Corresponding to this English proverb, there is one in Tamil--Ahambha
vam alai alikkum--"Self-pride brings destruction;" and the following
story is related by the common folk to illustrate it.
In a certain village there lived ten cloth merchants, who always
went about together. Once upon a time they had travelled far afield,
and were returning home with a great deal of money which they had
obtained by selling their wares. Now there happened to be a dense
forest near their village, and this they reached early one morning. In
it there lived three notorious robbers, of whose existence the traders
had never heard, and while they were still in the middle of it, the
robbers stood before them, with swords and cudgels in their hands,
and ordered them to lay down all they had. The traders had no weapons
with them, and so, though they were many more in number, they had
to submit themselves to the robbers, who took away everything from
them, even the very clothes they wore, and gave to each only a small
loin-cloth (langoti), a span in breadth and a cubit in length.
The idea that they had conquered ten men, and plundered all their
property, now took possession of the robbers' minds. They seated
themselves like three monarchs before the men they had plundered, and
ordered them to dance to them before returning home. The merchants now
mourned their fate. They had lost all they had, except their chief
essential, the langoti, and still the robbers were not satisfied,
but ordered them to dance.
There was, among the ten merchants, one who was very intelligent. He
pondered over the calamity that had come upon him and his friends,
the dance they would have to perform, and the magnificent manner in
which the three robbers had seated themselves on the grass. At the
same time he observed that these last had placed their weapons on
the ground, in the assurance of having thoroughly cowed the traders,
who were now commencing to dance. So he took the lead in the dance,
and, as a song is always sung by the leader on such occasions, to
which the rest keep time with hands and feet, he thus began to sing:--
Namanum puli per,
Talanum tiru per:
Savana talanai
Tiruvanan suttinan,
Savana talan midi
Ta tai tom tadingana.
"We are puli men,
They are tiru men:
If one sa man,
Surrounds tiru men.
Sa man remains.
Ta, tai, tom, tadingana."
The robbers were all uneducated, and thought that the leader was
merely singing a song as usual. So it was in one sense; for the leader
commenced from a distance, and had sung the song over twice, before
he and his companions commenced to approach the robbers. They had
understood his meaning, which, however, even to the best educated,
unless trained to the technical expressions of trade, would have
remained a riddle.
When two traders discuss the price of an article in the presence of
a purchaser, they use an enigmatic form of language.
"What is the price of this cloth?" one trader will ask another.
"Puli rupees," another will reply, meaning "ten rupees."
Thus, there is no possibility of the purchaser knowing what is meant
unless he be acquainted with trade technicalities. [79] By the rules of
this secret language tiru means "three," puli means "ten," and savana
(or shortly sa) means "one." So the leader by his song meant to hint
to his fellow-traders that they were ten men, the robbers only three,
that if three pounced upon each of the robbers, nine of them could hold
them down, while the remaining one bound the robbers' hands and feet.
The three thieves, glorying in their victory, and little understanding
the meaning of the song and the intentions of the dancers, were proudly
seated chewing betel and tambak (tobacco). Meanwhile the song was
sung a third time. Ta tai tom had left the lips of the singer; and,
before tadingana was out of them, the traders separated into parties
of three, and each party pounced upon a thief. The remaining one--the
leader himself, for to him the other nine left the conclusion--tore
up into long narrow strips a large piece of cloth, six cubits long,
and tied the hands and feet of the robbers. These were entirely
humbled now, and rolled on the ground like three bags of rice!
The ten traders now took back all their property, and armed themselves
with the swords and cudgels of their enemies; and when they reached
their village, they often amused their friends and relatives by
relating their adventure. [80]