MDNDARI POETRY, MUSIC AND DANCES. Ill 



non-existing or safely got over, there remain the inexorable omens to be taken into 

 account. If they be unfavourable, the marriage cannot take place, however suitable 

 and desirable it may appear to all the parties concerned. 



It happens occasionally that two young people disregard the consent of their 

 parents and live together awaiting a subsequent settlement by both families of social 

 and financial points, and generally that settlement is eventually arrived at. However, 

 such a proceeding is not considered good form. Most young people will submit to 

 their parents' will and to the decision of the omens as to a sad but irresistible 

 fate. 



The small bright king-fisher, gara-kikir, makes its nest either in holes on steep 

 river banks or in newly thrown up white-ant hills. There is a grey and brown dove 

 called gara put am, because it prefers the proximity of rivulets and streams to forests or 

 the wide fields. Its cooing is louder than that of other doves. It nests chiefly in the 

 densely leafed branches of the young sal-tree. These two furnish the terms of com- 

 parison for the sorrow of a widow over the premature death of her husband. Even as 

 these two birds whistle and coo with happiness as they fly incessantly from spot to spot 

 around their nesting place, so the wife and mother moves in the enjoyment of domestic 

 happiness about the house and fields which rest on her husband's strength and wisdom. 

 A sudden storm sometimes transforms the white-ant hill into a wet grave for the young 

 king-fishers and throws down the sal-tree with the turtle-doves' nest. So sickness and 

 death sometimes rob the wife and children of their only support and joy. 



The two first stanzas graphically depict the birds as they fly rapidly from place to 

 place, whistling and cooing for joy. 



Gara kikir gole gole ho I naija putam reara ruiur 

 Gararia chidobariho ! nairia chi tikurare ? 

 Gole-goleteng aiumli'a ho ! riurtegeng atenli'a ; 

 Bale'bunum chetanria ho ! lindung sarjom latarri ? 



Hark ! the king-fisher whistles and whistles, the river dove is cooing, 



Is he on the river, is he on some pool ? is it (the dove) near the stream or is it 



on the height ? 

 Hark ! I heard his whistle, I caught its cooing, 

 Hark ! he is on the fresh ant-hill ! it is under the young sal-tree. 



The third stanza describes in the simplest words one of those cyclonic storms 

 which, in the rainy season, sometimes cause much damage to crops, trees and huts 

 even in Chota Nagpur. The earth is so saturated with the continuous rain that water 

 oozes out and wells up in many places and the sky is roaring with the storm- wind which 

 seems to blow from every quarter. 



Chetanate hoeoleda ho ! latarate rampiled 



Bale' bunum raurejana ho I lindung sarjom latumjan. 



Hark ! from above it blew ! from below (the waters) oozed through. 

 The soft ant-hill collapsed ! the tender sal-tree (is) broken in two. 



