The legends of the Panjâb

THK LEGEND OF SAfIdON. 4] 7
their husbands for other men to whom they are not married,
but this cannot be now ; so I will not let you return to your
father."
So Niwal Dai, seeing no other way of escape gave her word
to the Raj4, that if he let her go now she would return to him
soon. And the Rajl let her go.
Niwal Dai went to her father and bathed him in the awrita
all over, excepting his thumb, over which she placed her
kerchief, because she intended to return to the well under the
pretence of fetching more water to cure the thumb. As soon
as tlie amrita touched Raja Basak he was cured of his
leprosy,
excepting his thumb. Seeing this he said to his daughter :
" The leprosy has left every part of me except my thumb."
On this Niwal Dai offered at once to fetch more amrita from
the well, but her father did not wish it, as he feared that the
second time the Pandavas would surely catch her. However
she would not listen and went off to the well.
As soon as she arrived, the Pandava, who had been awaiting
her, seized her, and making a fire in the forest formally
married her and took her to his palace.*
But Raja Basak's thumb was never cured, and that is why
leprosy is still rife among the people of the Panjab.
* The walking round the fire by the bride and bridegroom is the
crowning ceremony of the orthodox Hindu marriage. The nairator
here means to say that Niwal Dai and her abductor went through all
the forms of a real marriage.
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