an Raja
wakes and learns how long his wife has stood by him, he is horrified,
and refuses the water, saying he does not want it. He tells her that
as a reward for her patience and goodness, she shall know of herself
everything that happens in other countries--floods, fires, and other
troubles; that she shall be able to bring help; and should any one die
from having his throat cut she shall be able to restore him to life,
by smearing the wound with some blood taken from an incision in her
little finger. Khelapari's acquaintance with Shekh Farid begins in
this version as follows:--She was standing at the door of her house
looking down the road, when she saw coming towards her Shekh Farid,
the cartman, and the bullock-cart laden with what once was sugar, but
now, thanks to the fakir, is ashes. Through her gift Khelapari knows
all that has happened, though the miracle was not performed in her
sight; and Shekh Farid being a fakir, though his all-knowing talent
does not equal hers, knows that she knows. The cartman is in despair
when he discovers the ashes, and implores Shekh Farid to help him. The
fakir sends him to Khelapari, saying he must appeal to her as her
power of doing good excels his (the fakir's); that though he could
turn sugar to ashes, he could not turn the ashes to sugar. Khelapari
at the cartman's prayer performs this miracle. Their next encounter is
by a tank in the jungle by which the holy man is resting. She is
hurrying along to put out the fire at her father's palace. The Shekh
cannot understand how it is possible for any woman to know of herself
what is happening twenty miles off, when he, a fakir, can only know
what passes at a short distance, so he follows the Rani to test her
truthfulness, and arrives in time to see her helping to put out the
fire. The rest of the story is the same as the version printed in this
collection.

3. This Shekh Farid was a famous Sufi saint. He was a contemporary of
Nanak, and many of his sayings are embodied in the Granth. In Central
India, there is a holy hill of his called Girur. The Gazetteer of the
Central Provinces edited by C. Grant, 2nd edition, Nagpur, 1870, says
that articles of merchandise belonging to two travelling traders who
mocked the saint passed before him, on which he turned the whole
stock-in-trade into stones as a punishment. They implored his pardon,
and he created a fresh stock for them from dry leaves, on which they
were so struck by his power that t