Report of a Tour through the Bengal Provinces/Mári
MÁRI.
Close to Fatuha, or rather Bykatpur, is a small village named Mári, where the dhol (drum) is not beaten. The reason, they say, is that a fakir cursed the place. He came thirsty and asked one of the village maidens who was filling water at a well to give him water to drink; the girl contemptuously refused. Next came a wife, and she very gladly gave him water to drink; so the man cursed the place, saying "Beti ranr, Bahu sohagin," i. e., (may the) daughters (of the village) be husbandless and the daughters-in-law fortunate; hence people do not marry the daughters of the village, and if they do, they are sure to die soon; and when any one does venture to take one of the daughters of the village, it is done without music or processions of any kind, but in a thievish sort of way. The village girls are so anxious to get husbands, that it is said they run away with any one who, by venturing to play on any musical instrument in the village, shows that he is ignorant of the traditional curse that hangs over the place.