In a certain country there were seven giants. The youngest giant of
the seven of them without any means of subsistence remained on the
ash-heap itself, near the hearth. At that time the other six persons
scolded him: "How wilt thou eat and dress?" Then when this youngest
giant was preparing to take a digging hoe with a broken corner the
other persons scolded him regarding it [also].
Thereupon, having put down the digging hoe and gone, not bringing any
tool, into the midst of a forest which had Wira, Palu, and such-like
trees, and having looked for a place suitable for a rice-field, with
his hand he loosened and uprooted and threw them all down. Having made
the rice-field, and made the ridges in it, he came home and said,
"I have made a little rice-field plot (liyadda); to sow it give me
a little paddy," he asked his brothers. When he said it they did not
give it.
Thereafter, having gone near his uncle [113] he spoke thus, "I have
made a rice-field plot; let us go to look at this rice-field plot. How
about a little paddy for it?" he asked.
Thereupon his uncle said, "Having looked at the rice-field I will
give you paddy."
The two together went to the rice-field. While there his uncle
ascertained the size of the rice-field and the quantity of paddy
that was necessary for it, and having come home told him to take a
round corn store (bissak) in which sixty amunas (about 350 bushels)
of paddy were tied up. Thereupon the giant who was on the ash-heap,
placing the corn store of sixty amunas on his shoulder, brought it
home; and having made [the paddy] sprout, sowed the rice-field.
After the [paddy in the] rice-field ripened he cut it and trampled it
[by means of buffaloes], and having collected and placed the paddy
in a heap, came home. Having returned summoning his brothers, he
told them to climb upon the heap of paddy, and look if the spires
[of the dagabas] at Anuradhapura are visible. Having looked in that
way, and having seen them, though they were visible they said they
were not. Thereupon anger having come to the giant of the ash-heap,
he kicked the paddy heap, and having come home, taking his sword
began to go away somewhere.
While going thus, he saw that yet [another] giant, having uprooted
a Banyan-tree, is polishing his teeth [with it], and he went quite
near. Thereupon, the giant asked the giant of the ash-heap, "Where
are you going?"
"I am going to seek a means of subsistence," he gave answer.
The two persons having conversed in this manner, while the two were
going away together they saw that yet a giant, having threaded an
elephant on a fish-hook, had cast it in a river, [114] and they
asked him, "What are you doing? Why have you thrown an elephant into
the water?"
The giant says, "I am trying to catch and take a sand fish. Where
are you two going?" he asked these two persons.
"We are going in order to seek a means of subsistence," these two said.
Having said, "If so, I will come with you," and having abandoned
his work, and cast away the elephant, he also set off with them,
and the three persons began to go away.
While they were going thus they met with a river. They saw that in the
river yet [another] giant having placed his foot across the river,
from this bank to the far bank, is causing the water to stop. The
giant asked, "Where are you three persons going?"