J902.] 
17 
T. G. Bailey -—The Secret Words of the Cuhras. 
4. Ilia jhurmat pa lia 
K§> bahn banere 
• 
5. Jat jo puchda Culirie 
Gbar ki bai tere. 
6. Caudliri nikke di gand bai 
Wadde de phere. 
7. Mat bbarasi cbaddiS 
• • • • 
Cubri pbere cauphere. 
8. Bhanni b5i saindki 
Cubri bhanyiS 6 phere. 
9. Patl b5i taiggni 
Walpain. cauphere. 
10. Kbalo meiio kurmo 7 
Kohll de here. 
11. Chaili de wicc sukde, 
Khurdambe 8 here. 
4. Kites have formed a circle 
round, 
Crows sit upon the roof. 
5. Asks the farmer ‘ Cubri, say 
what is there in thy house P ’ 
6. “ The younger son’s engage¬ 
ment, Sir, 1 
The marriage of the elder.” 
7. The pot sends forth a savoury 
steam, 
The Cubri bustles round. 
8. Broken is her vessel now 
She hands round 2 marriage 
food. 
9. Torn also is the Cuhrl’s skirt, 
Round and round she goes. 
10. “ Eat away my 3 hearties all 
Fragments from the breast.” 
11. In the basket, see, are drying 
Fat 4 delicious morsels.” 
Another pair of couplets relate a practical joke played by a Cuhra. 
Ghut ghatke gandar baddha 
Otte thabba parali da 
Kajje de hatth maT de toria 
Tatta tatta tari da. 
The bundle bound I tight and 
fast ( i.e bundle of carrion). 
On top a bunch of rice stalks 
placed (to bide the carrion). 
By a farmer’s hand I sent it home. 
Hot and ready for soup. 
“ Here we have an Oriental version of “ beautiful soup, so rich 
and green, waiting in a hot tureen.” The farmer must have been a 
Hindu to account for the Cuhra’s glee at getting him to carry the 
carrion. 
1 The Cuhri (female of Cuhra) displays a facility in saying the thing which is not. 
i BhanyiE, food given on the occasion of a marriage; the host gives it expecting 
to receive as much or more when he in turn is guest at a marriage feast. The deli¬ 
cate humour of comparing the joys of eating carrion to the rejoicings at a wedding 
will be appreciated. 
s The fathers of the girl and boy to be married are ‘ Kurm ’ to each other. Here 
‘ Kurm ’ (pi.) includes all the guests who have come with the ‘ Kurm. ’ 
^ A fat-tailed sheep is called ‘dumba;’ ‘ Khurdnmba’ means ‘ full of fat,’ rich 
like the tail of a ‘ dumba.’ 
J. i. 3 
