The Nautch-people in Hindustan are not only singers and dancers who
exhibit their skill before those who care to admire and to reward them;
but they possess also dangerous charms.
In a popular story of the Hindus, called 'Chandra's Vengeance' we are
told of a youth who, on hearing the music of the Nautch-people at a
great distance, is irresistibly compelled to traverse the jungle in
search of them. When, after twelve days' anxious endeavour to reach
them, he discovers their encampment, Moulee, the daughter of the chief
Nautch-woman, approaches him singing and dancing, and throws to him the
garland of flowers which she wears on her head. He feels spell-bound,
and the Nautch-people offer him a drink which, as soon as he has tasted
it, makes him totally forget his family and his dear home. So he remains
with the Nautch-people, and wanders with them about the country as one
of the company.
Again, in a Hindu story called 'Panch-Phul Ranee,' a Rajah, or King, is
enchanted by the Nautch-people, so that he finds his happiness in roving
with them from place to place, and in beating the drum for the dancers.
His enchantment is accomplished in this way: He had set out on a
journey, leaving his wife and infant son behind. One day he happened to
fall in with a gang of Nautch-people, singing and dancing. He was a
remarkably handsome man, and the Nautch-people, on seeing him approach,
said to each other "How well he would look beating the drum for the
dancers!" The Rajah was hungry and told them that he required some food;
whereupon one of the women offered him a little rice, upon which her
companions threw a certain powder. He ate it, and the effect was that it
made him forget his wife, child, rank, journey, and whatever had
happened to him in all his life. He willingly remained with the
Nautch-people, and wandered about with them, beating the drum at their
performances, full eighteen years. His son, the prince, being now grown
up, could no longer be detained from setting out in the world in search
of his beloved father. After many fruitless attempts the prince
discovered his father among the Nautch people,--a wild, ragged-looking
man whose business it was to beat the drum. The joyful prince summoned
the wisest doctors in the kingdom to restore the Rajah to his former
consciousness; but their exertions did not at first prove at all
successful. In vain did they assure the old drummer that he was a Rajah,
and that he ought to remember his former greatness and splendour. The
old man always answered that he remembered nothing but how to beat the
drum; and, to prove his assertion, he treated them on the spot with a
tap and roll on his tom-tom. He really believed that he had beaten it
all his life.
However, through the unabated exertions of the doctors, a slight
remembrance came gradually over him; and by-and-by his former mental
power returned. He now recollected that he had a wife and a son. He also
recognized his old friends and servants. Having reseated himself on the
throne, he governed as if nothing had ever occurred to interrupt his
reign.[81]