Tales of the Punjab: Folklore of India — Context and Discussion

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In Category - Fantasy Classics

Authors: Steel, Flora Annie Webster, 1847-1929, Temple, Richard Carnac, Sir, 1850-1931 [Commentator] Digital Source: Project Gutenberg Gutenberg Release Year: 2004 First Publication Year: Not confirmed

Key Word: Folklore -- India; Panjabis (South Asian people) -- Folklore; Tales -- India -- Punjab Target Reader: Readers of public-domain and historical texts

Book Edition: Project Gutenberg digital edition Book Language: en

Edition facts

Words 85,134

Reading time 371 min

Text sections 8

The catalog record for Tales of the Punjab: Folklore of India — Context and Discussion provides practical reading context through 85,134 words, 6 hr 11 min estimated reading time, and 8 detected text sections.

The text analysis averages about 21.2 words per sentence, while the detected sections provide another way to judge how the source is divided.

Project Gutenberg metadata also associates the work with “Folklore -- India,” connecting these edition facts with the source record’s subject description.

Source: Project Gutenberg record #6145

Flora Annie Steel's collection of Punjabi folk tales, gathered during winter tours, preserves oral narratives with their colloquial vigor. The tales feature recurring patterns of kindness rewarded and greed punished, as seen in 'Peasie and Beansir,' where natural elements speak and bestow gifts. Steel's preface explains the editorial challenge of rendering literal translations into readable English without losing the original's earthy character.

Editorial Edition Score 4.7/5

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Description quality20 pts
Title & short description10 pts
Source metadata20 pts
Text length15 pts
Chapters / structure15 pts
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File: pg6145

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ff, and all the world and his wife turned out to look for her. By and by the one-eyed Chief Constable came to the garden gate.

'What do you want here?' cried valiant Sir Buzz, making passes at him with the tree.

The Chief Constable with his one eye could see nothing save the branches, but he replied sturdily, 'I want the Princess Blossom!'

'I'll blossom you! Get out of _my_ garden, will you?' shrieked the one-span mannikin, with his one and quarter span beard trailing on the ground; and with that he belaboured the Constable's pony so hard with the tree that it bolted away, nearly throwing its rider.

The poor man went straight to the King, saying, 'Your Majesty! I am convinced your Majesty's daughter, the Princess Blossom, is in your Majesty's garden, just outside the town, as there is a tree there which fights terribly.'

Upon this the King summoned all his horses and men, and going to the garden tried to get in; but Sir Buzz behind the tree routed them all, for half were killed, and the rest ran away. The noise of the battle, however, awoke the young couple, and as they were now convinced they could no longer exist apart, they determined to fly together. So when the fight was over, the soldier's son, the Princess Blossom, and Sir Buzz set out to see the world.

Now the soldier's son was so enchanted with his good luck in winning the Princess, that he said to Sir Buzz, 'My fortune is made already; so I shan't want you any more, and you can go back to your mistress.'

'Pooh!' said Sir Buzz. 'Young people always think so; however, have it your own way, only take this hair out of my beard, and if you _should_ get into trouble, just burn it in the fire. I'll come to your aid.'

So Sir Buzz boomed off, and the soldier's son and the Princess Blossom lived and travelled together very happily, until at last they lost their way in a forest, and wandered about for some time without any food. When they were nearly starving, a Brâhman found them, and hearing their story said, 'Alas! you poor children!--come home with me, and I will give you something to eat.'

Now had he said 'I will eat you,' it would have been much nearer the mark, for he was no Brâhman, but a dreadful vampire, who loved to devour handsome young men and slender girls. But, knowing nothing of all this, the couple went home with him quite cheerfully. He was most polite, and when they arrived at his house, said, 'Please get ready whatever you want to eat, for I have no cook. Here are my keys; open all my cupboards save the one with the golden key. Meanwhile I will go and gather firewood.'

Then the Princess Blossom began to prepare the food, while the soldier's son opened all the cupboards. In them he saw lovely jewels, and dresses, and cups and platters, such bags of gold and silver, that his curiosity got the better of his discretion, and, regardless of the Brâhman's warning, he said, 'I _will_ see what wonderful thing is hidden in the cupboard with the golden key.' So he opened it, and lo! it was full of human skulls, picked quite clean, and beautifully polished. At this dreadful sight the soldier's son flew back to the Princess Blossom, and said, 'We are lost! we are lost!--this is no Brâhman, but a horrid vampire!'

At that moment they heard him at the door, and the Princess, who was very brave and kept her wits about her, had barely time to thrust the magic hair into the fire, before the vampire, with sharp teeth and fierce eyes, appeared. But at the selfsame moment a _boom! boom! binging_ noise was heard in the air, coming nearer and nearer. Whereupon the vampire, who knew very well who his enemy was, changed into a heavy rain pouring down in torrents, hoping thus to drown Sir Buzz, but _he_ changed into the storm wind beating back the rain. Then the vampire changed to a dove, but Sir Buzz, pursuing it as a hawk, pressed it so hard that it had barely time to change into a rose, and drop into King Indra's lap as he sat in his celestial court listening to the singing of some dancing girls. Then Sir Buzz, quick as thought, changed into an old musician, and standing beside the bard who was thrumming the guitar, said, 'Brother, you are tired; let _me_ play.'

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Flora Annie Steel collected the tales in this volume during winter tours through Punjab districts where her husband served as Chief Magistrate. A carpet spread under a tree, away from the formal darbār, invited village idlers to approach and share stories. The preface emphasizes that these are strictly folk-tales, passed among a people who could neither read nor write, and whose diction is full of colloquialisms and what Steel calls 'vulgarisms.' She contrasts them with literary works like the Arabian Nights, arguing that a flowery, dignified style would misrepresent their origin.

The collection includes over forty tales, among them the adventures of Raja Rasālu and shorter moral fables. In 'Peasie and Beansir,' the kind younger sister helps a plum-tree, a pīpal tree, a fire, and a stream, each rewarding her with gifts. Her greedy sister Beansir refuses similar requests and is beaten by her brother, then loses even the cloth she tries to take. The tale exemplifies the collection's pattern of natural elements speaking and reciprocating human behavior.

Voices of Trees, Fire, and Water

In 'Peasie and Beansir,' the natural world speaks directly to the characters. The plum-tree groans, 'Oh, Peasie! stop a bit and tidy up my thorns a little'; the pīpal tree rustles its request; the fire crackles; the stream tinkles. Each element uses a distinctive verb—'groaned,' 'rustled,' 'crackled,' 'tinkled'—that matches its physical quality. The rewards are equally specific: the stream carries a web of fine cloth, the pīpal catches a string of pearls from a prince's turban, the fire cooks a sweet-cake. This reciprocity between human kindness and natural bounty is a recurring structural device across the collection, as seen in other tales where animals or objects speak and test the protagonist's character.

Literal Translations and Editorial Choices

Steel's preface details the editorial process: many tales first appeared in the Indian Antiquary or Calcutta Review as literal translations that were 'uncouth or even unpresentable to ears polite.' She and Sir Richard Carnac Temple, the commentator, chose to preserve the colloquial flavour rather than impose 'flowery dignity.' The result is a text that retains the rhythms of oral storytelling—repetitive structures, direct address, and simple moral contrasts. For instance, Beansir's refusals echo Peasie's compliance: where Peasie 'tied up the broken branch,' Beansir says 'Do it yourself!' This parallelism, likely present in the original tellings, is kept intact.

Patterns of Reward and Punishment

The moral economy of these tales is stark and consistent. Peasie's kindness to the tree, fire, and stream yields tangible rewards: a spinning-wheel, buffalo, brass pots, cloth, pearls, and a sweet-cake. Beansir's rudeness leads to a beating from her brother and sister-in-law, and even the floating cloth she tries to claim is lost. The tale does not explain why the brother attacks her—the text says 'they fell upon her, and whacked her most unmercifully'—but the punishment is immediate and physical. This pattern of cause and effect, where natural agents enforce justice, appears throughout the collection, though the excerpts do not reveal whether all tales follow the same logic or if some introduce more ambiguous outcomes.

Readers approaching Tales of the Punjab should attend to the interplay between the tales' oral origins and their printed form. Steel's notes, included at the end, may offer further context on specific stories. The collection rewards attention to repeated motifs—talking animals, magical objects, tests of character—and to the regional details that distinguish these tales from other Indian folklore collections. The preface itself is a valuable document of late-nineteenth-century folkloristic practice, revealing the tensions between fidelity to source and readability for an English audience.

I remember when Tales of the Punjab first found its shelf, voices of winter fires and talking peas. Years later, Tales from the Arabic — Complete — Themes and Context arrived, and I noticed how both collections keep that same patient rhythm—kindness answered softly, greed stumbling over its own tongue. They sit apart, yet whisper to each other in the quiet hours.