Then the Rakshasa said, "If so, show me thy teeth." The Tom-tom Beater
showed him the pair of elephant tusks.
Then the Rakshasa, becoming afraid, said, "Show me the hair of thy
head." The Tom-tom Beater showed him the deer-hide rope.
Then the Rakshasa said, "If that be so, let us roar." Then having
said, "It is good," the Tom-tom Beater began to beat on the drum. The
Rakshasa becoming [more] frightened, said that he was going near his
preceptor, and ran away. Then the Tom-tom Beater and the Gamarala,
in order to get hidden, went into the midst of the forest of Palmira
trees.
Then the Rakshasa, placing his preceptor in front, came up to go
through the middle of the forest of Palmira trees. At that time,
having seen the two Rakshasas, these two persons being afraid prepared
to climb two trees. Thereupon the Tom-tom Beater, taking the drum,
went up the tree. The Gamarala being unable to go up the tree, having
gone to the middle of the tree, slid down [with a] siri siri [noise]
to the ground.
Thereupon the two Rakshasas came near the Gamarala. Then the Tom-tom
Beater, from the top of the tree, having shaken the leaves and beaten
the drum first, said, "After I descend leave the big one for me, and
do thou eat the little one." Then the two Rakshasas becoming afraid,
ran off.
Then the Tom-tom Beater descended from the tree, and again having
gone with the Gamarala to the Rakshasa's house, taking the Gamarala's
daughter and the goods that were in the Rakshasa's house they came
to their village.
While at the village the Gamarala said, "Take thou the goods; after
the girl was there it is sufficient for me." Then the Tom-tom Beater
having brought [home] the goods became very wealthy.
After a little time had gone by since that, the Gamarala came to the
Tom-tom Beater's house to take the debt of paddy. Then what does the
Tom-tom Beater do? Before the Gamarala's coming, a very large basket
was tied up [by him], shells and chaff having been put in it.
After the Gamarala went, the Tom-tom Beater said, "Because of you,
indeed, I have tied up that basket. If you want it, be good enough to
take it and go." Then the Gamarala having gone and opened the mouth
of the basket, when he looked there were only shells and chaff.
Thereupon, at the time when the Gamarala was asking, "What is
this chaff?" the Tom-tom Beater said, "Apoyi! What has happened
here? Through your bad luck there were other things, indeed! In
that way, indeed, you came down from the Palmira tree that day,"
the Tom-tom Beater said.
Then the Gamarala, without speaking, went home without the paddy.
North-central Province.
In The Indian Antiquary, vol. xiv, p. 77, in a Tamil story related
by Pandit S. M. Natesa Sastri, two men who had previously frightened
some bhutas, or evil spirits, were belated at night in a wood they
haunted, so they climbed up a tree for safety. The bhutas afterwards
came there with torches in search of animals for food, and this so
terrified one of the men that he fell down among them. The other man
then shouted to him to catch the stoutest of them if he must eat one,
on which the bhutas all ran away.
In Indian Fairy Tales (M. Stokes), p. 38, when a barber and fakir
had climbed up a tree in order to overhear the talk of a number of
tigers who came there at night, and also to collect valuables left by
the tigers, the fakir became so alarmed when he heard the tiger King
using threatening language against them, that he lost his hold and fell
into the midst of the tigers. The barber instantly cried out loudly,
"Now cut off their ears," on hearing which the tigers ran away. The
fakir, however, received such injuries that he died.
I have omitted two nocturnal incidents due to the Tom-tom Beater's
inability to control his bodily functions.