And little Deccan children listen
to the tales as they fall due with the same unvarying attention. For
in nurseries, Indian as well as English, tales are loved the better
when no longer new, and where the end is well known to, and therefore
the better understood by, the tiny round-eyed listeners.
Now this is the tale which is told every Sunday [2] in Shravan: Once
upon a time there was a town called Atpat, and in it there lived a
poor Brahman. Every day he used to go into the woods to fetch sticks
and to cut grass. One day he met there some nymphs and wood-fairies,
who said that they were performing holy rites in honour of the sun. He
asked, "What are these rites?" They replied, "If we tell you, you will
become proud and vain and you will not perform them properly." But the
Brahman promised, "No, I shall not become proud or vain and I shall
observe the rites you tell me." They then told him that the month of
Shravan was coming, and that on the first Sunday of Shravan he was
to draw a picture of the sun with red sandal paste, that he was to
offer to the drawing flowers and fruit, and that he should continue
doing this for six months.
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