--- title: Jinda Pir. — Folk tales of Sind and Guzarat · full text with trees · page 2 description: Jinda Pir., «Folk tales of Sind and Guzarat» by C. A. Kincaid: the whole chapter, every sentence with its dependency tree and pragmatics. It begins: In my last chapter I related how the saint Udero Lal and his disciple Phugar, after diving into the Indus near Nasarpur, came to the surface between Ro --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg76982/9/page/2/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Folk tales of Sind and Guzarat](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg76982/) / Jinda Pir. # Jinda Pir. · page 2 [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg76982/9/) **2** Abdul Latif did not stay long in his father’s house, but began to wander about Sind.[98](../../98/ "tree and pragmatics") One day he came to Lakhpat.[99](../../99/ "tree and pragmatics") There he saw some Sami fakirs worshipping an idol, probably of Parvati.[100](../../100/ "tree and pragmatics") They were pouring milk over it and as they did so, they repeated “O Grandmother, drink this milk.”[101](../../101/ "tree and pragmatics") But the idol being of stone, hearkened not at all.[102](../../102/ "tree and pragmatics") Latif went into the village, bought a bowl full of milk and stood close to the idol.[103](../../103/ "tree and pragmatics") In one hand he held his shoe and then he said to the idol “O Grandmother of the Samis, drink this milk or I shall beat you with this shoe.”[104](../../104/ "tree and pragmatics") The idol no longer hearkened not.[105](../../105/ "tree and pragmatics") Terrified at the threat, it drank up all the milk in the bowl.[106](../../106/ "tree and pragmatics") The Sami fakirs were filled with wonder and envy.[107](../../107/ "tree and pragmatics") After Abdul Latif had left the spot, they plotted to kill and eat him, so as to obtain his supernatural powers.[108](../../108/ "tree and pragmatics") They invited him to a feast, intending to make their guest the principal dish.[109](../../109/ "tree and pragmatics") But Abdul Latif by his inner knowledge guessed their wickedness and departed.[110](../../110/ "tree and pragmatics") As he journeyed he met another fakir, whose beautiful face was haggard and worn, as if with care.[111](../../111/ "tree and pragmatics") As the fakir walked, he cried always “Jhal fakir, Hal fakir (Take it fakir, go fakir).”[112](../../112/ "tree and pragmatics") Abdul Latif asked him why he did it.[113](../../113/ "tree and pragmatics") The fakir refused to tell him, unless Abdul Latif promised to help him to win what he sought.[114](../../114/ "tree and pragmatics") “If,” said the fakir, “I win my goal through your help, I shall get you a Burat or letter of salvation.”[115](../../115/ "tree and pragmatics") The saint gave his promise and the fakir told him what ailed him.[116](../../116/ "tree and pragmatics") Some months before he had met a jungle tribe and had daily begged from them.[117](../../117/ "tree and pragmatics") Whenever he did so, a lovely maiden of the tribe had given him alms and as she gave them, she repeated these words “Jhal fakir, Hal fakir.”[118](../../118/ "tree and pragmatics") The beauty of the girl’s voice and face had burnt into his brain.[119](../../119/ "tree and pragmatics") When the tribe left, he could think of nothing but of her and he set out to seek her.[120](../../120/ "tree and pragmatics") As he went, he repeated her words in the hope of finding her.[121](../../121/ "tree and pragmatics") Abdul Latif by his inner knowledge soon located the jungle tribe.[122](../../122/ "tree and pragmatics") With the fakir he went to their camp and began to recite to them his verses.[123](../../123/ "tree and pragmatics") They were so charmed with the verses that they asked him to name his reward.[124](../../124/ "tree and pragmatics") He told them to send the lovely girl to the hut wherein he had put his humble belongings.[125](../../125/ "tree and pragmatics") The girl was sent and in the hut the fakir awaited her.[126](../../126/ "tree and pragmatics") Their eyes met, but the storm of passion that swept over both of them was too mighty for their strength to bear.[127](../../127/ "tree and pragmatics") They fell back lifeless into Abdul Latif’s arms.[128](../../128/ "tree and pragmatics") He called the girl’s parents and told them the tale of the fakir’s wooing and its tragic end.[129](../../129/ "tree and pragmatics") At his request the man and the maiden were buried in the same grave.[130](../../130/ "tree and pragmatics") That night Abdul Latif watched by the grave, for he had not yet received the Burat or letter of salvation.[131](../../131/ "tree and pragmatics") At midnight a woman’s hand rose from the grave and offered him a letter.[132](../../132/ "tree and pragmatics") But Abdul Latif doubted the virtue of a Burat that came from a woman.[133](../../133/ "tree and pragmatics") “I shall not take the Burat,” he said, “unless he who promised it to me gives it.”[134](../../134/ "tree and pragmatics") The girl’s voice answered that that was impossible.[135](../../135/ "tree and pragmatics") The fakir for very shame, she said, dared ask nothing from God.[136](../../136/ "tree and pragmatics") He had not been able to hide his love but to the whole world had told his sorrows.[137](../../137/ "tree and pragmatics") Her love had been as ardent as his, but she had had the strength to hide it.[138](../../138/ "tree and pragmatics") It was at her request that God had given the Burat and the saint must take it from her hands.[139](../../139/ "tree and pragmatics") Another time Abdul Latif went to Kotri and there exposed the impostures of the Mullas who surrounded the governor Lalla Beg.[140](../../140/ "tree and pragmatics") At their instigation the cruel ruler ordered Abdul Latif to be impaled and then cut to pieces.[141](../../141/ "tree and pragmatics") When the executioners went to Shah Latif’s house to seize him, they found him already dead and dismembered.[142](../../142/ "tree and pragmatics") As they returned to tell Lalla Beg, they saw the saint standing in the roadside alive and well.[143](../../143/ "tree and pragmatics") They spoke of these marvels to Lalla Beg, who at once remitted the sentence.[144](../../144/ "tree and pragmatics") Abdul Latif, before he started on his wanderings, had, because of his unsatisfied love for the Moghul girl, cursed the whole tribe of the Moghuls, who then lived in Sind.[145](../../145/ "tree and pragmatics") All this time his curse had been quietly working.[146](../../146/ "tree and pragmatics") One by one they had died off, including the hard-hearted Mirza Beg.[147](../../147/ "tree and pragmatics") Of all the Moghul children only one boy Gulla by name survived and the beautiful girl, whom Abdul Latif loved.[148](../../148/ "tree and pragmatics") Freed from her father’s cruelty by his death, she no longer hesitated but sought out and found her lover.[149](../../149/ "tree and pragmatics") With her she took her kinsman Gulla.[150](../../150/ "tree and pragmatics") Abdul Latif overjoyed at her coming recalled his curse and Gulla lived to be the ancestor of many Moghuls thereafter.[151](../../151/ "tree and pragmatics") Abdul Latif, or as we should now call him Latif Shah, did not settle down to enjoy his wedded happiness at Varsum, where Shah Habib had lived and where he himself had been born.[152](../../152/ "tree and pragmatics") Near it was the tomb of an earlier saint Nuh Halani.[153](../../153/ "tree and pragmatics") The jealous spirit of the dead saint envied Latif Shah’s happiness and glory.[154](../../154/ "tree and pragmatics") Nuh Halani’s spirit haunted Shah Latif night and day.[155](../../155/ "tree and pragmatics") In despair Shah Latif sought the aid of Bahawal Hak, a holy man of Multan.[156](../../156/ "tree and pragmatics") He advised him to consult Sayad Mahmad Massum Shah.[157](../../157/ "tree and pragmatics") The latter in turn advised him to migrate to Bhitta, then a desolate mound of sand.[158](../../158/ "tree and pragmatics") Latif Shah obeyed the Sayad, but even at Bhitta—tantaene animis caelestibus irae—he was not safe from persecution.[159](../../159/ "tree and pragmatics") Nuh Halani changed the spirit of a former disciple into a huge snake and bade it bite the unhappy Shah Latif.[160](../../160/ "tree and pragmatics") But the latter prayed to Sayad Mahmad Massum Shah and with his aid and his own sanctity, he tamed the snake and kept it in a cage, as a trophy of his victory.[161](../../161/ "tree and pragmatics") Nuh Halani’s descendant Makhdum Mahmad Zaman could not bear the sight.[162](../../162/ "tree and pragmatics") He redeemed the snake at the cost of a vast stretch of country and turning the snake again into a spirit, sent it back to do service to Nuh Halani in the house of Hades.[163](../../163/ "tree and pragmatics") “Happy is the wooing that’s not long in the doing,” is an old English proverb and perhaps it was of the long delay in the union of Shah Latif and his bride, that they were not blessed with children.[164](../../164/ "tree and pragmatics") Two legends are told to account for this calamity.[165](../../165/ "tree and pragmatics") One is that Shah Latif drew after him the son of one Jani, who in anger cursed the saint that his wife should bear him no sons.[166](../../166/ "tree and pragmatics") Latif Shah accepted the curse and consoled himself with the remark that his disciples were his sons.[167](../../167/ "tree and pragmatics") The second legend is that Latif Shah’s wife, a year after marriage, was expecting a child.[168](../../168/ "tree and pragmatics") After the manner of women in delicate health, she had strange longings.[169](../../169/ "tree and pragmatics") One day she sent her maid-servant to a great distance to get a certain kind of fish.[170](../../170/ "tree and pragmatics") Latif Shah missed the maid-servant and asked whither she had gone.[171](../../171/ "tree and pragmatics") On learning what had happened, he flew into a rage—if I may say such a thing of so holy a man.[172](../../172/ "tree and pragmatics") He cursed his unborn child, saying “If the child gives all this trouble now, what terrible trouble it will give when it is grown up\![173](../../173/ "tree and pragmatics") May such a blossom be nipped in the bud.”[174](../../174/ "tree and pragmatics") The child was still-born and no other came to soothe the poor mother’s grief.[175](../../175/ "tree and pragmatics") It was at Bhitta that Shah Latif wrote the Shah jo Rasalo.[176](../../176/ "tree and pragmatics") When he had finished it, his two faithful disciples Tamar and Hashim brought it to him.[177](../../177/ "tree and pragmatics") As he read over the lines in which he had told the sorrows of Saswi, he exclaimed that the verses did not truly convey a spiritual meaning, but were full of sinful passion.[178](../../178/ "tree and pragmatics") As he said this, he flung the great work into the Kirar Dandh, a lake close by.[179](../../179/ "tree and pragmatics") His horrified disciples beseeched him to let them write the Shah jo Rasalo from memory.[180](../../180/ "tree and pragmatics") Reluctantly he consented and the Shah jo Rasalo was saved.[181](../../181/ "tree and pragmatics") Shah Latif died in 1751 at the age of 63, three years after Ahmad Shah Durani’s invasion.[182](../../182/ "tree and pragmatics") The saint’s body lies in a splendid tomb designed by a celebrated mason of Sukkur, under the orders of Ghulam Shah Kalhoro.[183](../../183/ "tree and pragmatics") The door with silver bars was added by Mir Mahmad and a deep well for the use of pilgrims was sunk in the courtyard by one Laung Fakir.[184](../../184/ "tree and pragmatics") The Pir of the tomb is the descendant of Jam the goatherd, who found Shah Latif buried up to the neck in sand.[185](../../185/ "tree and pragmatics") Every Friday night pilgrims keep watch by the tomb and sing passages from the saint’s immortal poem.[186](../../186/ "tree and pragmatics") This custom had its origin in a dream dreamt by his disciple Hashim.[187](../../187/ "tree and pragmatics") After his master’s death, he was ill of fever and could not get well.[188](../../188/ "tree and pragmatics") One night Shah Latif appeared to him in a vision and bade him recite on the following Friday some lines from the Shah jo Rasalo.[189](../../189/ "tree and pragmatics") He did so and was cured.[190](../../190/ "tree and pragmatics") [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg76982/9/) **2** - ← previous: [page 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg76982/9/) - next →: [Makhdum Niamat Ullah and Makhdum Nuh.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg76982/10/) - ↑ back to [Folk tales of Sind and Guzarat](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg76982/)