The following interesting legends as to the origin of the caste adduced
by them in support of their Brahmanical descent are related [279] by
Sir H. Risley: "One of the Praja-pati, or mind-born sons of Brahma,
was in the habit of providing the flesh of cows and clarified butter as
a burnt-offering (_Ahuti_) to the gods. It was then the custom to eat
a portion of the sacrifice, restore the victim to life, and drive it
into the forest. On one occasion the Praja-pati failed to resuscitate
the sacrificial animal, owing to his wife, who was pregnant at the
time, having clandestinely made away with a portion. Alarmed at this
he summoned all the other Praja-patis, and they sought by divination
to discover the cause of the failure. At last they ascertained what
had occurred, and as a punishment the wife was cursed and expelled
from their society. The child which she bore was the first Mochi or
tanner, and from that time forth, mankind being deprived of the power
of reanimating cattle slaughtered for food, the pious abandoned the
practice of killing kine altogether. Another story is that Muchiram,
the ancestor of the caste, was born from the sweat of Brahma while
dancing. He chanced to offend the irritable sage Durvasa, who sent a
pretty Brahman widow to allure him into a breach of chastity. Muchiram
accosted the widow as mother, and refused to have anything to do
with her; but Durvasa used the miraculous power he had acquired by
penance to render the widow pregnant so that the innocent Muchiram
was made an outcaste on suspicion. From her two sons are descended
the two main branches of the caste in Bengal."