The legends of the Panjâb

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50 •
LEGENDS
OF THE PANJaB.
Eaja Rasalu answered
Dhal, we jpdsd dhalweh, ithe basantd lole !
Sardn dhardh te bdzidn !
O moulded pieces, favor me :
Heads and bodies are at stake !
Jehri Allah, hare so ho!
a man is here !
as God does so let it be.
After this Raja Easalii began to win, and first Raja Sarkap
lost his kingdom, then his wealth, and at last on the whole
game he lost his head.
Just then one of his slaves came up to congratulate him on
the birth of a daughter.
" Kill her," said Raja Sarkap, " she has been born at an
unlucky moment, and has brought me bad luck."
Bat Raja Rasalu said to him,
" If you will give me your word by drawing a line on the
ground with your nose* that you will
never play this game
again for another's head, and will give me this child that is
born to-day to wife, I will spare your head now." Raj&
Sarkap agreed, and placing a mango branch and the little
girl, Kokilan, into a large plate he gave them to Raja Rasalu.
And Raja Rasalft left that place, and as he was journeying
along he met some prisoners, who cried out to him
Hor rdje murffhdMdn, tu rdjd shdKbuz !
Bandi-hdndA de hand hhalds har ! tmiar teri drdz !
Other kings are wild-fowl, thou art a royal hawk !
Unbind the chains of the chain-bound and live for ever'!
So Raja Rasalu told RaJEl
Sarkap to release them, which he
did, and then Raja Rasalu went to the MArtl Hillsf and planted
the mango branch there. There he had the Rani Kokilan
placed in an underground palace, and said,
" When the mango branch blossoms then will Rani Kokilan
arrive at her full youth."
After twelve years the mango tree began to blossom and
give forth frait, and the Rani Kokilan became a woman. One
day she said to Raja Rasalu,
* A form of oath or irrevocable promise,
t Near Rawal-Piadi to the South West of it.