James Drummond Anderson

“ Indeed, as a lifelong student of popular poetry of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, his attention must have been forcibly drawn to the ancient legends of local deities imbedded in this artless old verse. In his Sājher Bhog he has published six stories which are not without interest to collectors of folk-tales. Two of these indeed are modified versions of tales already recorded. ”

“ Tāpāi would perform all tasks given to him from dawn till nightfall. But he must be kept occupied all the time. At first the condition seemed easy to fulfil. The bhūta was ordered to build a palace, raise a noble temple, dig a tank, procure a bridegroom for the Brāhmaṇ’s daughter, etc., etc. But there are limits to human desires and human inventiveness, and even the Brāhmaṇ was, in spite of all the luxury with which he was now surrounded, a harassed and perplexed mortal. ”