Thereupon Sokka says, "Putting on a black cloth and a black jacket,
take two handfuls of branches, and without speaking having gone in
front of him, please wave them."
Having said it and come running back to the Hettirala, he said,
"Hettiralahami, there is no means of doing anything in that
way. Madness having seized grandmother she is dancing, [after] putting
on a black cloth and a black jacket, and breaking two handfuls of
branches."
When the Hettirala was asking at the hand of Sokka, "What shall
I do for it?" Sokka said, "Breaking two handfuls of branches, and
having gone without even speaking, please strike them on the head
of grandmother."
Thereupon the Hettirala, having gone in that very way, without speaking
began to beat her. The grandmother also began to beat the Hettirala. In
this way constantly for half a day they beat each other. Afterwards
having recovered their reason, when he learnt, while they were
speaking, that it was a work of Sokka's, he thought of injuring him.
On the following day after that, he wrote a letter to the Hettirala's
brother-in-law: "In some way or other please kill the person who
brings this letter." Having said, "Go and give this letter, and bring
a reply from brother-in-law," he gave it into Sokka's hand.
Sokka, taking the letter, went to a travellers' shed on the road. While
he was there yet [another] man came there. Having broken open this
letter and shown it to the man, he asked, "What things are in this
letter?"
The man, having looked at the letter, said, "'The person who brings
this letter has caused a loss to me of three or four thousand
pounds.' Because of it, it is said [that he is] to kill him."
Thereupon Sokka, having thrown the letter away, went to a house,
and asking for pen and ink and having come back, told that man and
caused him to write the [following] letter:--"The person who brings
this letter has been of great assistance to me. Because of it, having
given to him your daughter [in marriage], give him a half share of
your landed property." Having taken it and gone, he gave it.
Thereupon the Hettirala's brother-in-law having looked at the letter
and having been pleased, married to him and gave him his eldest
daughter; [244] and having given him a half share of his money, and
told him to go again to the place where this Hettiya is, sent him away.
Well then, the Prince whom the Hettiya caught, taking his Hetti wife,
went away to the district where the Minister-Prince is.
Western Province.
In the Aventures du Gourou Paramarta (Dubois), p. 312, while the
Guru and his foolish disciples were on a journey, the Guru being
on horseback, the branch of a tree caught his turban, and it fell
down. Thinking his disciples would pick it up he said nothing at the
time. As he had previously told them to do nothing without orders,
however, they left it. When he afterwards asked for it and found
it was not brought, he scolded them, and sent one to fetch it, at
the same time giving them orders to pick up everything that fell
from the horse. While the disciple was returning with the turban he
accordingly collected and stored in it the horse's droppings that
he found on the road, and handed over the bundle to his master. The
Guru made them wash the turban, and told them when they grumbled at
being reprimanded for obeying his orders, "There are articles that
are worthy of being picked up, and others that are unworthy of it."
In Folk-Tales of Kashmir (Knowles), 2nd ed., p. 81, two brothers who
had run away from home came to a place where the road bifurcated,
and found there an inscription on a stone, which contained a warning
that one of the roads should be avoided. The adventurous elder brother
went on this road and was robbed by a witch; the younger one selected
the other, and after being wrecked became a King.
In The Orientalist, vol. i, p. 131 ff., Mr. W. Goonetilleke gave "The
Story of Hokka," in which the man who was sent in advance to announce
the coming of the Gamarala, told the daughter that he could take only
paddy dust. He left in anger on the following morning, and sent Hokka
to let his wife know of his return. Hokka advised her to meet her
husband clothed in rags and sitting on an edanda, or foot-bridge. In
the dusk, Hokka, who was in front, kicked her off, calling her "Bitch,"
and she fell into the stream and was drowned, the Gamarala thinking it
was a dog. The Gamarala had previously mutilated Hokka's elder brother,
as related in No. 195, and Hokka was determined to have his revenge.
The portion omitted on p. 290 will be found at the end of the
Additional Notes, by those who wish to see how the villager treats
such matters.