STORIES TOLD BY THE CULTIVATING CASTE AND VAEDDAS.
NO. 1
THE MAKING OF THE GREAT EARTH
From the earliest time, the whole of this world, being filled up
and overflowed by a great rain, and being completely destroyed,
was in darkness. There were neither men, nor living beings, nor
anything whatever.
During the time while it was in this state, Great Vishnu thought,
"In what manner, having lowered the water, should the earth be
established?" Having thought this, Great Vishnu went to the God
Saman. Having gone there, he asked at the hand of the God Saman,
"What is the way to establish this earth?"
The God Saman replied, "There is no one among us [gods] who can
establish this earth."
Thereupon the God Great Vishnu asked, "Then who is able to do it?"
The God Saman said, "You must go to the residence of Rahu; he can
do it."
After that, the God Great Vishnu went to the abode of Rahu, and spoke
to Rahu, the Asura Chief [7]: "Rahu, Asura Chief, our residence has
been swallowed up by water; on account of that can even you make us
an earth?"
Then Rahu, the Asura Chief, said, "Countless beings having gone
to the world of Brahma (i.e., having been destroyed in the water),
how can I descend into the water which is there?"
The God Great Vishnu asked, "In what way, then, can you make the
earth?"
Rahu told him to put a lotus seed into the water.
After that, the God Great Vishnu, having returned to this world,
placed a lotus seed in the water. Having placed it there, in seven
days the lotus seed sprouted.
Then the God Vishnu again went to the dwelling-place of Rahu. Having
gone there, he spoke to Rahu, the Asura Chief: "The lotus plant has
now sprouted."
Afterwards Rahu arose, and came with the God Vishnu to this
world. Having made ready to descend into the water, he asked Great
Vishnu, "What thing am I to bring up from the bottom of the water?"
Then Great Vishnu said, "I do not want any [special] thing; bring a
handful of sand."
Rahu, having said "Ha" (Yes), descending along that lotus stalk
proceeded until he met with the earth. Having descended to the earth
in seven days, taking a handful of sand he returned to the surface
again in seven days more. Having come there, he gave the handful of
sand into the hand of the God Great Vishnu.
After it was given, taking it and squeezing it in his hand, the God
Great Vishnu placed it on the water. Having placed it there the God
Great Vishnu made the resolution: "This water having dried up, may
the Earth be created."
Afterwards, that small quantity of sand not going to the bottom, but
turning and turning round on the surface of the water, the water began
to diminish. Thus, in that manner, in three months and three-quarters
of the moon, the water having diminished, the earth was made.
After it was formed, this world was there in darkness for a long
time. [After the light had appeared], the God Great Vishnu thought:
"We must make men."
Having gone to the God Saman he said, "What is the use of being the
owner of this world when it is in this state? We must make men."
The God Saman said, "Let us two make them."
Then those two spoke to each other: "Let us first of all make a
Brahmana."
Saying that, they made a Brahmana from that earth, and having given
breath to the Brahmana those two told him to arise. Then the Brahmana
arose by the power of those Gods; and having arisen, that Brahmana
conversed with those Gods.
Then the God Vishnu said, "Brahmana, for thy assistance thou art to
make for thyself a woman."
Afterwards the Brahmana by the power of those very Gods made a woman,
and from that time men began to increase in number up to to-day.
North-western Province.
This is evidently a story of the last creation. In Hinduism there is
a series of four ages termed Yugas, each ended by a destruction of
the world by fire, which is quenched by cataclysmal rainfall. These
are the Krita, Treta, Dwapara, and Kali Yugas, their periods being
respectively 4,000, 3,000, 2,000, and 1,000 divine years. There are
also intermediate periods equal to one-tenth of each of the adjoining
Yugas. A divine year being 360 times as long as a human year, the
whole series, called a Maha Yuga, amounts to about 4,320,000 years
(Vishnu Purana, Wilson, p. 24). When a series is ended the order
is reversed, that is, the Kali Yuga, which is the present one, is
followed by the Dwapara.
The Vishnu Purana, p. 12, thus describes the state of things before
the original creation: "There was neither day nor night, nor sky
nor earth, nor darkness nor light, nor any other thing, save only
One"--"the Universal Soul," the All-God, Vishnu in the form of Brahma.
His action is thus summarised: "Affecting then the quality of activity
Hari [Vishnu], the Lord of all, himself becoming Brahma, engaged in
the creation of the universe."
At the end of the Yuga, "the same mighty deity, Janarddana, invested
with the quality of darkness, assumes the awful form of Rudra,
and swallows up the universe. Having thus devoured all things,
and converted the world into one vast ocean, the Supreme reposes on
his mighty serpent couch amidst the deep: he awakes after a season,
and again, as Brahma, becomes the author of creation (V.P., p. 19).
In the Katha Sarit Sagara (Tawney), vol. ii, p. 583, there were two
Danavas, a form of Asura, "invincible even by gods," who impeded
Prajapati in his work of creation. The only way which the Creator
could hit upon to destroy them was to create two lovely maidens, one
black and one white. Each of the Danavas wished to carry off both,
so they fought over them and killed each other.
It is only in the Sinhalese story that we find an Asura assisting
in the creation. Rahu is usually known as a dark planetary sign,
a dragon's head, which endeavours to swallow the sun and moon,
and thus causes eclipses, at which time, only, it is seen. In the
account of the great Churning of the Ocean, it is evident that he
was supposed originally to have, or to be able to assume, a figure
indistinguishable from those of the Gods.
The story of the application of Vishnu for Rahu's assistance is based
on the Indian notion that the Asuras were of more ancient date than
the Gods. The Maha Bharata states that they were the elder brothers
of the Gods, and were more powerful than the Gods, who were unable
to conquer them in their strongholds under the sea. The God Saman is
Indra, the elder brother of Vishnu.
According to the Maha Bharata, Vishnu assuming the form of a boar
raised the earth to the surface of the waters (which covered it to
the depth of one hundred yojanas), on his tusk, without the aid of
any other deity.
The following accounts of the state of things in very early times
are borrowed from The Orientalist, vol. iii., pp. 79 and 78, to which
they were contributed by Mr. D. A. Jayawardana.
"In the primitive good old days the sky was not so far off from the
earth as at present. The sun and moon in their course through the
heavens sometimes came in close contact with the house-tops. The
stars were stationed so close to the earth that they served as lamps
to the houses.
"Once upon a time, there was a servant-maid who was repeatedly
disturbed by the passing clouds when she was sweeping the compound [the
enclosure round the house], and this was to her a real nuisance. One
cloudy morning, when this naughty girl was sweeping the compound as
usual, the clouds came frequently in contact with the broom-stick
and interfered with her work.
"Losing all patience she gave a smart blow to the firmament with the
broom-stick, saying, 'Get away from hence.' The sky, as a matter of
course, was quite ashamed at the affront [8] thus offered to it by
a servant-girl, and flew away far, far out of human reach, in order
to avoid a similar catastrophe again."
The second account is as follows: "Till a long period after the
creation, man did not know the use of most of the vegetables now used
by him for food. His food at first consisted of some substance like
boiled milk, which then grew spontaneously upon the earth. This
substance since disappeared, and rice took its place, and grew
abundantly without the husk.
"The Jak fruit (Artocarpus integrifolia), one of the principal articles
of food of the Sinhalese, was not even touched, as it was thought to be
poisonous. The God Sakra [Indra] bethought himself of teaching mankind
that Jak was not a deadly fruit, but an article of wholesome food."
The story goes on to relate that, assuming the form of an old man,
he got a woman to boil some Jak seeds for him, with injunctions not
to eat them or she would die; but the smell being appetizing she
first tasted one, and then ate a quantity.
NO. 2
THE SUN, THE MOON, AND GREAT PADDY
In a certain country there are a woman and a man, it is said. There are
also the children of those two persons, the elder brother and younger
brother and elder sister. Well then, while these three persons were
there, the man having died those children provided subsistence for
the mother of the three.
One day the three persons went to join a party of friends in assisting
a neighbour in his work. [9] That mother stayed at home. For that
woman there was not a thing to eat. Should those persons bring food,
she eats; if not, not.
When the three persons were eating the food provided for the working
party, the elder sister and the elder brother having eaten silently,
without even a [thought of the] matter of their mother, came away
home. The younger brother thought, "Ane! We three persons having
eaten here, on our going how about food for our mother? I must take
some." Placing a similar quantity of cooked rice and a little vegetable
curry under the corner of his finger nail, the three came back.
Then the mother asked at the hand of the elder sister, "Where,
daughter, is cooked rice and vegetable curry for me?" She said,
"I have not brought any. Having indeed eaten I came [empty-handed]."
Then the mother said to the daughter, "Thou wilt be cooked in hell
itself."
Having called the elder son she asked, "Where, son, is the cooked
rice and vegetable curry for me?"
The son said, "Mother, I have not brought it. Having indeed eaten,
I came [empty-handed]."
Then the mother said to the son, "Be off, very speedily."
Having called the young younger brother she asked, "Where, son,
is cooked rice and vegetable curry for me?"
Then that son said, "Mother, hold a pot." After that, the mother
brought it and held it. The son struck down his finger nail in it. Then
the pot was filled and overflowed.
Afterwards the mother, having eaten the rice and curry, gave authority
to those three persons, to the elder brother, to the younger brother,
and to the sister older than both of them.
Firstly, having called the elder sister she said, "Thou shalt be cooked
even in hell." That elder sister herself now having become Great Paddy,
[10] while in hell is cooked in mud.
She told the eldest son to go speedily. That elder brother himself
having become the Sun, goes very speedily. For the Sun, in very truth
(aettema), there is no rest. In the little time in which the eyelids
fall, the Sun goes seven gawwas, [11] they say. At the time when
the Great Paddy is ripening, the Sun goes across (harahin). [12]
Because it is older than the Sun, [13] the Great Paddy represents
the elder sister.
Having called the younger son she said, "My son, go you in the very
wind (pawanema) [14]." That one himself having become the Moon, now
goes in the wind. For the Moon in very truth there is not a difficulty,
by the authority given by the Mother.
North-western Province.
NO. 3
THE STORY OF SENASURA [15]
In a certain country a man having been stricken by the evil influence
(apale) of Senasura, any cultivation work or anything whatever which
the man performs does not go on properly.
The man having become very poor said, "I cannot stay in this country;
I must go to another country"; and having gone away from that country
he sat down at a travellers' shed. During the time while he was
there a friend of the man's came there. That man, sitting down in
the travellers' shed, said, "Friend, where are you going?"
Then the man said, "What is it, friend? Well then, according to my
reckoning there is no means of subsistence for me. I am going away to
some country or other, to look if I shall obtain a livelihood." [He
told him how everything that he did failed, owing to the ill-will
of Senasura.]
Then the friend said, "Friend, don't you go in that way; I will tell
you a good stratagem. Having gone back to your village, when dry
weather sets in cut chenas; when rain falls do rice field work."
The man having come back again to his village, began to cut a chena. At
the time when he was cutting the chena rain rained. Then, having
dropped the chena cutting, he went to plough the rice field. Then
dry weather again began to set in. Again having gone he chops the
chena. Then rain rained. Again having gone he ploughs the rice
field. In that manner he did the chena and rice field works, both
of them. Having done the work, the [crops in the] chena and the rice
field, both of them, ripened.
After that, Senasura said at the hand of the man, "What of their
ripening! I will not give more than an amuna (5·7 bushels) from a
stack. Let it be so settled (aswanu)."
Afterwards, having cut the rice crop, the man began to make the stacks
separately of two or three sheaves apiece. Then having trampled out
[the corn in] the stacks [by means of buffaloes] at the rate of the
amuna from the stack--should there be one sheaf in it, an amuna; should
there be two sheaves, an amuna--in that manner having trampled out
[the corn in] the stacks he filled up two corn stores. Having cut
the millet in the chena he filled up two corn stores of millet.
In that very country there is an astrologer (naekatrala). Having gone
to him, he informed the astrologer of the evil influence that there was
from Senasura [and how he had outwitted him]. Then the astrologer said,
"Until the time when you die the evil influence of Senasura over you
will not be laid aside."
The man said, "Can you tell me the place where Senasura is [and what
I must say to him]?"
The astrologer replied, "Senasura having taken a man's disguise and
come to your house, will talk with you. Then say, 'The evil influence
of Senasura has been over me. I did a good trick for it. I worked
in both a chena and a rice field. I got the things into the corn
stores. While staying here eating them I can do cultivation again
[in the same way].'"
Afterwards this man came home. While he was there, on the day foretold
by the astrologer Senasura came. The man having given him sitting
accommodation asked, "Where are you going?"
Then Senasura said, "It is I indeed whom they call Senasura, the
Divine King. Because of it tell me any matter you require."
So the man said, "What is the matter I require? I have become very
poor, having been stricken by the evil influence of Senasura. Now then,
I want an assistance from you for that."
Afterwards Senasura, the Divine King, having given the man a book said,
"Without showing this book to anybody, place it in your house. Remain
here, and make obeisance [to me] three times a day, having looked
and looked into [the instructions in] the book. From any journey on
which you may go, from any work you may do, you will obtain victory
[that is, success]."
Having said this, Senasura, the Divine King, went away. After that,
having remained there in the very manner told by Senasura, the man
became a person of much substance.
North-western Province.
In Indian Folk-Tales (Gordon), p. 61, a Jackal is represented as
outwitting the great deity Siva or Mahadeo, by telling him that he was
Sahadeo, the father of Mahadeo. See the notes at the end of Nos. 39
and 75.
NO. 4
THE GLASS PRINCESS
In a certain country there are seven Princes, the sons of a King. When
the seven persons had grown up, messengers were sent to find the
places where there were seven Princesses to be taken in marriage by
them. They obtained intelligence that there was a kingdom where they
were to be met with.
After that, the seven portraits of the seven Princes having been
painted, two or three ministers were summoned, and sent with
the instructions, "Go to that kingdom, and observe if the seven
Princesses are there. If they are there, take the portraits of the
seven Princesses and come back with them."
The ministers having gone there and looked, found that seven
Princesses were there. So they went to the King, the father of the
Princesses. After they had come, the King having given quarters to
the ministers, and having given them food and drink, asked, "Where are
you going?" Then the ministers said, "On account of news that you have
seven Princesses, as there are seven Princes of the King of our country
we have come, bringing the portraits of the seven Princes to show you,
in order to marry the Princesses to those seven." The King and the
Princesses having looked at the portraits were pleased with them.
Afterwards, a suitable occasion for the marriage having been appointed,
the portraits of the Princesses were painted, and given into the
hands of the ministers, and they were sent away with them.
The party having brought them, showed them to the King and the seven
Princes. The King and the seven Princes being pleased with those
persons after they had shown the portraits, the King of that city, on
the very day appointed as the date for setting out for the marriage,
having decorated an elephant for the King and Queen, and both of them
having mounted on it, and having decorated seven other elephants for
the seven Princes, the party made ready to go.
Then the youngest Prince of all, having placed his sword on the back
of the elephant, and made obeisance to his father, said, "I will
not go. Should the Princess come after being married to the sword,
let her come. If not, let her simply stop there." Having said this
he did not go; he sent only the elephant, and the elephant and all
the other persons went.
Having gone there the six Princes were married to the six
Princesses. Then the King whose Princesses they were, asked, "Is
there not a Prince for the youngest Princess?"
When he asked this, the King whose son was the Prince replied, "There
is my youngest Prince. He has not come. If she will come after being
married to the sword placed on the back of this elephant, he said
she is to come; if not, he said that she is to remain here."
The King whose Princess she was, was not satisfied with that. What
of that? The youngest Princess was contented, and said, "Even a deaf
man or a lame man would be good enough for me. Therefore I must be
married." So having been married to the sword she came away with
the others.
The Prince who did not go, but stayed at home, knew that there was
a pool on the way, and that there was also a Cobra which had charge
of that pool. The Prince was well aware that if the people who went
to the marriage came there, and being thirsty drank the water, that
Cobra would ask for a human offering. How was that? A deity came to
the Prince in a dream and told him. Having learnt this, the Prince
went, and at the time when they were coming hid himself near the pool,
and remained there.
Then all the party having come there drank the water. Having drunk it,
when they were setting out to come away, a large Cobra which had been
in a rock cave near by, came out, and said, "Because you drank water
from my pool one person must remain here as an offering to me. If not,
I shall not permit even one of you to go."
After that, the youngest Prince who had gone near and hidden himself
came forward, and saying, "I will stay as the human offering; go you
away," he started off all that marriage party, and sent them to their
village. He said to the Princess who had come after being married to
his sword, "Until whatever time it may be when I return, go and stay
at the palace of mine which is there. There are servants at it. Set
the party of them to work, and eat and drink in great contentment just
as though I were there." After he had said this, the party returned
to the city, and the youngest Prince went with the Cobra to the cave.
After they had gone there, the Cobra said to the Prince, "There is
an ulcer on my forehead. You may go after curing the ulcer. Because
of your curing it I shall not require a human offering."
The Prince said, "It is good," and continuing to eat the things for
which it provided the expenses, stayed there. Twice a day he washed and
washed the ulcer, while applying medicine to it, but it did not heal.
Afterwards the Cobra said, "There is a certain daughter of the King
of a city, called the Glass Princess. The Princess takes any disguise
she likes and goes through the sky, supported by her power of flying
through the air. The Princess knows a medicine by which, if it should
be applied by her own hand, my ulcer will become healed; otherwise
it will not heal, and there will be no going to your village for you."
The Prince replied, "It is good. I will go and bring the Glass
Princess."
Having said this, he set off to go to the city where the Glass Princess
lived. Having hurried along the road which led in that direction,
there was a river to which he went. When he looked up the river he
saw some rats coming floating in the water. Then what does he do? He
seizes all those few rats, and goes and places them on the bank.
After he had put them there the rats said, "Ane! O Lord, if Your
Majesty should require any assistance, be pleased to think of us;
then we will come and stay with you, and assist you." The Prince said,
"It is good," and went to the city in which the Glass Princess dwelt.
Having come there, being without a place to stay at he went to the
spot where a widow-mother was stopping, and said, "Ane! Mother,
give me a mat to sleep on."
The widow-mother said, "It is good, son. Remain here. I am alone here,
therefore it will be good for me also."
Then the Prince said, "If so, mother, cook and give me a little
rice. Having obtained some money to-morrow, I will bring it and give
you it." The old woman having heard his words, cooked and gave him
a little rice.
When she had given it and he had eaten, the Prince asked that old
woman, "Mother, what are the new things that are happening at this
city?"
The old woman replied, "What! Son, the new matters at this city are
like those of other cities indeed; but there is one new affair at this
city. If so, what is it? The daughter, called the Glass Princess, of
the King of this city remains an [unwedded] Princess. The Princess,
creating any disguise she wants, can go through the sky sustained by
her power of flight through the air. Through the beauty of her figure
she is a very celebrated person. Because of that, many royal Princes
have come to ask to marry the Princess. Having come, they are asked,
'What have you come for?' When they have said, 'We have come to take
this Princess in marriage,' the King puts on the hearth a very great
cauldron of water, and having made it boil tells them to bathe in it
without making the water lukewarm. There is a large iron tree in the
open space in front of the palace. Having bathed in the water, he
tells them to saw the iron tree in two. If they do not bathe in the
water and cut it in two, he does not permit the Princes to go away;
he beheads them there and then, and casts them out."
The Prince asked the old woman, "Mother, can no one go to the place
where the Glass Princess is staying?"
The old woman said, "Ane! Son, even a bird which passes along in the
air above cannot go to the place where the Glass Princess is."
Then the Prince asked, "Mother, why do they say that the Princess is
the Glass Princess?"
The old woman said, "O son, they call her the Glass Princess. The bed
on which the Princess sleeps is a bed of glass throughout. Glass is
fixed all round the bed in such a manner that even the wind cannot get
to her. [16] Because of that, they say that she is the Glass Princess."
The Prince asked, "Mother, at what time does the Princess eat rice
at night?"
The old woman said, "O son, at night water for bathing, and cooked
rice, having gone there for the Princess, they are placed in the
upper story where the Princess sleeps alone. When the Princess has
been sleeping at night, at about eight she awakes, and after bathing
in the water eats rice. Before that she does not get up."
Then the Prince, after listening to all these words, asked for a mat,
and went off to sleep at the travellers' shed which was in front of
the old woman's house. Having gone there, while he was lying down he
thought, "Ane! O Gods, in any case you must grant me an opportunity of
going to the place where that Princess is." Then while he was thinking,
"Ane! Will even those rats that I took up that day out of the river
and placed on the bank, become of assistance to me in this matter?" he
fell asleep.
After that, those rats, collecting thousands of rats besides, came
there before the Prince awoke, and having come near the Prince while he
was sleeping, waited until he awoke. When the Prince awoke and looked
about, he saw that rats, thousands in number, had come and were there.
The rats asked the Prince: "O Lord, what assistance does Your Majesty
want us to give?"
The Prince said, "I want you to excavate a tunnel, of a size so that
a man can go along it erect, to the upper story of the house in which
the Glass Princess is staying, and to hand it over without completing
it, leaving a very little unfinished. It was on account of this that I
thought of you." Then the rats went, and having dug it out that night,
finished it and handed it over, and went away.
The Prince having been in the travellers' shed until it became light,
took the mat and went to the widow-mother. He gave her one masurama and
said, "Here, mother, this is given for the articles I obtained. Bring
things for you and me, and in order that I may go and get something
to-day also, quickly cook and give me a little rice." The old woman
speedily cooked and gave it. The Prince having eaten it, during the
whole day walked round about the city.
At night he went along the tunnel to the upper story where the Princess
was. Having gone there, when he thought of looking in the direction
of the Princess he could not through diffidence, it is said. The
Princess was asleep on the glass bed; a lamp shone brightly.
After that, the Prince having rubbed soap in the water which was
ready for the Glass Princess, and washed in it, and eaten half the
rice that was set on the table, and having eaten a mouthful of betel
that was in the betel box, left the room without speaking, and went
away after closing the opening through which he had come.
The Princess arose at about eight, and having gone to bathe in the
water, when she looked at it saw that soap had been rubbed in the
water, and some one had washed in it. Then she went to the table
on which was the rice, and when she looked half the rice had been
eaten. So the Princess having returned without eating the rice, lay
down and thought, "A much cleverer person than I, indeed, has done
this work. Except a deity, no man can come to the place where I am
staying. I shall seize that thief to-morrow." Having thought that,
she went to sleep.
The Prince having come away, and having been asleep in the travellers'
shed, in the day-time went to the old woman and ate. Then having
returned to the tunnel and slept there, he went that night also,
and washed in the water and ate, and came away. That night, also,
the Princess being asleep was unable to seize him.
The Prince came back, and having slept that night, also, at the
travellers' shed, in the day time asked the old woman for rice and
ate it. Then he returned to the tunnel, and after sleeping in it, at
about twelve went and washed in the water, and ate the rice. After
eating betel he came away. The Princess being asleep on that night
also, was unable to seize him.
After that, what does the Princess do? At night, pricking her finger
with a needle, and rubbing lime-juice in the place, she remained awake
blowing it [on account of the smarting]. That night, also, the Prince
went. The Princess having seen the Prince enter, took a sword in her
hand, after awaking as though she had been asleep. Having seen that
the figure of the Prince was beautiful, and being pleased with it,
she closed her eyelids, pretending to be asleep.
The Prince knew very well that the Princess was awake. Now, as on other
nights, he went looking on the ground, and having soaped himself,
washed himself in the water. Then having come to the table, he ate
the rice. While he was eating it, the Princess, taking the sword,
arose, and having come towards him, asked, "Who are you?"
The Prince asked, "Who are you?"
The Princess said, "I am she whom they call the Glass Princess."
Then the Prince also said, "I am he whom they call the youngest Prince
of the King of such and such a city."
After that, the Prince and Princess ate the food, and having talked
much, the Princess asked, "For what purpose have you come?"
The Prince replied, "I have not come for anything else but to take
you away."
The Princess said, "Our hiding and going off would not be proper. Here,
put away this jewelled ring and lock of hair. To-morrow morning, having
gone to our father the King, say, 'I have come to marry your Princess.'
"Then saying, 'It is good,' he will boil a cauldron of water and
give you it, and tell you to bathe in it. And he will show you an
iron tree, and tell you to saw it. When he has given you the water,
put this jewelled ring in the water and bathe; it will be like cold
water. When he has shown you the iron tree, pull this lock of hair
across it; then it will saw it in two. After that, we two having been
married, let us go to your city."
Then taking the ring and the lock of hair, the Prince went back to
the travellers' shed.
Next day, the Prince in the very manner the Princess told him, came
and spoke to the King. The King said, "It is good," and gave him
those two tasks. The Prince performed both the tasks.
After that, the King, being pleased, publicly notified the celebration
of their marriage, and said, "If you wish to live here, stay here;
if you wish to go, summon the Princess [to accompany you] and
go." Afterwards, having performed the marriage ceremony, he called
the Princess, and went to the place where that Cobra was staying.
There she applied the medicine to the Cobra's ulcer, and it
healed. The Cobra, being pleased, gave the two persons a hidden
treasure consisting of gold, silver, pearls, and gems. After that,
they went to the Prince's city.
Thus, by bringing this Princess the Prince had two Princesses. The
King, the Prince's father, was pleased because the Prince who went as
the offering and the Princess had got married, and had returned. Having
eaten the marriage feast they remained there.
When those six elder brothers looked they saw that their Princesses
were not so beautiful as the Glass Princess. Because of it, the six
persons spoke together about killing the youngest Prince and taking
the Glass Princess; and they tried to kill the Prince. The Glass
Princess, knowing of it, told that Prince, and the two Princesses
and the Prince set off to go to another King.
While they were going in the midst of a forest, the Vaedda King
who dwelt in that forest saw this Glass Princess. In order to take
possession of the Princess, he seized the three persons, and having
put them in a house, prepared to kill the Prince.
So the Glass Princess, knowing this, became a mare, and placing the
Prince on her back, and telling the other Princess to hang by her tail,
went through the sky, and descended near another city. Having gone to
the city and taken labourers, they engaged in rice cultivation. When
they had been there a little while the King of the city died.
After his death they decorated the royal tusk elephant, and set off
with it in search of a new King. While they were going along taking it
through the streets, the elephant went and knelt near this Prince. Then
all the men having made obeisance, and caused the Prince to bathe,
placing the Prince and the two Queens on the back of the elephant,
went and stopped at the palace, and he became King.
When he had been ruling a little time, there was no rain at the city of
the King the Prince's father, and that country became abandoned. Those
six Princes and their six Queens, and his father the King, and his
mother, all these persons, being reduced to poverty, came to an
almshouse which this King had established, bringing firewood to sell.
There this King having seen them, recognising them, came back after
summoning his father the King, and his mother, to the palace. He told
them, "Because those six elder brothers and their six Queens tried to
kill me in order that my elder brothers might seize and carry off the
Glass Princess, I came away from the city, and was seized by a Vaedda
King, but I escaped and came here." Then saying, "There is the place
where I was cultivating rice. Go there, and cultivate rice and eat,"
he sent the brothers to that place. Having sent them, he gave them
this advice: "For the crime that you tried to commit by killing me,
that has befallen you. Therefore behave well now."
After that, his father the King, his mother the Queen, the King and
the two Queens, those five persons, remained at the palace.
North-central Province.
Although the whole story apparently has not been found in India,
several of the incidents in it occur in Indian folk-tales.
I have not met with the marriage to the sword in them, but in The
Indian Antiquary, vol. xx, p. 423, it is stated by Mr. Prendergast that
in southern India, among two Telugu castes, "the custom of sending a
sword to represent an unavoidably absent bridegroom at a wedding is
not uncommon. It is considered allowable among other Hindus also."
In The Story of Madana Kama Raja (called by the translator, Pandita
Natesa Sastri, The Dravidian Nights), p. 43, the Kings of Mathurapuri
and Vijayanagaram caused the portraits of their respective son and
daughter to be painted, and sent envoys with them in search of royal
persons resembling them. The envoys met at a river, exchanged pictures
there, and returned to their masters, who were satisfied with the
portraits, and caused the wedding of the Prince and Princess to be
celebrated at the latter's home, Vijayanagaram.
In the same work, p. 12, a Prince in the form of a parrot, which
was confined in a cage in the sleeping apartment of a Princess, on
two successive nights resumed his human form, and smeared sandal and
scent over the Princess while she slept, and then became a parrot once
more. On the third night she was awake, and he told her his history.
At page 103, also, the King of Udayagiri, father of a Prince who had
run off when about to be beheaded, having been deprived of his kingdom
by the King of the Otta country, was reduced to selling firewood
for a living, together with his wife and six sons. They came for
this purpose to the city over which the Prince had become sovereign,
and were discovered by him and provided for.
In the Katha Sarit Sagara (Tawney), vol. ii, p. 93, a thief gained
access to the bedroom of a Princess by means of a tunnel.
In Indian Fairy Tales (Thornhill), p. 122 ff., a Prince, riding a
magical wooden horse, visited a Princess nightly while she was asleep,
and pricking his arm each night, wrote "I love you," in blood on her
handkerchief. Although she tried to keep awake, for six nights after
the first one she was asleep when he came. On the next night she
scratched her finger with a needle and rubbed salt into the wound,
so that the pain might keep her awake. When he entered the room she
started up and inquired who he was, and how and why he had come.
In Indian Fairy Tales, Ganges Valley (Stokes), p. 163, the cutting
of the tree trunk with the hair of the Princess occurs.
In the Panchatantra (Dubois), an elephant released rats when caught
and imprisoned in earthen pots, and the rats in their turn served
him by filling up with earth the pit in which he had fallen.
In the Katha Sarit Sagara, p. 360 ff., a Rakshasa King gave three tasks
to the Prince who wished to marry his daughter. She assisted him by
means of her magical powers, and he accomplished them successfully.
NO. 5
THE FROG PRINCE
At a city there is a certain King; a widow lives at a house near his
palace. She subsists by going to this royal palace and pounding rice
there; having handed it over she takes away the rice powder and lives
on it.
During the time while she was getting a living in this way she bore
a frog, which she reared there. When it was grown up, the King of
that city caused this proclamation to be made by beat of tom-toms:
"I will give half my kingdom, and goods amounting to an elephant's
load, to the person who brings the Jewelled Golden Cock [17] that is
at the house of the Rakshasi (Ogress)."
Every one said of it that it could not be done. The widow's Frog
having heard the King's proclamation, said to the widow, "Mother, I
will bring the Jewelled Golden Cock. Cook a bundle of rice and give
me it." Having heard the Frog's words, the widow cooked a bundle of
rice and gave it to him.
The Frog took the bundle of rice, and hanging it from his shoulder
went to an Indi (wild Date) tree, scraped the leaf off a Date spike
(the mid-rib of the leaf), and strung the rice on it. While going
away after stringing it, the Frog then became like a very good-looking
royal Prince, and a horse and clothing for him made their appearance
there. Putting on the clothes he mounted the horse, and making it
bound along he went on till he came to a city.
Hearing that he had arrived, the King of that city prepared quarters
for this Prince to stay at, and having given him ample food and drink,
asked, "Where art thou going?"
Then the Prince said: "The King of our city has made a proclamation by
beat of tom-toms, that he will give half his kingdom and an elephant's
load of gold to the person who brings him the Jewelled Golden Cock
that is at the Rakshasi's house. Because of it I am going to fetch
the Jewelled Golden Cock."
The King, being pleased with the Prince on account of it, gave him a
piece of charcoal. "Should you be unable to escape from the Rakshasi
while returning after taking the Jewelled Golden Cock, tell this
piece of charcoal to be created a fire-fence, and cast it down,"
he said. Taking it, he went to another city.
The King of that city in that very manner having prepared quarters,
and made ready and given him food and drink, asked, "Where art thou
going?" The Prince replied in the same words, "I am going to bring the
Jewelled Golden Cock that is at the house of the Rakshasi." That King
also being pleased on account of it gave him a stone, "Should you be
unable to escape from the Rakshasi, tell this stone to be created a
mountain, and cast it down," he said.
Taking the charcoal and the stone which those two Kings gave him, he
went to yet another city. The King also in that very manner having
given him quarters, and food and drink, asked, "Where art thou
going?" The Prince in that very way said, "I am going to bring the
Jewelled Golden Cock." That King also being greatly pleased gave him
a thorn. "Should you be unable to escape from the Rakshasi, tell a
thorn fence to be created, and cast down this thorn," he said.
On the next day he went to the house of the Rakshasi. She was not
at home; the Rakshasi's daughter was there. That girl having seen
the Prince coming and not knowing him, asked, "Elder brother, elder
brother, where are you going?"
The Prince said, "Younger sister, I am not going anywhere whatever. I
came to beg at your hands the Jewelled Golden Cock which you have got."
To that she replied, "Elder brother, to-day indeed I am unable to
give it. To-morrow I can. Should my mother come now she will eat you;
for that reason come and hide yourself."
Calling him into the house, she put him in a large trunk at the bottom
of seven trunks, and shut him up in it.
After a little time had passed, the Rakshasi came back. Having come
and seen that the Prince's horse was there, she asked her daughter,
"Whose is this horse?"
Then the Rakshasi's daughter replied, "Nobody's whatever. It came
out of the jungle, and I caught it to ride on."
The Rakshasi having said, "If so, it is good," came in. While lying
down to sleep at night the sweet odour of the Prince having reached
the Rakshasi, she said to her daughter, "What is this, Bola? [18]
A smell of a fresh human body is coming to me."
Then the Rakshasi's daughter said, "What, mother! Do you say so? You
are constantly eating fresh bodies; how can there not be an odour
of them?"
After that, the Rakshasi, taking those words for the truth, went
to sleep.
At dawn on the following day, as soon as she arose the Rakshasi went to
seek human flesh for food. After she had gone, the Rakshasa-daughter,
taking out the Prince who was shut up in the box, told that Prince a
device on going away with the Jewelled Golden Cock: "Elder brother,
if you are going away with the Cock, take some cords and fasten them
round my shoulders. Having put them round me, take the Cock, and
having mounted the horse go off, making him bound quickly. When you
have gone I shall cry out. Mother comes when I give three calls. After
she has come, loosening me will occupy much time; then you will be
able to get away."
In the way she said, the Prince tied the Rakshasa-daughter, and
taking the Jewelled Golden Cock mounted the horse, and making it
bound quickly came away.
As that Rakshasa-daughter said, while she was calling out the
Rakshasi came. Having come, after she looked about [she found that]
the Rakshasa-daughter was tied, and the Jewelled Golden Cock had
been taken away. After she had asked, "Who was it? Who took it?" the
Rakshasa-daughter said, "I don't know who it was." After that, she
very quickly unfastened the Rakshasa-daughter, and both of them came
running to eat that Prince.
The Prince was unable to go quickly. While going, the Prince
turned round, and on looking back saw that this Rakshasi and the
Rakshasa-daughter were coming running to eat that Prince.
After that, he cast down the thorn which the above-mentioned King of
the third city gave him, having told a thorn fence to be created. A
thorn fence was created. Having jumped over it they came on.
After that, when he had put down the piece of stone which the King
of the second city gave him, and told a mountain to be created, a
mountain was created. They sprang over that mountain also, and came on.
After that, he cast down the charcoal which the King of the first
city gave him, having told a fire fence to be created. In that very
manner a fire fence was created. Having come to it, while jumping
over it both of them were burnt and died.
From that place the Prince came along. While coming, he arrived at
the Indi tree on which he had threaded the rice, and having taken
off it all that dried-up rice he began to eat it. On coming to the
end of it, the person who was like that Prince again became a Frog.
After he became a Frog, the clothes that he was wearing, and the horse,
and the Jewelled Golden Cock vanished. Out of grief on that account
that Frog died at that very place.
North-western Province.
In the Jataka story No. 159 (vol. ii, p. 23) there is a tale of a
Golden Peacock which lived upon a golden hill. A King got it caught
and informed it that the reason was because "Your colour is golden;
therefore (so it is said) those who eat your flesh become young and
live so for ever."
In the story No. 491 (vol. iv, p. 210) the chick is described as "of
the colour of gold, with two eyes like gunja fruit, and a coral beak,
and three red streaks ran down his throat and down the middle of his
back." On p. 212, it is said that "they who eat his flesh will be
ever young and immortal." This one lived in the Himalayas for seven
thousand years.
In The Story of Madana Kama Raja (Natesa Sastri), p. 56, a Queen bore
a Tortoise Prince who had the power of leaving his shell. At p. 141,
a Queen also bore a Tortoise, which was reared by her, and eventually
went in search of divine Parijata flowers (Erythrina indica) from a
tree which grew in Indra's heaven. He seems to have been a turtle and
not a tortoise, being described as swimming for weeks across the Seven
Seas. He climbed Udayagiri, the Mountain of the Dawn, and blocked the
way of the Sun-god (who rises from behind it), in honour of whom he
uttered 1,008 praises. Pleased with this, the deity gave him a splendid
divine body like a man's, and the power to resume his tortoise shape
at will; he directed him to a sage, who sent him to another, and this
one to a third, by whose advice he secured the love and assistance
of a divine nymph, an Apsaras, by concealing her robes when a party
of them were bathing. With her aid he obtained the heavenly flowers.
In Old Deccan Days, Ganges Valley (Frere), p. 69, a Prince, using a
wand belonging to a Rakshasi, created in order to stop her pursuit,
a river, a mountain, and apparently a forest. Lastly, by throwing
down three of her hairs that he had secured he set the trees on fire,
and she was burnt in the flames.
In the Katha Sarit Sagara (Tawney), p. 360 ff., the daughter of a
Rakshasa King gave the Prince who wanted to marry her "some earth,
some water, some thorns, and some fire, and her own fleet horse,"
telling him how to use them. He was chased by the brother of the King,
whom he went to invite to the wedding. When he threw down the earth
a mountain was produced behind him; the water became a great river;
the thorns a dense thorny wood. When the Rakshasa emerged from the
wood and was coming on, the Prince threw down the fire, which set the
bushes and trees in front of him ablaze, and finding this difficult
to cross he returned home, "tired and terrified."
NO. 6
THE MILLET TRADER
At a certain city two men were cutting jungle, it is said. Having
cut it for many days, one man said, "Friend, I will go and bring
millet [19] to sow in this chena clearing; you continue to cut the
jungle." The other man said "Ha" (Yes), and that man went to seek
millet.
Having gone to a village, he went along asking the way to a house
where there was millet. After he had gone there it became night,
so he remained in a shed at the house. A lucky hour had been fixed
by astrology for cutting the hair [for the first time] of a child at
the house, on the following day after that.
Having told at the hand of his wife to put rice in water [to clean
it], and to cook cakes from it, the man of the house that evening
went to the watch-hut in his chena. The woman having pounded the
rice and cooked cakes, selected the best cakes and put them in the
rice mortar in order to give them to another man. The millet trader
in the shed remained there looking on.
Afterwards the man who went to the watch hut returned, and when
he was eating the cakes said, "Give a couple of cakes from them
to that millet trader." Then the woman having selected burnt, very
burnt ones, and given them to the millet trader, the trader saying,
"I cannot bite these," put the cakes on the others in the rice
mortar, and pounded them. The woman scowled at the millet trader,
but because her husband was present she was unable to say anything,
so she remained silent. The millet trader, having pounded all the
cakes and eaten, tied up the surplus ones and put them aside.
After that, the man went again to the watch hut. Then that woman
quickly put a gill of rice in water, and having pounded it into
flour and very hurriedly cooked cakes, placed them in the house,
and lay down in it.
The millet trader awoke, and while he was there looking about, saw a
man coming. Arising quickly, he came to the open space in front of
the house and coughed. Then the man, thinking, "Perhaps the man is
at the house," went back again.
After that, the millet trader went inside the house. That woman taking
those cakes gave them in the dark to the millet trader, and said,
"Ando! When I was cooking cakes I put the best cakes in the rice mortar
in order to give them to you. Then, after being in the watch hut he
(the husband) came, and while eating the cakes said to me, 'Give a
couple of cakes to that millet trader'; so I gave them. After that,
the millet trader, that Rodiya, having put the cakes in the rice
mortar that was full of the best cakes, pounded them and ate. Then
I again put a gill of rice into water, and pounded it into flour,
saying that you will come; and only just now finished cooking."
The millet trader said, "Ha. It is good," and ate.
Afterwards the woman said, "Now then, are we not cutting the child's
hair to-morrow? Now, what will you give on account of it?"
The millet trader said, "What have I got to give? When coming for
millet I only brought four tuttu." [20]
Then the woman, saying, "Be off! Be off! Rodiya! Are you the millet
trader, Bola?" drove him away.
When he had gone back to the shed, she again put a gill of rice in
water, and having pounded it and very rapidly cooked cakes and brought
them into the house, lay down.
Afterwards, while the millet trader was there looking about, he again
saw that man coming, so he arose quickly, and came to the open space
in front of the house and coughed. That man again went away.
After that, the millet trader went into the house again. That woman
rose quickly, and gave those cakes to him, and said to the man,
"Ando! When I was cooking cakes to give to you I put the best cakes
in the rice mortar. Afterwards he came from the watch hut, and while
eating the cakes said to me, 'Give a couple of cakes to that millet
trader.' So I gave them. Afterwards that Rodiya, putting the cakes
in the rice mortar which was full of the best cakes, pounded them
and ate. Then I again put a gill of rice in water, and cooked more
cakes. Then, while I was looking out for you, some one like you came
in the dark. I gave them to him. While he was eating them I said,
'Now then, are we not cutting the child's hair to-morrow? What will
you give?' That Rodiya said, 'Only the four tuttu that I brought for
millet.' Then I got to know who it was. I drove him away, and again
put a gill of rice in water, and pounded it, and I have only just
finished cooking more cakes."
The millet trader, saying, "Ha. It is good," ate the cakes.
Then the woman said, "Now then, are we not cutting the child's hair
to-morrow? What will you give?"
The millet trader said, "If you should ask me even another time,
still the same four tuttu."
The woman saying, "Be off! Be off! Millet trader, Rodiya! Hast come
again, thou!" drove him away. Then it became light.
Afterwards, the man who went to the watch hut came, and handed over
the millet to the millet trader. On his giving it, the millet trader,
tying it up in two bundles and placing them on his head, set off to
go into the house.
That man saw it, and asked, "Where are you going there?"
The millet trader replied, "I don't know. During the whole of last
night they were going and coming along this very way, so I thought,
'Maybe this is a high road.'"
The man said, "Put down the packages of millet there," and having
gone to the millet store-room, and handed over a greater quantity
from the millet in it, beat that woman.
From there the millet trader went to another village, and sitting down
at a house unfastened that package of pounded cakes, and was eating
them. A woman who was looking on said, "Ade! What are you eating?"
The trader said, "They are pounded cakes of our country."
The woman saying, "The colour of them is good indeed; give me some
to look at," begged and got some.
After eating them she said, "Ade! These millet cakes have a sweet
taste; they are indeed good."
The trader replied, "In our quarter the millet is of that very sort;
let us go there together if you like."
The woman said, "Ha" and having taken out all the effects in the
house placed them in the jungle, ready for taking when she went.
Afterwards, taking those things, as they were getting very far away
the man said, "What have you forgotten? Consider well."
The woman replied, "I have not forgotten anything. I only forgot my
flowered hair comb. It is of the pattern of my flowered hair pin."
The trader said, "To be without a flowered hair comb is
not proper in my country. I shall be here; you go and fetch
it. If I should not be here on your return, call me, saying,
'Day-before-Yesterday! Day-before-Yesterday!' My name is
Day-before-Yesterday (Pereda)."
Then the woman came running home. When she returned, taking
the flowered hair comb, the man was not there. So saying,
"Day-before-Yesterday! Day-before-Yesterday!" the woman called and
called. The man was not there.
The woman returned home, weeping and weeping. While she was there,
her husband, having gone somewhere or other, came back, and asked,
"What are you crying for?"
The woman said, "He who was taking millet, Day-before-Yesterday,
plundered the house."
The man said, "If he plundered the house day before yesterday, why
didst thou not tell me yesterday?"
The woman replied, "Not day before yesterday. He who was taking millet,
Day-before-Yesterday."
Then the man said, "Isn't that just what I'm saying? When he
plundered the house day before yesterday, why didst thou not tell me
yesterday?" Having said this, he beat the woman.
When the millet trader, taking the effects and the bundles of millet,
went from there carrying his load, he came to another village. On
going to a house, a woman was there weeping and weeping.
As the man was placing the effects and the millet bundles on the
veranda of the house, he said, "Appe! I have been to the other world
and back," [21] and laying them on the veranda, said, "What are you
crying for, mother?"
The woman said, "My daughter died six days ago. When I think of her
I am weeping." Then she asked the millet trader, "Ane! My Latti went
to the other world; did you meet her there?"
The millet trader said, "Don't cry, mother. I did meet her there. She
is now in the other world. I have taken in marriage that very Latti. I
have come for Latti's things that she puts on her arms and neck. She
told me to come."
The woman quickly arose, and having cooked abundantly for the trader,
and given him to eat, he said, "Mother, I must go immediately. Where
is father-in-law?"
"He went to plough; wait till he comes," she said.
"I cannot," he said. "It is our wedding feast to-morrow. I must be
off now to go to the wedding."
So she gave the trader the silver and golden things for placing on her
daughter's arms and neck, also. Then the trader taking the bundles of
millet, the effects, and the things for the arms and neck, went away.
After that, when the woman's husband who had gone to plough came, the
woman was laughing. Seeing it, he asked, "What are you laughing at?"
The woman replied, "Bolan, why shouldn't I laugh? Our son-in-law came."
"What son-in-law?" the man asked.
The woman said over and over again, "Latti's man came, Latti's man
came. Our son-in-law, to whom our daughter is given in the other
world. It is true."
The man asked, "Bola, can any one in the other world come to this
world? Didst thou cook and also give him to eat?"
The woman replied, "What! Didn't I cook and give him to eat! After
I had given him to eat he said that Latti had told him to take away
the things for her arms and neck. So I gave him those also."
Then the man said, "Where is now, Bola, the horse that was here?" and
asking, "Which way did he go?" and mounting on the horse's back,
went to seek that millet trader.
As the trader was going along in the rice field he looked back, and
having seen a man coming on horseback, said, "That one is coming to
seize me."
There was a Timbiri tree very near there into which he climbed. While
he was there, that man making the horse bound along, having come up,
tied the horse to the root of the Timbiri tree. After he had climbed
up the tree to catch the trader, the trader, descending from the ends
of the Timbiri branches and cutting the fastening, mounted the horse,
after placing on it also the bundles of millet and the other goods,
and went off on the horse.
Then that man descended slowly from the tree, and having called "Hu"
to the millet trader [to arrest his attention], said, "Tell Latti that
your mother-in-law gave you a few things to put on her arms and neck,
but your father-in-law gave you a horse."
Having returned to the house, he said to the woman, "It is true. He
is really Latti's man. I said 'Don't go on foot,' and having given
him the horse I came back."
The woman said, "Isn't it so indeed! I told you so."
Then the millet trader having gone to his village, and divided the
goods with the chena cultivator, sowed the millet in the chena,
and remained there.
North-western Province.
The story about Latti's husband occurs in The Orientalist, vol. i,
p. 62, the dead girl's name being Kaluhami. Her father was a Gamarala,
and the man who carried off the things for her was a beggar.
This part of the story is also given, with slight variations, in Tales
of the Sun, Southern India (Kingscote and Natesa Sastri), p. 135 ff.
In Folklore in Southern India (Natesa Sastri), p. 131 ff., the
rogue did not pretend to be married to the woman's daughter, but
represented to her that her parents were living in the other world
in a very miserable state, without proper clothing, and without the
means of purchasing food. She handed over to him the clothing, jewels,
and cash in the house, and he went off at once with them. The ending
of the incident is the same as in Ceylon.
In The Indian Antiquary, vol. xviii, p. 120, there is a story from
Southern India, by Pandita Natesa Sastri, in which a youth obtained
work under an appa [22] (or "hopper") woman, giving his name as
"Last Year." When he absconded with her cash-box she gave the alarm
in the village by saying, "Last Year (he) stole and took my box,"
and was thought to be out of her mind.
In The Orientalist, vol. ii, p. 182, the incident of the cakes pounded
in the mortar is related. After eating part of the pounded cakes,
the traveller was about to enter the corn-store in which the woman
had concealed her lover. On the woman's stopping him, the husband's
suspicions being aroused he examined the corn-store, and finding the
man in it, beat him well, and his own wife also.
NO. 7
THE TURTLE DOVE
In a certain city there are two Princes, it is said. A flower-mother
[23] cooks and gives food to the two Princes. The mother of the
Princes is dead; the father is alive. The King has married another
Queen, and because the Queen is not good to the Princes they live
with the flower-mother.
One day, while they were living in that manner, the two Princes having
gone to shoot birds with bows and arrows, walked until night-fall,
but were unable to find any birds. As they were coming back, there was
a Horse-radish tree (Murunga) [24] at the front of the King's palace,
in which was a turtle dove. The younger brother saw it, and said to
the elder brother, "Elder brother, there! There is a turtle-dove." The
elder brother shot at the turtle-dove, and it fell dead.
Afterwards, the younger brother having picked it up and come back, said
at the hand of the elder brother, "Elder brother, are we to give this
to our father the King, or are we to give it to the flower-mother?"
Then the elder brother said, "Why should we give it to our father
the King? We will give it to the flower-mother who gives us food and
clothing." Taking the turtle-dove, the two Princes came to the house
of the flower-mother, and gave it into the flower-mother's hand.
On that day the King was not at the palace; only the Queen was
there. The Queen remained listening to all that the two Princes said,
and stayed looking [to see] if they gave the turtle-dove into the
hand of the flower-mother.
That being so, after the King's return to the palace in the evening
the Queen told at the hand of the King what the Princes said, and the
fact that they gave the turtle-dove into the hand of the flower-mother.
After that, the King settled to behead both Princes on the morrow. The
flower-mother on hearing of it said at the hand of the Princes,
"Children, the King said that he must behead you two to-morrow. To
save both your lives go away somewhere."
Having cooked a bundle of rice in the night, she placed gem-stones
at the bottom of the bag and the cooked rice above them; and having
tied up the bag she gave it into the hands of the Princes before it
became light, and told them to go.
The two Princes took the bundle of cooked rice and went away. Having
gone on and on, being hungry they sat down in the shade of a great
forest. For rinsing their mouths after chewing betel, before eating
rice, there was no water.
While they were seated there, a turtle-dove came and fell down, making
a noise, "tas," as it struck the ground. The younger brother asked,
"Elder brother, what shall we do with this turtle-dove?" Then the
elder brother said, "Hide it in a heap of leaves, for us to eat it
yet." The younger brother hid it.
Thereupon a Vaedda came, and asked at the hand of the two brothers,
"Ane! Didn't a turtle-dove fall here?"
The two Princes said, "No."
So the Vaedda sought for it, continuing to say, "Ane! After trying
for seven years, I shot the turtle-dove with my bow and arrow."
Then the Princes said, "Ane! Vaedi-elder-brother, why is the
turtle-dove such a good one?"
The Vaedda replied, "Why shouldn't it be good? The person who has eaten
the right portion at that very time will receive the sovereignty. The
person who has eaten the left portion will receive the sovereignty
after seven years have gone by."
Having said thus, the Vaedda sought and sought it; he was unable to
find the turtle-dove, and he went away. Then, having cooked it, the
elder Prince ate the right half; the younger Prince ate the left half.
Having eaten it, the elder Prince, taking the small copper water-pot
which the flower-mother gave them, went to seek for water. The younger
brother remained there.
The elder brother, breaking and throwing down branches all along the
path, having gone on and on, came to a large stream. Hearing a beating
of tom-toms while getting water in the pot, he stayed there, looking
[to see] what it was about. While he was there, the tom-toming having
come near him, a tusk elephant came close to the Prince and knelt down.
The Prince knew that the royal elephant had selected him for the
sovereignty, and said, "Ane! A younger brother of mine is there;
how can I go without him? I will go there and come with him."
Then the men who were there said, "You cannot seek your younger
brother; you must mount now." Afterwards the Prince having mounted
on the elephant, went to the city of that kingdom, and became the king.
The younger brother, after having looked and looked for a long time,
taking the bundle of cooked rice, came along the path on which the
branches were broken, and descended to the stream. Then, having seen
the elephant's footprints, continuing to say, "Ane! It is this very
elephant that has killed elder brother," weeping and weeping he drank
water; and having eaten part of the cooked rice, tied up the other
part and went away.
While going along the path on which were the elephant's footprints,
he saw that his Prince's robes were torn and torn, and repeating,
"Ane! Elder brother has been killed. It is this very elephant. Kill me
also, O Gods," weeping and weeping, going on and on, he went after
nightfall to a Hettiya's house at some city or other, and said,
"Ane! You must give me a resting-place for the night."
The Hettiya was not at home; only his wife was there. The woman said
to the Prince, "No resting-place will be given here. We do not allow
any one to come to our house. The Hettirala goes to the King, to fan
his face. On that account the Hettirala does not permit any one to
come to this house. To-day the Hettirala went to the King, to fan
his face. He will come at this time. Before he comes go away quickly."
The Prince said, "Ane! Don't say so. There is not a quarter to which
I can go now. In some way or other you must give me it."
Then the woman, taking a bit of mat, gave it into the Prince's hand,
saying, "If so, go to that calf house. When the Hettiya comes don't
even cough or anything. You must be silent."
Afterwards, when the Prince was sitting in the calf house, the Hettiya
returned, and while he was eating rice a cough came to the Prince. The
Prince tried and tried to be silent. He could not. He coughed.
The Hettiya having heard it said to his wife, "What is that, Bola,
I hear there?"
The woman said, "Ane! A youth, not vicious nor low, came and asked
for a resting-place. I told him to go to the calf house. Do nothing
to him. I told him to get up before daylight and go away."
Then the Hettiya, saying, "I told thee, 'Do not give a resting-place to
any one'; is it not so? Why didst thou give it?" beat the woman. Having
finished eating rice he came into the raised veranda.
When he was there, that Prince took the remains of his rice, and
while eating it and thinking in his mind, "Ane! Was I not indeed a
royal Prince before; why must I stop now in a calf house?" he saw
the gem-stones at the bottom of the rice, and placing one on his knee
ate the rice by its light.
The Hettiya having seen the light, asked at the hand of the woman,
"Ade! Did you go and give a light also to that one?" The woman said,
"It is not a light that I took and gave him."
Then the Hettiya got up and went to look, and having seen the
gem-stone, scolded the woman. "Ade! When my friend from a foreign town
came dost thou give him a resting-place in this way? What hast thou
given it at the calf house for? Was there no better place to give?"
Having said this, and again beaten the woman, "Quickly warm water,"
he said. After waiting while she was warming it, he took the water
into the house, and having placed it there, said to the Prince,
"Let us go, younger brother, to bathe," and gave him a bath. After
finishing bathing him, having cooked food abundantly and laid the
table, he gave him to eat.
When that was finished, he prepared a bed for sleeping, and said,
"Younger brother, come and sleep." The Prince came. Afterwards the
Hettiya said to the Prince, "Younger brother, if there are any things
of value in your hands give them into my hands. I will return them to
you at the time when you ask for them. If they be kept in your hands
they may be lost. There are thieves hereabouts; we cannot get rid of
them. They will not let us keep anything; they carry it off."
Then the Prince said, "Ane! There is nothing in my hands."
The Hettiya said, "Nay, there was a gem-stone in your hand; I saw
it. It will be there yet; give me it. I shall not take it in that
way. I will give you it at the time when you ask for it."
The Prince said, "Ane! Hetti-elder-brother, I know your Hetti
slumber. It is necessary for me to arise early, while it is still
night, and go away."
Then the Hettiya said, "I shall give you it when you ask for it,
no matter if I should be asleep. You can awake me; then I will give
it." Having said thus and thus, the Prince gave all the gem-stones
into the hands of the Hettiya. The Hettiya taking them and placing
them in a house in the middle of seven houses, went to sleep.
Afterwards, the Prince having been asleep, arose while it was still
night, and awoke the Hettiya, saying, "Ane! Hetti-elder-brother,
it is necessary for me to go expeditiously. Quickly give me those
few gem-stones."
Thus, in this manner he asks and asks. It is no affair of the
Hettiya's. Then the woman said, "What is this! One cannot exist for
this troubling. Must not persons who took a thing give it back? Must
not this youth who is not vicious nor low go away? Why are you keeping
them back?"
After that, the Hettiya, having got up, opening the seven doors of
the seven houses came out into the light, and saying, "When, Bola,
did I get gem-stones from thee?" he cut off the hair-knot of the
Prince, and took him for his slave. So the Prince remained there,
continuing to do slave work for the Hettiya.
Afterwards, one day the Hettiya and the Prince having gone on a journey
somewhere, as they were coming to a stream the seven Princesses of
the King of that country having been bathing in the stream, saw the
Hettiya and the Prince going on the road.
The youngest Princess said to the other Princesses, "Elder sisters,
that one going there is indeed a Prince."
The six Princesses said, "So indeed! The Hettiya's slave has become
a Prince to thee!"
Then the Princess said another time, "However much you should say it
is not so, that is indeed a Prince going along there."
The six Princesses said, "It is not merely that to thee the Hettiya's
slave has become a Prince; he will come to call thee [to be his wife]."
Then the Princess replied still another time, "It is really so;
he is inviting me indeed. However much you should say that, it was
really a Prince who went there."
The six Princesses said, "If he is inviting thee go thou also. The
Hettiya's slave is going there; go thou before he departs."
The Princess replied, "I shall really go. You look. What though I
have not gone now! Shall I not go hereafter?"
After the seven Princesses had come to the palace, the youngest
Princess said at the hand of her father the King, "When we were
bathing now, a slave youth went along with the Hettiya. That slave
youth is really a Prince."
Then the King sent an order to the Hettiya that the Hettiya's slave
and the Hettiya should come to him. Afterwards the Hettiya and the
Hettiya's slave went to the King.
The King asked, "Whence this slave youth?"
Then before the Hettiya said anything the Prince replied, "I
was formerly a royal Prince; now I am doing slave work for this
Hetti-elder-brother."
The King asked at the hand of the Hettiya, "Is he doing slave work
for you?"
The Hettiya said, "Yes."
After that, the King decided that he would give his youngest daughter
to the slave youth (as his wife), so he sent away the Hettiya, and
the Princess with the slave youth.
As those three were going to the Hettiya's house, the Hettiya,
becoming hungry while on the way, gave money into the hand of the
Prince, and said, "With this money get three gills of rice, and with
these ten sallis (half farthings) get a sun-dried fish, and come back
and cook them." He gave money for it separately into the Prince's hand.
The Prince having bought three gills of rice with the money given
for it, and placed it on the hearth to boil, took the ten sallis and
went to the shops for the dried fish. When he looked at the dried
fish there was none to get for ten sallis.
As he was coming back bringing the ten sallis, a man was on the road,
having laid down a heap of dried fish. When the Prince came there
the man asked him, "Where, younger brother, are you going?"
The Prince said, "I came for a dried fish; I have ten sallis. There
being no dried fish to get for ten sallis I am going away."
Then the man said, "Give me the ten sallis. Take any dried fish
you want."
So the Prince having given the ten sallis to the trader, selected a
large dried fish, and putting it on his shoulder, as he was coming
near the river the dried fish was laughing. After laughing, it asked,
"Are you taking me in this manner to cook?"
The Prince replied, "Yes, to cook indeed."
The dried fish said, "Do not take me. You are going to die now. From
that I will deliver you. Put me into the river."
The Prince having placed the dried fish in the river, and come back
"simply" (that is, without it), made sauce and cooked the rice. When
he had finished, the Hettiya said, "Separate and give me the cooked
rice boiled from two gills." So the Prince separated the rice from two
gills and gave it. Then the Hettiya asked, "Where is the dried fish?"
The Prince said, "I could not get a dried fish for ten sallis; I walked
through the whole of the bazaar. I came back empty-handed ('simply')."
Afterwards, the Hettiya having eaten half the rice in silence, heaped
up the other half in the direction of the Princess (thus inviting her
to eat it). The Princess saying, "Go thou! Have I come to eat rice
out of the Hettiya's bowl?" [25] went to the place where the Prince
was eating, and ate rice from the Prince's plate.
Then the Hettiya said, "If it is wrong for thee to eat from my bowl,
how is it thou art eating from my slave's bowl?"
The Princess said, "Hettiya, shouldst thou any day say 'slave' again, I
will tell it at the hand of my father the King, and get thee quartered
and hung at the city gates." After that the Hettiya was silent.
The whole three having finished eating rice, went on board the vessel
that was to carry them along the river. While going along in the
vessel, the Hettiya said to the Prince, "Cut me a mouthful of betel
and areka-nut, and give me it."
The Princess said, "Now then, having already cut betel and areka-nut,
his food is done."
The Prince saying, "It is not wrong; I will cut and give it," cut
and gave it to the Hettiya.
Afterwards the Hettiya again said to the Prince, "Get a little water
and give me it."
The Princess saying, "Now then, your doing slave work is stopped,"
told the Prince not to give it.
The Prince said, "When there is thirst, how can one not give water? I
will give him a little."
While he was bending down over the side of the vessel to get the water,
the Hettiya raised him, and threw him into the river.
As the Prince fell into the river, the dried fish that he had
previously put in the river took him on its back, and having brought
him to the shore, left him there. The Hettiya and the Princess went
on in the ship to the Hettiya's house.
The Prince was in the sun, on a sandbank. Then, as a flower-mother
was coming to the river for water, she saw the Prince, and said,
"What is this, son, that you are in the sun? Come away and go with
me." Inviting him, and going to her house with him, she warmed some
water and made him bathe, and gave him food.
While he was there, the Prince told all at the hand of the
flower-mother. After telling it, when he said, "I must go again to
the Hettiya's house," the flower mother said, "O son, let him do what
he likes. Don't you go. Stop here."
The Prince replying, "I cannot stay without going, O flower-mother;
I will go there and come back to you," went there. After he had gone
to the Hettiya's house he found that men had collected together there,
and were saying that the Hettiya and the Princess were to be married
on such and such a day. He stayed listening to them, and went again
to the flower-mother's house.
After he returned, asking for four sallis at the hand of the
flower-mother he went to the potters' village, and giving them the
four sallis told them, "When I come to-morrow you must have ready
a kettle having three zig-zag lines round it and twelve spouts." So
saying, he came back to the flower-mother's house.
On the morning of the following day he walked to the potters' village,
and taking the kettle, came to the Hettiya's house. As he arrived,
men were dancing, and the King was looking on. At the time when they
were finishing dancing he got on the raised veranda, and looked
on. The dancing being ended he came out to the wedding hall. Then
the Princess saw him and laughed. At that moment the Hettiya trembled.
The Prince having gone there said, "Stop that. It is necessary for
me to dance a little." Then he began to tell them all from the very
beginning: "We were of such and such a city, the sons of the King
of such and such a name. We were two Princes, an elder brother and
a younger brother. Our mother was dead. A flower-mother gave us food
and clothing."
Having thus said a little of the story that he was relating, he danced,
and while dancing sang to the kettle that he held in his hand--
Possessing three bent lines, a dozen spouts as well,
Little kettle, hear this our trouble that befel. [26]
Then he said, "While living thus we said one day, 'Let us go and shoot
birds,' and elder brother and I went. Having walked till night-fall
we did not meet with a single one. While we were returning home,
as it was becoming night, there was a Horse-radish tree in front of
the palace of our father the King. In that Horse-radish tree was a
turtle-dove which elder brother shot; at the stroke it fell dead.
"Afterwards I asked at elder brother's hand regarding it, 'Elder
brother, to whom are we to give this?' Then elder brother said,
'There is no need to give it to our father the King; let us give
it to the flower-mother who gives us food and clothing.' So saying,
we took it home and gave it to the flower-mother."
Again he danced, and sang while dancing--
Possessing three bent lines, a dozen spouts as well,
Little kettle, hear this our trouble that befel.
"Our Puñci-Amma (step-mother, lit. 'little mother') after hearing this,
on the return of our father the King told him of it, and our father
the King appointed to behead us. Afterwards our flower-mother to
save the lives of us both told us to go away. Having cooked a bundle
of rice, and tied up a bag of it, placing gem-stones at the bottom
and the cooked rice above, she gave it into the hand of both of us,
and told us to go away somewhere before it became light. So we both
came away. Walking on and on, we came to a great forest, and both of
us sat down in the shade."
Then he danced again, and sang while dancing--
Possessing three bent lines, a dozen spouts as well,
Little kettle, hear this our trouble that befel.
After that, he told a further part of his tale, and then danced
again. Thus, in that way he related all the things that had occurred.
The King who had come to celebrate the wedding was the Prince's elder
brother. While the Prince was relating all these things the King wept.
Then the King asked at the hand of the Hettiya, "Is what he has said
regarding the gem-stones, and the taking him as a slave, true?" The
Hettiya replied, "It is true."
Then the King caused the Hettiya to be quartered, and hung at the
four gateways of the city.
After the King had caused the Prince and Princess to be married, and
had given that kingdom to the Prince, both the King and the Prince
went to their cities.
The elder brother who had eaten the right portion of the turtle-dove
shot by the Vaedda, at that very time obtained the sovereignty. The
younger brother having eaten the left portion, when seven years had
passed, on that day obtained the sovereignty.
So the Prince and Princess remained at their city.
North-western Province.
The notion that the persons who ate two birds, or the halves of one
bird or of a fruit, would become Kings, or a King and his minister,
is found throughout India in folk-tales.
In the Jataka stories No. 284 (vol. ii, p. 280), and No. 445 (vol. iv,
p. 24), two cocks were overheard to say that whoever ate one would
get a thousand pieces of money, and the person who ate the other
would become King, Chief Queen or Commander-in-Chief, and Treasurer
or King's favourite cleric. The second one was selected and eaten,
with the corresponding result.
In The Orientalist, vol. ii, p. 150, there is a story by Miss
S. J. Goonetilleke, in which a blind man, sitting under a tree, heard
a Rakshasa who was in the tree saying to others that if the fruit of
the tree were rubbed on the eyes of a blind man he would recover his
sight, and that a person who ate the fruit on the top of the tree
would become a King within seven days. The man regained his sight
in this way, and having also eaten the fruit was selected as King by
the royal elephant, which knelt before him. The man who had blinded
him married his Prime Minister's daughter; and ascertaining how the
King recovered his sight and obtained his position, he got his wife
to treat him in the same way and leave him under a tree, where he died.
In The Indian Antiquary, vol. xvii, p. 75, there is a tale of two
Princes who were ordered to be blinded because of a false charge made
by the Queen, their step-mother. They escaped, and killed a Chakwa
(Sheldrake) which they heard informing its mate that he who ate its
head would become a King, and he who ate the liver would be very happy
after twelve years' wanderings. The elder brother went for food to
a city, where the royal elephant threw a garland over his neck, and
he became King. The younger brother being unable to find him worked
for a potter, then travelled on and took the place of a woman's son
who was going to be offered to an Ogre, who had forced a King to give
him daily a cart-load of sweet cakes, a couple of goats, and a young
man. The Prince killed the Ogre while he was eating the cakes. The King
gave him his daughter in marriage, and half the kingdom. The elder
brother came to the wedding, and they recognised each other. When
they visited their father he sent the Queen into exile.
In the Tamil work, The Story of Madana Kama Raja (Natesa Sastri),
p. 125 ff., a Mango tree growing in a thick forest bore a magical
fruit once in one hundred years. A sage waited for it, and went to
bathe in order to purify himself before eating it. As two Princes
whose parents had been reduced to poverty, were passing, the younger
one picked up the fruit and placed it in their packet of rice. The
sage followed them, but they denied all knowledge of the fruit. He
informed them that the person who ate the outer part would become a
king, and that from the mouth of the person who ate the seed, gems
would drop whenever he laughed. The brothers divided the fruit in
this way, and a royal elephant coming in search of a new King placed a
garland on the neck of the elder one, and depositing him on its back
went off with him. The younger one, thinking he was carried off by
a wild elephant, left the wood, and was received at the house of a
dancing girl. One day when he laughed gems fell from his mouth, and
after getting many more, they gave him a purgative pill and secured
the magic stone. After other adventures he was united to his brother,
recovered the mango stone, and became a King himself.
In Wide-Awake Stories (Steel and Temple), p. 138 ff., Tales of the
Punjab (F. A. Steel), p. 129, two Princes ran away on account of their
step-mother's cruelty, and while resting under a tree heard a Maina
(Starling) and a Parrot telling each other that the two persons who ate
them would become a King and a Prime Minister. They shot the birds with
crossbows, and ate them. The younger one went back for the other's
whip, which was left at a spring, and was bitten and killed by a
snake. The elder was selected as King, by a royal elephant. A magician
found the dead Prince, drained the spring into his wife's small brass
pot, and the snakes being waterless gave back the Prince's life. After
stirring adventures, the younger Prince married a Prime Minister's
daughter, who went on a ship with him. There he was thrown overboard,
but caught a rope and got back to his wife's cabin unobserved. He
met his brother the King at last, and was made to relate his life
story. This he did in sections, on seven days, and at the end the
King claimed him as his brother, and he became Prime Minister.
In Indian Nights' Entertainment (Swynnerton), p. 276 ff., a step-mother
got two Princes exiled. At night while they were under a tree two birds
were heard predicting that those who ate them would become a King and
a Minister, so they shot and ate them. The whip and snake incident
are as above, the guilty snake being brought up by a cowry shell,
of which the magician had despatched four to the four quarters. The
snake breathed into the Prince's mouth and revived him. He had
wonderful adventures, and married a Princess, went on a ship with
her, was thrown overboard, and assisted a gardener. The Princess had
been sold at the palace, where the King, who was the elder brother,
wished to marry her. The younger brother went disguised as a woman,
and related his story by sections in three days, when the Princess
claimed him as her husband. His brother made him Chief Counsellor,
and at last he succeeded to his father's kingdom.
In Folk-Tales of Kashmir (Knowles), 2nd ed., p. 78, the persons who
ate the head and breast of a bird became Kings.
At p. 159, the King's elephant selected a person as King, the elephant
bowing down to him, and the royal hawk perching on his hand.
At p. 167 ff., two Princes who escaped their death sentence, which was
due to their step-mother's plotting, heard two birds say of two others
that they who ate them would become a King and Minister. They shot
and ate them. The whip and snake incident occurred, the latter being a
dragon. The elder brother was selected as King by the royal elephant
and hawk. A jogi emptied the spring and made the dragon restore the
Prince, who was captured by robbers, saved by the daughter of one,
went with her on board a ship, was pushed overboard, and was saved by
the girl. They landed at the city where the elder brother was reigning,
and he was made Minister, and eventually King when the elder brother
succeeded their father.
In Folk-Tales of Bengal (Day), p. 99, a royal elephant with a rich
howdah on its back selected a Prince as King, and took him to the city.
NO. 8
THE PRINCE AND THE PRINCESS
In a certain city there are a Prince and a Princess, it is
said. Because these two go together to the school the teacher said,
"You two came together to-day; on another day you must not do it
again."
When they were coming separately on that account, the Princess,
being in front, one day went to the well, and having bent down while
trying to drink water, her writing style fell into the well. Being
there alone the Princess was unable to get the writing style.
After the Prince came up she said, "Ane! My writing style fell into
the well; get it and give me it."
Then the Prince said, "I will get it and give you it if you will
swear that you will not marry another person."
The Princess said, "I will not marry another; I will only marry you
yourself." Having touched the Prince's body she swore it, and the
Prince having touched the body of the Princess also swore it. Then
he got and gave her the writing pin, and one of them went in front
and one went behind.
Those two learnt their letters excellently. Afterwards, both having
grown up, when they inquired about arranging the marriage for
the Prince he said, "You must bring me in marriage such and such
a Princess, of such and such a village. If not, I do not want a
different marriage."
Then the King said, "Do you want the kingdom, or do you want the
Princess?"
The Prince replied, "I do not want your kingdom at all; I want the
Princess."
Afterwards the King went and asked for the Princess. Then the father
of the Princess said, "I will give the Princess to the persons who
give me this well full of gold."
So the Prince filled it and gave it, and the Prince and Princess
having got married stopped many days at the Prince's house.
Then the King said to the Prince, "Because at first you said that
you did not want the kingdom, that you only wanted the Princess,
you shall not live at my house. Go where you want."
Then having gone to the Princess's house, after they had been living
there many days the father of the Princess said, "Taking a well of
gold, I sold the Princess. You shall not live at my house. Go where
you want."
So those two went away. As they were going the Princess went along
sewing a jacket. Having gone very far, after they sat down at a
travellers' shed near a city, the Princess gave the jacket that she
had sewn into the Prince's hand, and said, "Take this, and having
sold it at the bazaar bring something to eat."
The Prince having taken it to the bazaar, after he had told the bazaar
men to buy it they said, "We are unable to say a word about buying
this. It is so valuable that we have not got the means to purchase it."
The guards of the King of that country having been present looking on,
and having seen this, told the royal servants to bring the jacket to
the King. After they had brought it the King took it, and gave the
Prince two bags of money. The Prince left one and took one away.
The King having called his servants, ordered them, "Look at the place
where that Prince goes and stays, and come back." Well then, the
servants having gone and having seen that the Princess was stopping at
the travellers' shed, came running, and said at the hands of the King,
"There is a good-looking Princess at such and such a travellers' shed."
The Prince having left at the travellers' shed the bag of money which
he took, came for the other bag of money. While he was coming, the
King, taking a horse also, went to the travellers' shed by a different
road, and placing the Princess on horseback brought her to the palace.
Well then, when the Prince, taking the other bag of money went to the
travellers' shed the Princess was not there. He called and called;
she did not come. Afterwards, taking both bags of money he comes away
along the road.
The Princess, while she was looked after by the guards, having
seen from afar that the Prince was coming, said to the servants,
"I am thirsty," and told them to bring an orange quickly. After it
was brought and given to her, she opened the skin and wrote a letter
thus: "Give even both those bags of money, and buying two horses come
near the palace, and having tied up the two horses stay there without
sleeping. After the King has gone to sleep I shall descend down robes
tied together, and having come to you, when I mount a horse you mount
the other horse, and we will go off."
Having placed the letter inside the skin of the orange and shut it
up completely, so as to appear like a whole orange fruit, she threw
it behind the guards, in front of the approaching Prince. The Prince
thinking, because he was hungry, "I must eat this," picked it up,
and having gone into the shade of a Timbiri tree, sat down. When he
opened the skin of the orange, having seen that there was a letter
inside it he took it to the light, and read it aloud.
A Karumantaya (a Kinnara, a man of the lowest caste) who was in the
Timbiri tree heard all that was written in the letter. Well then,
the Prince having given the two bags of money and taken two horses,
and having come near the palace on the appointed day, tied the two
horses there. While he was there the Karumantaya also came, saying,
"Ane! I also must stop here at this resting place."
The Prince said, "Do not stay here. Should the King hear of it he
will drive us both away."
The Karumantaya replied, "Don't say so. I also am going to stop here
to-day," and stayed there. The Prince went to sleep; the Karumantaya
remained awake.
After the King had gone to sleep, the Princess, descending down some
robes, came there. When she was mounting a horse, the Karumantaya
mounted the other horse, and both of them went off together.
Having gone off, when the Princess looked after it became light, she
saw the Karumantaya. Afterwards she stopped the horse, and said to the
Karumantaya, "Get and give me a little water." The Karumantaya said,
"I will not; get it to drink yourself."
After the Princess had said it yet another time, the Karumantaya
dismounted from the back of the horse. When he had gone for water,
the Princess cut with her sword the throat of the horse on which the
Karumantaya came, and went off, making the horse bound along. The
Karumantaya having run and run a great distance, returned again
because he could not come up to her.
While the Princess was going on horseback, she came to a place where
seven Vaeddas were shooting with bows and arrows. Those seven persons
having seen the Princess coming, said to each other, "That Princess
who is coming is for me." The Princess having heard that saying,
stopped the horse and asked, "What are you saying?"
Then each of the seven said, "The Princess is for me, for me."
Afterwards the Princess said, "You seven persons shoot your arrows
together. I will marry the one whose arrow is picked up in front of
the others."
After that, they all seven having at one discharge shot their arrows,
while the seven persons were running to pick up the arrows the Princess
went off, making the horse bound along. Those seven persons having
run and run for a great distance, returned again because they could
not come up to her.
The Prince having awoke, when he looked the two horses were not there,
and the Princess was not there. So he walked away weeping and weeping.
Then, while the Princess was going near yet another city, putting
on Brahmana clothes she went to the school at that city, and there
having begged from a child a slate [27] and slate pencil, [27] she
wrote a name in Brahmana letters (Devanagari).
When she had given it to the children who were at the school, nobody,
including also the teacher, was able to read it. Then the teacher
took it to the King of that country, and showed him it. The King also
could not read it. So the King appointed her as a teacher, saying,
"From to-day the Brahmana must teach letters at the school."
Now, when the Brahmana had been teaching letters for a long time, men
told the King tales about her: "That is a woman indeed; no Brahmana."
Then the King having said, "Ha. It is good," told the servants,
"Inviting that Brahmana, go to my flower garden. If it be a woman,
she will pick many flowers and come away after putting them in her
waist pocket. If it be a Brahmana, he will pick one flower, and come
away turning it round and round near his eye."
That Brahmana had reared a parrot. The parrot heard from the roof of
the palace the words said by the King, and having gone to the school
said to the Brahmana, "The King says thus."
Next day, the Ministers having come to the school said, "Let us go to
the flower garden," and inviting the Brahmana, went there. Keeping in
mind the words said by the parrot, the Brahmana broke off one flower,
and holding it near the eye came away turning it round and round. The
King looking on said, "From to-day no one must say again that it is
a woman."
Again, in that manner, when she had been there a long time, people
began to say to the King, "No Brahmana; that is a woman indeed."
Then the King again said to the servants, "To-morrow, inviting the
Brahmana, go to my betel garden. If it be a woman, she will pluck many
betel leaves, and go away after putting them in her waist pocket. If
it be a Brahmana, he will pluck one betel leaf, and holding it near
his eye he will come away turning it round and round." Hearing that
also from the roof of the palace, the Brahmana's parrot having gone
to the Brahmana said, "The King says so and so."
Next day, the King's Ministers having gone to the school said, "Let us
go to the betel garden," and inviting the Brahmana, went there. Keeping
in mind the words said by the parrot, in that very manner breaking off
one betel leaf, and holding it near the eye, she came away turning it
round and round. The King, looking on at it also, said, "From to-day
I shall cut with this sword the one who says again that it is a woman."
After that, the Brahmana having carved a figure like the Princess,
gave it into the hands of the scholars, and said, "Taking this, go and
collect donations (samadama). After you have gone, inviting to come
with you him who on seeing this figure recognises it, return with him."
After the scholars, taking the figure, had gone to a city, the seven
Vaeddas saw it, and said, "Here is the Princess." Having drawn near
they asked, "How is it that she has gone away for such a long time
since she went from here that day? Where is she now?"
Then the scholars, saying, "She is now at our city; let us go there,"
inviting those seven persons, returned with them. After they had come
to the school the Brahmana said, "Cut them down, the seven persons."
After they had cut them down, the Brahmana said to the scholars,
"Take this again. Again inviting him whom you meet, return with him."
The scholars took it again, and while they were going to another city
met that Karumantaya. After he had said, "Ane! Amme! Where did you
go for such a long time? Where is she now?" the scholars replied,
"The Princess is now at our city; let us go there." After they had
come to the school the Brahmana said, "Cut down that one also."
After they had cut him down, she said to the scholars, "Take this
again." The scholars, taking it, and having gone to another city,
met with the Prince. Having come in front of it, the Prince fell
down weeping. The scholars said, "Do not weep. She is in our city;
let us go there."
After they had come to the school, the Brahmana arose quickly,
and having thrown off the Brahmana clothing, dressed herself in her
Princess's robes. Having prepared warm water and made the Prince bathe,
the Princess cooked ample food, and gave him to eat.
While she was doing this, the scholars having gone to the King said,
"It was a Princess who was there. After we went to a city to collect
donations, having met with the Princess's Prince he came back with
us. Both of them are now at the school."
After that, the King, having come to the school, and having asked
about those things from those two, built a house with a tiled roof,
and gave it and half the village to the Princess as a present.
North-western Province.
In Folk-Tales of Kashmir (Knowles), 2nd ed., p. 86, a Prince induced
three persons who were quarrelling over the ownership of some wonderful
articles left by their master, a Fakir, to run for three arrows
which he discharged in three directions. While they were absent,
he took three of the articles, and seating himself on a magic seat
which was one of the things, was conveyed away by it.
At p. 306 ff. of the same work, a Prince and Princess eloped when the
latter was about to be married to another Prince. While on their way,
she remembered some jewels which she required, and he returned for
them. In the meantime a robber had come up in the dark, and finding
her servant asleep had ridden off with the Princess, who thought he
was the Prince. When daylight came she found out her mistake, sent
him to a village for food, and then rode off alone; and calling at a
goldsmith's house for a drink, was detained and requested to marry
him. On her agreeing, he gave her gold ear-rings and her jewels,
with which she rode off, and stayed with a married couple, disguising
herself as a man. An elephant selected her as King. Then she got
an artist to paint her portrait, and she hung it in a thoroughfare
of the city, with a guard who seized all who recognised her. These
proved to be the robber, her servant, the goldsmith, and the two
who befriended her, and lastly the Prince. When the Prince saw her
portrait he fainted. He was first made Prime Minister, and afterwards
the Princess revealed herself to him, and he became King. The robber
and goldsmith were imprisoned, and the others rewarded. The resemblance
to the Sinhalese story is striking.
NO. 9
TAMARIND TIKKA
In a certain city there are seven elder brothers and younger brothers,
it is said. The seven have a younger sister, who cooks and gives food
to all seven.
While the seven brothers were cutting and cutting the sides of an
earthen ridge (nira) in the rice field, they saw seven women coming,
and said to them, "Where are you going?"
The seven women replied, "We are seven elder sisters and younger
sisters; and we are going to seek seven elder brothers and younger
brothers."
Then the seven brothers said, "We are seven elder brothers and younger
brothers. Stop with us."
The seven sisters said, "Ha."
The seven brothers having brought the seven sisters to their house,
leaving them there went again to the rice field, and chopped the
ridges. Those seven sisters having boiled seven pots of paddy and
spread it out to dry, said to their sister-in-law, "We are going for
firewood; you stay at home and look after these things."
After they had gone, that sister-in-law fell asleep. Then rain having
fallen, the seven large mats (magal) on which the paddy was spread
were washed away. When the seven sisters came, and saw that the mats
and paddy had been washed away, they seized that woman, and having
beaten her, drove her away from the house. So she went to the foot
of a Tamarind tree on the roadside, and stayed there.
When a long time had passed after she went there, all those seven
women bore girls. The woman under the Tamarind tree bore a boy.
As the eldest brother was going along the road on which was the tree,
the woman said, "Ane! Elder brother, look at my boy's horoscope." He
said, "I will not."
As the next brother was going she said, "Ane! Elder brother, look at
my boy's horoscope." He said, "I will not."
Thus, in that way all the six elder brothers refused.
Afterwards, when the youngest brother was going, on her saying,
"Ane! Elder brother, look at my boy's horoscope," he said, "Ha,"
and went.
When he looked at it, the astrologer said, "He is born such that
he will bring misfortune to those seven girls. The child will be so
lucky that he might obtain a kingdom."
Then the brother having returned, said to that woman, "That one has
been born such that he will eat thee. Knock his head on a stone or
root, and kill him."
The woman saying, "It is good. Let him eat me," reared him.
The child having become big, said at the hand of the woman, "Mother,
now then, oughtn't you to bring me an assistant (i.e. a wife)?" The
woman replied, "Ane! Son, who will give in marriage to us?"
Afterwards the youth went to a place where they were grinding
flour, and having put a little flour under his finger nail, came
back. "Mother, mother, quickly hold a basin," he said. The woman held
one. Then, when he put into the basin the little flour that was under
his finger nail, it filled it and ran over.
Having gone again to a place where they were expressing coconut oil,
in the same way he took a little coconut under his finger nail, and
came back. "Mother, mother, hold that quickly," he said. The woman
held it. That also was filled and overflowed.
Again, having gone to a place where they were warming Palm-tree
syrup, in the same way he took some under his finger nail, and came
back. "Mother, mother, hold that quickly," he said. That also was
filled and overflowed.
Afterwards the youngster said, "Mother, cook cakes with those things,
and give me them." So the woman having cooked them, tied up a pingo
(carrying-stick) load, and gave it to him.
The youngster, taking the pingo load, went to his eldest uncle
[28]. After he asked him for his daughter's hand in marriage, the uncle
said, "Be off! Be off! Who would give in marriage to Tamarind Tikka?"
From there he went to the next uncle, and asked him. That uncle spoke
in the same manner. All the six elder uncles spoke in the same manner.
Then he went to the youngest uncle, and when he asked him the uncle
said, "Put the packages of cakes there, then." (Intimating by this
that he accepted him as a son-in-law. He alone knew of the nature of
the boy's horoscope.)
Afterwards, having cooked and given Tamarind Tikka to eat, the uncle
said, "My buffalo cow has died, Tamarind Tikka. Let us go and bury it,
and return."
Tamarind Tikka said "Ha," and having gone to the place where the dead
buffalo was lying, said, "Uncle, shall I make that get up?" The uncle
said "Ha." So Tamarind Tikka went to the low bushes at the edge of
the jungle, and came back cutting a white stick. Then calling out,
"Into the cattle-fold, Buffalo cow! Into the cattle-fold!" he struck
the buffalo. Then the buffalo cow that had been dead got up, and came
running to the cattle-fold. By the calves from that buffalo cow the
cattle herd was increased.
One day, while the six uncles and Tamarind Tikka were watching cattle
in the field, the uncles said, "Tamarind Tikka, we will watch. You go
and eat, and come back." After he had gone home, the six uncles cut all
the throats [29] of his cattle. When he returned the six uncles said,
"Ane! Tamarind Tikka. Some men came, and having tied us all and thrown
us down in the dust, cut all the throats of your cattle. Not a thing
could we do." Tamarind Tikka said, "Ha. It is good."
As he was going away, having seen people burying a corpse he waited
while they were burying it, and after they had gone he dug out the
grave, and raised the dead body to the surface. Then lifting up the
body and taking it to a tank, he bathed it, dressed it in a cloth,
tied a handkerchief round its waist, tied a handkerchief on its head,
put a handkerchief over its shoulder, [30] and placing it on his
shoulder went away with it.
After nightfall, having gone to a village, Tamarind Tikka set the
body upright against a clump of plantain trees, and asked at a house,
"Ane! You must give us a resting-place to-night."
When he said this the men in the house replied, "There will be no
resting-place here. Go away, and ask at another house."
Then he said, "Ane! Don't say so. Our great-grandfather is coming
there."
Women were driving cattle out of that garden. Tamarind Tikka said to
them, "Ane! Our great-grandfather is coming there. His eyes cannot
see anything. Don't hit him, any one."
Then a woman at the raised terrace of the shop, having knocked down
a stump, when she was throwing it at the cattle the dead body was
hit, and fell down. At the blow Tamarind Tikka went running there,
and cried out, "Appe! Great-grandfather is dead."
The men came out of the house and said, "Tamarind Tikka, don't cry. We
will give you a quart measure of money."
"I don't want either a quart measure of money or two. Our
great-grandfather is dead," Tamarind Tikka said, and cried aloud.
Again the men said, "Appa! Tamarind Tikka, don't cry. We will give
you three quart measures of money."
Tamarind Tikka said, "I don't want either three or four. I want our
great-grandfather."
Again the men said, "Tamarind Tikka, don't cry. We will give you five
quart measures of money."
Tamarind Tikka said, "I don't want either five or six. Give me my
great-grandfather."
The men said, "Tamarind Tikka, don't cry. We will give you seven
quart measures of money."
Then Tamarind Tikka said, "Ha. It is good. Give me them. What of
that! Will our great-grandfather come to his senses again?"
Taking the seven quart measures of money, and returning to his village,
Tamarind Tikka spread a mat on the raised veranda of his house, and
having put the seven quart measures of money on it, was counting
it. The six uncles having come, said, "Whence, Tamarind Tikka,
this money?"
"O! Will people with cattle hides to sell become in want of money?" he
said.
After that, the six uncles having cut the throats of all the cattle
they had, and tied the skins into pingo loads, taking them to the
villages asked, "Will you buy cattle hides?"
The men said, "Go away. Go away. Who will give money for cattle hides?"
Then the uncles having come to their village, becoming angry with
Tamarind Tikka, spoke together, "We must kill him." So they went to
him and said, "Tamarind Tikka, let us go on a journey together." He
asked, "Where?" The six uncles said, "A daughter of ours has been
asked in marriage. On that account we must go to-day to eat betel at
the house of the people who have asked for her. Tamarind Tikka said
"Ha," and went with the uncles.
Having gone very far, they came to a foot-bridge made of a tree trunk
(edanda), and on seeing it the uncles spoke together, "Let us hang
Tamarind Tikka under this, and go away." So they put him in a sack,
and having hung it under the foot-bridge, went off.
While he was under it, as a washerman bringing a bundle of clothes was
going over the bridge, Tamarind Tikka said, "Appe! The lumbago is a
leetle better since I have been hanging here." Then the washerman said,
"Tamarind Tikka, I also have lumbago; hang me up a little."
Tamarind Tikka said, "If so, unfasten this sack." After the washerman
unfastened it, Tamarind Tikka came out, and having put him in the
sack, and again tied it in the same manner under the foot-bridge,
took his bundle of clothes, came to the rice field with it, and spread
the clothes out to dry.
As the six uncles were returning, they cut the fastenings of the sack
that hung under the bridge (thus letting it fall into the stream).
While coming along afterwards to the village, they saw Tamarind
Tikka in the rice field spreading clothes out, and asked, "Whence,
Tamarind Tikka, these clothes?"
Then he said, "O! Will people who have to be under foot-bridges become
in want of clothes?"
The six uncles said, "Hang us there also, Tamarind Tikka," and they
brought six sacks and gave them to him. So he put the six uncles into
the six sacks, and hung them under the foot-bridge, and afterwards
cut the fastenings of the sacks. Then the six uncles were carried
away down the river, and died in the sea.
The six women (their wives) ran away; their six girls, saying, "Our
fathers are going for clothes to wear. Let us go also," also ran away.
So the six uncles, and the six women, and the six girls all
died. Tamarind Tikka, and his wife, and uncle, and aunt, and mother,
these five remained.
North-western Province.
In the Jataka story No. 432 (vol. iii, p. 304), a similar incident
to the last one is related. A woman whom her son and his wife thought
they had burnt while asleep, frightened a robber when he came to the
cave in which she had taken refuge, and thus got his bundle containing
jewels. When she returned home next day with the jewels, and was asked
by her daughter-in-law where she got them, she informed her that all
who were burnt on a wooden pile at that cemetery received a similar
present. So she went there, and burnt herself.
In The Story of Madana Kama Raja (Natesa Sastri), p. 97 ff., a Prince
was requested to deliver letters to the departed relatives of all at
the palace of the King under whom he was employed, who twice before
had endeavoured to kill him by giving him apparently impossible
tasks. By the aid of the magical powers of his wives, he jumped into
a pit of fire with the letters, and was saved by Agni, the Fire God,
who sent him back next day out of the fire, with costly jewels and a
splendid dress. All the persons who were hoping to kill him decided
to follow his example, and were burnt up. The Prince then became the
ruler of the kingdom.
In The Indian Antiquary, vol. iii, p. 11, in a Bengal tale by
G. H. Damant, six men burnt a farmer's house. He loaded two bags of
the ashes on a bullock, and on the way met some men driving bullocks
laden with rupees, changed two of their bags for his own, met the six
men who burnt his house, and told them he got the money by selling the
ashes. They burnt their houses and were beaten by people for trying
to sell ashes. Then they went to the farmer's house, tied him, put
him in a sack, and threw him into a river. He was saved by a man who
was riding past, on his offering to cut grass for his horse without
pay. He rode off on the horse, overtook the six men, and informed them
that he found the horse in the river, where there were many more. They
persuaded him to throw them in, tied in sacks, and all were drowned.
In the same journal, vol. iv, p. 257, the incident is given as found
among the Santals. A man who was in a sack, about to be drowned,
induced another, a shepherd, to take his place. The man then took
possession of the shepherd's cows, and when those who thought they
had killed him heard from him that there were many more in the river,
they allowed themselves to be tied up and thrown in.
In vol. xviii, p. 120, in a South Indian story by Pandita Natesa
Sastri, a man who had cheated some persons was carried off, tied up in
a bag, to be burnt alive. While firewood was being fetched, he induced
a cow-watcher to take his place, and he himself drove off the 1,001
cows of which the man had charge. When his enemies returned to his
house after burning the watcher, they found him there to welcome them,
the cows being all around. He informed them that on going to Kailasa,
the residence of the God Siva, after being burnt, he met his father
and grandfather, who stated that his allotted time on earth had not
expired, and sent him back with the cows. The others decided to go
also, and were tied up and burnt.
A variant of the last incident is also found in West Africa, and is
given in Contes Soudanais (C. Monteil), p. 121. A sorceress captured
a youth, whom she wished to destroy enclosed in three goat skins,
and she set her daughter to watch the package while she dug a pit and
filled it with wood, which she set on fire. The girl heard the boy
apparently eating food inside, and questioned him about it. He said,
"I have better than that; I have some dainties." As she wanted some she
released him and was tied up in his place, while he escaped clothed
in her dress. The sorceress returned, and threw the bundle into the
fire. Although she heard a voice inside saying the boy had tied up
the girl in it, she believed it was only a trick of his.
A similar incident is related in another story in the same volume,
p. 164.
It also occurs in a folk-tale of the Southern Province which I
contributed to The Orientalist (vol. ii, p. 53). As other incidents
in that story resemble some in the tales given below, I give it in
full here.
I may add that however improbable the marriage of seven brothers
to seven sisters may appear, it has been nearly matched in recent
years in England. The Daily Mail of January 20, 1908, contained the
following words regarding an old lady who had just died:--"She was one
of seven members of her family who married seven sons and daughters
of a neighbouring farmer."
NO. 10
MATALANGE LOKU-APPU
Once upon a time there lived a man and a woman, whose son was a youth
named Matalange Loku-Appu.
One day the mother went to the river to fetch water, telling her son to
allow nothing whatever to enter the house in her absence. While she was
away a small lizard (hikanala) ran into the house. As it approached,
the boy called out to it to stop, but it took no notice of him, and
climbed up into the roof, whereupon Loku-Appu set fire to the roof
and burnt the house down. When his mother returned, and asked him
how the house came to be burnt, he informed her that he had done it
in driving the lizard out of the roof.
Afterwards the father came home, and on learning what had occurred set
off into the forest with his son to cut sticks, in order to build a new
house. While he cut the sticks he ordered Loku-Appu to collect them.
A river flowed through the forest, and Loku-Appu asked him where it
ran. "To your house," he replied. The son, taking this literally,
threw all the sticks into the river, so that it might transport them
home. When the father discovered that all the sticks were lost in
this way, he flew into a passion, tied the boy on a log, and set him
afloat in the river, saying, "Go thou also."
At a short distance down the river there was a sweet-potato garden. The
gardener saw the log and boy floating past, and rescued Loku-Appu. He
inquired the boy's name, and was told it was "Uprooter-of-Creepers,
Sweet-Potato-Eater." Nevertheless, he placed the boy in charge of
his garden.
After two or three days, the gardener returned to inspect his garden,
and found all the sweet potatoes pulled up and eaten. So he tied the
boy on the log again, and set him afloat once more.
Further down the river there was a plantain garden, the owner of
which saw Loku-Appu on the log, and drew him ashore. When asked
his name, Loku-Appu replied, "Eater-of-the-first-Comb-of-Plantains,
Crusher-of-young-Plantain-Shoots." The man gave him charge of the
garden.
In a few days, the man came to see how his garden progressed, and
found everything broken down and eaten. On this, he at once dismissed
Loku-Appu.
Having nothing to live upon, Loku-Appu now began to borrow from some
tom-tom beaters. After a few months, these men, finding that he did not
repay them, called on him to make him come to a settlement. Loku-Appu
saw them at a distance, and guessing their errand, put a young girl
into the corn store-room, and began to trim a club with his knife.
When the creditors arrived he requested them to be seated. Soon
afterwards he fetched up an old woman who lived in the house, gave
her a smart blow with the club, and put her also into the corn-store.
After a few minutes, he called for betel to be brought, and the little
girl came out with it. At this, the tom-tom beaters were greatly
astonished, and made inquiries regarding the miracle, for such they
thought it. Loku-Appu told them that the virtue lay in the club,
with which all old women could be converted into young girls.
When they heard this, they became exceedingly anxious to possess the
wonderful club, but Loku-Appu refused to part with it on any terms. At
last, finding persuasion useless, the tom-tom beaters took it from
him by force, and went straight home with it.
There they called up part of the old women of their village, and after
beating them well with the club, put them into the corn store-rooms. To
give the charm time to work they waited three days. Then they went
to examine the old women, expecting to find them become young again;
but all were dead.
Full of anger, they went to Loku-Appu to tell him that he had deceived
them, and that the women were all dead. While they were still at a
distance, Loku-Appu cried out, "Alas, alas! They have taken hold of
the wrong end of the stick!" When they came near he explained to them
the blunder they had made. As they took the stick from him by force
he was not responsible for it.
This time he cut a mark on the right end of the stick to be used,
telling the tom-tom beaters that if the wrong end were used the women
would certainly die, while the proper end would as certainly change
them into young girls.
When the tom-tom beaters returned to their village they fetched up
all the rest of the old women, and after belabouring them well with
the proper end of the club, put them also into the corn-stores. Yet
after three days they found that the result was just the same as at
first; all the women were dead.
Determined to revenge themselves on Loku-Appu, they came to his house,
tied him up in a sack, and set off to the river with him, intending to
drown him. On the way, they heard the beating of tom-toms, whereupon
they set the sack down on the road, and went to see what it was about.
During their absence, a Muhammadan trader in cloth who was coming
along the road, found the sack, and heard a voice proceeding from it:
"Alas! What a trouble this is that has come upon me! How can I govern
a kingdom when I cannot either read or write?"
The trader immediately untied the sack, and questioned Loku-Appu as
to how he came there. Loku-Appu explained to the trader that he was
about to be made a king, but not possessing the requisite amount of
knowledge for such a high position he had refused the dignity; and
now he was being carried off in this way to be put on the throne. "By
force they are going to make me king," he said.
The trader remarked to him, "It will be a great favour if you will
let them do it to me instead"; and eventually they changed places,
Loku-Appu tying the trader in the sack, and he himself taking the
man's clothes and bundle of cloth. Loku-Appu then hid himself.
In a short time the tom-tom beaters came back, carried away the sack
with the would-be king, and threw it into the river.
As they were returning past a part of the river, they saw, to their
intense surprise, Loku-Appu washing clothes in it. They came to him
and said, "What is this, Loku-Appu? Where have you come from? Where
did you get all this cloth?" He replied, "These are the things which
I found in the river bottom when you threw me in with the sack. As
they are rather muddy I am cleaning them."
The tom-tom beaters said that they would be greatly obliged if he
would put them in the way of getting such treasures, so he requested
them to bring sacks like that in which he had been tied.
They soon came back with the sacks, were tied up in them, and were
thrown into the river by Loku-Appu.
Then Loku-Appu went to the tom-tom beaters' village, and took
possession of their lands and houses.
Some of the incidents of this story are found in No. 58 also.