A Rākshasa came for religious donations (samādamē). Having come, at the very first he got donations from the eldest elder sister. When he begged from the other six, five persons gave donations abundantly (hon̆daṭama). When he begged for donations from the youngest younger sister, she tried to give them [while] sitting in the house.
“We do not take them in that way,” [he said].
When, having come to the doorway, she tried to give them [there, the Rākshasa] placed a walking-stick in his hand, and when he extended [it towards her] he began to go in front; the woman, weeping and weeping, began to go behind the Rākshasa [holding the other end of the magic stick].
Having gone on and on, at the time when he stopped there were seven stone posts. When the walking-stick that was in his hand prodded the ground she became stone [like them].
The young younger sister’s seven elder brothers and younger brothers went [on a trading journey?] taking seven yokes of bulls. At the time when they were taking them, the seven yokes of bulls and the seven men he made into stone.[1]
He restored that woman to consciousness again; having restored her to consciousness the Rākshasa went with her [to his] home. After he went, when the son of the elder sister of the younger sister who went with [the Rākshasa] proceeded there (etenṭa gihāma) [to seek] the seven yokes of bulls and the men who went [with them], his seven fathers[2] and the seven yokes of bulls were there [turned into stone].
(Apparently this is only a portion of a longer story, but the narrator was unacquainted with the rest of it.)
North-western Province.
In Folklore of the Santal Parganas (Rev. Dr. Bodding), p. 222, a Jōgī turned into stone seven brothers who had followed him in order to recover the wife of one of them whom he had carried off by getting her arm-tassel and going away with it. She was compelled to follow him while it was in his possession. When her son who was left behind proceeded in search of her, he came to the place where his petrified uncles were. As he was eating his food there he saw the stones weeping, recognised them, and placed a little food on each for them to eat. Afterwards, when he had killed the Jōgī and was returning with his mother, he bathed, and then spread a cloth over the stones, on which they recovered their human shape, became alive, and thought they had merely slept.