In a certain country there are a Gampolaya and a Raehigamaya, [67]
it is said.
The person called Gampolaya, having put Iriya [68] fruits in two bags,
and said they were areka-nuts, tied them as a pingo load (one bag
hanging under each end of the stick). Having been in his own country,
he is going away to another country.
The person called Raehigamaya tied up a pingo load of pepper (vine)
leaves. The person called Raehigamaya, having said that the pingo
load of pepper leaves was a pingo load of betel leaves, [69] is also
going away to another country.
At the time when he was going along there was a travellers' shed;
in that travellers' shed he lodged. That person called Gampolaya,
taking that pingo load of Iriya fruits, came there. Well then, those
two persons came in contact [there].
The areka-nut trader (Gampolaya) asked, "What, friend, is your
pingo load?"
The betel trader (Raehigamaya) says, "[Betel leaves]. In our country
areka-nuts are scarce to an inordinate (no-saehena) extent."
"Ane! Friend, [I have brought areka-nuts]. In that very way, for our
country there is difficulty over betel leaves," Gampolaya said.
Having said, "If so, let us change our two pingo loads," the person
possessing areka-nuts took the pingo load of betel leaves; the
person who has the pingo load of betel leaves took the pingo load
of areka-nuts.
Gampolaya [afterwards] says, "I indeed met with a trading at a
profit!" When he asked, "What was it?" "I obtained a pingo load of
betel leaves" [he said]. Who asked it? A man going on the road.
He took the pingo load of betel leaves to his country. Having gone
there and having untied it, when he looked it was a pingo load of
[worthless] pepper leaves. [The other man], taking the pingo load of
areka-nuts, went to his village. Having gone [there] and unfastened
it, when he looked they were [worthless] Iriya fruits.
Well then, those two persons came together at the travellers'
shed on another day. They spoke: "That day our trading did not go
on properly. Now then, friend, we two being thieves at this city,
[after] cooking rice and having eaten [together], at night let us go
for robbery."
Well then, except that those two say, "Let us cook," not even one of
them brings the materials. [70] What is [the reason why] they do not
bring them? They were persons who on former occasions had gone to the
shop and brought things, [and had been cheated by another person's
not bringing any], they said. In that manner it became night.
One person, having said he is going to bathe, [went away, and] having
eaten cooked rice at the shop, came back. The other [thought], "While
he has gone to bathe, that one, going to the shop, will eat rice;"
so this one having gone to another place ate cooked rice [there].
A second time they came to the travellers' shed. [Afterwards] they
broke [into] the palace of the King of that city. Taking the box
containing the gold things, and having gone [off with it], and during
that very night having arrived at a rice field, they went to sleep at
the bottom of a tree. Through dishonesty to one of them, the other,
taking the box of things, bounded off. Having sprung off and gone,
he crept into a mound of straw, and remained there.
That [other] one having arisen, when he looked there was neither the
man nor the box of things. Thereafter he seeks and looks about. When he
was seeking and looking, [he noticed that] there was a threshing-floor
near [the place] where they were sleeping. Having taken a [wooden]
cattle-bell, on the following day, in the evening, he shook and
shook the cattle-bell, and began to gore the corn stacks and mounds
of straw that were at the threshing-floor. [71] Then that man who
had got hid there, having said [to himself], "Perhaps it is a bull,"
spoke [to it, to drive it away]. Having spoken, when he looked it
was the first thief.
[When] they two are talking [about it, he said], "I didn't bring
this box of things through dishonesty to you, but to look at your
cleverness." During all the time each one is thinking of quietly
taking the box of goods, and bounding off [with it].
Well then, those two persons having come back, and having walked to
the sands of the sea, it became night. Placing that box of things in
the midst of the two, when they were lying down the person who stole
it at first went to sleep.
Then the other man, taking the box, hid it at a recognisable place
(ayiruwak) in the sea. Having hidden it and come back, and very
quietly returned near the other one, he went to sleep. The person
who hid the box of things and returned, went to sleep.
Then the other one, having arisen very quietly, when he looks for the
box of things, the box of things is not there. When he sought and
looked about for it, he did not meet with it. [But] when he tasted
[with the tip of his tongue], and looked at the body (skin) of that
person who is sleeping, until the time when he comes [upward] near
the hip there is salt taste.
Now then, that one thought, "He will have hidden it in the water,
waist deep in the sea." Having gone on account of the thought,
when he looked in the water to the extent of a round [of the top] of
the cloth (pili-watak, waist-deep) a tree was near. [The other man]
having placed it near the tree he met with it [there].
As soon as he met with it, taking the box of things and having come
to his village, he says to his wife and children, "Having sought me,
should a man come here, say, 'He died yesternight. There is delay in
going to bury him, until the time when his relatives assemble.'" Well
then, they are lamenting falsely.
Well, Gampolaya [having come there] says, "We, indeed, called Gampolaya
and Raehigamaya, walked about and committed robbery at [each] city in
turn. Now then, don't you be grieved that he died; I am more troubled
in my mind than you. The agreement of us two indeed is that should
I die first, he having come,--that kind of creeper called Habalossa;
it is an extremely bad sort of thorn, [72]--having put [some] of the
creepers on the neck there is a promise to go dragging me until the
time when he goes to the edge of the grave. Should he die first the
promise is [that I should act] in that very manner."
Well then, having brought a Habalossa creeper, and put it round the
neck of the person who was dead, when he prepared (lit., made) to
drag him the person who was dead laughed. Having laughed, he says,
"Friend, I did not bring the box of things on account of stealing it,
[but] to look if you are a clever person."
Well then, these two correctly divided in two the articles in the
box of things. The two persons [afterwards] dwelt in happiness.
North-western Province.
In The Orientalist, vol. i, p. 234, Mr. C. J. R. Le Mesurier gave a
story in which five beggars agreed that each should put a handful of
rice into a pot of boiling water, to make their common meal. When the
time came to eat the meal the pot was found to contain only water, each
one having placed an empty hand inside it, as though depositing rice.
In Folk-Tales of Bengal (L. Behari Day), p. 165, when two thieves
were digging, the younger one came on a jar full of gold muhrs (each
worth about thirty shillings), and at once said it was only a large
stone. While the younger man slept the elder thief returned to the
spot, found there two jars of the coins, buried them in the mud of
an adjoining tank, returned, and fell asleep near the other. When
the younger thief awoke and found that the coins had been removed,
he noticed mud on his comrade's legs, made a search at the tank,
got the two jars, and went off with them, loaded on a cow. At dawn
the other man missed his partner and the money, and went in pursuit,
and by the slipper trick [73] got the cow and its load, and went
home. When the younger man came up they divided the money except
an odd coin, which was to be changed in the morning. In the morning
the elder man who had charge of it pretended to be dead. His friend
affected to pity the wife, made a straw rope, and dragged the body
to the burning ground, but having no fire he climbed up a tree. The
two afterwards frightened some robbers there, and got their booty.
In Indian Nights' Entertainment (Swynnerton), p. 45, some of
the Sinhalese incidents occur in an account of the doings of two
merchants. One of them buried in the mud a brass plate which he
stole from the other's house. The owner found and removed it,
and the thief searched in vain for it. They cheated other people,
and acquired forty thousand rupees with which one of them made off;
the other recovered it by the slipper trick, buried it, pretended
to be dead, and at the cemetery the two men frightened some robbers,
got their booty, and made an equal division of all.
In Folk-Tales of the Telugus (G. R. Subramiah Pantulu), p. 63,
a man set out with a packet containing a quart of sand; a man
of a different village was journeying with a packet containing
a lump of cow-dung. They met in the evening, and halted at the
same rest-house. Each wanted to get the other's packet, thinking
it contained food. The second man said he had a packet of food
(apparently cooked) but was not hungry, and asked the other what he
had brought. The first one replied that he had uncooked rice with him,
and felt very hungry. They exchanged packets, went off at once to
avoid recriminations, and discovered that they were mutually cheated.
In The Indian Antiquary, vol. xxv, p. 21, in a Tamil story by Natesa
Sastri, a man of Tanjore who was carrying a large ball of clay entirely
hidden under cooked rice grains which his wife had stuck on it met with
a man of Trichinopoly who had a brass pot full of sand covered with
raw rice a quarter of an inch deep. Each wanted the other's rice. The
first man stated that not being very well he was afraid to eat the
cold rice he had brought, and would like to cook some raw rice. The
second man made an exchange with him. After discovering that they were
mutually cheated they became friendly, and had other experiences of
each other's roguery (see the variant given after No. 248).
In the Katha Sarit Sagara (Tawney), vol. ii, p. 109, a foolish man,
in order to avoid sharing with a friend some tasty food which his
wife was cooking, pretended to be dead. The friend lamented loudly,
neighbours came, they made a pyre at the burning ground, put the body
on it and burnt it, the man having determined to die rather than give
a share of the food.
In Folk-Tales of Kashmir (Knowles), 2nd ed., p. 299, when two thieves
had stolen some treasure from a caravan, one of them by means of the
slipper trick got the whole, hurried home, and the pretended death
and adventure with the robbers followed.
In Folk-Tales from Tibet (O'Connor), p. 131, when two thieves by a
fraud had secured a heavy bag of gold, one of them absconded with
it. The other recovered the money by the boot-trick.
In Cinq Cents Contes et Apologues (Chavannes), vol. ii, p. 316, a
Brahmana who had some peas which were so old that it was impossible
to cook them, took them to the market, and exchanged them for an ass
which would never move when a load was put on its back, each of the
barterers thinking he had got the best of the bargain.
In the Sierra Leone stories, Cunnie Rabbit, etc. (Cronise and Ward),
p. 300, there is a variant of the latter part of the Sinhalese tale
in an account of two greedy men who lived in the east and west. The
eastern man came to the western man's house carrying a box, and would
not leave, intending to share in the rice that had been cooked. The
owner of the house at last lay down, and told his wife to say he had
died. The visitor remained all night, supplied clothes for the corpse,
made a coffin, dug the grave, and had nearly covered the body when
it requested to be taken out. In the end, the visitor got a share of
their food.