Page:A Statistical Account of Bengal Vol 1 GoogleBooksID 9WEOAAAAQAAJ.pdf/126

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TOWNS, ETC., OF THE 24 PARGANAS.
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stick as a sign that he had entered into possession of the country assigned to him. The stick immediately grew into a thicket of bamboos. The boy then assumed the form of a full-grown man, and proceeded to the house of one Chánd Khán, of Srí Krishnapur, a landholder of Anarpur, and begged a meal. Núr Khán, Chánd Khán’s brother, refused to feed an able-bodied man, and told him to go and work at the mosque he was building. In proof of his supernatural powers, he lifted a block of stone of fifteen hundredweights up to the mosque, and miraculously caused that no bricks could be laid on it. The mosque remained unfinished, and has furnished a proverb to the people, who call every incomplete undertaking a ‘Chand Khan’s mosque.’ The stranger in the meantime vanished, and again assuming the form of a boy, he called himself Dil Muhammad, and joined some cowherds. After working various miracles, he went to live with one Chhuti Miyán of Kázípárá, a very hospitable and pious man, and tended his cattle. Sometimes he would ill-treat the cattle, and when the owners came out to punish him, he transformed them into tigers and bears. On one occasion his cattle had eaten up a standing crop of paddy belonging to one Kumár Sháh, who complained to the head man of the village. An officer was accordingly sent to inquire into the matter, but he found the crops in this field to be in a better condition than any other in the neighbourhood. Upon his death, a mosque was erected over his remains, and the fair is held at his tomb every year. About three hundred acres of rent-free land belong to the descendants of Chhuti Miyán, for the service of the mosque.

Kanthalpara, a village in Bárásat Subdivision, noted as a place of Sanskrit learning. A fair is held here during the Rás Játrá of Madan Mohan, established about eighteen years ago by the late Mahárajá of Nadiyá, Srís Chandra Rái Bahádur.

Prithiba, a small village in Chaurásí Fiscal Division, Bárásat Subdivision, but well known for an annual fair held in honour of a Muhammadan saint named Badar-ud-dín.

Bhangarhat, a village in Páighátí Fiscal Division, Alípur Subdivision. A fair is annually held here in honour of a noted Musalmán saint of the village. The village is situated on the canal leading to the eastward, and contains a large bázár, where boatmen recruit their stores of provisions and water.

Harua, a village in Bálindá Fiscal Division, Basurhát Subdivision. A fair is held here on the 13th Phálgun (February) of every year, in