The legends of the Panjâb

X
PEEFAOE,
for payment, but, many as the vices and faults of these people
are, avarice is not one of them.
The bhat, the mirdsi, the hliaraiii,
tiie jogl, the faqir and all of that ilk are in truth but a sorry
set of drunkards as
a rule—tobacco, opium, and a little food
sufficing for their daily wants, and I have found that a small
payment, say one or two rupees for each separate song, and
their keep in
food and an abundance of their favourite drugs
while employed, has amply Ba,tisfied them, and in some cases
has been inducement sufficient to send other of their
to me.
brethren
One man, whose stories are duly recorded in the pages
of this book, would recite nothing until he had imbibed enough
opium to kill an ordinary human being. In the case of
the more respectable people, as the Brahman swang singers and
the priests of the low castes—a small payment and a chit—that
letter of commendation in which every native seems to have
such an extraordinary fanatical faith—is all that is necessary.
Sometimes the latter only suffices, and when the performer
is the paid retainer of a chief it is a necessary adjunct to any
payment that may have been made.
We now come to the actual recording. By far the largest
portion of the Legends have been recorded under my own
superintendence, but several have been communicated through
the kindness of others duly acknowledged in the proper
place. All these last have been sent me in vernacular MSS.
taken down by a native, and I have reason to believe
them to be accurate. My own procedure is this :—when once
the bard has begun there is nothing for it but to let him go
straight through his poem and write down after him whatever
he says, sense or nonsense. To stop him in order to make
him explain himself is fatal. He becomes thrown out and
confused, and is apt to lose his head and forget the verses.
any case he would have to hark back before he could go on
again, and much time would be lost over each interruption.
A bard will go through about 300 to 400 lines at a time and
then have a rest, and this, by the way, is as much as an
ordinary man can with comfort write at a sitting.
In
The recitation
done, the MS. is carefully read over to him, and then