In a city a Brahmana has a small piece of ground; only that belongs
to him. He sold that place for three masuran. "Now then, I shall go
and earn a living. You remain [at home], getting a livelihood to the
extent you can," he said to his wife.
When the Brahmana was going along a path, yet [another] Brahmana was
going in front. From the Brahmana who is going in front this Brahmana
asks, "Emba! Brahmana, will you say a word [of advice] to me?"
"If you will give me a masurama I will say it," he said. This one said,
"I will give it."
After he gave it, he says, "When you have gone to a country don't
require honour." Having said it, the two persons go away [together].
When they had been going a considerable distance, this Brahmana asked,
"Will you still say a word [of advice] to me?"
"If you will give me yet a masurama I will say it," he said. "I will
give it," he said.
After he gave it, he said, "Don't do anything without
investigation." He goes on in silence.
When they had gone still a considerable distance, this one spoke,
"Emba! Brahmana." "What is it?" he asked. "Will you say yet a word
[of advice] to me?" he asked.
"Then will you give me still a masurama?" he said. Having said,
"I will give it," he gave him one masurama.
"To one's own wife don't tell a secret."
The Brahmana [whom he had met], turning to go along a different path,
asked at the hand of this one, "Are there still masuran in your hand?"
Then this one said, "I sold a plot of ground, and brought three
masuran. For even my expenses there is no other in my hand."
Having said, "If so, I will say a word without payment (nikan);
don't tell lies to Kings," he went away.
Thereupon this one being weakened by hunger, at the time when he
was going on, a nobleman (sitanan kenek) of a city near there having
died and there being no one to bury him, they gave notice by beat of
tom-toms that they will give five hundred masuran to a person who can
[do it].
This destitute Brahmana asked the tom-tom beater, "What is that
tom-tom beating for?"
The tom-tom beater says, "A man of this country has died and there is
no one to bury him. Because of it I am beating the notice tom-tom,"
he said.
This Brahmana thought, "'When one has gone to a country do not require
honours,' he said." Having thought, "Because it is so I must bury
this nobleman," this one said, "I can," and went.
Thereupon this dead nobleman's son says to the Brahmana, "Thou
having quite alone buried this dead body, come [to me]; I will give
thy wages."
This one having said, "It is good," and taken away the corpse,
and cut the grave, thinks, "A sooth-saying Brahmana said to-day,
'Without investigation don't do a thing.'" Having said this he
unfastened the cloth round the waist of this dead nobleman, and looked
at the body. There was a belt. He unfastened it and looked [at it];
the belt was full of masuran. Having taken them he buried the corpse
and came to the nobleman's house. Well then, the nobleman's son gave
the Brahmana five hundred masuran.
This one having taken them, came near a goldsmith, and causing him to
make for his wife the things that she needed, he went to the Brahmana's
village. Having gone he spoke to his wife and gave her these articles.
After he gave them this woman asks the Brahmana, "Whence did you
bring these?" in order that he should say the manner in which he
brought them.
This one thought, "Yet [another] Brahmana having taken one masurama
from me said, 'To one's own wife don't tell a secret,' didn't
he?" Thinking this, not telling her the way in which he brought
them, he said, "Having become thirsty when I was coming home, when I
looked about there was not a place to drink at. Having drunk a great
quantity of Euphorbia milk [115] because the thirst was excessive, I
was lying down upon a rock. Then the rock having split, masuran were
thrown out. Collecting as many as I could, I got these things made,"
he said to his wife.
As soon as he said it (kiwa wahama), this woman having gone running
told it in this manner to a great number of women besides. Thereupon
the women having come running to their houses said it to their
husbands. Those persons, about twenty-five, taking cooking pots,
went to drink Euphorbia milk. Out of the persons who drank it a
portion died; the other persons [after] vomiting came back.
Having said to this Brahmana and his wife, "You told our men to drink
Euphorbia milk, and caused them to die," those women instituted a
law-suit before a King.
Thereupon the King caused both parties to be brought. The King asks
the Brahmana, "How did this occur?"
The Brahmana says, "Your Majesty (Devayan wahanse), having given
three masuran, I asked for and got three words [of advice] from a
Brahmana. 'Having gone to a country don't require honours,' he said;
'Without investigation don't do a thing,' he said; 'To one's own wife
don't tell a secret,' he said; thereupon, the masuran being finished,
he said without masuran, 'Don't tell lies to Kings.'"
He then repeated to the King the true story (already given) of his
adventures and actions, which I omit; and he ended by saying "On
account of [the other Brahmana's] saying, 'Don't tell lies to Kings,'
I told you the fact."
The King having investigated the law-suit, set free the Brahmana and
the Brahmana's wife.
Tom-tom Beater. North-western Province.
With this may be compared the advice given to the Prince in the story
No. 250 in this volume.
In Indian Nights' Entertainment (Swynnerton), p. 213 ff., a poor
weaver who went away to improve his fortunes after borrowing forty
rupees, met with a man who was silent until paid twenty rupees,
when he said, "Friend, when four men give you [the same] advice,
take it." When he gave the man his remaining twenty rupees, and said,
"Speak again," the man warned him not to tell his wife what happened to
him. After this, the weaver met with four men sitting round a corpse,
and consented to carry it to the adjoining river for them, and throw
it in. He found diamonds tied round its waist, appropriated them,
returned home, repaid his loan, and lived in luxury. The village
headmen wished to know how the weaver became rich, and the man's wife
pestered him about it until he stated that while on his travels he
was told to drink half a pint of mustard oil early in the morning,
and he would then see hidden treasure. The headman's wife being told
this by her, gave her husband and six children the dose at night,
and in the morning they were all dead. When the King held an inquiry
she charged the weaver's wife with advising her to do it; but the
latter totally denied it, and the headman's wife was hanged.
In Folk-Tales of Kashmir (Knowles), 2nd ed., p. 32, a Brahmana's wife
sold to a Prince for a lakh of rupees four pieces of advice written by
her husband, and the King banished the Prince for his foolishness in
wasting the money thus. The advice was that a person when travelling
must be careful at a strange place, and keep awake, (2) a man in
need must test his friends, (3) a man who visits a married sister
in good style will be well received, but if poor will be disowned,
(4) a man must do his own work well. The Prince was saved from murder
by keeping awake at night in his lodgings; was nearly executed when
he visited his brother-in-law as a poor Yogi; rid a Princess of two
snakes which issued from her nostrils, and was appointed her father's
successor; was then received with humility by his brother-in-law,
and cured his father's blindness by laying his hands on his eyes.
At p. 332, four exiled Princes agreed to keep watch at night over
the corpse of a great merchant; the reward was to be four thousand
rupees. They had adventures with the corpse and demons.
In Folklore of the Santal Parganas (collected by Rev. Dr. Bodding),
p. 53, a Prince paid a man his only three gold coins for three pieces
of advice, and the man gave him a fourth free of charge. The first
was not to sit without moving the stool or mat offered; the second,
not to bathe where others bathed; the third, to act according to the
opinion of the majority; and, lastly, to restrain his anger, hear an
explanation, and weigh it well before acting. The first saved him from
being dropped into a well; the second saved his purse when left behind
on bathing; the third obtained for him a roll of coin out of the waist
cloth of a corpse which he threw into a ravine; and on returning home
at night, when he found a pair of slippers and a sword outside his
wife's door, inquiry showed that only her sister was with her.