Note 37 — The Thirteenth New Year’s Feast

Himmat K., who is one of my best servants, and whose word is worthy of reliance, told me that in the Doḥad37 pargana he had seen a pair of sāras on the bank of a tank. One of his gunners shot one of them, and in the same place cut off its head and stripped38 it of its feathers (?). By chance we halted two or three days at that place, and its mate continually walked round it, and uttered cries and lamentation. “My heart,” he said, “ached at its distress, but there was no remedy for it save regret.” By chance, twenty-five days afterwards, he passed by the same spot, and asked the inhabitants what had become of that sāras. They said it died on the same day, and there were still remains of feathers and bones on the spot. He went there himself, and saw it was as they said. There are many tales of this kind among the people, which it would take too long to tell.