In a country there was a King; the King had a Prince (son). He sent
the Prince to a school to learn the arts, and the Prince quickly
learnt the arts. The teacher, having become pleased with the Prince,
gave his daughter in marriage to the Prince. When they were thus for
no long time the Prince's father, the King, died.
At that time he set out to go back with the Princess to his own
country. When going, they were obliged to go through the middle of
a forest on the path on which they were going.
In the midst of the forest there was a Vaedda King. The Vaedda King
having seen this Princess and Prince, asked, "Who are you? To go where,
came you?"
Thereupon the Prince says, "I indeed am the Prince called Manam,
of the King here; this is my Princess," he said.
"It is good. Who gave you permission to go through the middle of this
forest of mine? Owing to your coming without permission, I shall now
kill you," he said. "Otherwise, if you wish to go to your kingdom,
having now made this Princess remain here, you may go."
The Prince says, "I will not go, leaving here my Princess whom I
married in my youth. If you will not let us go, it will be better
that we two should die."
When he had said this, the Vaedda King, although he spoke about it
again and again, did not listen to him. Afterwards, having caused
his army to be brought, "Look now at this army of mine," he said;
"they will kill you. Then you will not have your kingdom, nor your
Princess. Obtaining your kingdom will be better than that, having
caused your Princess to remain here, and having gone, saving your
life," he said.
Then the Prince said, "My kingdom does not matter to me if there be
not my Princess."
"It is good. If so, look, now, in a little [time], at the way I shall
kill you."
"No matter for that."
"My army! Come. Kill this Prince."
Then the Vaeddas came running, bringing bows and arrows. The Prince
having said to the Princess, "You sit down. Look at what I do to these
Vaeddas. Don't cry. The favour of the Gods is for us," taking his bow,
fights with the army of the Vaedda King. Having said, "Shoot! Kill
the Prince!" all came, and sprang [forward], and began to shoot. The
Prince having given his sword into the hand of his very Princess,
taking the bow began to shoot at them.
Well then, all having fallen, a few persons, only, being left over,
they bounded off and went away.
At that time the Vaedda King said, "Is He [105] a great clever one!
What of my army's inability! I will not allow Him [105] to take the
Princess and go. Come to fight,--we two persons;" and he called him.
Thereupon the Prince, after he (the Vaedda King) took his bow, says,
"Not in that way. We two having wrestled, must cut off the head of
the person who should fall," he said.
"It is good. I am satisfied."
"If so, come. Princess, take this sword of mine," he said.
At that time, the Vaedda having looked in the direction of the
Princess, and having spoken [to her] without the Prince's knowing, the
Princess was mentally bound to the Vaedda King. He had no beauty,--a
very black colour. The Prince was a very beautiful person.
Well then, while they were wrestling, the Vaedda King having got
underneath, fell. Then the Prince asked the Princess for the sword. The
Princess quickly having given the sheath of the sword to the Prince,
gave the sword blade to the Vaedda King. Well then, the Vaedda King
cut the Prince's neck with the sword blade. The Prince died.
The Princess says, "Good work! That indeed was in my mind. Now then,
there is no fear; we can remain," she said.
The Vaedda King says, "You are very good. If you were not [here]
to-day, no life for me. Owing to your faithfulness, indeed, I
survive. Having taken off your clothes, and the tied things (belt,
bracelets, necklace, etc.) and ornaments, give them into my hand,
in order to place them on the [other] bank of that river, and come
back," he said.
Seizing them, and having taken them and placed them somewhere, and
returned [he said], "Let us go; we have not any fear."
Taking her to the middle of the river, he said, "Throughout this world
there is not an evil bad woman like you." Having said, "It is bad
[even] to remain in the country in which is the woman who gave the
sword sheath, in order to kill outright the Prince whom you married
while young,--having tied your mind on me whom you saw to-day [only],"
having said this, he bounded off and went away.
Her ornaments and her clothes having been lost, without even a place
to go to for food or clothing, while she was on the bank of the river
in the midst of the forest, a Jackal came running to the place where
the Princess was staying, holding in his mouth a piece of meat.
Having come there [and seen the reflection of the meat in the water],
he placed the piece of meat on the ground, and sprang to seize a
piece of meat that was inside the river.
Then a kite that was flying above, having come, flew away, taking
the piece of meat.
The Princess having been looking on at it, says, "Bola! Foolish
Jackal! Putting aside the piece of meat that was in thy mouth, thou
wentest to eat meat in the river! Was that good?"
After she had scolded him, the Jackal says, "Not like my foolishness
was yours. Having been staying married to the King here, having
indeed gone to be married to the Vaedda King seen [by you] at that
very instant, now you are staying in that way, without even to eat
or to wear, or even a place to go to. It is thou thyself hast done
foolishness more than I." Having said this, and scolded her well,
he went away.
Afterwards the God Sakra having come, taking a Jackal's disguise,
because of the wickedness which the Princess did, bit her and tore
her to pieces.
(According to a variant related by a Washerman she joined a poor man
and went about with him, getting a living by begging, until she died.)
P. B. Madahapola, Ratemahatmaya, North-western Province.
In The Orientalist, vol. i, p. 184, this story was given by Mr.
H. A. Pieris, extracted from a dramatic work called Kolan-kavi-pota.
A King named Maname and his Queen while on a hunting excursion lost
their way in the forest. The Vaedda King stopped them, but offered
to release the King if he would hand over the Queen. The King refused,
they fought, and the Vaedda King got him down. Maname asked the Queen
for his sword; but as she had fallen in love with the handsome Vaedda
she held out the sheath, and when the King seized it drew out the
sword and gave it to the Vaedda, who cut off the King's head.
Afterwards the Vaedda made off with her jewels and clothes at
the river. While she sat there, Sakra appeared in the form of a fox
(jackal), holding a piece of meat, Matali as a hawk, and another deva
[Pañcasikka] as a fish. The jackal dropped its meat on the bank, and
plunged into the water to seize the fish as it swam by; the hawk then
carried off the piece of meat. The Queen remarked on the stupidity
of the jackal, which replied that her folly was greater than his;
and she died of a broken heart when she realised it. This story is
simply the Jataka tale No. 374 (vol. iii, p. 145), except that in
the Jataka the woman is not described as dying or being killed.
In the Aventures de Paramarta of the Abbé Dubois, a dog which had
stolen a leg of mutton in a village, while crossing a river with
it observed its reflection in the water, let go its own mutton,
and sprang to seize that of the other dog, of course losing both.
In the Tota Kahani (Small), p. 81, a young married woman eloped with a
stranger one night, and while near a pond he stole her jewels when she
was asleep. In the morning a jackal came up, carrying a bone. Seeing
a fish that had fallen on the bank, it dropped the bone and rushed to
catch the fish, which floundered into the water. In the meantime the
bone was carried off by a dog. The woman laughed, quoted a proverb, "He
who leaves the half to run after the whole, gets neither the whole nor
the half," and told the jackal her story. It recommended her to return
home shamming insanity; she did this, and allayed suspicion by it.
In the Katha Sarit Sagara (Tawney), vol. ii, p. 76, a fool who went
to drink water at a tank saw in it the reflection of a golden-crested
bird that was sitting on a tree. Thinking it was real gold, he entered
the water several times to get it, but the movement of the surface
caused it to disappear each time. In Julien's Les Avadanas this story
is No. XLVI, vol. i, p. 171; in this tale the man saw the reflection
of a piece of gold which the bird had placed in the tree.
In the Preface to The Kathakoça, p. xvii, Mr. Tawney quoted from
Professor Jacobi's introduction to the Parisishta Parvan the Jain form
of the story, in which the robber left the Queen without clothing on
the river bank. The Vyantara god, in order to save her soul, took
the form of a jackal carrying a piece of flesh. When he dropped it
and rushed to seize a fish that sprang on the bank, a bird carried
off the meat. The Queen laughed, the jackal retorted, exhorted her
to take refuge in the Jina, and she became a nun.
In Les Avadanas (Julien), No. LXXV, vol. ii, p. 11, a woman eloped with
her lover, who carried her gold, silver, and clothes across a river
and abandoned her. A fox which had caught a sparrow-hawk came up,
let go the hawk in order to spring at a fish in the river, and lost
both. When the woman remarked on his stupidity, the fox admitted it,
and retorted that hers was still greater. This is the form in which the
story occurs in Cinq Cents Contes et Apologues (Chavannes), vol. i,
p. 381; but in vol. ii, p. 367, there is a variant which agrees with
the following Tibetan tale.
In A. von Schiefner's Tibetan Tales (Ralston), p. 232, a robber
chief for whom a woman abandoned a blind man, sent her first into the
river and then made off with her things. A jackal which came with a
piece of flesh dropped it in order to seize a fish on the bank; this
sprang into the water, and a vulture carried away the meat. After the
usual retorts, the jackal agreed to assist her on her promising it
meat daily, told her to stand in the water immersed to the neck, and
persuaded the King whose wife she had been to pardon her on account
of this penance.