CLVIII.  The Boundary Bonga.

There was once a man who owned a rich swampy rice field.  Every year he used to sacrifice a pig to the boundary bonga before harvest; but nevertheless the bonga always reaped part of the crop.  One year when the rice was ripening the man used to go and look at it every day.  One evening after dusk as he was sitting quietly at the edge of the field he overheard the bonga and his wife talking.  The bonga said that he was going to pay a visit to some friends but his wife begged him not to go because the rice was ripe and the farmer would be cutting it almost at once.  However the bonga would not listen to her advice and set off on his journey.

The farmer saw that there was no time to be lost and the very next day he sacrificed the usual pig and reaped the whole of the crop.  That evening when work was over he stayed and listened to hear whether the bonga had come back, but all was quiet.  The next day he threshed the paddy and instead of twenty bushels as usual he found that he had got sixty bushels of rice, That evening he again went to the field and this time he found that the bonga had returned and was having a fine scolding from his wife, because he had let the farmer reap the whole crop.  “Take your silly pig and your silly plate of flour from the sacrifice,” screamed the bonga’s wife, throwing them at her spouse, “that is all you have got; this is all because you would go away when I told you not to do it; how could I reap the crop with the children to look after?  If you had stayed we might have got five bandis of rice from that field.”

CLIX.  The Bonga Exorcised.

A very poor man was once ploughing his field and as he ploughed the share caught fast in something.  At first he thought that it was a root and tried to divide it with his axe; but as he could not cut it he looked closer and found that it was a copper chain.  He followed the chain along and at either end he found a brass pot full of rupees.  Delighted with his luck he wrapped the pots in his cloth and hurried home.  Then he and his wife counted the money and buried it under the floor of their house.

From that time the man began to prosper; his crops were always good; and his cattle increased and multiplied; he had many children and they grew up strong and healthy and were married and had children of their own.

But after many years luck changed.  The family was constantly ill and every year a child died.  The jan guru who was consulted declared that a Kisar bonga was responsible for their misfortunes.  He told the sons how their father had found the money in the ground and said that the bonga to whom the money belonged was responsible for their misfortunes and was named Mainomati.

He told them how to get rid of the bonga.  They were to dig up the buried money and place it in bags; and load it on the back of a young heifer; and take five brass nails and four copper nails, and two rams.  If the bonga was willing to leave the house the heifer would walk away to another village directly the bags were placed on its back; but if the bonga would not go the heifer would not move.