144 
Bihar Legends and Ballads. 
[No. 2, 
Lurik becomes extremely disconsolate, and erecting a funeral pile 
and setting fire to it, sits on it xvitli Chandin in his arms. The 
fire is extinguished, is again kindled, and again extinguished, and 
so on for several times. The “ universe trembles to the throne of 
god,” the gods sit in debate, and the cause is ascribed to the strange 
phenomenon of a husband offering to die on his wife’s funeral pile 
rather than a wife dying, as usual, on the funeral pile of her hus¬ 
band. A goddess is sent to earth. Assuming the shape of an old 
woman, she approaches the pile, and tells Lurik to desist, but finding 
him obstinate, offers to revive the dead. The corpse is replaced 
on the bed; the serpent is summoned; obeys and sucks its own poison 
from the wounds; Chanain is restored to life, and the serpent is 
killed. As if waking from a dream, she wants to drink water from a 
neighbouring tank called Bihia belonging to a Dosad Rajah, where 
a heavy tax is levied either in money or in kind. Chanain puts Rs. 
200 on the bank, and descends to the pond, but the guide, being 
smitten with her beauty, demands the possession of her charms as 
the price of the water. She replies that being the daughter of a 
Rajah, she is not used to sleep except on a high raised bed. The 
infatuated guide ascends a tree to erect a bedstead over the 
branches, but while he is busily engaged in the task, the fair 
one quenches her thirst at the tank, and runs away. She is, 
however, pursued and overtaken, when she sends away the guide 
to bring a new cot and a new carpet, with a promise to gratify his 
desires. When the guide goes to his master to ask the articles so 
required, Chanain joins her husband and complains of the indigni¬ 
ty offered her. On his return, the guide, instead of the lady’s love, 
meets with hard blows from her husband, who knocks out his 
teeth, cuts off his nose, clips his ears, and then sends him back to 
his master. The women of the village through which he passes, 
rejoice at the vengeance which has at last overtaken his numerous 
evil deeds. On arriving at the palace, he induces the Rajah to set 
'out with his army, by assuring him that the pretty faces of his 
seven Ranis are inferior even to the beauty of Chanain’s handsome 
feet. A battle ensues, but through the favour of Durga, Lurik is 
victorious. 
When they come near Rohini, where Mahapatia, a goldsmith 
