 Thrice strain' d the prince his bow of might and thrice his keen alarm 

 Lest he the beauteous maiden smite unnerv'd his manly arm ; 

 A fourth essay, the winged steel on mission dire hath flown 

 Hath deeply gor'd the flying heel, and brought the monster down. 

 And stern Bussaloo's blade is bare, comprest his lips, his brow 

 Lowers o'er the eye's dilating glare, like storm-cloud charg'd with 



woe ; 

 But Pugrputt rehears'd (22) a spell, and o'er his frame entire 

 A magic influence instant fell ; down flash' d the blade of fire, 



* Aba Sinde. Father Sinde, the name given by the veneration of his borderers 

 to the noble river Indus. The Hindoos however style him Sinde Rania, Queen 

 Sinde. 



