Before going out hunting the Korwas tell each other hunting tales,
and they think that the effect of doing this is to bring them success
in the chase. A specimen of one of these tales is as follows: There
were seven brothers and they went out hunting. The youngest brother's
name was Chilhra. They had a beat, and four of them lay in ambush
with their bows and arrows. A deer came past Chilhra and he shot
an arrow at it, but missed. Then all the brothers were very angry
with Chilhra and they said to him, "We have been wandering about
hungry for the whole day, and you have let our prey escape." Then
the brothers got a lot of mahul [613] fibre and twisted it into rope,
and from the rope they wove a bag. And they forced Chilhra into this
bag, and tied up the mouth and threw it into the river where there
was a whirlpool. Then they went home. Now Chilhra's bag was spinning
round and round in the whirlpool when suddenly a sambhar stag came
out of the forest and walked down to the river to drink opposite the
pool. Chilhra cried out to the sambhar to pull his bag ashore and
save him. The sambhar took pity on him, and seizing the bag in his
teeth pulled it out of the water on to the bank. Chilhra then asked
the sambhar after he had quenched his thirst to free him from the
bag. The sambhar drank and then came and bit through the mahul ropes
till Chilhra could get out. He then proposed to the sambhar to try
and get into the bag to see if it would hold him. The sambhar agreed,
but no sooner had he got inside than Chilhra tied up the bag, threw
it over his shoulder and went home. When the brothers saw him they
were greatly astonished, and asked him how he had got out of the bag
and caught a sambhar, and Chilhra told them. Then they killed and ate
the sambhar. Then all the brothers said to Chilhra that he should tie
them up in bags as he had been tied and throw them into the river,
so that they might each catch and bring home a sambhar. So they made
six bags and went to the river, and Chilhra tied them up securely and
threw them into the river, when they were all quickly drowned. But
Chilhra went home and lived happily ever afterwards.
In this story we observe the low standard of moral feeling noticeable
among many primitive races, in the fact that the ingratitude displayed
by Chilhra in deceiving and killing the sambhar who had saved his life
conveys no shock to the moral sense of the Korwas. If the episode had
been considered discreditable to the hero Chilhra, it would not have
found a place in the tale.
The following is another folk-tale of the characteristic type of
fairy story found all over the world. This as well as the last has
been furnished by Mr. Narbad Dhanu Sao, Assistant Manager, Uprora:
A certain rich man, a banker and moneylender (Sahu), had twelve
sons. He got them all married and they went out on a journey to
trade. There came a holy mendicant to the house of the rich man and
asked for alms. The banker was giving him alms, but the saint said
he would only take them from his son or son's wife. As his sons were
away the rich man called his daughter-in-law, and she began to give
alms to the saint. But he caught her up and carried her off. Then
her father-in-law went to search for her, saying that he would not
return until he had found her. He came to the saint's house upon a
mountain and said to him, 'Why did you carry off my son's wife?' The
saint said to him, 'What can you do?' and turned him into stone by
waving his hand. Then all the other brothers went in turn to search
for her down to the youngest, and all were turned into stone. At last
the youngest brother set out to search but he did not go to the saint,
but travelled across the sea and sat under a tree on the other side. In
that tree was the nest with young of the Raigidan and Jatagidan [614]
birds. A snake was climbing up the tree to eat the nestlings, and the
youngest brother saw the snake and killed it. When the parent birds
returned the young birds said, "We will not eat or drink till you
have rewarded this boy who killed the snake which was climbing the
tree to devour us." Then the parent birds said to the boy, 'Ask of
us whatever you will and we will give it to you.' And the boy said,'
I want only a gold parrot in a gold cage.' Then the parent birds said,
"You have asked nothing of us, ask for something more; but if you
will accept only a gold parrot in a gold cage wait here a little
and we will fly across the sea and get it for you." So they brought
the parrot and cage, and the youngest brother took them and went
home. Immediately the saint came to him and asked him for the gold
parrot and cage because the saint's soul was in that parrot. Then the
youngest brother told him to dance and he would give him the parrot;
and the saint danced, and his legs and arms were broken one after the
other, as often as he asked for the parrot and cage. Then the youngest
brother buried the saint's body and went to his house and passed his
hands before all the stone images and they all came to life again.