Tales of the Punjab (1894) is a collection of stories translated and
collected by Flora Annie Steel. Collected while Steel lived with her
husband in the north of the Indian subcontinent, Tales of the Punjab
was a successful introduction to legends and stories from the Punjab
region for children and adults back home in England. Published while
India remained under the control of the British Empire, Steel's
collection puts a decidedly Western twist on the stories she learned
from local women while advocating for education reform. In a village in
the Punjab, as the sun sets on an exceedingly hot day, the local people
return from the fields to prepare dinner and settle down for the
evening. As they await the cooling winds of midnight in order to sleep
outside, the villagers gather around a local storyteller. Possessing a
wide knowledge of legends, tales, and history, he calmly begins to speak
to his gathered audience. "Sir Buzz" is the story of a woman and her son
who are left in dire poverty following the death of her husband, a
soldier. Although young, the boy dreams of setting out into the world in
order to bring something home for his mother. Finding six shillings in
the pocket of an old coat, he leaves his home only to run into an
injured tigress. Unable to remove a thorn from her paw, she asks the boy
for his assistance, and offers him a mysterious reward. In "The Rat's
Wedding," a rat takes shelter underground during a steady rainstorm. In
his digging, he discovers a root, which he takes with him on his journey
homeward once the rain subsides. Looking forward to using the root for
himself, he encounters an old man struggling to light a fire with wood
soaked through with rain. Exchanging his root for a piece of food, the
generous rat continues on his way. Tales of the Punjab is a collection
of forty-three instructive, humorous, and authentic stories translated
by Flora Annie Steel. With a beautifully designed cover and
professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Flora Annie Steel's
Tales of the Punjab is a classic of Anglo-Indian literature reimagined
for modern readers.