Then Ret Mongla’s mother went to him and asked him whether there was any truth in this counter-charge; he saw at once what had happened and explained that he had never called out his sister-in-law by name; he had called out for the plough; “Pal ho!  Pal ho!” because his brothers had not got the ploughs ready; when Palo understood what a mistake she had made, she was covered with confusion and they brought water and she washed Ret Mongla’s feet as she had done on the day of her marriage, and they salaamed to each other and peace was restored.  But if the mistake had not been explained Palo would have been turned out of the family.

CXXXVI.  The Women’s Sacrifice.

This is a story of the old days when the Santals both men and women were very stupid.  Once upon a time the men of a certain village had fixed a day for sacrificing a bullock; but the very day before the sacrifice was to take place, the Raja’s sipahis came to the village and carried off all the men to do five days forced labour at the Raja’s capital.  The women thus left alone suffered the greatest anxiety; they thought it quite possible that their husbands and fathers would never be allowed to return or even be put to death; so they met in conclave and decided that the best thing they could do would be to carry out the sacrifice which the men had intended to make and which had been interrupted so unexpectedly.

So they made haste to wash their clothes and bathe, and by way of purification they fasted that evening and slept on the bare ground.  Then at dawn they made ready everything wanted for the sacrifice and went to the jungle with the bullock that was to be the victim.  There at the foot of a sal tree they scraped a piece of ground bare and smeared it with cow dung; then they put little heaps of rice at the four corners of a square and marked the place with vermilion; then they sprinkled water over the bullock and led it up to the square.

But here their difficulties began for none of them knew what incantations the men said on such an occasion; they wasted a lot of time each urging the other to begin, at last the wife of the headman plucked up courage and started an invocation like this:  “We sacrifice this bullock to you; grant that our husbands may return; let not the Raja sacrifice them but grant them a speedy return.”  Having got as far as this she wanted the other women to take a turn, but they said that her invocation was capital and quite sufficient; and they had better get on to the sacrifice at once.  Easier said than done; they none of them knew how to do it; as they all hung back the headman’s wife scolded them roundly and bade them take the axe and kill the beast; then they all asked where they were to strike the animal:  “Where its life resides,” said the headman’s wife.  “Where is that,” asked the women.  “Watch and see what part of it moves,” answered she, “and strike there.”