PART I

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.

In The Indian Antiquary, vol. iii, p. 11, in a Bengal story, by Mr. G. H. Damant, some men who had been cheated by a farmer, called at his house regarding the matter. He offered them food, and when they sat down to the meal struck his wife with his bullock goad, and said, "Be changed into a girl, and bring in the curry." She went out, and sent back their little daughter with the food. He then sold the men the magic stick for one hundred and fifty rupees, telling them that if they beat their wives well with it they would all recover their youth. They acted accordingly, and beat them so thoroughly that the wives were all killed. Then they returned and burnt the farmer's house down, as noted at the end of the last story, where the later incidents are given.

In The Indian Antiquary, vol. xviii, p. 120, there is a South Indian story by Pandita Natesa Sastri, in which, when three persons who had been cheated by a man came to interview him regarding the frauds, they were welcomed by him. According to arrangement, he beat his wife, who was dressed as an old woman, with a pestle and put her inside the house, explaining to his guests that he had only done it to make her young again. Soon afterwards she reappeared as a young woman. He lent them the magic pestle for a week, but by its use they only killed their relatives. Then they returned in order to square up accounts with him, tied him in a bag, and carried him up a mountain, intending to burn him alive. When they went for the firewood, a cow-herd came up, learnt from him that he was about to be forcibly married to a girl, took his place, and was burnt, the impostor himself driving off the 1,001 cows which the man was watching. When the three cheated persons returned and learnt that he had been sent back from Kailasa with the cattle, as his time on earth had not expired, two of them got him to burn them in a similar way.

NO. 11

THE WHITE TURTLE

At a village there are an elder sister and a younger sister, two persons. The two are going away, it is said.

While going, they saw two bulls going along. Then the cattle asked, "Where are you going?"

"We are going to a country where they give to eat and to wear" (meaning that they were in search of husbands).

"Are we good enough for you?" [31] the cattle asked.

"What do you eat?" they asked.

"Having been put in those chenas we eat paddy and jungle vegetables."

Saying, "We don't want you," the two women go on.

As they were going, they met with two jackal-dogs. "Where are you going?" they asked the two women.

"We are going to a country where they give to eat and to wear," they said.

"Are we good enough for you?" they asked.

"What do you eat?" they asked.

"We eat a few fruits and crabs," the two jackals said. "What do you eat?"

"We eat dried-fish fry," they said. Saying, "We do not want two jackals," the two women still go on.

While they were going, an elder brother and a younger brother were ploughing. They asked the two women, "Where are you going?"

"We are going to a country where they give to eat and to wear," they said.

"Are we good enough for you?" they asked.

The two women asked, "What do you eat?"

"We eat dry-fish fry," they said.

"Then both parties eat it," they said. "It is good."

"If so, it is good. Go to our house," the men said. [32]

Afterwards those two men, having given the two keys of their houses into the hands of the elder sister and the younger sister, said, "The cooking things are in such a place; go there, and having opened the doors cook until we come."

Then the two women went to the houses, and the elder sister opened the door of the elder brother's house and cooked; and the younger sister opened the door of the younger brother's house and cooked. Afterwards the two men came home, and having eaten, stopped there [with the sisters, as their husbands].

After many days had passed, the two sisters bore two girls. The younger sister had many things at her house; the elder sister had none. On account of that, the elder sister through ill-feeling thought, "I must kill younger sister."

One day, the two sisters having cooked rice, while they were taking it to the rice field the younger sister went in front, and the elder sister went behind. On the way, they came near the river. Then the elder sister said, "Younger sister, didst thou never bathe? The skin on thy back is dirty. Take off that necklace and the clothes on thy body, and lay them down, and let us bathe and then go."

They put down the two mat boxes of cooked rice, and having descended into the river, she called, while bathing, to her sister, "Younger sister, come here for me to rub thy back." While rubbing she threw her into the middle of the river. Then she took the two boxes of cooked rice and went to the rice field. The younger sister died in the river.

After the elder sister went to the rice field, the younger brother asked at the hand of the elder sister, "Why has no one come from our house?"

Then the elder sister said, "Ando! Catch her coming! [33] Isn't she playing [illicit] games at home?" Having given the two boxes of rice to the elder brother and the younger brother, that woman returned home.

Afterwards that younger sister's girl asked, "Loku-Amma, [34] where is our mother?"

Then the woman said, "Ando! Catch her coming! When I came she was still stopping in the rice field."

After it became night, the elder brother and the younger brother having come home, the younger brother asked, "Girl, where is thy mother?"

Then the girl said, "At noon she took cooked rice to the rice field with Loku-Amma; she has not come yet."

The younger brother said, "Where? She did not go to the rice field."

Then the girl said, "At the time when I asked at the hand of Loku-Amma, 'Where is our mother?' she said, 'She is at the rice field.'"

Afterwards the elder sister, calling the elder brother and the younger brother, both of them [to be her husbands], took her sister's goods, and remained there with them. From the next day, having cooked she gave the rice into the hands of the two girls to take to the rice field.

After the girls had gone near the river for two or three days, they saw one day a White Turtle in it, and approached and tried to catch it. When the elder sister's girl went to catch it, it went to the middle of the river; when the younger sister's girl went, it came to the bank, and rubbed itself over the whole of her body.

After the elder sister's girl had gone home, she told the elder sister of it: "Mother, there is a White Turtle in the river. When that girl goes it comes to her; when I go it swims far away," she said.

That elder sister said, "Ha. It is good. I shall eat it," and lay down.

The younger sister's girl hearing it, went near the river, and said, "Mother, she must eat you, says Loku-Amma."

Then the White Turtle said, "Ha. It is good, daughter. Let her eat. After she has cooked she will give you, also, a little gravy, and a bone. Drink the gravy, and take the bone to the cattle-fold, and having said, 'If it be true that you are our mother, may you be created a Mango tree,' throw it down."

Afterwards, when those two men came home, having seen that the woman was lying down, "What are you lying down for?" they asked.

Then the woman said, "It is in my mind to eat the White Turtle that is in the river." So the men went to the river, and having caught the White Turtle, and brought it home, and cooked it, gave it to the woman. Then the woman got up and ate it.

She gave the girl a little gravy, and a bone. The girl having drunk the gravy, took the bone to the cattle-fold, and saying, "If it be true that you are our mother, may you be created a Mango tree," threw down the bone.

After that, a Mango tree being created, in a day or two grew large and bore fruit. As the two girls were going near the Mango tree they saw that there were Mangoes on it, and went close to it. When the elder sister's girl went to pluck the Mango fruits, the branches rose up; when the younger sister's girl went to pluck them, the branches bent down, and spread over her body and head. Well then, after that girl had plucked and eaten as many as she wanted, the branches rose again.

That also the elder sister's girl, having come home, told her: "Mother, there are fruits on the Mango tree at the cattle-fold. When I try to pluck them the branches rise; when that girl tries to pluck them the branches rub the ground."

The woman said, "Ha. It is good. I will split that and warm it in the fire."

After hearing that also, that girl, having gone to the Mango tree said, "Mother, having split you she must warm you in the fire, Loku-Amma says."

Then the Mango tree said, "Ha. It is good, daughter. Let her split. A splinter having fallen will remain here. Take it, and having said, 'If it be true that you are our mother, may you be created a Kaekiri creeper,' put it down at the back of the house."

Afterwards, when the elder sister's two men came, having seen that she was lying down, "What are you lying down for to-day also?" they asked.

Then the woman said, "Having split the Mango tree at the cattle-fold, it is in my mind to have a few splinters warmed for me in the fire." So the two men having gone to the cattle-fold, and having cut and split up the Mango tree, and brought a few splinters home, put them in the fire and fanned it. After that, the woman got up, and warmed herself at the fire.

Then that girl went to the place where the Mango tree was, and when she looked a splinter was there. Taking it, she came to the back of the house, and having said, "If it be true that you are our mother, may you be created a Kaekiri creeper," she put it down. In a day or two a Kaekiri creeper was created there, and bore fruits.

On going there, the younger sister's girl said, "There is fruit," and having plucked and eaten as many as she wanted, she came home. When the elder sister's girl went to pluck them there was not a single fruit.

Having returned home, the girl said regarding that also, "Mother, on the Kaekiri creeper which is at the back of the house there are many fruits when that girl goes to it; when I go, not a single one."

The woman said, "Ha. It is good. Having uprooted it I will eat it in a dry curry."

That girl after hearing that also, went near the Kaekiri creeper and said, "Mother, having uprooted you and cooked you in a dry curry, she must eat you, says Loku-Amma."

The Kaekiri creeper said, "Ha. It is good, daughter. Let her eat. At the place where I am uprooted there will be a Kaekiri root. Take it to the river, and having said, 'If it be true that you are our mother, be created a Blue-Lotus flower,' throw it into the river."

The elder sister having uprooted the Kaekiri creeper, took it home, and having cooked the curry, ate. After that, the girl went to the place where the Kaekiri creeper had been, and when she looked a Kaekiri root was there. Having taken it to the river, and said, "If it be true that you are our mother, be created a Blue-Lotus flower," she threw it into the river. Then a Blue-Lotus flower was created.

When the two girls were going together to the river to bathe, having seen that there was a Blue-Lotus flower, that younger sister's girl went and held out her hands in a cup shape. Then the flower which was in the middle of the river came into the girl's hands, and opened out while in her hands. When the elder sister's girl was holding her hands for it, it goes to the middle of the river.

That girl having come home, said of it also, "Mother, there is a Blue-Lotus flower in the river. When that girl goes it comes to her hands; when I go it moves far away."

The woman said, "Ha! It is good. That also I shall seize, and take."

The girl after having heard that also, went and said, "Mother, she must pluck you also, says Loku-Amma."

Then the Blue-Lotus flower said, "Let that woman say so, daughter. She is unable to pluck me."

Afterwards the woman having told at the hands of the two men, "Pluck the flower and come back," the two men having gone to the river tried to pluck it; they could not. When they are trying to pluck it, it goes to the middle of the river.

Afterwards, the men having told it at the hand of the King of the country, and having told the King to cause the flower to be plucked and to give them it, the King also came near the river on the back of an elephant, together with the King's servants. The elder sister, and the two girls, and the two men stayed on this side.

Then the people on this side and the people on that side try and try to take that flower; they cannot take it. That younger sister's girl having gone to one side, after looking on said, "Indeed I am able to take it, that flower." The King on the other side of the river having heard that, while he was on the back of the elephant, said, "What is it, girl, that you are saying?"

Then that girl said, "O Lord, I am greatly afraid to speak; I indeed am able to take it, the flower."

"Ha. Take it," the King said. Afterwards, when the girl was holding her hands in a cup shape, the flower that was in the middle of the river came into her hands.

Afterwards the King, taking that flower, and placing the girl on the elephant, went to the King's city.

North-western Province.

In the Jataka story No. 67 (vol. i, p. 164), a woman went to a King and begged for "wherewith to be covered," by which she meant her husband, who had been arrested. She explained that "a husband is a woman's real covering."

In Indian Fairy Tales (Stokes), p. 144, a girl who was supposed to be drowned became a pink-lotus flower which eluded capture, but came of its own accord into the hand of a Prince.

NO. 12

THE BLACK STORKS' GIRL

In a certain country there are a woman and a man, it is said. The man cuts jungle at a chena clearing; the woman is weaving a bag. After the man comes home, the woman asks, "Is the jungle cut yet?" The man says, "A couple of bushes are cut; is the bag woven?" The woman says, "A couple of rows are woven."

Continuing in that way, after the end of two or three days the man, while returning from cutting jungle, saw a Kaekiri creeper at a threshing-floor, and having come near, and seen that there was a fruit on it, plucked and ate it. A Kaekiri seed remained fixed in his beard.

After he came home, the woman, seeing it, asked, "Where did you eat Kaekiri?"

The man said, "When I was coming home there was a Kaekiri creeper at a threshing-floor on the way; on it there was a fruit. I ate it."

Then the woman said, "There will be more on that creeper. After I have woven the bag let us go there."

Afterwards, having gone with him to the threshing-floor, she saw that the Kaekiri creeper had spread completely over the floor, and that there were as many fruits as leaves. While plucking them, she bore a girl there.

Afterwards, the man having plucked Kaekiri, and filled and tied up the bag, said to the woman, "Shall I take the girl, or shall I take the bag?"

The woman told him to take the bag, leaving the girl there. So the girl was left at the threshing-floor, and the man and woman went home, taking the bag of fruit with them.

While a Black Stork (Mana) and a female Black Stork (Mani) were going about seeking food, the female Stork saw that a girl was at the threshing-floor, and having gone near it, cried out, "Ade! A thing for me! Ade! A thing for me!" When the male Stork heard this he came running to the spot. Having looked at the girl, the two Black Storks took her to their house, and reared her there.

After a time, the girl having become big, the female Black Stork and the male Black Stork said, "Daughter, we must go for golden bracelets and golden anklets for you."

At that house there were a Parrot, a Dog, and a Cat, which were reared there. The two Storks told the girl, "Daughter, after we have gone, do not reduce the food of either the Parrot, or the Dog, or the Cat. Until we return, be careful not to put out the fire on the hearth, and not to go anywhere whatever." After saying this, they went to bring the golden bracelets and golden anklets.

That girl having been careful for two or three days in the way the female Stork and male Stork told her, lessened the food of the Cat. That night the Cat extinguished the fire on the hearth.

Next morning, the girl having gone to the hearth to cook, when she looked there was no fire on the hearth. So she said to the Parrot, "Younger brother, last night I reduced the food of the Cat a little. For that, the Cat has extinguished the fire on the hearth, and now there is no fire for cooking. You go and look from which house smoke is rising, and come back."

Then the Parrot having gone flying, looked and looked. There was not any coming from any other houses; from the house of the Rakshasa, only, there was a smoke. The Parrot having come home, said, "Elder sister, I looked at the whole of the houses. There was not any; only from the house of the Rakshasa the smoke came." Afterwards the girl, having said, "If so, younger brother, you stop at home until I go and bring fire," went for the fire.

The Rakshasa was not at home; only the Rakshasa's wife was there. The girl having gone to that house, said, "Give me a little fire." Then that woman made the girl boil and dry seven large baskets of paddy (unhusked rice), and pound the paddy in those seven, and bring seven large pots of water, and bring seven bundles of firewood. Then taking a piece of coconut shell with a hole in it, she put ashes at the bottom, and having placed a fire-charcoal on them, gave it to her. While the girl was going home, the ashes fell through the hole all along the path.

Afterwards, when the Rakshasa came home, "What is this, Bolan?" he asked the woman; "there is a smell of a human body, a human body that has been here."

The woman said, "A girl came for fire. Thinking you would come, I employed that girl, and having made her boil seven baskets of paddy, and dry it, and pound it, and bring seven large pots of water, and seven bundles of firewood, when I looked you were not to be seen. Afterwards, having placed ashes in a piece of coconut shell with a hole in it, I put a fire-charcoal on them, and gave her it. By this time she will have gone home. There will be ashes along the path on which that girl went. Go, looking and looking at the ashes-path," she said.

Afterwards the Rakshasa went along the ashes-path. The Parrot having seen him coming in the rice field, said, "Elder sister, the Rakshasa is coming. Shut the door," he said. So the girl, shutting the door and bolting it, stopped in the house.

The Rakshasa having come near the house, said, "Here are golden bracelets, O daughter. Here are golden anklets, O daughter. Open the door, my daughter."

Then the Parrot said, "No golden bracelets, O elder sister. No golden anklets, O elder sister. Open not the door, wise elder sister."

Then the Rakshasa ran to catch the Parrot. He could not catch it; the Parrot went into the forest and stayed there.

Afterwards the Rakshasa having come again near the house said, "Here are golden bracelets, O daughter. Here are golden anklets, O daughter. Open the door, my daughter."

Then the Dog, which was in the open space at the front of the house, said, "No golden bracelets, O elder sister. No golden anklets, O elder sister. Open not the door, wise elder sister."

The Rakshasa having gone running after the Dog, and having caught and killed the Dog, came again near the house, and said, "Here are golden bracelets, O daughter. Here are golden anklets, O daughter. Open the door, my daughter."

Then the Cat that was in the raised veranda said, "No golden bracelets, O elder sister. No golden anklets, O elder sister. Open not the door, wise elder sister."

The Rakshasa, having gone running, killed also the Cat, and again having come near the house, said, "Here are golden bracelets, O daughter. Here are golden anklets, O daughter. Open the door, my daughter."

Then the Gam-Murunga [35] tree said, "No golden bracelets, O elder sister. No golden anklets, O elder sister. Open not the door, wise elder sister."

Afterwards the Rakshasa, having cut down and broken up the Gam-Murunga tree, again went near the house, and said, "Here are golden bracelets, O daughter. Here are golden anklets, O daughter. Open the door, my daughter."

Then the Murunga logs said, "No golden bracelets, O elder sister. No golden anklets, O elder sister. Open not the door, wise elder sister."

The Rakshasa, having set fire to the logs, and gone near the house again, said, "Here are golden bracelets, O daughter. Here are golden anklets, O daughter. Open the door, my daughter."

Then the ashes of the burnt Murunga tree said, "No golden bracelets, O elder sister. No golden anklets, O elder sister. Open not the door, wise elder sister."

The Rakshasa, having collected the ashes, and taken them to the river and placed them in it, and again having gone to the house, said, "Here are golden bracelets, O daughter. Here are golden anklets, O daughter. Open the door, my daughter."

Then the water of the river said, "No golden bracelets, O elder sister. No golden anklets, O elder sister. Open not the door, wise elder sister."

Afterwards, the Rakshasa, having gone to the river, and having drunk and drunk, could not finish the water, and at last he burst open and died.

After that, the female Black Stork and the male Black Stork brought the golden bracelets and golden anklets, and having given them to the girl, remained there.

North-western Province.

In a variant of this story, related by a Duraya in the North-western Province, the persons who abandoned the child were a Gamarala and his wife, the Gama-mahage.

On the Storks' finding it, they cried, "Ada! I have met with a gem!" Their home was in a rock-cave. When the Parrot warned the girl that the Rakshasa was coming, "having gone running, and having sprung into the cave, she shut the door. The Rakshasa says, 'Having brought bracelets for the arms, jackets for the body, cloths for the waist, O daughter, open the door, my daughter.'

"Then the Parrot said, 'It is false that there are bracelets for the arms, jackets for the body, cloths for the waist. Open not the door, my elder sister.'

"Then the Rakshasa tried to kill the Parrot. Having flown away it settled on a tree. The Rakshasa having smashed the Parrot's cage, again says, 'Having brought bracelets for the arms,'" etc.

The Cat warned the girl and was killed, then the Dog, next the Ash-plantain tree, and lastly the Katuru-Murunga tree. I now translate again.

"After that, he struck a finger-nail into the lintel, and having struck another finger-nail into the threshold, the Rakshasa went away.

"After that, the male Black Stork and female Black Stork came. Having come, they say, 'Having brought bracelets for the arms, jackets for the body, cloths for the waist, open the door, my daughter.'

"Then the Parrot says, 'It is true that there are bracelets for the arms, jackets for the body, cloths for the waist, elder sister. Open the door, my elder sister.'

"As she was coming out opening the door, her foot was pricked by a finger-nail, and the crown of her head by a finger-nail. Then becoming unconscious she fell down, the finger-nails having entered her. Both Storks together drew out the finger-nails."

She recovered, and they gave her the things they had brought, but sent her away. The rest of the story is an evident modern addition of no interest. She went to a large chena, and was taken home by a widow who was there.

In another variant of the Western Province the two birds which reared the child were Crows. After the child was born, the mother, a Gamarala's wife (Gama-Mahage or Gama-Mahayiya) said, "Are we to take the child, or are we to take the bag of Kaekiri?" Her husband replied, "Should we take the child it will be [necessary] to give it to eat and to wear; should we take the bag of Kaekiri we shall be able to eat it for one meal." "So the Gama-Mahage, having put the child among the Kaekiri creepers, taking the bag went home." The Crows carried away the infant, and called it Emal Bisawa, Queen of the Flowers. When the girl had grown up, the birds went to bring pearls for her to wear, after giving her the usual injunctions regarding the food of the Dog, the Cat and the Parrot. She reduced the Dog's food, and it put out the fire. The Parrot found smoke rising from the house of a Rakshasi, and guided her to the place. The Rakshasi was absent; her two daughters gave the girl two amunas (nearly twelve bushels) of paddy to pound. "She thought, 'Having been pounded, go into the house,' and it became pounded of its own accord." Then they gave her seven perforated pots to be filled with water and brought. She filled them and handed them over. They gave her a piece of coconut husk with a hole in it, and a perforated coconut shell, and filled the former with sesame seeds, and the latter with ashes on which was placed burning charcoal. She hurried home with these, being warned by the Parrot that the Rakshasi was coming.

When the Rakshasi asked her daughters who had been to the house, they replied that the female Crow's girl had taken some fire, and that there would be sesame and ashes along the path by which she had gone. The Rakshasi ran along it, found the door shut, and said, "Mother has come. Father has come. We are bringing pearls of the sea; we are bringing also wire for stringing the pearls. Open the door, O daughter." The Katuru-Murunga tree warned her that it was false; when it was burnt, its ashes repeated the warning, then the Dog, the Cat, and the Parrot. Then the Rakshasi, "having broken her finger nails, and having fixed one above and one below in the door-frame, went away. After that, her mother and father came, and said, 'Mother has come. Father has come. We are bringing pearls of the sea; we are bringing also wire for stringing the pearls. Open the door, my daughter.' The Parrot said the same. As she opened the door, a finger-nail having entered the crown of her head she died. When they asked the Parrot, 'What has happened?' 'Because of the Rakshasi elder sister died,' he said."

In a fourth variant of the North-western Province the aspect of the story is partly changed, and I give a translation of the latter portion, because it contains an account of a runaway match, such as still sometimes occurs.

In this story, a Gamarala's wife went with another woman to the chena while the Gamarala was asleep, and after eating as much fruit as possible they filled a bag also. As they were proceeding home rapidly with it, the Gamarala's wife gave birth to a child at a hollow in which pigs wallowed. She asked the other woman to carry it home for her, but this person refused, and took the bag of Kaekiri fruit instead, so the child was abandoned.

Then the two Storks came, and carried the child to their cave, and reared it. After the girl grew up, they went off to seek bracelets and necklaces for her, instructing the girl to "give an equal quantity of food to the Cock, the Dog, the Cat, the Parrot, the Crow, the Rat, and the other creatures," and warning her that if she gave less to the Rat it would extinguish the fire. After some days she reduced the Rat's food, so it put out the fire.

The Parrot found a house--not a Rakshasa's--from which smoke was rising, and guided the girl to it. The woman who was at it gave her some fire without delaying her, and she returned home with it. I now translate the concluding part.

"After the son of the woman who had the fire came home, the woman says to her son, 'To-day a good-looking Princess came to the house.' Then the son asks, 'Mother, by which stile did the Princess go?' His mother says, 'Here, by this stile,' and showed him it.

"Then the man having set off, and having gone near the cave, and seen the Princess, when he said, 'Let us go to our house,' the Princess said, 'Because my parents are not here [to give their consent] I cannot go.' This man says, 'No matter for that,' and seizing the hand of the Princess, they came to his house.

"Afterwards the two Black Storks which went seeking bracelets and rings, having come near the cave, when they looked the Princess was not there. The Black Storks ask the Dog, the Cat, the Crow, the Parrot, the Rat, and the Cock, 'Where is the Princess?' They all say, 'A man came, and while the Princess was saying she could not go he seized her hand and took her away.' When the Storks asked, 'By which stile did he take her?' saying, 'There, by that stile,' the animals showed them it.

"Then the two Black Storks having gone flying, when they looked the Princess was staying at the house. Afterwards the two Storks gave the Princess the bracelets, rings, and coral necklaces which they had brought; and having handed her over to the man, the two Black Storks went to their dwelling."

In Old Deccan Days, Ganges Valley (Frere), p. 87 ff., there is a variant according to which the child was carried off to their nest by two eagles, from the side of the mother. After the eagles went to bring a ring for her, the cat stole some food, and on being punished by the girl put out the fire.

The girl went to a Rakshasa's house for a light, and was detained by his mother, pounding rice and doing other housework. She left at last with instructions to scatter corn along the path.

The Rakshasa followed the track and climbed to the nest, but the outer door was bolted, and he could not enter, so he left his nail in a crack of the door. When the girl opened the outer door--there were seven in all--the nail wounded her hand, and being poisonous apparently killed her. The eagles returned, and seeing this flew away. When a King arrived and drew out the nail, she recovered, and he married her.

NO. 13

THE GOLDEN KAEKIRI FRUIT

In a certain city there are a man and his daughter, it is said. The man's wife being dead, the girl cooks food for the man. The man cuts jungle at a chena clearing. The girl every day having cooked, and placed the food ready for her father, goes to rock in a golden swing. [36] Then a Mahage [37] comes and says, "Daughter, give me a little fire." The girl sitting in the swing says, "Is it here with me? It is at the hearth; take it." The Mahage goes into the house, pulls out and takes the things which that girl has cooked and placed there, and having eaten, carries away the fire.

So, after two or three days had passed in that manner, the man asked, "Who, daughter, while I am coming home has eaten the rice that you have cooked and placed for me?"

Then the girl said, "I don't know, father. Every day when I have cooked the food and placed it ready for you, and gone to rock in the golden swing, a Mahage comes and begs fire from me. Then I say, 'Is it here with me? It is at the hearth; take it.' It will be the Mahage."

Then the man, having said, "Ha. Daughter, cook and arrange the food to-day also, and go to the golden swing," got onto the shelf, and stayed there.

Afterwards the girl, having cooked and placed the food exactly as on other days, went to the golden swing. Then the Mahage having come on that day also, begged, "Daughter, give me a little fire." The girl said, "Is it here with me? It is at the hearth; take it."

Then the Mahage having gone into the house, and drawn out the pots, and eaten part of the rice, when she was about to rise after taking the fire, the man on the shelf asked, "What is that you have been doing?"

The Mahage said, "What indeed! Why don't you invite me [to be your wife]?"

The man said, "Ha. Stop here." So the woman stayed.

After a great many days had passed, the woman lay down. "What are you lying down for?" asked the man.

The woman said, "It is in my mind to eat your daughter's two eyes."

Afterwards the man called the girl, and said, "Daughter, a yoke of cattle are missing; let us go and seek them." While he went with the girl, taking a cord, the dog also followed behind.

Having gone into a great forest, he said, "Daughter, come here in order that I may look at your head." [38] While he was looking and looking at it, the girl fell asleep. Then the man placed the girl against a tree, and tied her to it; and having cut out her two eyes, came home and placed one on the shelf and one in the salt pot. The dog that went with the man having come home, howled, rolling about in the open space in front of the house.

There was also a child. That little one having gone somewhere, on coming back bringing a mango, asked that Mahage, "Loku-Amma, give me a knife." The woman said, "Have I got one here? It is on the shelf; get it."

Then the child, going into the house, and putting his hand on the shelf, caught hold of the eye placed there by the man, and said, "This is indeed our elder sister's eye. Loku-Amma, give me a piece of salt."

The woman said, "Have I got any here? Take it from the salt pot."

When the child put his hand into the salt pot the other eye was there. He took it also. When he stepped down from the veranda of the house into the compound, the dog went in front, and the child followed after him.

Having gone on and on, the dog came to the place in the great forest where the girl was, and stopped there. When the child looked, his elder sister was tied to the tree. He saw that red ants were biting her from her eyes downward, and having quickly unfastened her he took her to a tank, and bathed her. Then taking both her eyes in his hand, he said, "If these are our elder sister's eyes, may they be created afresh," and threw them down. After that, they were created better than before.

Afterwards the girl said, "Younger brother, we cannot go again to that house. Let us go away somewhere." So they went off. While they were going along the road, a King was coming on horseback, tossing and tossing up a golden Kaekiri fruit. The child, after looking at it, said, "Elder sister, ask for the golden Kaekiri."

The girl replied, "Appa! Younger brother, he will kill both of us. Come on without speaking."

Then the child another time said, "Elder sister, ask for it and give me it."

The King having heard it, asked, "What, Bola, is that one saying?"

The girl replied, "O Lord, nothing at all."

"It was not nothing at all. Tell me," the King said a second time.

Then the girl replied, "O Lord, I am much afraid to say it. He is asking for that golden Kaekiri."

The King said, "I will give the golden Kaekiri if thou wilt give me thy elder sister."

The child said, "Elder sister and I, both of us, will come."

So the King, having placed the girl on horseback, went to his city with the child, and married the girl.

After many days had passed, when the King was about to go to a war the girl was near her confinement. So the King said, "If it be a girl, shake an iron chain. If it be a boy, shake a silver chain." Afterwards the girl bore a boy, and shook a silver chain.

Before the King came back, the girl's father and Loku-Amma (step-mother), having collected cobras' eggs, polangas' [39] eggs, and the like, the eggs of all kinds of snakes, and having cooked cakes made of them, came to the place where the girl was.

The girl's Loku-Amma told her to eat some of the cakes. When she did not eat them, that woman, taking some in her hand, came to her and rubbed some on her mouth. At that very moment the girl became a female cobra, and dropped down into a hole in an ant-hill. Her father and Loku-Amma went home again. The infant was crying on the bed.

Afterwards, when the girl's younger brother was saying to the golden Kaekiri:--

They'll me myself to kill devise; In bed the gold-hued nephew cries; As a lady, gold-hued sister rise," [40]

the cobra returned [in her woman's form], and having suckled and bathed the infant, and sent it to sleep, again [becoming a snake] goes back to the ant-hill.

Then the King having returned, asked the younger brother, "Where, Bola, is thy elder sister?"

The child said, "Our father and Loku-Amma having cooked a sort of cakes came and gave us them, and Loku-Amma told elder sister to eat. Afterwards, as she did not eat, Loku-Amma, taking some, rubbed them on elder sister's mouth. At that very moment elder sister became a female cobra, and dropped down into an ant-hill."

Then the King asked, "Did she not return again, after she had dropped down into the ant-hill?"

The child replied, "While I was calling her she came back once."

The King said, "Call her again in that very way."

So the boy said to the golden Kaekiri,

They'll me myself to kill devise; In bed the gold-hued nephew cries; As a lady, gold-hued sister rise."

Afterwards, the cobra came [in her woman's form], and having suckled and bathed the child, and sent it to sleep, cooked for the King, and apportioned the food for him.

Then when she tried to go away [in her cobra form], the King cut the cobra in two with his sword. One piece dropped down into the ant-hill; the other piece became the Queen, and remained there.

After that, the King collected cobras, polangas, all kinds of snakes, and having, with the Queen, put them into two corn measures, they took the two boxes, and went to the house where the Queen's father and Loku-Amma were. There they gave them the two boxes, and said, "We have brought presents for you. Go into the house, and having shut the door, and lowered the bolt, open the mouths of the two boxes. Otherwise, do not open the mouths in the light." The King and Queen remained outside.

The Queen's father and Loku-Amma, taking the two boxes, went into the house, and having shut the door and bolted it, opened the mouths of the two boxes. At that moment, the snakes that were in them came out, and bit both of them, and both of them died.

Afterwards, the King and Queen came to the city, and stayed there.

North-western Province.

In Folk-Tales of Bengal (Day), p. 132, a girl received a fan, the shaking of which summoned a Prince, however far away he might be.

At p. 239 also, a Queen received a golden bell, the ringing of which summoned the absent King.

In the Sinhalese story, it is evidently to be understood that the shaking of the chain would be heard by the King while he was away, although the narrator omitted to mention this.

NO. 14

THE FOUR DEAF PERSONS

In a certain city there were a woman and a man, it is said. Both of them were deaf. A female child was born to that man, and this child was also deaf. The man to whom she was given in marriage when she grew up was also deaf.

The girl's husband went to plough a rice field at the side of the high road. While he was ploughing, a man who was going along the road asked the way. Continuing to plough with the yoke of bulls, the deaf man said, "I brought this bull from the village. This other bull is from father-in-law's herd."

"What are the facts about the bulls to me? Tell me the way," the man said.

The deaf man replied, "The bull is from my herd."

The man said again, "What are the facts about the bulls to me? Tell me the way."

Then the deaf man, replying, "Don't say that another time," beat the man with the goad, and the man having received the blows went away.

Afterwards, the deaf man's wife having brought cooked rice to the field, he unfastened the cattle which had been ploughing, and while he was eating said to the woman, "A man came just now, and saying, 'Whose is the yoke of bulls?' quarrelled with me about them."

The woman replied, "Through seeking firewood and water and vegetables, and cooking, I was a little late in the day in coming."

Having quarrelled with him over it, she bounded off, and having gone home, went to the place where her mother was plaiting a mat, and said to her, "Mother, our house man quarrelled with me, saying that I was late in taking the rice."

The woman said, "Marry thy father! What is it to thee whether my works are good or not good now?" and she quarrelled with her.

The woman having gone to the place where her husband was watching a sweet-potato chena during the day time, on account of thieves uprooting the plants, said, "To-day my daughter having taken cooked rice to the field, and having given it and returned, quarrelled with me, saying that the plaiting of my mat was bad. I also indeed scolded her a great deal, saying, 'What is it to thee whether my works are good or not good now?' I have come to tell you about it."

Then the man said, "Bola, you infamous woman! Because I stopped in the chena you cooked and ate three sweet-potatoes, did you?" and he beat and drove away the woman.

Then saying that it was useless to go on with the chena when his wife was eating the crop, he cut the fence, and abandoned it to the cattle. And the man left the village and the district, and went away.

North-western Province.

The quarrels of deaf persons through misunderstanding each other's remarks form a common subject of folk-tales. The mistakes of three deaf people are related in Folklore in Southern India (Natesa Sastri), p. 3 ff., and Tales of the Sun (Kingscote and N. Sastri), p. 1 ff.

The Abbé Dubois published another amusing South Indian variant, which recounted the mistakes of four deaf men (le Pantcha-Tantra, 1872, p. 339 ff.). The four persons in it were a shepherd, a village watchman, a traveller who was riding a stolen horse, and a Brahmana. The shepherd requested the watchman to look after his flock during his temporary absence. In reply the latter refused to let him have the grass that he had cut. On the shepherd's return, he offered him a lame lamb as a reward for the trouble he thought the man had taken, but the watchman fancied he was being accused of laming it. They stopped a horseman who was riding past, and asked him to decide their quarrel. In reply, he admitted that the horse was not his. Each thought the decision was against him, and cursed him for it; and while the quarrel was at its height they referred it to a Brahmana who came up, who replied that it was useless for them to stop him, as he was determined never to return to his wicked wife. "In the crew of devils I defy any one to find one who equals her in wickedness," he said. The horse-thief, observing men coming in the distance, made off on foot, the shepherd returned to his flock, the watchman, seeing the lamb left, took it home in order to punish the shepherd for his false charge, and the Brahmana stayed at a rest-house, and went home again next day.

In the Contes Soudanais (W. Africa), by C. Monteil, p. 18 ff., there is a story which resembles both this South Indian one and the Sinhalese one, in part. A shepherd in search of a lost sheep asked a cultivator about it. He replied, "My field begins before me and ends behind me." The shepherd found the sheep, and offered it to the cultivator in payment for quarters for the night. The latter thought he was being charged with stealing it, and took him before a village headman, who remarked, "Still another story about women! Truly this can't continue; I shall leave the village." When he told his wife to accompany him, she said she would never live with a man who was always talking of divorcing her.

NO. 15

THE PRINCE AND THE YAKA

A king of a single city had one son, who was a Prince of five years. At that time, a Yaka [41] having settled in that kingdom began to devour the people of the city, and by reason of this the whole city was like to be abandoned. At last, the King and the men of the city, making great efforts, seized the Yaka, and having made an iron house, put him in it, and shut the door.

At that time it became necessary for the King of the city to go to war. After he had gone off to the war, when the King's son one day had opened the door of the house in which was the man-eating Yaka, and was looking at him, the Yaka fell down, and made obeisance to him, and signifying his misery to the Prince, began to weep. So the Prince, pitying him, told the Yaka to go away. Then the Yaka, saying to the Prince, "It is good. I will assist you, too," went away.

After he had left, when the Prince had gone home the King who had gone to the war returned, having conquered. When he looked at the room in which the Yaka had been, the door was open. The King asked who had opened the door. The Queen replied that the Prince opened it. Then the King said, "To-morrow I must behead that wicked Prince."

The Queen, being sorry at this, having tied up a packet of cooked rice, and given it and money to the Prince, and having given him a horse and sword, said, "The King has settled to behead you to-morrow for letting the Yaka escape. Go away at night to any country you like."

So the Prince, taking the money and the bundle of cooked rice, and the sword, mounted the horse, and set off to go to another country. There was a travellers' shed at the road along which he was going. As he was unable to go further on account of weariness, he went that night to the travellers' shed; and having fastened the horse to one of the posts of the shed, he lay down, placing the bundle of rice at his side.

Then seeing a youth running along the road, he called him, and asked, "Boy, where art thou going?"

The boy said, "I am going to a place where they give to eat and to wear."

Then the Prince said, "I will give you pay. Stop and look after my horse."

The youth said, "It is good. I will stay."

The Prince said, "I do not know the fords in this country; therefore tell me of a path by which we can go to another country."

The youth replied, "There is a river here. On the other side of it there is a city, to go to which there is not a short road from here. However, there is another road further on. By it we must pass over a bridge."

"If so," said the Prince, "having bathed here let us go."

Having seen that three Princesses who were at the city on the other side were bathing, he also was pleased at bathing there. After he had gone to bathe, the three Princesses of the King of the country on the other side, when they looked saw the good figure of this Prince.

After that, as the Prince wished to go after bathing, the youth who was to look after the horse having mounted it, began to ride away, wearing the Prince's clothes, and taking the sword.

When the Prince, having bathed, and seen the Princesses on the other bank putting on their clothes, came ashore to put on his clothes, on his looking for them there were no clothes, no sword, no horse. The youngest Princess of the three who had bathed on the other side well knew what had happened.

This Prince, having on only his bathing cloth, bounded off, and while running along overtook the horse and youth. When he was still far away, the youth said, "Do not come near me; should you come I will cut you with the sword. If you are willing to look after this horse, take hold of its tail and come."

Then because that one in any case must go to the city, he said, "It is good," and having taken hold of the horse's tail went with him. Going thus from there, they arrived at the city.

It was a custom of the King of that country that, having sent a guard, when any one of the men of another country arrived, he was to write the names of those persons, and come to the King. When these persons arrived, a guard being there asked their names. The youth who came on the horse said, "My name is Manikka Settiya; except the youth who looks after my horse, there is no one else with me."

The guard having gone, said to the King, "Lord, a person called Manikka Settiyare has come and is there, together with a horse-keeper."

Then the King thought, "Because the man called Manikka Settiyare has this name, Manikka, he will be able to value my gem" (manikya). A gem of the King's having been taken through the whole country, no one had been able to value it.

So having summoned that Manikka Settiyare, the King, after giving him food and drink, showed him it, and said, "Manikka Settiyare, there is my gem. Can you value it?"

That Manikka Settiyare replied, "My horse-keeper will tell you the value."

The King became angry because he said, "My horse-keeper will tell you it," and indignantly caused the horse-keeper to be brought speedily, and asked, "Can you value this?" The horse-keeper Prince said, "If I try hard I can." Then the King gave it into his hands.

Taking it and weighing it, and learning when he looked at it that there was sand inside the gem, he said, "As it now appears to me, the value of this gem is four sallis" (half-farthings).

The King becoming angry asked, "How do you know?"

The Prince replied, "There is sand inside this gem."

Then the King asked, "Can you cut it, and show me it?"

The horse-keeper said, "If you will ask for the sword belonging to that Manikka Settiyare, I will cut it and show you it."

After that, the King gave him the sword that was in the hand of the Settiyare. Then the horse-keeper, taking the sword, and remembering the name of his father the King, and thinking, "By the favour of the Gods, if it be appointed that it will happen to me to exercise sovereignty over this city, I must cut this gem like cutting a Kaekiri fruit," put the gem on the table, and cut it with the sword. Then the sand that was in the gem fell out, making a sound, "Sara sara."

Afterwards the King, thinking, "When this horse-keeper knows so much, how much doesn't this Settirala know!" having given food and drink to the horse-keeper, and also to the Settiyare, and having greatly assisted them, made them stay there a little time.

The youngest Princess well knew the wicked things that this Settiyare was saying about the horse-keeper youth. On account of her great sorrow concerning this horse-keeper, the Princess instructed the butler who gave the food at the royal house: "Give the horse-keeper who accompanied that Manikka Settiyare, food like that you prepare for me, and a bed for sleeping on, and assist him a little."

After that, the butler and the rest helped him. The Prince was unwilling to enjoy that pleasure. "Ane! I am a horse-keeper. Do not you assist me in that way," he said.

After that, the King's youngest Princess, for the sake of sending the Prince away from the post of looking after the horse, went to the King, and wept while saying thus: "Ane! Father, [42] because of this youth who looks after them, my sheep are nearly finished. On that account, taking the horse-keeper who came with that Settiyare, to look after my sheep, let us send the youth who looks after the sheep to look after the horse."

The King replied, "Having asked the Settiyare we can do it."

The King having asked the Settiyare the thing she told him, "You can do it," he said; and after he had thus spoken to the Settiyare it was done. So the horse-keeper went to look after the sheep. Having gone there, while he was looking after them for a long time, the sheep increased in number by hundreds of thousands.

One day, when the King had gone for hunting sport into the midst of the forest, he was seized there by a Yaka. After being seized, he undertook to give the Yaka the King's three Princesses, and having escaped by undertaking this charge he came back.

Next day he made a proclamation through the whole city by beat of tom-toms. What was it? "Having been seized yesterday in the forest by a Yaka, I only escaped by promising to give him my three Princesses. To-morrow a Princess, on the day after to-morrow a Princess, on the day after that a Princess; in this manner in three days I am giving the three Princesses. If a person who is able to do it should deliver them, having married that person to them, I will appoint him to the kingdom."

Then Manikka Settiyare said, "I can do it."

On that day, that Prince who was looking after the sheep went to look after them. While he was there, a man, taking a sheep, ran off into the chena jungle. While bounding after him in order to recover it, having gone very far, the Prince saw him go down the hole of a polanga snake.

After going near the polanga's hole, and looking down it, and seeing that the hole descended into the earth, the Prince went along that tunnel. Having gone on from there it became dark, and going on in the darkness he saw a very great light. Having gone to the light, when he looked about there was a man asleep, wearing very many clothes.

Then it was in the mind of this shepherd to go away, and in his mind not to go. If you should say, "Who was sleeping there?" it was the Yaka who had formerly been in that iron house, and had left it. That Yaka at that very time saw in a dream that the Prince who had sent him out of that house had come to him, and was there. While seeing him in the dream, the sleeping Yaka awoke, and when he looked up the Prince was beside him.

The Yaka, getting up from there, went to the Prince, and while he was embracing him the Prince became afraid. Then the Yaka said, "Lord, let not Your Majesty be afraid. The Yaka whom you sent away from that house is I indeed."

After that, the Prince sat down. Then the Yaka asked, "Where are you going?"

The Prince replied, "That I sent you away, our father the King decreed as a fault in me, and appointed that I should be beheaded. Then our mother, having tied up and given me a bundle of cooked rice, told me to go anywhere I wanted." Having said this he told him all the matter.

After that, the Yaka brought the lost sheep, and having given it to the Prince, asked, "What more do you want?"

The Prince said, "I want another assistance."

"What is the assistance?" he asked.

The Prince replied, "After I had remained in this way, the King, the father of the Princess who looks after the sheep, and of two more Princesses, having gone hunting and been caught by a Yaka, is giving the three Princesses to him as demon offerings. If there should be a person who can deliver them, he has made proclamation by beat of tom-toms that having given to him the three Princesses in marriage, he will also give him a part of the kingdom."

The Yaka said, "It is good. I will bring and give you victory in it. Be good enough to do the thing I tell you. After you have eaten rice in the evening, be good enough to come to this palace." He then allowed the Prince to return home.

The Prince having eaten his rice in good time, went to the Yaka. After he had gone there, the Yaka having given him a good suit of clothes, and a horse, and a sword, instructed him: "As you go from here there will be a path. Having gone along that path, there will be a great rough tree. Go aside at it, and while you are waiting there the Yaka from afar will make a cry, 'Hu.' Having come to the middle of the chena jungle he will say again, 'Hu, Hu, Hu.' At the next step, having bounded to the place where the Princess is stopping, he will again say, 'Hu.' After he has said this, as he comes close to the Princess you will be good enough to step in front. Then the Yaka, becoming afraid, will look in the direction of your face; then be good enough to cut him down with the sword."

The Prince having gone in that manner to the tree, when he looked about, Manikka Settiyare having climbed aloft was in a fork of the trunk, lamenting, having turned his back. While he was lamenting he saw this Prince coming, and [thinking it was the Yaka], trembled and lost his senses.

Then, in the very manner foretold, the Yaka came, crying and crying out. As he came near the Princess, the Prince cut him down, and having drawn out and cut off his tongue, and also asked for a ring off the hand of the Princess, came away to the palace of the friendly Yaka. Having arrived there, and placed there the clothes, the horse, and the tongue, all of them, he returned to his house before any one arose.

Manikka Settiyare, having descended in the morning, chopped the Yaka's body into bits, and smeared the blood on his sword. While he was there, the King went in the morning to see if the Princess was dead or alive. Having arrived there, he saw Manikka Settiyare there looking on, and he returned to the city, taking Manikka Settiyare and the Princess.

On the next night, also, they went and tied another Princess. The Prince that night also having gone there, killed a Yaka who came, and cut off the Yaka's tongue, and after asking for a jewelled ring came away. That time, also, Manikka Settiyare went there, and after smearing blood on his sword remained there. The King went there in the morning, and calling the two persons came away.

On the following day he did the very same to the other Princess. This Prince, having taken away the three jewelled rings that were on the hands of the three Princesses, and the three tongues of the three Yakas that he had cut off, remained silent.

As Manikka Settiya had come falsely smearing blood on his sword each morning, as though he had killed the Yakas, the King sent letters to all royal personages: "Manikka Settiya has cut down three such powerful Yakas, and has delivered the three Princesses who had been devoted to be given as a demon offering to the Yaka who seized me when I went hunting. Because of that, I am giving the three Princesses to him in marriage. You must come to the festival, and look at the Yakas who have been killed." After that, the royal persons came from those countries.

While they were there, that Prince went to the palace of the friendly Yaka. The Yaka having given that Prince golden clothes, and a golden crown and necklace, and a golden sword, told him to go, taking those rings and tongues, and mounted on a white horse. The Prince putting on those things, and mounting the white horse, went.

When he went to the palace where the royal persons were who had come to fulfil the object of the occasion, those royal persons became afraid, and having made obeisance to him, asked, "Lord, where is Your Majesty going?"

"'I have cut down a very powerful sort of Yaka.' Letters went through foreign countries to this effect, and that there is a marriage festival for the person who killed the Yaka. On account of the news I also have come to look," he said.

After that, those royal persons said, "It is good, Lord," and with pleasure showed him the heads of the Yakas.

Then this Prince asked, "Is there or is there not a tongue to every living being whatever?"

Every one said, "Yes, there is one."

The Prince having looked for the tongues in the mouths of the Yakas, asked, "What is this, that there are not tongues for these Yakas?"

After that, every one asked it of Manikka Settiya. Manikka Settiya being afraid, remained without speaking.

Then he asked it of the two eldest Princesses. The two Princesses said, "We do not know."

At the time when he was asking it of the youngest Princess, she replied, seizing the hand of the Prince who split off the tongues and took the jewelled rings, "This one went away after taking in his hand the ring, and cutting off the tongue of the Yaka." After that, the Prince brought to light the three rings and the three tongues, and showed them.

Speedily having beheaded and cast out Manikka Settiya, they carried out the wedding festival of the marriage of the three Princesses to the Prince. After that, those royal personages went to their own kingdoms, and the kingdom having been bestowed on this Prince he remained there ruling it.

North-western Province.

In the Jataka story No. 510 (vol. iv, p. 305), an iron house was built, in which a King's son was confined for sixteen years in order to preserve him from a female Yaka who had carried off two children born previously. The demon was unable to break into it.

In the Jataka story No. 513 (vol. v, p. 13), there is an account of a King who was seized by an Ogre while hunting. The latter allowed the King to go home on a promise to come back next day to be eaten. His heroic son returned in his place, but was spared by the Ogre. The Prince said of these beings, "The eyes of Ogres are red, and do not wink. They cast no shadow, and are free from all fear."

NO. 16

HOW A YAKA AND A MAN FOUGHT

In a certain country three men went shooting, [43] it is said. At the time when the three persons were going, one man was obliged to go aside for a certain purpose. The man went aside without telling those two men.

A Yaka saw the man separate from those two persons. Having seen it, the Yaka seized the man, and began to push against him. At that time those two men were very distant. The men having said, "What has happened to this man?" came to look for him. When they came [they saw that] there was a black one near the man. The two persons spoke together, "Let us shoot this black one." So they shot [43] him. Then the black one went out of the way.

Afterwards the men went to look near at hand. When they went the man had fallen. After that, having taken hold of the man and raised him, when they looked at him the man's body having gone quite slimy he was unconscious also.

Afterwards, while the two men, raising [and carrying] that man, were [endeavouring] to come away, the Yaka did not allow them to come. He shakes the bushes; he breaks the trees; he blocked up the path all along. One man of the two men looked upward. Then the Yaka spit into the man's eye, and the man's eye became blind.

Well then, the two men having uttered and uttered spells, with pain lifting up [and carrying] that man, came to the village. Having come there, and summoned a Yaksa Vedarala [44] to restore the man to consciousness, when he arrived they showed him this man. Then the Yaksa Vedarala told them to warm a large pot of water. So they warmed the water. After that, having bathed the man, and having uttered spells, after the Vedarala had tied protective written spells and diagrams [45] on him the man became conscious.

After that, the Yaksa Vedarala and those two men asked about the circumstances that had occurred. The man said, "A Yaka having come, seizing me pressed against me for me to roll over on to the ground. What of that? I did not fall [on account of it]. After you two fired, indeed, I fell. Then the Yaka bounded off, and went away. Well, I don't know anything after that. Whether you came and lifted me up, or what, I do not know."

The man having recovered from that, again the Yaka came, and having possessed the man he began to have the powers conferred by "possession." [46] Afterwards that Yaksa Vedarala having come again, and given the Yaka many offerings placed on frames (dola pideni), the Yaka went out of the way. The man remained very well [afterwards].

North-western Province.

NO. 17

CONCERNING A MAN AND TWO YAKAS

In a certain country there was a man who had cut a chena. The man, without any one joining with him, went one day and made ready to cut a fresh chena at a place where there was a large tree.

Then the Yaka who dwelt in the tree became afraid, and having descended to the ground, and having said, "Lord, do not cut a chena here. At every eventide I will bring and give you rice, coconuts, chillies, etc.," he made obeisance. The man said, "It is good," and went home.

That very evening the Yaka brought and gave him rice and all things sufficient for curries, and went away. After that, in no long time the man became in a good position and wealthy, through the Yaka's bringing him his provisions.

When coming afterwards, the Yaka met another Yaka, who asked, "Where are you taking those things?"

The Yaka replied, "A man came to cut the residence in which I stay. On account of it, I promised to give him food and goods."

Then the Yaka said, "Do thou give the things to-day only. I will kill the man to-morrow."

The other Yaka said, "It is good."

On the following day, when the man of that house was going somewhere or other, the Yaka who said, "I will kill him," came to the house, and having crept under the bed remained there. At that time the man returned, and sitting on the bed, said to his wife, "Bola, I am hungry enough to eat a Yaka."

His wife had placed the knife on the shelf, and having plucked a pine-apple had put it under the bed. The woman [not seeing the Yaka], said, "Look there! On the shelf. Look there! Under the bed."

So the man, taking the knife that was on the shelf, went near the bed to get the pine-apple. Then the Yaka, thinking he was coming to kill and eat him, said, "Lord, do not eat me. I will bring and give you each month anything you want."

So the man saying, "It is good," sent away the Yaka.

Then the Yaka met that other Yaka, and said, "When I went to set you free I also was caught. Both of us are in the same state."

After that he gave the things monthly. Then this man having become a great wealthy person, remained so.

North-western Province.

In a variant in Folk-Tales of Bengal (Day), pp. 258-260, a barber frightened a Bhuta (evil spirit) who was going to eat him, by threatening to put him in his bag. He took out his looking-glass, and showed the Bhuta his reflection, which the evil spirit thought was another imprisoned one. The Bhuta promised to obey the barber's orders, and provided money, and a granary filled with paddy. The Bhuta's uncle told him that he had been cheated; but he was treated in the same way, and made to build another granary, and fill it with rice.

NO. 18

THE THREE QUESTIONS [47]

In a certain country, as a man was going through the middle of a city he met a man of the city, and asked him, "In what manner does the King of this city rule?"

The man said, "It does not appear to us that he has any fault."

Then the man said [sarcastically]: "Does the King of this city know these three matters--the centre of this country, the number of the stars in the sky, and the work which the King of the world of the Devas [48] does?" Having asked this, that wicked man went through the midst of the city.

Afterwards, the man of the city came to the palace, and declared to the King that there were three matters regarding which a man had wanted information. After he had informed him, the King asked, "What are the three matters?"

The man said, "The centre of the country, the number of the stars in the sky, and the work which the King of the world of the Devas does; these three matters," he said.

Then the King, having caused the Ratemahatmayas--(the highest provincial Chiefs)--to be told that he ordered them to come, after he had asked them concerning these three matters, the Chiefs said that they could not tell him the answers. When they said that, the king commanded that the Ratemahatmayas should be beheaded. Thereupon the executioners came and beheaded them.

After that, he caused the Adikaramas--(the Ministers)--to be brought, and asked them if they knew these three matters. Those persons also said that they could not explain them. He commanded that party also to be beheaded, and the executioners came and beheaded them.

Having beheaded all the people of both parties, there remained still the Royal Preceptor [49] only, so he caused the Royal Preceptor to be brought, and asked him regarding these matters. Then the Royal Preceptor said, "I cannot tell you about them to-day. I will tell you to-morrow." After he had said this he returned to his house, and having come there, lying down prone on the bed he remained without speaking a word.

The youth who looked after the Royal Preceptor's goats came at that time, and asked, "For what reason are you lying down, Sir?"

The Royal Preceptor said, "They beheaded the Adikarama party and the Ratemahatmaya party to-day; they will behead me to-morrow. The post that I have told thee of [under the executioner] will be made over to one's self."

The youth said, "Lord, you must tell me the reasons for it."

The Royal Preceptor replied, "If I should be unable to-morrow to say which is the centre of the country, the number of the stars, and the work which the God of the world of the Devas does, they will behead me to-morrow."

Then the youth said, "Are you so much troubled about that? I will say those very things for you."

Afterwards, at the time when the Royal Preceptor, on the morning of the following day, was setting off to go to the palace, he called the youth, and went with him to the palace. The King asked for the answers to these three sayings. Then the Royal Preceptor said, "What is there in these for me to tell you? Even the youth who looks after the goats for me knows those three sayings." Then he told the youth to come forward, and the youth came near the King.

The King asked, "Dost thou know the centre of the country, and the number of the stars, and the work which the God of the world of the Devas does?"

The youth fixed a stick in the ground, and showed it. "Behold! Here is the centre of one's country. Measure from the four quarters, and after you have looked at the account, if it should not be correct be good enough to behead me," he said. The King lost over that.

Then he told him to say the number of the stars in the sky. Throwing down on the ground the goat-skin that he was wearing, "Count these hairs, and count the stars in the sky. Should they not be equal be good enough to behead me," he said. The King lost over that also.

Thirdly, he told him to say what work the God of the world of the Devas does.

The youth said, "I will not say it thus."

The King asked, "If so, how will you say it?"

The youth said, "Should you decorate me with the Royal Insignia, and put on me the Crown, and give the Sword into my hands, and place me on the Lion-throne, I will say it."

Then the King, having caused that youth to bathe, and having decorated him, placed him upon the Lion-throne.

After that, he called the executioners, and said to them, "Ade! This one beheaded so many [innocent] people; because of that take him and go, and having beheaded him, cast him out. Behold! That indeed is the work which the King of the world of the Devas does," he said.

Thus, having killed the foolish King, the youth who looked after the goats obtained the sovereignty; and ruling the kingdom together with the Royal Preceptor, he remained there in prosperity.

North-western Province.

The dramatic, and apparently improbable, ending of this Kandian story is founded upon an historical fact. It is recorded in the Mahavansa, the Sinhalese history (Part I, chapter 35), that King Yasalalaka-Tissa, who reigned in Ceylon from 52 to 60 A.D., had a young gate porter or messenger called Subha, who closely resembled him in appearance. The Mahavansa relates the story of the King's deposition by him as follows (Turnour's translation):--

"The monarch Yasalalaka, in a merry mood, having decked out the said Subha, the messenger, in the vestments of royalty, and seated him on the throne, putting the livery bonnet of the messenger on his own head, stationed himself at a palace gate, with the porter's staff in his hand. While the ministers of state were bowing down to him who was seated on the throne, the King was enjoying the deception.

"He was in the habit, from time to time, of indulging in these scenes. On a certain occasion (when this farce was repeated), addressing himself to the merry monarch, the messenger exclaimed: 'How does that messenger dare to laugh in my presence?' and succeeded in getting the King put to death. The messenger Subha thus usurped the sovereignty, and administered it for six years."

A variant was related to me by the resident monk at a Buddhist temple to the south of Colombo. Its tenour was as follows:--

THE FOUR DIFFICULT QUESTIONS.

A certain King put four questions to a Sangha-raja, or Superior of the Buddhist monks. The first one was, "How deep is the sea?" the second, "How many stars are there?" the third, "Which is the centre of the earth?" and fourthly, he must tell the King what he, the King, thought. The Sangha-raja was allowed a certain time in which to find answers to the questions.

One day a monk seeing him sad, asked him the reason, and was told that the King had put these questions to him, and had threatened to take his life if he could not answer them.

The monk told him not to have any fear, and said that he would go on the appointed day, and answer the King. When the day came round, the monk dressed himself in the Sangha-raja's robes, and appeared before the King, saying that he was ready to answer the questions.

The King asked him, "How deep is the sea?" He replied, "At first it is knee-deep; as you go on it is waist-deep; further on it is up to the neck; and beyond that it is over the head." The King was satisfied.

He next asked, "How many stars are there?" "Twenty lakshas (two millions)," said the monk. "If you do not believe it, count them." With this answer, also, the King was satisfied.

He then inquired, "Where is the centre of the earth?" The monk took a staff which he had brought with him, and fixed it upright in the ground. "Here is the centre," he said. "Measure each way from it, and you will find the distance the same." The King was satisfied with this answer also.

"Lastly, you must tell me what I am thinking," the King said. The monk replied, "You think I am the Sangha-raja, but I am only one of his monks." So the four questions were all answered satisfactorily.

I heard the following version in Cairo:--

A certain King said to his Chief Minister, "Find me a man who can measure the world and show me the centre of it, and who can count me the number of the stars."

The Minister considered the matter carefully, but could think of no way of complying with the King's orders. At last his wife said, "I can see that something is troubling you. Tell me what it is; perhaps I can assist you." Then he told her the orders of the King, and that he did not know where to look for any one who could do what the King desired. "Go," she said, "to the coffee-dealer's shop. You will find there a man who is always taking hashish. He may be able to help you" [his mental powers being exalted by the drug].

So he went to the coffee-dealer's, and told the hashish-eater his difficulty. "I can soon solve these questions for you," replied the hashish-eater. "Take me to the King."

Thereupon they proceeded to the palace, and the Minister introduced the hashish-eater to the King. He came with a donkey, which was drawing a great load of rope.

"First show me the centre of the world," said the King.

"This place is the centre," said the hashish-eater. "If you doubt it, send your men to drag the other end of this rope up to the sky, and I will prove to you that you are just in the middle."

"Very well," said the King, "that is a satisfactory answer. Now give me the number of the stars."

"Let your people count the hairs on my donkey. You will find that they are exactly equal to the stars in number," said the man. The King admitted that he could not prove that he was answered incorrectly.

The English version is given in the ballad termed "King John and the Abbot of Canterbury," and is found in Bishop Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (ed. 1844, ii, 328). I give some extracts, etc., for the benefit of readers in Ceylon, because of its resemblance to the second Sinhalese story.

With a view to seizing the Abbot's wealth, the King put three questions to him, the penalty for failing to answer them being beheading. The Abbot received three weeks' grace in which to discover the replies, but the wisest doctors could not assist him:

Away rode the Abbot all sad at that word; And he rode to Cambridge and Oxenforde; But never a doctor there was so wise, That could with his learning an answer devise.

However, as in the Kandian version, the shepherd came to his assistance, and took his place on the appointed day, robed as the Abbot, whose features resembled his, and accompanied by the usual train of servants and monks.

Now welcome, sire abbot, the king he did say, 'Tis well thou'rt come back to keepe thy day; For and if thou canst answer my questions three, Thy life and thy living both saved shall bee.

And first, when thou seest me here in this stead, With my crown of golde so fair on my head, Among all my liege-men so noble of birthe, Tell me to one penny what I am worth.

"For thirty pence our Saviour was sold Amonge the false Jewes, as I have bin told; And twenty-nine is the worth of thee, For I thinke, thou are one penny worser than hee."

The king he laughed, and swore by St. Bittel, I did not think I had been worth so littel! --Now secondly tell me, without any doubt, How soone I may ride this whole world about.

"You must rise with the sun, and ride with the same, Until the next morning he riseth againe; And then your grace need not make any doubt, But in twenty-four hours you'll ride it about."

The king he laughed, and swore by St. Jone, I did not think, it could be gone so soone! --Now from the third question thou must not shrinke, But tell me here truly what I do thinke.

"Yea, that shall I do, and make your grace merry: You thinke I'm the abbot of Canterbury; But I'm his poor shepheard, as plain you may see, That am come to beg pardon for him and for mee."

The king he laughed, and swore by the masse, Ile make thee lord abbot this day in his place! "Now naye, my liege, be not in such speede, For alacke I can neither write, ne reade."

Four nobles a weeke, then, I will give thee, For this merry jest thou hast showne unto mee; And tell the old abbot when thou comest home, Thou hast brought him a pardon from good king John.

NO. 19

THE FAITHLESS PRINCESS

In a certain country there is a Prince, it is said. The Prince, saying that women are faithless, does not marry.

The God Sakra having ascertained this, came in the appearance of a man, and asked at the hand of the Prince whether if he created a Princess out of his own very body, and gave her to him, he would be willing to take her in marriage. The Prince said, "It is good."

Afterwards the God Sakra created a Princess from the Prince's body, and gave her to him.

When the Prince and Princess, having got married, had been living together for a very long time, the Princess associated with a Nagaya. [50] When they had been thus for a long time, the Princess and the Nagaya spoke together as to how to kill the Princess's Prince. Then the Nagaya said, "Ask at the hand of the Prince where the Prince's death is. After you have got to know the place where his death is, I will bite [51] him there."

After that, the Princess asked at the hand of the Prince, "Where is your death?" The Prince did not tell her. Every day the Princess was asking it. On a certain day the Prince said, "To-day my death is in my thumb."

Then the Princess told the Nagaya, "He said that his death is in his thumb."

So the Nagaya went [in his snake form, as a cobra], and stopped on the path on which the Prince was going for his bath, in order to bite [51] him.

Afterwards, the Prince's people went first; the Prince went in the middle. Then the people who went first saw the Nagaya, and killed it.

Afterwards, the people and the Prince having returned from bathing, the Prince told at the hand of the Princess, "As we were going to bathe to-day a cobra was on the path; my people killed it." The Princess, clasping her hands with grief, asked, "Where was it?" The Prince told her of the place where the cobra was staying, and she knew that it was the Nagaya.

Afterwards the Princess having given gold to the goldsmith, and having got a waist-chain made, told him to make a case for it. The goldsmith made it, and gave it. Then the Princess went to the place where the cobra was, and cut off its hood; and placing the cobra in the case of the golden waist-chain, the Princess put it round her waist.

Having it there, when they had eaten and drunk in the evening, and lighted the lamp in the house, both of them went into the house.

Then the Princess said to the Prince, "I will ask you a riddle. Should you be unable to explain it, I will kill you. Should you explain it, you shall kill me."

The Prince said "Ha," and both of them swore it.

The Princess saying,

The Naga belt Naga patiya (Is) the golden waist-chain. Ran hawadiya. Explain (it), friend. Tora, sakiya.

told the Prince to solve it. For fifteen paeyas (six hours), without extinguishing the lamp, he tried and tried to explain it. He could not. So she was to kill the Prince next day.

A Devatawa (godling) who drank the smoke of the lamp of that house, was there looking on [invisibly] until the lamp was extinguished. After the lamp was put out, having drunk a little smoke, he took a little that was only slightly burnt with him for his wife. The Devatawa and Devatawi lived in an Ironwood tree on the roadside.

This Prince's elder sister, and the man to whom she was given in marriage, having set off to come to the Prince's city, stayed that night at the resting-place under the Ironwood tree.

Then that Devatawa having brought a little of the under-burnt smoke of the lamp, after he had given it to the Devatawi she quarrelled with him until fifteen paeyas (six hours) had gone, saying, "Where have you been?"

The Devatawa said, "Do not quarrel. In such and such a city, such and such a Prince's Princess having associated with a Nagaya, the Prince's people killed the Nagaya. Having cut off the Nagaya's hood, and laid aside her golden waist-chain, putting it round her waist in order to kill the Prince, because of her anger at the killing of the Nagaya, the Princess told a riddle to the Prince. Having sworn that should the Prince be unable to solve it she is to kill the Prince: should he solve it he is to kill the Princess, the Princess said,

The Naga belt Is the golden waist-chain. Explain it, friend.

"From the evening, without extinguishing the lamp, he tried to solve it. The Prince could not explain it. After fifteen paeyas had gone by, he put out the light. Up to the very time when he extinguished the lamp, so long I remained there. She said that she will kill the Prince to-morrow."

Hearing it, there stayed below the Ironwood tree the Prince's elder sister, and the man to whom she was given. After having heard it, as it became light, when they were coming along to the Prince's house, they saw from afar that they were going to behead the Prince. The elder sister said from afar, "A! Don't behead him. I will solve that riddle."

Having come near, the Prince's elder sister explained the riddle in the manner stated by the Devatawa. So the Prince was saved, and they beheaded the Princess.

North-western Province.

In Folk-Tales of Kashmir (Knowles), 2nd ed., p. 227, a Fakir split a King, and made a wife for him from half his body, but warned him that she would be unfaithful. She fell in love with one of his wazirs, but they were detected, and she was killed.

NO. 20

THE PRINCE WHO DID NOT GO TO SCHOOL

In a certain country there is a King, it is said, and there are two Princes of the King. The two Princes are sent to school, and as they are going from the palace the two go along together. After they have walked a little way, the younger brother goes along the path to the school, and having arrived at the school, learns his letters and returns home. The elder brother, after playing and playing in the water of the river, puts the school aside, it is said; and having come round that way and joined the younger brother, again comes to the palace with him.

After many days had gone by in that manner, the King one day told the two Princes, "To-day I must look at your lessons."

The younger brother said, "Father-King, I indeed go to the school, and having said my lessons return. Elder brother and I having met here, and set off together, after we have gone part of the way, where elder brother goes I do not know. Having gone somewhere or other, when I have left the school and am returning, elder brother meets me on the road, and we two come again to the palace. I can say my lessons; elder brother indeed cannot."

After that, the King looked into the lessons of the two Princes. When he looked, the younger Prince's lessons were good. When he asked the elder Prince, he knew nothing. So the King settled to behead the elder Prince.

The King had, besides, a Prince older than that Prince. He said to that elder Prince, "Behead this one."

Then the Prince having taken a sword to the chena jungle, and killed a "Blood-sucker" lizard (Calotes sp.), returned after rubbing the blood on the sword, and showed it to the King. "Behold! Father-King, I cut younger brother," he said. Afterwards their mother having cooked a bundle of rice, and given it, and also a sword, to the Prince who was ordered to be beheaded, said, "Go to any place you like."

As the Prince was going away taking the bundle of cooked rice and the sword, he met with a man. The man having uprooted Palmira trees and Coconut trees, was taking them away and tying a fence. Having seen this, the Prince said to that man, "Come thou and go with me."

The man having said "Ha," as the two persons were going along together, another man was cutting the earthen ridges in a rice field. The blade of the man's digging hoe was as large as a liyadda (one of the squares into which the rice field was divided). Having seen that, the Prince said to that man who was cutting the ridge in the field, "Come thou and go with me."

The man having said "Ha," and laid down his digging hoe at that very place, came away with those two persons. As the three were going along together, they saw yet a man ploughing. Having seen that the man ploughed a liyadda at one ploughing (furrow), the Prince said, "Come thou and go with me." The man said "Ha," and laying down his plough at that very place, went with the three persons. The three persons whom the Prince had met with on the way were three giants.

The four persons having gone on and on, went near the house of a Rakshasi at a city. Sitting down there, the Prince said to one of the giants, "There! Go to that house and bring thou cooking pots and fire." So that giant went to the house of the Rakshasi.

As he arrived there, the Rakshasi was pouring water over (i.e. bathing) a child. The giant went near the Rakshasi, and said, "Ane! Give me fire and cooking pots." The Rakshasi told him the way to the house in which she ate human flesh, and said, "There! They are in that house; take them." After that, at the time when the giant was going into the house, the Rakshasi went running and shut the door, so that the giant could not come out.

Those two giants and the Prince remained a long time looking out; the giant did not come. Afterwards the Prince again told a giant to go. The giant having gone, asked the Rakshasi, "Didn't a man come here?"

The Rakshasi said, "He did not come here."

Then the giant said, "If so, give me cooking pots and fire." Then the Rakshasi, in the same manner in which she told that giant, showed him the way to the house in which she ate human flesh. As the giant was going into the house, the Rakshasi, having gone running, shut the door.

That Prince and the third giant having been there a long time, neither of the giants came. Afterwards the Prince told the other giant to go. The giant went, and asked the Rakshasi, "Didn't two men come here?"

The Rakshasi said, "They did not come here."

So the giant said, "If so, give me cooking pots and fire." The Rakshasi, in that very way having told him the path to the house in which she ate human flesh, at the time when the giant was going into it shut the door.

The Prince remained looking out for a long time; the three giants did not come. Afterwards the Prince, taking his sword, came near the Rakshasi, and asked, "Didn't three men come here?"

The Rakshasi said, "They did not come here."

Then the Prince, seizing the Rakshasi's hair knot, prepared to chop at her with the sword. "Give me quickly my three men; if not, I shall chop thy head off," he said.

Then the Rakshasi, saying, "Ane! Do not kill me. At any place where you want it I will assist you," gave him the three men.

After that, the Prince and the three giants having gone away without killing the Rakshasi, the Prince caused the three giants to stay at a city; and having given into their hands a Blue-lotus flower, said, "Should I not be alive, this Blue-lotus flower will fade, and the lime trees at your house will die." So saying, the Prince, taking his sword, went quite alone.

After going a long way he came to a city, and having gone to the house of a Rakshasa, when he looked, the Rakshasa had gone for human flesh as food and only a girl was there. The Prince asked the girl for a resting-place.

The girl said, "Ane! What have you come here for? A Rakshasa lives at this house. The Rakshasa having eaten the men of this city they are now finished."

The Prince said, "I will kill him. Are there dried coconuts and meneri [52] here?" The girl said there were. The Prince told her to bring them, and the girl brought them.

Then the Prince asked, "How does he come to eat men?"

The girl said, "Having come twelve miles--(three gawwas)--away, he cries, 'Hu'; having come eight miles away, he cries, 'Hu'; and having come four miles away, he cries, 'Hu'; and then he comes to this house."

After that, the Prince having spread out, from the stile at the fence, the meneri seed and the dried coconuts, over the whole of the open ground near the front of the house, went to sleep in the veranda, placing the sword near him, and laying his head on the waist pocket of the girl.

Then the Rakshasa, when twelve miles away, cried, "Hu." Tears fell from the girl's eyes, and dropped on the Prince's head. The Prince arose, and said to the girl, "What are you weeping for?"

Then the Rakshasa cried, "Hu," eight miles away. The girl said, "There! The Rakshasa cried, 'Hu,' eight miles away." Continuing to say, "He will cry, 'Hu,' the next time, and then come here," the girl wept.

The Prince, having told the girl not to weep, took the sword in his hand, and while he was there the Rakshasa, crying "Hu," came into the open space near the house.

Then the Prince chopped at the Rakshasa with his sword, and the Rakshasa went backward. Thereupon the Prince said, "Will not even the Rakshasi whom I set free that day without killing her, render assistance in this?"

The Rakshasi came immediately, and struck a thorn into the crown of the Rakshasa's head, and at that very instant the Rakshasa died. After that, the Prince buried the body, and marrying the girl remained there.

When he had been there a long time, a widow-mother came and said to the Prince and the girl, "Children, I will come and live with you, as you are alone." Both of them said "Ha," so the woman stayed there.

After she had lived there a long time, the woman said to the girl, "Daughter, ask in what place is the life of the Prince."

Afterwards the girl said to the Prince, "Mother is asking where your life is."

The Prince said, "My life is in my neck."

The girl told the woman, "I asked him; he said his life is in his neck."

The woman said, "It is not in the neck. He is speaking falsely. Ask again." So the girl asked again.

The Prince said, "My life is in my breast."

The girl told the woman, "He said it is in his breast."

The woman said, "It is not in the breast. Tell him to speak the truth."

Afterwards she said again to the Prince, "Mother says it is not in your breast. She said that you are to speak the truth."

Then the Prince said, "My life is in my sword."

So the girl told the widow-mother, "He said it is in his sword."

When a long time had gone by, one day the Prince, laying down the sword, went to sleep. After the Prince had gone to sleep, the widow woman and that girl having quietly taken the sword, put it in the fire on the hearth. Then as the sword burnt and burnt away the Prince died.

After that, the widow woman took the girl, and gave her to the King, and the woman also stayed at the palace.

Then the Blue-lotus flower which the Prince gave to those three giants on going away, faded, and the lime trees died. When the giants saw this they said, "Ade! Our elder brother will have died," and having spoken together, the three giants came to seek the Prince.

Having come there, and asked the men of the city at which the Prince stayed, regarding him, they went to the house in which he lived, and searched for him. As they were digging in a heap of rubbish, they found that a little bit of the end of the sword was there, and they took it. Afterwards the giants placed it on a bed, and after they had tended it carefully, the sword little by little became larger. When the sword became completely restored, the Prince was created afresh.

Afterwards, when the Prince looked to see if the girl whom he had taken in marriage was there, neither the girl nor the widow-mother was there. Then the Prince went with the three giants to the King's palace, and on looking there they learnt that the girl was married to the King, and that the widow woman also was there. So the Prince said to the widow woman, "Quickly give me the Princess whom I married."

The woman said, "Ane! The Princess whom I knew is not here. She did not come with me."

Then the Prince cut off the woman's head with his sword, and having gone to the King, asked, "Where is my Princess? You must give her to me."

The King said, "No Princess will be here."

Thereupon the Prince cut off the King's head with his sword; and he and the three giants having cut down all the servants who were in the palace, summoning the Princess, remained in that very palace.

North-western Province.

The giving a plant or flower as a life index, which fades when illness or danger besets the giver, and dies at his death, is a very common incident in folk-tales.

In Wide-Awake Stories (Steel and Temple), p. 52--Tales of the Punjab (Steel), p. 47--it was a barley plant.

In Folk-Tales of Bengal (Day), p. 189, a Prince planted a tree as his life index, and said, "When you see the tree green and fresh then you know that it is well with me; when you see the tree fade in some parts, then you know that I am in an ill case; and when you see the whole tree fade, then know that I am dead and gone."

In Tota Kahani (Small), p. 43, when a man was about to leave his wife, she gave him a nosegay of flowers which would retain their freshness if she were faithful to him, and fade if she misconducted herself.

In The Indian Antiquary, vol. xvii, p. 54, a plant was given to each of two persons, as a Prince's life index. He said, "If this plant should fade, know that I am sick or in danger; if it should die know that I also am dead."

The notion that a person's life may be concealed in some external object, usually a bird or a bee, is one of the commonest features of folk-tales.

In the story numbered 24 in this volume, the King's life was in a golden parrot.

In Wide-Awake Stories, p. 59--Tales of the Punjab, p. 52--a Jinni's life was in a bee, which was in a golden cage inside the crop (?) of a Maina [bird].

At pp. 62, 63, Tales of the Punjab, p. 55, a Prince's life was in his sword. When this was placed in the fire he felt a burning fever, and when it was made red-hot and a rivet came out of the hilt, his head came off. Afterwards, when the sword was repaired and repolished, the Prince was restored to life.

At p. 83, Tales of the Punjab, p. 75, the life of a Princess was in a nine-lakh necklace, which was in a box inside a bee that lived in the body of a fish. When asked about it, she first said that her life was in each of the seven sons of the wicked Queen who wanted to kill her, all of whom were murdered by the Queen.

In Folk-Tales of Kashmir (Knowles), 2nd ed., p. 49, the lives of Rakshasas were in seven cocks, a spinning-wheel, a pigeon, and a starling.

At p. 134, the life of one was in a veranda pillar at his house; when it was broken he died.

At p. 383, the life of one was in a queen-bee in a honey-comb hanging on a tree.

In Folk-Tales of Bengal (Day), pp. 2 and 6, the life of a Prince was in a golden necklace deposited in a wooden box which was in the heart of a fish.

At pp. 85 and 86, the lives of seven hundred Rakshasas were in two bees which were on the top of a crystal pillar, deep in the water of a tank. If a drop of their blood fell on the ground, a thousand Rakshasas would start up from it.

At p. 121, the life of a Rakshasi was in a bird that was in a cage. As its limbs were torn off, a corresponding limb dropped off the Rakshasi who had been made the Queen.

At p. 253, the lives of two Rakshasas (m. and f.) were in two bees that were in a wooden box at the bottom of a tank. If a person who killed them allowed a drop of their blood to fall on the ground, he would be torn into seven hundred pieces by the Rakshasas.

In The Indian Antiquary, vol. i, p. 86, in a Dardu legend (G. W. Leitner), the life of a King of Gilgit was in snow, and he could only die by fire.

At p. 117, in a Bengal story (G. H. Damant), the lives of Rakshasas were in two bees in a gourd which was inside a crystal pillar at the bottom of a tank. If one drop of the bees' blood fell on the ground, the Rakshasas would be twice as numerous as before. The bees were killed by being squeezed to death.

At p. 171, in a Bengal story (G. H. Damant), the lives of Rakshasas were in a lemon, and a bird. When the lemon was cut in Bengal, the Rakshasas in Ceylon died. As the bird's wings were broken, the Rakshasi Queen's arms were broken; when the bird died, she died.

In vol. xvi, p. 191, the life of a giant was in a parrot; when it was killed he died.

In vol. xvii, p. 51, a Prince's life was in a sword; if it rusted he was sick, and if it broke he died.

In Folk-Tales of Hindustan, Allahabad (Shaik Chilli), p. 51, the life of a Prince was in the brightness of his sword. When it was placed in a furnace and lost the brightness, he died. A giant who was his friend found it, and discovering that a little brightness remained at the tip, rubbed it until it regained its lustre, on which the Prince revived.

At p. 114, the lives of Rakshasas were in a number of birds; they died when these were killed.

In a tale of the interior of W. Africa in Contes Soudanais (C. Monteil), p. 154, the life of a King was in a little box inside a small goat-skin, which was in a little pot placed inside a large pot. When the King was told this he died.

Doubtless this strange notion of a life safeguarded by being hidden away, is of early date, and may be due originally to the early magical idea prevalent in Egypt, Assyria, and India, that a person might be killed from any distance by piercing the heart of a figurine formed to represent him. This action is mentioned in the Commentary on the Atharva Veda (Bloomfield's translation, p. 359); and in the Rigveda, i, 29, 7 (Griffith's translation), prayer is made to Indra for the destruction of "him who in secret injures us."

In the Jataka story No. 208 (vol. ii, p. 111), a monkey escaped from a crocodile that was going to kill it in order to get its heart, by telling it that monkeys kept their hearts hanging on trees.

In the Maha Bharata, Vana Parva, 135, 52, a Rishi caused buffaloes to shatter a mountain, and thereby killed a child whose life was dependent on its existence, if not supposed to be actually in it.

The recovery of the three giants from the house of the Rakshasi is evidently based on the story of Wijaya, the first King of Ceylon, and Kuweni, a female Yakkha or aboriginal Princess, who, taking the form of a devotee, had captured his followers one by one, and imprisoned them.

The story is given in the Mahavansa, chapter vii, as follows:--"All these persons not returning, Wijaya becoming alarmed, equipping himself with the five weapons of war, proceeded after them; and examining the delightful pond [to which they had gone to bathe], he could perceive footsteps leading down only into the tank; and he there saw the devotee. It occurred to him: 'My retinue must surely have been seized by her.' 'Woman, hast thou seen my attendants?' said he. 'Prince,' she replied, 'what need hast thou of attendants? Do drink and bathe ere thou departest.' Saying to himself, 'Even my lineage, this Yakkhini is acquainted with it,' proclaiming his title, and quickly seizing his bow, he rushed at her. Securing the Yakkhini by the throat with a 'naracana' ring, with his left hand seizing her by the hair, and raising his sword with his right hand, he exclaimed, 'Slave! restore me my followers, or I will put thee to death.' The Yakkhini, terrified, implored that her life might be spared. 'Lord! spare my life; on thee I will confer this sovereignty; unto thee I will render the favours of my sex, and every other service according to thy desire.' In order that she might not prove herself treacherous, he made the Yakkhini take an oath. While he was in the act of saying, 'Instantly produce my followers,' she brought them forth" (Mahavansa, i, p. 32).

The idea of the thorn which was driven into the head of the Rakshasa, is borrowed from magical practice. In the case of a figurine made for the destruction or injury of a person, pins or nails or thorns were run into various parts of the body, one being inserted in the crown of the head. In a variant of the story numbered 73 in this work, a female Yaka was kept in subjection by means of an iron nail that was driven into the crown of the head.

In Indian Fairy Tales (Stokes), p. 12, a pin was fixed in the head of a woman who had been transformed into a bird. When it was drawn out she resumed her human form.

In The Illustrated Guide to the South Indian Railway, 1900, p. 232, it is stated regarding the great stone Bull, 12 feet high, at the Tanjore temple, that "it was popularly supposed by the natives that this bull was growing, and as they feared it might become too large for the mandapam [stone canopy] erected over it a nail was driven into the back of its head, and since this was done the size of the monolith has remained stationary."

NO. 21

NAGUL-MUNNA

In a village there were two persons called Nagul-Munna and Mun-aeta Guruwa. While those two were living there they spoke together, "Friend, while we two are remaining in this way matters are not going on properly." At the time when they spoke thus, Mun-aeta Guruwa replied to Nagul-Munna's talk, and said, "It is good, friend. If that be so let us two cut a chena."

Having spoken thus, the two persons went to the chena jungle, and there being no watch-hut there, built one; and taking supplies week by week, began to chop down the bushes while they were living at the house in the jungle. Having chopped down the jungle, and burnt it, and sown the chena, the millet plants grew to a very large size.

When the two persons were at the watch-hut they remained talking one night for a long time, and said, "To-morrow we must go to the village to bring back supplies." After talking thus, they went to sleep, both of them.

During the time while they were sleeping, Mun-aeta Guruwa's clothes caught fire. Then Nagul-Munna awoke, and jumped down to the ground, and ran away. Mun-aeta Guruwa was burnt in the shed and died. On account of his being killed, through fear of being charged with causing his death, Nagul-Munna bounded off into the jungle, and did not return to the village.

That day the relatives of those people who were in the village, thinking, "Nagul-Munna and Mun-aeta Guruwa will be coming to fetch supplies," getting ready the supplies, stayed looking for them. On that day the two persons did not come; because they did not come two men went from the village to look for them.

The two having gone and looked, and seen that the watch-hut had been burnt, spoke together concerning it: "Both these men have been burnt and died. Let us go back to the village." So they returned.

Nagul-Munna, who sprang into the jungle that night, having come home during the night of the following day, spoke to his wife, who was in the house. The woman, thinking that he had died, was frightened at his speech, and cried out, "Nagul-Munna has been born as a Yaka, and having come here is doing something to me." At that cry the men of the village came running; when they looked he was not there, having run off through fear of being seized.

In that manner he came on two days. The woman, being afraid, did not open the door. On the third day he arose, and hid himself at the tank near the village. While he was there, a tom-tom beater having gone to a devil-dance, [53] came bringing a bit of cooked rice, and a box containing his mask and decorations. [54]

As he was coming along bringing them, this Nagul-Munna having seen him, went and beat the tom-tom beater, and taking the bit of cooked rice and the box of devil-dancer's things, bounded into the jungle. Having sprung into the jungle, and eaten the bit of rice, he unfastened the box of devil-dancer's goods, and taking the things in it, dressed himself in them, putting the jingling bracelets [55] on his arms and the jingling anklets [56] on his legs.

There was a large mask in it. Taking it, and tying it on his face, he went to the village when it became night, and having gone to a house there, broke the neck of a calf that was tied near it, and sprang into the rice-field near by. Having made a noise by shaking the jingling bracelets, and given three cries, "Hu, Hu, Hu," he shouted, "If you do not give a leaf-cup of rice and a young coconut at dawn, and at night a leaf-cup of rice and a young coconut, I will kill all the cattle and men that are in your village, and having drunk their blood, go away."

The men of the village becoming afraid on account of it, began to give rice every day in the way he said. Having given it for about four or five years in this manner, the men spoke together, "Let us fetch a sooth-sayer to seize that Yaka." After having said concerning it, "It is good," they fetched a doctor (Veda).

When the doctor went to the tank to catch that Yaka, Nagul-Munna came, and seizing that doctor, cut his bathing cloth, and having taken him to the place where he was staying, killed him, and trampled on his bathing cloth. Through the seizing and killing of the doctor, the men of the village became afraid to a still greater degree.

After that, having talked about bringing another sooth-sayer they fetched one. In the same manner, when he went to the tank the Yaka killed the sooth-sayer. At that deed the men of the village became more afraid still.

Having fetched a Sannyasi (a Hindu religious mendicant) from Jaffna, they went to him, and told him to seize the Yaka. That man said, "It is good"; and having gone to the aforesaid tank to look for him, the Yaka was in a tree. So the sooth-sayer repeated incantations to cause the Yaka to descend. The Yaka did not descend.

After that, because he did not descend, that person got to know that he was a man, and on his calling "Hu," to the men of the village the men came. Afterwards, seizing Nagul-Munna, who was in the tree, they went to the village.

Because Mun-aeta Guruwa had died, the relatives of Mun-aeta Guruwa came for their [legal] action against him.

Saying that he had cheated them, and eaten food wrongly obtained from them, the men of the village came for their action.

Because he had stolen the rice and the box with tom-tom beater's things in it, the tom-tom beater came for his action.

Saying that he killed the first sooth-sayer, his people came for their action.

The second sooth-sayer's people also in the same way came for their action.

For his killing the calf the owner came for his action.

After all who had brought these actions had came to one spot, the man, saying, "Because my wife told me to cut the chena together with Mun-aeta Guruwa, and through my cutting the chena with him, this happened," killed his own wife.

Then, while he was going for his trial a bear bit that man on the way, and he died.

North-western Province.

In The Orientalist, vol. iii, p. 31, there is a nearly similar story of a tom-tom beater who was supposed to be burnt in his watch hut. In reality, it was a beggar who was burnt. The man being afraid of being charged with murdering him, got hid in the jungle. He came to his house at night, but was supposed to be the Mala upan Yaka, "the evil spirit born from the dead," and was refused admittance by his wife, who gave an alarm. As men were coming on hearing it, he ran off. On another night when he came, his wife assailed him with a volley of invectives, as demon-scarers; so carrying off his dancing paraphernalia, he again retired, and afterwards robbed travellers, and frightened the people till they threatened to leave the district. The King offered a handsome reward for his apprehension, but he tied up a Kattadiya or devil priest who came to exorcise him. In the end he was captured by a Buddhist monk, taken before the King, and after relating his adventures, appears to have been allowed to go unpunished.

In the Jataka story No. 257 (vol. ii, p. 209), there is an account of four actions brought against one man on the same day. It is a folk-tale in Ceylon also.

NO. 22

THE KULE-BAKA FLOWERS

In a certain country a King was ruling; the King was without children. The King having performed many meritorious deeds, five children were born.

When they looked into the Naekata (or prognostics resulting from the positions of the planets) at the time when the children were born, those of four were good, but that of the fifth child was that on seeing him his father's two eyes would become blind. The King told them to take the Prince and put him down in the forest. So having taken the Prince they put him in the forest.

After that, animals having come through the favour of the Prince's guardian deity, gave him milk, and reared him.

After much time had passed, the Prince's father, the King, went to have the jungle driven (for shooting); and having gone, while they were driving the jungle that Prince came, and bounded round the King's enclosure. Then, the King having seen him his eyes became blind, and he went away without his eyes seeing anything. The people who went with the King, lifting him up, carried him to the palace.

Having arrived there, various medical treatments were applied; he was not cured. After that, he caused sooth-sayers to be brought, and after he had asked them regarding it, they said, "By applying medical treatment you will not meet with a cure. In the midst of the Forest of the Gods there is a flower called Kule-baka. Having brought that flower, and burnt it on your eyes, your eyes will see."

Afterwards the King asked the people, "Who is able to bring this flower?" All the people said they could not do it. Then the four eldest Princes of the King, having said, "Let us go," asked permission of the King; the King told them to go. So the four persons having started, went.

As they were going, the four persons went to a city. A courtesan stayed in that city; her name was Diribari-Laka. [57] She gambled (i.e. kept a gambling house). These four persons went to her house, and having gone there prepared to gamble. Then the woman said, "Should you lose by this game, I shall make you four persons prisoners (that is, slaves)." The four persons having said, "It is good," gambled, and all four having lost remained there as prisoners.

The Prince who was in the forest, having got to know all these matters, also set off to seek the flower, and on his way arrived at the city at which the Princes who were made prisoners were staying. This one, having gone to the King of the city, was appointed to do messenger's work there. While he was living thus, this one obtained news that the courtesan was gambling, and thereupon this Prince asked the King for leave of absence. Having obtained it, he went to the house of an old woman near the courtesan's house.

Having gone there, this Prince having fallen down near the feet of that old woman and made obeisance, weeping and weeping, these words are what he said, "Mother, are you in the enjoyment of health? Do not you let your face be even visible (to) scrofulous offspring. When lightning has struck you (may it) take your progeny." [58] Having spoken and spoken with these honours he remained weeping. The woman's child, not of small age, was there, and having said similar things to the child also, and while weeping having paid respect, the woman made that Prince rise, and asked him, "Where were you for such a long period?"

"I was with a King," the Prince said. "Mother, whose is that house?" he asked.

The woman said, "Why, son? Do not say anything about it. That house is the house of a courtesan. There is a gambling game of that woman's, and by it many persons, having lost, remain as prisoners."

The Prince asked, "Mother, how does one win by that game?"

Then the woman said, "A bent lamp having been lighted, is placed at the gambling place. Below the lamp a cat is sitting. While the woman is gambling the cat raises its head; then victory falls to the woman. When another person is playing the cat lowers its head; then defeat falls to that man. If you are to win, having extinguished the bent lamp, and driven away the cat, and brought and placed there another lamp, if you should then play you can win."

After that, the Prince went to gamble. Having gone there, when he was ready to gamble she said, "Should you lose in gambling, you will be condemned to imprisonment; should you win you marry me."

The Prince said, "It is good," and gambled. When he was losing, he extinguished the lamp, and having beaten and driven away the cat, he told the woman to bring another lamp. After that, the woman brought a lamp. Having brought and placed the lamp there, they gambled. The woman having lost all, the Prince won. Afterwards, that woman married this Prince.

During the time while he was living there, as this Prince was starting to go and bring the Kule-baka flower, the woman said, "Don't go."

The Prince said, "I did not come for this gambling; I came for the Kule-baka flower. I must indeed go, after having set off for this purpose," he said. So the Prince went to bring the flower. Before this, he had allowed the imprisoned men to go, and said to the four Princes, "Stop until I return."

Having thus gone, he entered into the midst of a forest. While he was there, human-flesh-eating serpents and forest animals that were in the midst of the forest sprang to devour this Prince, but he made supplication to his deity, so they were unable to do it, and went away.

Then the Yaka who was guarding the Kule-baka garden, having seen the Prince, and having arisen and come near the Prince, asked, "Have you, a man born in the world of men, come into my presence to be a prey to me?"

The Prince said, "My father the King for a fault said he must behead me. On account of it, having made my way into the midst of the forest, I have come to you for you to eat indeed. If you are going to eat me, eat me; if you are going to keep me, keep me alive."

After that, the Yaka asked, "What do you eat?"

The Prince said, "We eat wheat flour, ghi, sugar, and camels' flesh. [59] These indeed we eat."

All these requisites having been brought by the Yaka, after he had given them to the Prince, the Prince made the food, and gave to the Yaka also.

The Yaka having eaten the food, sprang up into the air, and said to the Prince, "I never ate a meal like this. I will do anything you tell me."

Then the Prince said to the Yaka, "Where is the path to go to the Kule-baka garden?"

The Yaka sprang up into the air, and fell on the ground, and beating his head, said, "If you had said so before this, by this time I should have eaten you. What can I do now that I have promised to help you?" Having said, "Go away from here," he told him about the path.

Then the Prince went along it. There, also, a Yaksani [60] (female Yaka) was guarding it, and the Prince came to her. The Yaksani asked the Prince, "Where are you going?"

The Prince said, "Having delayed in the midst of a forest, as I was returning I was unable to find the country with my village. Now I have met with you here."

As he appeared good to the Yaksani she caused him to stay there, and married her daughter to him. The name of the girl to whom the Prince was married was Maha-Muda. [61]

During the time while he was there the Prince remained angry.

The girl asked, "What are you angry for?"

The Prince said, "I must go to look at the Kule-baka garden."

Then the girl spoke about this matter to her mother. So that woman having fetched rats, caused a tunnel to be made by them to the Kule-baka garden. Along that tunnel the Prince went to the flower garden, and having gone there, and plucked the flowers, came back again.

Having returned there, calling Maha-Muda he came to the house of Diribari-Laka. Having arrived there, he burnt on the lower part of the back the four Princes who had remained as prisoners. The Prince who went for the Kule-baka flowers having burnt in this way the four Princes, who stayed as slaves at the house of Diribari-Laka, these four persons were freed from imprisonment.

Then the Prince, Maha-Muda, and Diribari-Laka, taking the flowers, came to the Prince's native country. Having arrived there, he burnt the Kule-baka flowers on the two eyes of his father the King, and the two eyes of the King became well.

After that, the King having asked the Prince regarding these matters, learnt that he was the King's Prince, [and he and his two wives continued to live there with him].

North-western Province.

In Wide-Awake Stories (Steel and Temple), p. 276 ff.--Tales of the Punjab, p. 263, 264--a rat assisted King Sarkap in games at Chaupur (the Pachis game), until it was frightened by a kitten that Prince Rasalu had rescued from a potter's kiln.

At p. 250 of the former work it was predicted that if his father saw the Prince during the twelve years after his birth, he (the father) would die.

In Indian Nights' Entertainment, Panjab (Swynnerton), p. 319, a rat which had been saved from drowning assisted a girl to defeat a Princess at Chaupur, by attracting the attention of a cat that moved the pieces for the Princess. The cat was struck by the girl while trying to seize the rat which she held; when it ran off she won.

In Folk-Tales of Kashmir (Knowles), 2nd ed., p. 149, the cat belonging to a female gambler, at a sign from her mistress, extinguished the lamp whenever the game was going against her.

In Folk-Tales of Bengal (Day), p. 277, a Princess, in order to get back her husband, started a gambling establishment at which they gambled with dice, the stake being one hundred thousand rupees, together with the imprisonment of the loser at her house. Her ruse was successful. A rich merchant's son, the Prefect's son, the Minister's son, and the Prince, all came in turn and lost.

NO. 23

KURULU-GAMA APPU, THE SOOTH-SAYER

In a certain city a man was stricken by a scarcity of food to eat, and he went to another country. Having gone there, during the time while he was residing in a village, the village men asked, "What sooth can you tell?" [62] He said, "I can tell one sooth; to do that sooth I want Jak-tree gum, Coconut oil, and Euphorbia milk" (the milky sap which exudes from cuts or bruises in the bark). Thereupon the men having collected those things that he mentioned, gave them to him.

Then he went and warmed these things [making bird-lime] and placed [limed] twigs, and catching birds and coming with them, he gave them daily, two by two at each house, and thus ate. The man's name was Appu; his village was Kurulu-gama (Birds' village).

While he was continuing to eat in this manner, the men of that village started to go to Puttalam, carrying produce for sale. That man also said, "I also must go." Then the men of the village asked, "You have nothing; what will you take?" Thereupon this one tying up a pingo load of chaff and coconut husks, goes with the men.

Then the men who were going on that journey, having come down to the high road, set off to go. While they were going, the men having said [in fun] "Vedarala" (Doctor) to that man, he kept the name.

Having gone very far, the Vedarala, telling the men who went with him to wait on the road, placed his pingo (carrying-stick) on the road, and went into an open place in the jungle. While going along in it, when he looked about, a yoke of cattle were entangled in the bushes. Then this Vedarala having gone near the yoke of cattle, looked at the letter marks branded on them, and having come back and taken up the pingo load, while they were going on it became night.

This party having halted on the road near a village, sent the Vedarala to get a resting-place for the night. Having gone to a house in the village, when he asked for it the house men said, "What giving of resting-places is there for us! We are lamenting in sorrow for the difficulty we are in. Our yoke of cattle are missing."

The Vedarala said, "Now then, what have we to do with your losing a yoke of cattle? Give us a resting-place."

"If you want one, look there! There is the shed, come and stay there," they said.

Then the Vedarala having come back, says to the people of the party, "There is a shed indeed. Stay if you like; go on, if you want to go," he said. So this party having come to the shed sat down.

The people of the party said to the Vedarala, "Vedarala, why are you staying looking about? Night is coming on. We must seek a little firewood and water," they spoke together.

The house persons having heard these words, said, "What is this, that you are saying 'Vedarala'? Does he know sooth and the like?" they asked. [63]

The persons of the party said without a reason for it (nikamata), "To a certain extent he can tell matters of sooth."

"If so, don't be delayed on account of anything you want. We will bring and give you rice, firewood, and water." So they brought and gave them five quarts of rice, a dried fish, a head of ash-plantains.

This party, cooking amply, and having eaten, said at night to the person who owned the house, "Now then, bring a packet of betel leaves for him to tell you sooth." So the house person having brought the betel, gave it to the Vedarala.

Thereupon the assumed (lit. "face") Vedarala, having taken the betel, after having looked at it falsely becoming "possessed," said, "It is a yoke of oxen of yours that have been lost, isn't it?"

Then the house person said, "You have said the sooth very correctly. I asked it of the deities of many dewalas (demon-temples), and of sooth-sayers. There wasn't a person who told me even a sign of it."

Thereafter the Vedarala asked, "What will you give me for seeking and giving you the yoke of cattle?"

That person said, "Even if you can't give the full yoke of cattle, I will give a half share of the value"; thus he promised.

The Vedarala having said, "It is good," and told him to get and bring a torch, cunningly having gone near the yoke of cattle that remained entangled in the bush at that place where he went on coming, asked if these were his oxen. Then the man said, "These are indeed my cattle," and having unfastened them and come back, in the morning gave him a half share [64] of the value of the cattle. Taking it, and throwing away the chaff and coconut husks, he went away.

That day also, having gone on until the time when it was becoming night, he got a resting-place in the very way in which, having spoken before, he got one. At the time when they were in the shed the persons of the party said, "Vedarala, what are you staying looking about for? We must seek and get firewood and water."

Then the house people say, "What are you saying 'Vedarala' for? Does he know to say sooth and the like?"

After that, this party say, "He can also tell sooth. Last night he sought and gave a yoke of cattle."

Then the house persons quickly having brought rice, fish, firewood, water, gave them to the men.

This party having amply cooked and eaten, while they were sleeping, the house person, having brought a packet of betel leaves, spoke to the Vedarala: "How am I to ask sooth?"

The Vedarala rebuked him. "All these persons being now without memory or understanding, what saying of sooth is there?" [65] Then that one having gone, he went to sleep.

A woman of the house was there; her name was Sihibuddi. The woman having heard the words which the Vedarala said, came and having softly awakened the Vedarala, said, "The Sihibuddi you mention is I indeed. It was I indeed who stole this house person's packet of waragan. [66] I will give you a share; don't mention it."

Thereupon the Vedarala says, "Where is it? Bring it quickly, and having brought it place it near that clump of plantains."

Then this woman having brought the packet of waragan, and placed it at the foot of the plantain clump and gone away, he went to sleep.

Afterwards the Vedarala called the house person. "Now then, bring betel for me to say sooth." The man having brought betel gave it to the Vedarala.

Then the Vedarala, having taken the betel and looked at it, said, "It is a packet of waragan that has been lost, isn't it."

That man said, "It is that indeed. Should you seek and give what has been lost of mine, I will give you a half share."

Then the Vedarala having told him to get a light, becoming "possessed," went and took and gave him the packet of waragan that was at the foot of the plantain clump.

Having taken from it a half share, at the time when the party were going on, thieves having broken into the box at the foot of the King's bed, [67] he made public by beat of tom-toms that many offices would be given by the King to a person who should seek and give it to him.

At that time this party said, "In our party indeed, there is a sooth-sayer. On the night of the day before yesterday he sought out and gave a yoke of cattle. Yesternight he sought out and gave a packet of waragan." Thereupon the persons took this Vedarala near the King. Then the King asks, "Can he catch and give the thief who broke into the box at the foot of my bed?" The party said that he could.

Then the sooth-sayer, having become afraid, thought, "I will tie a cord to my neck and die." So he said, "After tying white cloths in a house (as a decoration, on the walls and under the roof), and a piece of cord to the cross-beam, and placing a bed, chairs, and table in it, and setting on end a rice mortar, you must give me it in the evening." The King having prepared them in that very way, gave him them.

Afterwards, the Vedarala, after it became night, having gone inside the house, told them to shut the door from the outside, and lock it. Then having mounted on the rice mortar, when he tried to put the cord round his neck it was too short. On account of it he said, "Both the cord is too short and the height is insufficient. What shall I do?" [68]

As the Vedarala was saying this word Kumandaeyi, a citizen, Kumanda, an old thief, was there [listening outside]. Having heard this, he thought, "He is calling out my name"; so becoming afraid he came near and spoke to the Vedarala, and said, "It is I indeed whom you call Kumanda. It is I indeed who committed the theft. Don't say anything about it to the King."

Then the Vedarala said, "If so, bring the things and put them in this house."

Thereupon the old thief, having brought to the house all the things taken out of the box which was at the foot of the King's bed, gave them to the sooth-sayer through the window.

Then the Vedarala slept until light having come it became daylight.

Afterwards, the King having sent messengers in the morning, they awoke the Vedarala. Then the Vedarala, thinking it unseasonable, said, "Who is talking to me without allowing me to sleep?" and silently went to sleep again. So the messengers returned and told the King.

Afterwards the King came and spoke to him, and opened the door. The Vedarala having come out, said, "O Lord, Your Majesty, I was unable to seize the thieves; the things indeed I met with."

Then the King said, "The thief does not matter; after you have met with the things it is enough."

Then the King, catching a great many fire-flies and putting them in a coconut shell, asked the Vedarala, "What is there in this?"

The sooth-sayer, becoming afraid, went as far as he could see him, and thinking, "I will strike my head against a tree and die," came running and struck his head against a tree. [69] Then the sooth-sayer said, "O Father! It was as though a hundred fire-flies flew about."

The King said, "That is true. They are indeed fire-flies that are in my hand."

After that, the King caught a bird, and clenching it in his fist, asked the sooth-sayer, "What is there in this fist?"

The sooth-sayer, having become afraid, began to beat his head on a stone. Then he said, "Kurulu-gama Appu's strength went (this time)." [70]

The King said, "Bola, it is indeed a bird that is in my hand"; and having called the Vedarala, and given him many offices, and a house, told him to stay at that very city.

Afterwards the Vedarala, thinking, "They will call me again to tell sooth," having put away the things that were in the house, and having set fire to the house, said, "Kurulu-gama Appu's sooth-saying is finished from to-day. The sooth books have been burnt." Having made it public he stayed at that very city.

North-western Province.

The second discovery of the sooth-sayer is extracted from a variant by a washerman, the rest of the story having been written by a man of the cultivating caste.

In the Katha Sarit Sagara (Tawney), vol. i, p. 272, there is an account of a pretended sooth-sayer, a poverty-stricken Brahmana. He first hid a horse, and when application was made to him to discover it, he drew diagrams and described the place where it would be found. After that, when a thief stole gold and jewels from the King's palace he was sent for and shut up in a room, where he began to blame his tongue, jivha, which had made a vain pretence at knowledge. The principal thief, a maid called Jivha, overheard him, and told him where she had buried her share of the plunder. Afterwards the King tested him by placing a frog in a covered pitcher. He expected that he would be killed, and said, "This is a fine pitcher for you, Frog (his father's pet name for himself), since suddenly it has become the swift destroyer of yourself in this place." He was thought a great sage, and the King presented him with "villages with gold, umbrella, and vehicles of all kinds."

There is another story of a pretended sooth-sayer in vol. ii, p. 140, of the same work, but it does not, like the last, resemble the Sinhalese tale.

NO. 24

HOW A PRINCE WAS CHASED BY A YAKSANI, AND WHAT BEFEL

A prince went for hunting-sport. As he was going, a Yaksani (female Yaka) who was living in the midst of the forest, chased him, saying that she was going to eat the Prince, and drove the Prince down the path. The Prince having gone running, went bounding through the middle of a city. The Yaksani followed him in the disguise of a woman.

The King of the city having seen them, sent the Ministers, and told them to look what it was about. The Ministers asked the Yaksani who was bounding behind him, "What is that for?"

The Yaksani said, "My husband having quarrelled with me and left me, is running away. I am running after him because of it."

The Ministers then brought her before the King, and having seen the beauty of the Yaksani, the King was pleased with her, and said, "If you should not go with him it does not matter; stay here." So the King, having prepared another house for the Yaksani, and having married her, establishing her in the office of Chief Queen, she remained there.

While she was there, this Yaksani having gone like a thief during the time when all were sleeping, and killed and eaten the men of the city, brought a few of the bones, and placed them in a heap at the back of the houses in which the twelve Queens of the King slept.

When a little time had gone by in this manner, the men of the city came to the King, and saying, "Since you have brought and are keeping this Yaksani this city is altogether desolate," made obeisance. Then the King made inquiry into the matter.

Then that Yaksani said, "Ane! O Lord, Your Majesty, I indeed do not know about that, but I did indeed see that thief who eats human flesh, although I did not tell you."

The King asked, "Who is it?"

The Yaksani said, "If Your Majesty should look behind the houses of the twelve Queens you can ascertain."

When the King went there and looked, he found that it was true, and gave orders for the twelve Queens to be killed. Then the Yaksani told him not to kill them, but to pluck out their eyes, and send them into the midst of the forest. Having heard the words which the Yaksani said, he acted in that very manner.

So all this party of Queens went and stayed in one spot, and there all the twelve bore children. As each one was born, they divided and ate it. The youngest Queen put aside all the flesh that was given to her, and while she was keeping it she, also, bore a son. Then those eleven Queens made ready to eat that Prince, so that Princess gave them the flesh which she had kept, and the party ate it.

As time went on that Prince having grown a little, began to bring and give them fruits that were lying on the ground. Then the Prince met with a bow and an arrow that had been concealed there. After that he began to shoot various kinds of small animals, and to bring and give them to the Queens. Afterwards he shot large animals, and having brought fire and boiled them, he gave the flesh to them. By this time the Prince understood all things thoroughly.

After that, one day this Prince asked, "Mother, what is the reason why your eyes have become blind, and my eyes are well?"

The party said, "We were the Queens of such and such a King; having taken a Yaksani in marriage, this was done to us through her enmity." Then the Prince remained thinking of killing the King.

One day, as he was going hunting, he met with a Vaedda. Thinking he would kill the Vaedda, the Prince chased him along the path. The Vaedda, being afraid, went running away, and having met with the King said, "O Lord, Your Majesty, there is a very handsome Prince in the midst of this forest. One cannot say if the Prince is the son of a deity or a royal Prince. He does not come near enough to speak. When he sees a man he drives him away, saying he is going to eat him." He spoke very strongly about it.

So the Ministers were sent by the King, who told them to seize and bring him. As the party were going to seize him, he sprang forward, saying that he was going to eat them. At that, the party became afraid, and ran away. Having come running, they told the King, "O Lord, Your Majesty, we cannot seize him. He comes springing at us saying he is going to eat us."

Then the King came, bringing his war army. Thereupon the Prince, who before that was angry with the King in his mind, threw a stone in order to kill the King, and struck him. Being struck by the stone, the King's head was wounded (lit. split), so the King and all of them became afraid, and ran away.

The King, having returned, wrote letters to foreign countries: "There is a wicked Prince in the midst of the forest in my kingdom. Who he is I cannot find out. Because of it you must come to seize the Prince."

The Prince having got to know of it, and thinking, "It is not good for me to be killed at the hands of these men; having met with the King I will kill him," went to the royal palace. When he arrived there the King saw him, and asked, "Who are you?"

The Prince said, "I am a royal Prince; I stay in the midst of this forest."

The King said, "Would it be a bad thing if you remained at this palace?"

The Prince asked, "What work would there be for me?"

The King said, "Remain and do the work of the First Minister of the Ministers."

The Prince asked, "How much pay would there be for me for the day?"

The King replied, "I will give fifty masuran."

"Fifty masuran are insufficient for me. Will you give me every day in the evening a hundred masuran?" he asked.

The King said, "It is good," and after that he stayed there. While remaining there he came twice a day and assisted his twelve mothers.

When no long time had gone by, some one was heard crying out in the night near the city. The King told him to look who was crying. The Prince having gone, taking his sword, when he looked, a dead body was hanging in a tree, and a Yaksani was springing up to eat the dead body. Being unable to seize it she was crying out.

The Prince went and asked, "What is that for?"

The Yaksani replied, "My son having gone into the tree cannot descend; because of it I am crying out."

The Prince said, "Mount on my shoulders and unfasten him."

The Yaksani having got on his shoulders, as she was about to eat the Prince he chopped at her with his sword. A foot was cut off, and she fled. Taking the foot and returning with it, the Prince showed it to the King. The King having seen the Prince's resoluteness, in order to cause him to be killed said that unless he should bring the other foot he could not take charge of this one.

After that, the Prince went to the palace where the Yakas dwelt. There this Yaksani whom he had wounded came, and having made obeisance, fell down and said, "Lord, do not kill me. I will do anything you tell me." Summoning her to accompany him and returning, he showed her to the King.

Afterwards he employed this Yaksani, and caused her to make a city at the place where his mothers were, and having made her construct a palace, he told the Yaksani and his mothers to dwell there.

While they were there the Yaksani said to the Prince, "I know the place where the King's life is. Whatever you should do to the King himself you cannot kill him."

The Prince asked, "Where is it?"

"It is in a golden parrot in such and such a tree," she said.

After that he went there and caught the parrot and killed it. Then the King died.

After he died, the Prince having set fire to the palace there, and cut down the Yaksani who stayed with the King, left his mothers in charge of the city formed by the maimed Yaksani, and remained ruling the kingdom.

Western Province.

For some variants, see the notes at the end of the story numbered 48.

In Indian Nights' Entertainment, Panjab (Swynnerton), p. 355, a Princess in man's disguise, acting as the King's guard, found a ghul in the form of a woman howling under a corpse that was hanging from a gallows. She stated that it was her son whom she could not reach, and she asked to be lifted up. When raised up to it by the Princess she began to suck the blood, on seeing which the Princess made a cut at her, but only severed a piece of her clothing, which proved to be of so rich a quality that the King ordered her to procure more for his wife.

In the Jataka story No. 96 (vol. i, p. 235) an Ogress in the disguise of a woman followed a man into Takkasila, intending to devour him. The King saw her, was struck by her beauty, and married her. When he had given her authority over those who dwelt in the palace, she brought other Ogres at night, and ate the King and every one in the place.

NO. 25

THE WICKED KING

In a certain country there are a King and a Queen, it is said. The Queen has no children. During the time while she was rearing another (adopted) Prince, a child was born to the Queen.

After it was born, the King and Queen having spoken together, "Let us kill the Prince whom we have brought up," said to the King's Minister, "Take this Prince and put him down in a clump of bamboos." The Minister having taken the Prince, and put him down in a clump of bamboos, returned. The Prince was seven years old.

After that, a man having gone to the bamboo clump to cut bamboos, and having seen, when he looked, that this Prince was there, without stopping to cut bamboos took away this Prince.

On the following day the King said to the Minister, "Look if the Prince is in the bamboo bush, and come back." Afterwards he went, and when he looked, the Prince was not there. So he came to the King, and said, "The Prince is not there."

Then the King said, "The man who went away after cutting bamboos will have taken him. Give these thousand masuran, and bring him." Having said this, he gave him a thousand masuran. The Minister, having taken the thousand masuran, and given them to the man who took away the Prince, brought him and gave him to the King.

Afterwards the King said to the Minister, "Take this one and put him down in the middle of the path to a cattle fold in which five hundred cattle are collected, and return, so that, having been trampled on as the cattle are going along the path, he may die." So the Minister having taken that Prince, and put him down in the middle of the path to a cattle fold in which five hundred cattle were collected, came away.

After that, as the five hundred cattle were setting off to go into the cattle fold, when the great chief bull which went first was about to go in, having seen this Prince he placed him under his body, and allowing the other cattle to go in, this bull went afterwards. Subsequently, as the herdsman who drove the cattle was going along he saw this Prince, and taking the Prince the herdsman went away.

On the following day the King said to the Minister, "Look if the Prince is at the cattle fold, and come back." The Minister went, and when he looked the Prince was not there. So the Minister came and said to the King, "He is not there."

Then the King having given a thousand masuran into the Minister's hand said, "The herdsman who drove the cattle will have taken him. Give these thousand masuran and bring him." So the Minister having taken the thousand masuran, and given them to the herdsman, brought the Prince and gave him to the King.

After that, the King said, "Take this one and put him down in the road on which five hundred carts are coming." So the Minister having taken the Prince, and put him down in the road on which five hundred carts were coming, returned.

Then the carters, having seen from afar that the Prince was there, took the Prince, and placed him in a cart, and went home with him.

On the following day the King said to the Minister, "Go and look if the Prince is in the road on which the five hundred carts come, and return." The Minister went, and when he looked the Prince was not there. So the Minister came and told the King, "The Prince is not there."

Then the King gave the Minister a thousand masuran, and said, "The carters will have taken him. Give these thousand masuran and bring him." The Minister having given the thousand masuran to the carters, brought the Prince and gave him to the King.

After that, the King said to the Minister, "Speak to the potter and come back. There is no other means of killing this one but surrounding him with pottery in the pottery kiln, and burning him." So the Minister went and spoke to the potter, "Our King tried thus and thus to kill this Prince; he could not. Because of that, how if you should surround him even in the pottery kiln?"

The potter said, "Should you bring him I will surround him."

So the Minister came and said to the King, "The potter told me to take the Prince."

After that, the King wrote a letter: "Immediately on seeing the Prince who brings this letter, surround him in the pottery kiln, and kill him." Having written that in the letter, and given the letter to the Prince who had been adopted, he said, "Take this letter to such and such a potter, and having given it come back."

Afterwards, as the Prince was going along taking the letter, the King's Prince having played at "Disks," [71] and the counters having been driven out, was dragging along the hop counters. Then, having seen this Prince, the King's Prince asked, "Where, elder brother, are you going?"

The Prince said, "Father gave me this letter, and told me to give it to such and such a potter. Having given it I am going to return."

The King's Prince said, "If so, elder brother, I will give that letter and come back. You drag these hop counters."

Then this Prince having said "Ha," and given the letter into the hands of the King's Prince, dragged the hop counters.

While the King's Prince was taking the letter, the potter was making ready the pottery kiln. After the Prince had given the letter to the potter, when the potter looked at it there was in the letter, "After you have seen this letter, surround in the pottery kiln the Prince who brings this letter, and set fire to it." So the potter taking the Prince surrounded him in the pottery kiln, and set fire to it. While it was burning in the pottery kiln the King's Prince died.

After the adopted Prince finished dragging the hop counters, and came to the palace, the King asked, "Did you give the letter to the potter?"

The Prince said, "As I was going there, younger brother having played at 'Disks,' and the counters being driven out, was dragging the hop counters. Having seen me going, younger brother asked, 'Where, elder brother, are you going?' I said, 'Father gave me this letter to give to such and such a potter; having given it I am going to return.' Then younger brother said, 'Elder brother, I will give that letter and come; you draw these hop counters.' So I gave the letter into the hand of younger brother, and I myself having drawn the hop counters came back."

Then the King quickly said to the Ministers, "Go to the potter, and look if the Prince is there, and return."

The Ministers went and asked the potter, "Is the Prince here?"

The potter said, "I killed the Prince."

So the Ministers came and told the King that the Prince was dead.

The King immediately wrote a letter to the King of another city, that when he saw the Prince who brought the letter he was to kill him; and having given the letter into the hand of this adopted Prince, he said, "Give this letter to the King of such and such a city, and come back."

The Prince having taken the letter went to the palace of the King of the city. At that time the King was not in the palace; the King's Princess was there. This Prince having grown up was beautiful to look at; the Princess thought of marrying him. Asking for the letter in the hand of the Prince, when she looked at it there was written that on seeing the Prince they were to kill him.

Then the Princess having torn up and thrown away the letter, wrote a letter that on seeing the Prince they were to marry him to the Princess. Having written it and given it into the hand of the Prince, she said, "After our father the King has come give him this letter."

After that, while the Prince, having taken the letter, was there, the King came. The Prince gave him the letter. When the King looked at the letter he learnt that on seeing the Prince he was to marry the King's Princess to him. So the King married the King's Princess to the Prince.

Having married her, while the Prince was there, illness seized the King who brought up the Prince, and they sent letters for this Prince to come. The Prince would not. Afterwards they sent a letter: "Even now the King cannot be trusted [to live]; he is going to die even to-day. You must come." To that also the Prince replied, "I will not."

The Princess said, "Having said 'I will not,' how will it be? Let us two go to-day." So the Prince and Princess came. When they arrived, the King was about to die, and breathing with difficulty. The Prince came and sat near the King's feet; the Princess sat near the King's head. The King told the Prince to come near in order to give him an oath [to repeat], in such a manner that he would be unable to seize any article of the King's.

Well then, as the King was coming to mention the King's treasure houses and all other things, while he was opening his mouth to say the truth-oath to the Prince, the Princess, the King's daughter-in-law, being aware of it, stroked the King's neck, saying, "If so, father, for whom are they if not for us?" Then that which the King was about to say he had no opportunity of saying; while she was holding his neck he died.

After that, the Prince having obtained the sovereignty, and the treasure houses, and the other different houses that were there, the Prince and Princess stayed at that very palace.

Anun nahanda yanakota tamumma nahinawa.

While they are going to kill others they die themselves.

North-western Province.

NO. 26

THE KITUL SEEDS

A certain man and his son, who was a grown-up youth, were walking along a path one day, when they came to a place where many seeds had fallen from a Kitul Palm tree.

The man drew his son's attention to them, and said, "We must gather these Kitul seeds, and plant them. When the plants from them grow up we shall have a large number of Kitul trees, from which we will take the toddy (juice), and make jaggery (a kind of brown sugar). By selling this we shall make money, which we will save till we shall have enough to buy a nice pony."

"Yes," said the boy, "and I will jump on his back like this, and ride him," and as he said it he gave a bound.

"What!" said the father, "would you break my pony's back like that!" and so saying, he gave him a blow on the side of the head which knocked him down senseless.

E. G. Goonewardene, Esqre.

North-western Province.

There is another story of this type in the tale No. 53, below.

In the Jataka story No. 4 (vol. i, p. 19), there is a tale of a young man who acquired a fortune and became Lord Treasurer by means of a dead mouse which he picked up and sold for a farthing, subsequently increasing his money by careful investments.

In the Katha Sarit Sagara, vol. i, p. 33, a nearly identical mouse story is given.

In Indian Fairy Tales (Stokes), p. 31, there is a different one. A man who was to receive four pice for carrying a jar of ghi, settled that he would buy a hen with the money, sell her eggs, get a goat, and then a cow, the milk of which he would sell. Afterwards he would marry a wife, and when they had children he would refuse some cooked rice which they would offer him. At this point he shook his head as he refused it, and the jar fell and was broken.

In Indian Nights' Entertainment (Swynnerton), p. 23, a man who was carrying a jar of butter on his head, and who expected to get three halfpence for the job, was going to buy a hen, then a sheep, a cow, a milch buffalo, and a mare, and then to get married. As he patted his future children on the head the pot fell and was broken.

In The Arabian Nights (Lady Burton's ed., i, p. 296) there is a well-known variant in which the fortune was to be made out of a tray of glass-ware.

NO. 27

THE SPEAKING HORSE

There was once a certain King who was greatly wanting in common sense, and in his kingdom there was a Panditaya who was extremely wise. The King had a very beautiful white horse of which he was very proud. The Panditaya was respected and revered by all, but for the King little or no respect was felt, on account of his foolish conduct. He observed this, and became jealous of the Panditaya's popularity, so he determined to destroy him.

One day he sent for him. The Panditaya came and prostrated himself before the King, who said, "I hear that you are extremely learned and wise. I require you to teach my white horse to speak. I will allow you one week to consider the matter, at the end of which time you must give me a reply, and if you cannot do it your head will be cut off."

The Panditaya replied, "It is good, O Great King," [72] and went home in very low spirits.

He lived with a beautiful daughter, a grown-up girl. When he returned she observed that he was melancholy, and asked the reason, on which the Panditaya informed her of the King's command, and said that it was impossible to teach a horse to speak, and that he must place his affairs in order, in preparation for his death.

"Do as I tell you," she said, "and your life will be saved. When you go to the King on the appointed day, and he asks you if you are able to teach his horse to speak, you must answer, 'I can do it, but it is a work that will occupy a long time. I shall require seven years' time for it. You must also allow me to keep the horse by me and ride it, while you will provide food for it.' The King will agree to this, and in the meantime who knows what may happen?"

The Panditaya accepted this wise advice. He appeared before the King at the end of the week, and prostrated himself. The King asked him, "Are you able to teach my white horse to speak?"

"Maharajani," he replied, "I am able." He then explained that it would be a very difficult work, and would occupy a long time; and that he would require seven years for it, and must have the horse by him all the time, and use it, while the King would provide food for it.

The King was delighted at the idea of getting his horse taught to speak, and at once agreed to these conditions. So the Panditaya took away the horse, and kept it at the King's expense.

Before the seven years had elapsed the King had died, and the horse remained with the Panditaya.

E. G. Goonewardene, Esqre.

North-western Province.

NO. 28

THE FEMALE QUAIL

A female Quail having laid an egg on a rock, went to eat food. Then the [overhanging] rock closed over it, and when the bird returned there was no egg. "Ando! There is no egg," she said.

Well then, she went to the Mason. The Mason said, "Sit down, O Bird."

"What is [the use of] sitting and staying? What is [the use of] betel leaf and areka nut at the corner of the bed? Cut the rock, and give me the egg, O Mason," she said.

The Mason said, "I will not."

From there she went to the Village Headman. [73] The Village Headman said, "Sit down, O Bird."

"What is the use of sitting and staying? What is the use of betel leaf and areka nut at the corner of the bed? O Village Headman, tie up the house-door [74] of the Mason, the Mason who did not cut the rock, and give me the egg," she said.

The Village Headman said, "I will not."

From there she went to the Pig. The Pig said, "Sit down, O Bird."

"What is the use of sitting and staying? What is the use of betel leaf and areka nut at the corner of the bed? O Pig, feed in the rice field of the Village Headman, the Village Headman who did not tie up the house-door of the Mason, the Mason who did not cut the rock, and give me the egg," she said.

The Pig said, "I will not."

From there she went to the Vaedda. The Vaedda said, "Sit down, O Bird."

"What is the use of sitting and staying? What is the use of betel leaf and areka nut at the corner of the bed? O Vaedda, shoot (with bow and arrow) the Pig, the Pig who did not feed in the rice field of the Village Headman, the Village Headman who did not tie up the house-door of the Mason, the Mason who did not cut the rock, and give me the egg," she said.

The Vaedda said, "I will not."

From there she went to the Timbol creeper. [75] The Timbola said, "Sit down, O Bird."

"What is the use of sitting and staying? What is the use of betel leaf and areka nut at the corner of the bed? O Timbola, prick the body of the Vaedda, the Vaedda who did not shoot the Pig, the Pig who did not feed in the rice field of the Village Headman, the Village Headman who did not tie up the house-door of the Mason, the Mason who did not cut the rock, and give me the egg," she said.

The Timbola said, "I will not."

From there she went to the Fire. The Fire said, "Sit down, O Bird."

"What is the use of sitting and staying? What is the use of betel leaf and areka nut at the corner of the bed? O Fire, burn the Timbola, the Timbola that did not prick the body of the Vaedda, the Vaedda who did not shoot the Pig, the Pig who did not feed in the rice field of the Village Headman, the Village Headman who did not tie up the house-door of the Mason, the Mason who did not cut the rock, and give me the egg," she said.

The Fire said, "I will not."

From there she went to the Water-pot. The Water-pot said, "Sit down, O Bird."

"What is the use of sitting and staying? What is the use of betel leaf and areka nut at the corner of the bed? O Water-pot, quench the Fire, the Fire that did not burn the Timbola, the Timbola that did not prick the body of the Vaedda, the Vaedda who did not shoot the Pig, the Pig who did not feed in the rice field of the Village Headman, the Village Headman who did not tie up the house-door of the Mason, the Mason who did not cut the rock, and give me the egg," she said.

The Water-pot said, "I will not."

From there she went to the Elephant. The Elephant said, "Sit down, O Bird."

"What is the use of sitting and staying? What is the use of betel leaf and areka nut at the corner of the bed? O Elephant, make muddy the Water-pot, the Water-pot that did not quench the Fire, the Fire that did not burn the Timbola, the Timbola that did not prick the body of the Vaedda, the Vaedda who did not shoot the Pig, the Pig who did not feed in the rice field of the Village Headman, the Village Headman who did not tie up the house-door of the Mason, the Mason who did not cut the rock, and give me the egg," she said.

The Elephant said, "I will not."

From there she went to the Rat. The Rat said, "Sit down, O Bird."

"What is the use of sitting and staying? What is the use of betel leaf and areka nut at the corner of the bed? O Rat, creep into the ear of the Elephant, the Elephant who did not make muddy the Water-pot, the Water-pot that did not quench the Fire, the Fire that did not burn the Timbola, the Timbola that did not prick the body of the Vaedda, the Vaedda who did not shoot the Pig, the Pig who did not feed in the rice field of the Village Headman, the Village Headman who did not tie up the house-door of the Mason, the Mason who did not cut the rock, and give me the egg," she said.

The Rat said, "I will not."

From there she went to the Cat. The Cat said, "Sit down, O Bird."

"What is the use of sitting and staying? What is the use of betel leaf and areka nut at the corner of the bed? O Cat, eat the Rat, the Rat who did not creep into the ear of the Elephant, the Elephant who did not make muddy the Water-pot, the Water-pot that did not quench the Fire, the Fire that did not burn the Timbola, the Timbola that did not prick the body of the Vaedda, the Vaedda who did not shoot the Pig, the Pig who did not feed in the rice field of the Village Headman, the Village Headman who did not tie up the house-door of the Mason, the Mason who did not cut the rock, and give me the egg," she said.

The Cat said "Ha" (Yes).

Well then, the Cat went to catch the Rat, the Rat went to creep into the ear of the Elephant, the Elephant went to make muddy the Water-pot, the Water-pot went to quench the Fire, the Fire went to burn the Timbola, the Timbola went to prick the body of the Vaedda, the Vaedda went to shoot the Pig, the Pig went to feed in the rice field of the Village Headman, the Village Headman went to tie up the house-door of the Mason, the Mason went to cut the rock, and take and give the egg.

Here the story ends. "Was the egg given?" I asked. "It would be given," the narrator said. "No, he gave it," said a listener.

North-western Province.

In a variant which I heard in the Southern Province, a bird laid two eggs in a crevice between two stones, which drew close together. She went to a Mason or Stone-cutter; (2) to a Pig; (3) to a Hunter; (4) to an Elephant, which she requested to kill him; (5) to a Lizard (Calotes), which she told to crawl up the Elephant's trunk into its brain; (6) to a Jungle Hen, which she told to peck and kill the Lizard; (7) to a Jackal, who, when requested to kill the Jungle Hen, at once agreed, and said, "It is very good," and set off after her.

In Wide-Awake Stories (Steel and Temple), p. 209--Tales of the Punjab, p. 195--there is a variant. While a farmer's wife was winnowing corn, a crow carried off a grain, and perched on a tree to eat it. She threw a clod at it, and knocked it down, but the grain of corn rolled into a crack in the tree, and the crow, though threatened with death in case of failure, was unable to recover it.

It went for assistance, and requested (1) a Woodman to cut the tree; (2) a King to kill the man; (3) a Queen to coax the King; (4) a Snake to bite the Queen; (5) a Stick to beat the Snake; (6) Fire to burn the Stick; (7) Water to quench the Fire; (8) an Ox to drink the water; (9) a Rope to bind the Ox; (10) a Mouse to gnaw the Rope; (11) a Cat to catch the Mouse. "The moment the Cat heard the name Mouse, she was after it, for the world would come to an end before a Cat would leave a Mouse alone." In the end the Crow got the grain of corn, and saved its life.

In Indian Folk Tales (Gordon), p. 53, there is an allied variant. A bird had bought three grains of corn for three cowries, and while she was on a new cart eating them one fell into a joint of the cart where she was unable to get it.

She appealed to (1) the Carpenter to take the cart to pieces, so that she might obtain it; (2) the King to make him do it; (3) the Queen to persuade the King; (4) a Deer to graze in the Queen's garden; (5) the Stick to beat the Deer; (6) the Fire to burn the Stick; (7) the Lake to quench the Fire; (8) the Rats to fill up the Lake; (9) the Cat to attack the Rats; (10) the Elephant to crush the Cat; (11) an Ant to crawl into the Elephant's ear; (12) the Crow, "the most greedy of all creatures," to eat the Ant. The Crow consented, and the usual result followed.

NO. 29

THE PIED ROBIN

At a certain city, while a female Pied Robin [76] was digging and digging on a dung-hill, she met with a piece of scraped coconut refuse, it is said. She took it, and put it away, and having gone again, while she was digging and digging there was a lump of rice dust. Having taken it, and put it to soak, she said, "Sister-in-law at that house, Sister-in-law at this house, come and pound a little flour." [77]

The women, saying, "No, no, with such a fragment you can pound that little bit yourself," did not come.

The Pied Robin pounded the flour, and cooking a cake of the size of a rice mat (wattiya), and tying a hair-knot of the size of a box, and putting on a cloth of the breadth of a thumb, while she was going away she met with a Jackal.

The Jackal asked, "Where are you going?"

"Having looked for a [suitable] marriage, I am going to get married," she said.

The Jackal said, "Would it be bad if you went with me?" [78]

The bird asked, "What do you eat?"

The Jackal said, "I eat a land crab, and drink a little water."

Then the bird said, "Chi! Bullock, Chi!" and while going on again she met with a blind man.

The blind man asked, "Where are you going?"

"Having looked for a [suitable] marriage, I am going to get married," she said.

The blind man said, "Would it be bad if you went with me?"

The bird asked, "What do you eat?"

The blind man said, "Having chewed an eel, I drink a little water."

Then the bird said, "Chi! Bullock, Chi!" and while going on again she met with a Hunchback, chopping and chopping at a bank (nira) in a rice field.

The Hunchback said, "Where are you going?"

"Having looked for a [suitable] marriage, I am going to get married," she said.

The Hunchback said, "Would it be bad if you went with me?"

The bird asked, "What do you eat?"

The Hunchback said, "I eat rice cakes."

Then the bird having said, "Ha. It is good," the Hunchback said, "I put rice on the hearth to boil, and came away. You go and look after it."

After the bird had gone to the Hunchback's house, she found that the water was insufficient for cooking the rice, and except that it was making a sound, "Kuja tapa tapa, kuja tapa tapa," it was not cooking.

So the bird went to the Hunchback, and said, "The water is insufficient for cooking the rice. It only says 'Kuja tapa tapa, kuja tapa tapa.' [79] Bring water, O Hunchback."

The Hunchback became angry [at the nicknames], and having come home, when he was taking a water-pot to the well, a frog sitting on the well mouth jumped into the well, making a sound, "Kujija bus." [80]

Then the Hunchback, having drawn and drawn up the water from the well, caught and killed the frog, and tried to fill the water-pot with water. The water continuing, as he poured it, to make a sound "Kuja kutu kutu, kuja kutu kutu," [81] except that it splashed up does not fill the water-pot.

Through anger at it, he took the water-pot and struck it against the mouth of the well, and smashed it.

While he was coming home he met a Village Headman. The Village Headman asked, "Where, Mr. Hunchback, did you go?"

The Hunchback said, "What is the journey on which I am going to thee, Bola, O Heretic?" and having come home, killed the Pied Robin, and ate the cakes that the bird brought.

North-western Province.

In Indian Folk Tales (Gordon), p. 59, a large grain measure (paila) having quarrelled with his wife, the small grain measure (paili), and beaten her, she ran off, and on her way met with a Crow, which invited her to stay with him. She inquired, "What will you give me to eat and drink, what to wear and what to spend?" The reply being unsatisfactory, she went on, and met a Bagula (crane or heron), which also invited her to stay, and when asked the same question gave an unsatisfactory answer. She next met a King, who said, "I will place one cushion below you and one above, and whatsoever you desire you may have to eat." She refused this, and met a dog, who told her that in the King's store there was much raw sugar, of which they would eat as much as they pleased. She accepted this offer, and they lived in the store; but one day the King's daughter threw in the scales, which wounded the dog on the head, so the measure jumped out.

NO. 30

THE JACKAL AND THE HARE

In a certain country there are a Jackal and a Hare living together, it is said.

One day when the Jackal was rubbing himself in the morning in the open space at the front of the house, there was a pumpkin seed in his hair. He took it and planted it. Afterwards, when the Hare went to the open ground, and was rubbing himself, he also had a pumpkin seed in his hair. He, too, took it and planted it. That which the Jackal planted, being without water, died. The Hare having brought water in his ears, and watered his seed, it sprouted, grew large, and bore a fruit.

After the fruit had become large, the Jackal and Hare spoke together, "Friend, with that pumpkin fruit let us eat pumpkin milk-rice." They also said, "Whence the rice, coconut, and the like, for it?"

Then the Hare said, "We two will go to the path to the shops. You stay in the bushes. I will be lying down in the grass field (pitiya) at the side of the path. Men going along the road, having placed on the path the articles which they are carrying to the shops, will come to take me. Then you take the goods, and go off to the bushes."

When the Jackal and Hare had gone to the path that led to the shops, and seen a man coming, bringing a bag of rice, the Hare lay down in the grass field as though dead. The Jackal hid himself and waited.

That man having come up, and seen that the Hare was dead, said, "Appa! Bola, there is meat for me." So he placed the bag of rice on the road, and went to get the Hare. Then the Jackal came running, and carried off the bag of rice into the bushes. When the man was approaching the Hare, it got up and ran away. So the man had neither the bag of rice nor the Hare. He went home empty-handed (nikam).

Again when the Jackal and Hare were looking out, they saw a man come, bringing a pingo (carrying-stick) load of coconuts, and the Hare went and lay down again in the grass field. The Jackal hid himself and looked out.

Afterwards that man came up, and as he was going on from there he saw that the Hare was lying dead, and saying, "Appa! Bola, there is a Hare," placed the pingo load of coconuts on the path, and went to get the Hare. The Jackal, taking the pingo load of coconuts, went into the bushes. As that man approached the Hare it got up and ran away. So the man had neither the pingo load of coconuts nor the Hare. He went home empty-handed.

As the Jackal and Hare were looking out again, they saw that a man was bringing a bill-hook and a betel-cutter, which he had got made at the forge. So the Hare went and lay down again in the field.

The man came up, and when going on from there, having seen that the Hare was dead, placed the bill-hook and betel-cutter on the path, and went to get the Hare. Then the Jackal carried the bill-hook and the betel-cutter into the bushes. As that man was coming near to take the Hare, it got up and ran away. So that man had neither the bill-hook, nor the betel-cutter, nor the Hare. He went home empty-handed.

As the Jackal and Hare were looking out again, they saw a potter coming, bringing a pingo load of pots, so the Hare went and lay down again in the grass field. The Jackal hid himself and waited.

When the potter was going on from there, he saw that the Hare was dead, and having placed the pingo load of pots on the path, he went to get it. Then the Jackal, taking the pingo load of pots, went off into the bushes. As the man was coming near the Hare it got up and ran away. So that man had neither the pingo load of pots nor the Hare. He went home empty-handed.

Then the Jackal and Hare took home the bag of rice, and the pingo load of coconuts, and the bill-hook, and the betel-cutter, and the pingo load of pots. After that, having plucked and cut up the pumpkin fruit, and washed the rice, and put it in the cooking pot, and placed it on the fire, and broken the coconut, and scraped out the inside, while squeezing it [in water in order to make coconut-milk], the Jackal said to the Hare, "Friend, I will pour this on the rice, and in the meantime before I take it off the fire, you go, and plucking leaves without a point bring them [to use] as plates."

While the Hare was going for them, the Jackal ate all the rice, and placed only a little burnt rice in the bottom of the cooking pot. Then he lay down on the ash-heap.

Afterwards the Hare returned, and saying, "Friend, there is not a leaf without a point. I have walked and walked through the whole of this jungle in search of one," gave into the paws of the Jackal two leaves with the ends bitten off. Then, without getting up, the Jackal said, "Ando! Friend, what is the use of a leaf without a point now? The rice people, the coconut people, the bill-hook and betel-cutter people, the pots people having eaten the rice, and beaten me also, rolled me over on this ash-heap. There will still be a little burnt rice in the bottom of the cooking pot. Scrape it off, and putting a little in your mouth, put a little in my mouth too." So the Hare having scraped off the burnt rice, and eaten a little of it, put a little in the Jackal's mouth.

Then the Jackal said, "Friend, a tick is biting my nose; rid me of it." When the Hare was coming near to rid him of it, the Jackal vomited all over the Hare's body. Then the Hare bounded off to the river, and jumped into it, and having become clean returned to the place where the Jackal was.

The Jackal asked, "How, Friend, did you become clean?"

The Hare said, "I went to a place where a washerman-uncle is washing clothes, and got him to wash me."

The Jackal asked, "Where is he washing?"

The Hare said, "Look there! He is washing at the river."

Afterwards the Jackal went to the river, and said to the washerman-uncle, "Ane! Washerman-uncle, wash me too, a little."

When the washerman-uncle, having taken hold of the Jackal's tail, had struck a couple of blows with him on the stone, the Jackal said, "That will do, that will do, washerman-uncle, I shall have become clean now." But the washerman-uncle, saying, "Will you eat my fowls again afterwards? Will you eat them?" gave him another stroke. Then the washerman-uncle, having washed the clothes, went home.

From that time the Jackal and Hare became unfriendly, and the Jackal said that whenever he saw Hares he would eat them.

North-western Province.

According to a variant, the washerman struck the Jackal on the stone until he was dead.

NO. 31

THE LEOPARD AND THE MOUSE-DEER

In a jungle wilderness in the midst of the forest there is a rock cave. In the cave a Leopard dwells. One day when the Leopard had gone for food a lame female Mouse-deer (Miminni) crept into the cave, and gave birth to two young ones.

Afterwards the Mouse-deer having seen that the Leopard, having got wet at the time of a very great rainfall, was coming to the cave, began to beat the young ones, so the young ones began to squall. Then the Mouse-deer came out, saying, "There is fresh Leopard's flesh, there is dried Leopard's flesh; what else shall I give you? Having eaten these, still you are crying in order to eat fresh Leopard's flesh!"

As the Mouse-deer was saying it, the Leopard heard it, and thought, "They are going to eat me," and having become afraid, sprang off and ran away, thinking, "I will go to my Preceptor, and tell him."

Having gone to him, the Jackal said, "What is it, Sir? You are running as though afraid. Why?" he asked.

The Leopard then replied, "Preceptor, the danger that has happened to me is thus: A Mouse-deer having crept into the cave that I live in, and having borne young ones there, as I was returning came shouting and springing to eat me. Through fear of it I came running away," he said to the Jackal.

The Jackal then said, "What of that! Don't be afraid. I will come with you and go there. As soon as I go I will bite her and cast her out."

As they went near the cave, the Leopard having lagged a very little behind, said, "Friend, I cannot go, I cannot go."

Then the Jackal said, "If you are afraid to that extent, be so good as to go after tying a creeper to my neck, and tying the other end to your waist, Sir," he said to the Leopard.

So bringing a creeper, and tying one end to the Jackal's neck, and tying the other end to the Leopard's waist, they set off to go to the cave.

As they were going there, the Mouse-deer, having seen that the Jackal was bringing the Leopard, began to beat the young ones. When the young ones were squalling, the Mouse-deer having come out, says, "Don't cry; the Jackal is bringing another Leopard for you." Then she says to the Jackal, "Jackal-artificer, after I told you to bring seven yoke of Leopards, what has the Jackal-artificer come for, tying a creeper to only this one lean Leopard?"

After she had asked this, the Leopard thought, "They have joined with the Jackal, and are going to kill me," and began to run off. Then the creeper having become tightened round the Jackal's neck, the Leopard ran away, taking him along, causing the Jackal-artificer to strike and strike against that tree, this tree, that stone, this stone.

The Leopard having gone a great distance in the jungle, after he looked [found that] the creeper had become thoroughly tightened on the Jackal-artificer's neck. Having seen that he was grinning and showing his teeth, the Leopard says, "The laugh is at the Jackal-artificer. I was frightened, and there is no blood on my body," he said.

When he looked again, the Jackal was dead, grinning with his teeth and mouth.

North-western Province.

This story is given in The Orientalist, vol. iv, p. 79 (D. A. Jayawardana), but the animals that went to the cave are wrongly termed tiger and fox, which are not found in Ceylon.

It is also related in vol. iv, p. 121 (S. J. Goonetilleke), the animals being a hind and a tiger.

In vol. i, p. 261, there is a Santal story (J. L. Phillips), in which a goat with a long beard, which had taken refuge in a tiger's cave frightened it when asked, "Who are you with long beard and crooked horns in my house?" by saying, "I am your father." A monkey returned with it, their tails being tied together. When they came to the cave, the monkey asked the same question, and received the same answer, which frightened both animals so much that they fled, the monkey's tail being pulled off. When the tiger stopped, and began to lick himself, he found the monkey's tail so sweet that he went back and ate the monkey.

In the Panchatantra (Dubois), a bearded goat frightened a lion that he found in a cave in which he took refuge, by saying, "I am the Lord He-goat. I am a devotee of Siva, and I have promised to devour in his honour 101 tigers, 25 elephants, and 10 lions." He had eaten the rest, and was now in search of the lions. A jackal persuaded the lion to return, but the goat frightened them again.

In Old Deccan Days (Frere), p. 303, a pandit frightened a demon in this manner, by scolding a wrestler who brought for dinner an apparent goat which the pandit recognised as a demon.

In Wide-Awake Stories (Steel and Temple), p. 132 ff.--Tales of the Punjab, p. 123 ff.--a farmer's wife frightened a tiger that was going to eat a cow. A jackal persuaded it to return, their tails being tied together. On the tiger's running off again, the jackal was jolted to death.

In The Indian Antiquary, vol. iv, p. 257, there is a Santal story by Rev. E. T. Cole, of a tiger which was frightened by two brothers. The three sat round a fire and asked riddles. The tiger's was, "One I will eat for breakfast, and another like it for supper." The men expressed their inability to guess the answer, and their riddle was, "One will twist the tail, the other will wring the ear." When the tiger was escaping, they held the tail till it came off.

In Tota Kahani (Small), p. 98, a lynx took possession of a tiger's cave, and behaved like the mouse-deer when the tiger came up. When the tiger returned with a monkey, the lynx frightened it like the mouse-deer, by telling its young ones that a monkey friend had sworn to bring a tiger that day. On hearing this, the tiger killed the monkey, and fled.

NO. 32

THE CROCODILE'S WEDDING

In a certain country there is a Crocodile in the river, it is said. On the high ground on the other bank there was a dead Elephant. A Jackal of the high ground on this side came to the river bank, and on his saying "Friend," the Crocodile rose to the surface.

Then the Jackal said, "Now then, how are you getting on, living in that [solitary] way? I could find a wife for you, but to fetch you a mate I have no means of going over to the land on that bank."

The Crocodile said, "Ane! Friend, if you would become of assistance to me in that way can't I put you on the other bank?"

The Jackal said, "If so, Friend, put me on the ground on the other side, so that I may go to-day and ask for a mate for you, and come back again."

Then the Crocodile, placing the Jackal on his back, swam across the river, and after placing the Jackal on the other bank returned to the water.

The Jackal went and ate the body of that dead Elephant. Having eaten it during the whole of that day, he returned again to the river. Having arrived there, when he said "Friend," the Crocodile rose to the surface and asked the Jackal, "Friend, did you ask for a mate for me?"

Then the Jackal said, "Friend, I did indeed ask for a mate; we have not come to an agreement about it yet. To-morrow I must go again to settle it. On that account put me on the ground on the other side." So the Crocodile, placing the Jackal on his back, swam across the river, and placed the Jackal on this bank.

Next day, as it became light, the Jackal went to the river, and as he was saying "Friend," the Crocodile rose to the surface. The Jackal said, "Friend, in order that I may go and make a settlement of yesterday's affair and return again, put me on the other bank."

Then the Crocodile, placing the Jackal on his back crossed the river, and having placed the Jackal on the other bank went again into the water.

The Jackal having gone to the dead body of the Elephant, and eaten it even until nightfall, came to the river after night had set in. As he was saying "Friend," the Crocodile rose to the surface, and asked, "Friend, did you get it settled to-day?"

The Jackal said, "Friend, I have indeed settled the matter. They told me to come to-morrow in order to summon her to come. On that account put me on the far bank."

After that, the Crocodile, placing the Jackal on his back, went across the river, and having placed the Jackal on the ground on this side returned to the water.

The Jackal next day also, as it became light, went to the river. When he said "Friend," the Crocodile rose to the surface. The Jackal said, "Friend, if I must bring and give you your mate to-day, put me on the other bank."

After that, the Crocodile, placing the Jackal on his back, went across the river, and having placed the Jackal on the ground on the other side, went into the water.

The Jackal went that day to the dead body of the Elephant, and having eaten it until nightfall the Elephant's carcase became finished. In the evening the Jackal came to the river, and when he was saying "Friend," the Crocodile rose to the surface, and asked, "Friend, where is the mate?"

Then the Jackal said, "Ando! Friend, they made a mistake about it to-day; they told me to return to-morrow to invite her to come. Because of that put me on the other bank again. Having come to-morrow I will bring and give you the mate."

After that, the Crocodile, placing the Jackal on his back, swam across the river, and having put down the Jackal on the ground on this side, went into the water.

Then the Jackal, sitting down on the high ground on this bank, said to the Crocodile, "Foolish Crocodiles! Is it true that a Jackal King like me is going to ask for a wedding for thee, for a Crocodile who is in the water like thee? I went to the land on that bank to eat the carcase of an Elephant which died on that side. To-day the carcase was finished. So now I shall not come again. Thou art a fool indeed."

Having said this, the Jackal came away.

North-western Province.

This story is known by the Village Vaeddas.

In The Orientalist, vol. ii, p. 46, this story is given by Mr. E. Goonetilleke, the Crocodile being termed an Alligator.

In Wide-Awake Stories (Steel and Temple), p. 243--Tales of the Punjab, p. 230--there is a variant in which the Jackal was attracted by a fruit-laden wild plum tree. He made love to a lady Crocodile, and was carried across the river by her.

NO. 33

THE GAMARALA'S CAKES

At a village there are a Gamarala (a village headman or elder) and a Gama-Mahage (his wife) and their four sons, it is said.

One day while they were there the Gamarala said to his wife, "Bolan, it is in my mind to eat cakes. For the boys and for me fry ample cakes, and give us them," he said.

The Gamarala was looking out for them for many days; the Gama-Mahage did not cook and give him the cakes.

Again one day the Gamarala thought of eating cakes. That day, also, the Gamarala reminded her of the matter of the cakes. On the following day the Gama-Mahage having fried five large cakes, placed them in the corn store. The boys having gone to the chena and come back, after they had asked, "Is there nothing to eat?" the Gama-Mahage said to the boys, "Look there! There are cakes in the corn store. I put them there for father, too; eat ye also," she said. The boys having gone to the corn store, all four ate the cakes.

After they had eaten them, the Gamarala, having gone to the watch-hut, came back. After he came the boys said, "Father, we ate cakes." When the Gamarala asked, "Where are [some] for me?" "Mother puts them in the corn store," they said.

When the Gamarala went to the corn store for the cakes to eat, there were no cakes. "Where, Bolan, are the cakes?" he asked.

Saying, "Why are you asking for them at my hands? If there are none the boys will have eaten them," the Gama-Mahage pushed against the Gamarala.

Then the Gamarala said, "Now I shall not remind you again. You do not make and give me the food I tell you about." Having said, "It is good," and thinking, "Having pounded and taken about half a quart of rice, and given it at a place outside, and got the cakes fried, I must eat them," pounding the rice he took it away.

As he was going he saw a poor house. Having seen it the Gamarala thought, "Should I give it at this house, these persons because they are poor will take the rice, and I shall not be able to eat cakes properly." So having gone to a tiled house near it, and given a little rice, he said, "Make and give me five cakes out of this, please."

The people of the house replied, "It is good," and taking a little of the rice fried some cakes. The woman who fried them then looked into the account. "For the trouble of pounding the rice and grinding it into flour, I want ten cakes," she said. "Also for the oil and coconuts I want ten cakes, and for going for firewood, and for the trouble of frying the cakes, I want ten cakes." So that on the whole account for cooking the cakes it was made out that the Gamarala must give five cakes.

Next day the Gamarala, having eaten nothing at home, came to eat the cakes. Having sat down, "Where are the cakes?" he asked.

Then the woman who fried the cakes said, "Gamarala, from the whole of the rice I fried twenty-five cakes. For pounding the rice and grinding it into flour I took ten cakes. For the oil and coconuts I took ten cakes. For going for firewood, and for the trouble of frying the cakes ten more having gone, still the Gamarala must bring and give me five cakes."

Then the Gamarala thought, "Ada! What a cake eating is this that has happened to me!"

After thinking thus, having gone outside and walked along, and come to that poor house, he sat down. As he was thinking about it that poor man asked, "What is it, Gamarala, that you are thinking about in that way?"

The Gamarala said, "The manner in which they fried and gave me cakes at that house," and he told him about it.

Then the man of that poor house said to the Gamarala, "Since we are poor you did not give the rice to us. If he had given it to us wouldn't the Gamarala have been well able to eat cakes? The Gamarala having given us the rice would have had cakes to eat, and still five cakes to give for that debt.

"For those cakes I will teach the Gamarala a trick," that poor man said to the Gamarala. "The husband of the woman who fried the cakes has gone to his village. The woman is now connected with another man. Every day the man having come at night taps at the door when he comes. After she has asked from inside the house, 'Who is it?' he makes a grunt, 'Hum.' Then having opened the door he is given by her to eat and drink. To-day she will give the cakes made for the Gamarala.

"After the Gamarala has gone at night in that manner, and tapped at the door, she will ask, 'Who is it?' Then say, 'Hum.' Then she will open the door. Having gone into the house without speaking, she will give to eat and drink. Having eaten and drunk, and been there a little time, open the door and come away." Thus the poor man taught his lesson to the Gamarala.

In that manner, the Gamarala having gone after it became night, tapped at the house door. [82] "Who is it?" she asked. "Hum," he said. Then having opened the door and taken the Gamarala into the house, she gave him cakes and sweetmeats to eat.

As he was eating them, some one else having come taps at the door. The Gamarala became afraid. "Don't be afraid," she said, and sent the Gamarala to the corn loft [under the roof of the house, at the level of the top of the side walls].

Having sent him there she asked, "Who tapped at the door?" "Hum," he said. Then she opened the door, and after she had looked it was the Tambi-elder-brother, [83] who was trading in the village. She got him also into the house, and gave him sweetmeats to eat.

When a little time had gone, again some one tapped at the door. Then the Tambi-elder-brother, having become afraid, prepared to run off without eating the sweetmeats. "Don't be afraid," she said, and she put the Tambi also in another part of the corn loft [and he lay down].

Having come back, after she had opened the door and looked, it was the man of the house who, having been to the village, had come back. She gave him water to wash his face, hands, and feet. After he had finished washing, she gave him cakes and the like to eat, and water to drink. The man afterwards lay down to sleep.

When a little time had gone, the man who went first to the corn loft, the Gamarala, asked for water, saying, "Water, water." Then the man of the house having opened his eyes, asked, "What is speaking in the corn loft?"

"When you went to the village, as you were away a long time, I made an offering of a leaf-cup of water to the deity. Perhaps the deity is asking for it now," she said.

Then the man told her to put a coconut in the corn loft. So the woman put a coconut in the corn loft.

The Gamarala, taking the coconut in his hand, sought for a place on which to strike it [in order to break it, so that he might drink the water in it]. As he was going feeling with his hand, the Gamarala's hand touched a lump like a stone in hardness, the head of Tambi-elder-brother. After he touched it, the Tambi-elder-brother [not knowing what it was] through fear trembled and trembled, and did not speak. Then the Gamarala, taking the coconut, struck it very hard on the head of the Tambi-elder-brother, thinking it was a stone.

The man of the house thought [before this], "The water in the coconut is insufficient for the deity. He will be ascending [and leaving us]." After he had quickly opened the door, and gone out to get more water to give him, the Tambi-elder-brother sprang from the corn loft, breaking his head, and ran away.

Then the man who came out to get the water said, "My deity! Here is water, here is water," holding the water kettle in his hand. While he was calling out to him, the woman having opened her eyes said, "What is it, Bolan?" As she was coming outside the man said, "The deity jumped down and ran away."

At that very time, breaking out from the corn loft, the Gamarala also jumped down and ran off. Then the man of the house asks the woman, "Who is that running away?"

The woman says, "Why, Bolan, don't you understand in this way? Didn't the God Saman also run behind him?"

Village Vaedda of Bintaenna.

NO. 34

THE KINNARA AND THE PARROTS

In a large forest there is a great Banyan tree. In that tree many Parrots roost. While they were doing so, one day, having seen a Crow flying near, a Parrot spoke to the other Parrots, and said, "Bolawu, [84] do not ye ever give a resting-place to this flying animal," he said.

While they were there many days after he said it, one day, as a great rain was falling at night, on that day the flying Crow, saying, "Ka, Ka," came and settled on the tree near those Parrots.

That night one Parrot out of the flock of Parrots was unable to come because of that day's rain. Having seen that this Crow was roosting on the tree, all the Parrots, surrounding and pecking and pecking the Crow, drove it out in the rain.

Again, saying, "Ka, Ka," having returned it roosts in the same tree. As the Parrots getting soaked and soaked were driving off the Crow in this way, an old Parrot, sitting down, says, "What is it doing? Because it cannot go and come in this rain it is trying [85] to roost here. What [harm] will it do if it be here this little time in our company?" thus this old Parrot said. So the other Parrots allowed it to be there, without driving away the Crow.

While it was there, the Crow in the night left excreta, and in the morning went away. At the place where the excreta fell a tree sprang up [from a seed that was in them]; it became very large.

As it was thus, one day as Kinnaras were going near that [Crows'] village, having seen that another tree was near the tree in which the Parrots roosted, the Kinnaras spoke with each other, "In these days cannot we catch the Parrots that are in this tree?" they said.

Before that, the Kinnaras were unable to catch the Parrots in the tree. There was then only that tree in which the Parrots roosted. When the Kinnaras were going along the tree to catch the Parrots, the Parrots got to know [owing to the shaking of the tree], so all the Parrots flew away. Because of that they were unable to catch the Parrots.

The Kinnaras having [now] gone along the tree which had grown up through the Crow's dropping the seed under the tree, easily placed the net [over the Parrots' tree]. All the Parrots having come in the evening had settled in the tree. Having settled down, and a little time having gone, after they looked, all the Parrots being folded in the net were enclosed. The Parrots tried to go; they could not.

While they were under the net in that way, the Parrot Chief says to the other Parrots, "How has another tree grown up under this tree that we live in?" thus the Parrot Chief asked the other Parrots. "At a time when I was not here did ye give a resting-place to any one else?"

Then the Parrots say, "One day when it was raining at night, a Crow having come and stayed here, went away," they said.

Then the Parrot Chief says, "I told you that very thing, 'Don't give a resting-place to any one whatsoever.' Now we all have become appointed to death. To-morrow morning the Kinnaras having come and broken our wings, seizing us all will go away."

When a little time had gone, the Parrot Chief [again] spoke to the Parrots, and said, "I will tell you a trick. Should you act in that way the whole of us can escape," the Parrot Chief said. "When the Kinnaras come near the tree, all of you, tightly shutting your eyes and mouths, be as though dead, without even flapping your wings. Then the Kinnaras, thinking we are dead, having freed us one by one from the net, when they are throwing us down on the ground, and have taken and placed all there, fly away after they have thrown down the last one on the ground," he said.

"That is good," they said.

While they were there, a Kinnara, tying a large bag at his waist, having come to the bottom of the tree, says, "Every day [before], I couldn't [catch] ye. To-day ye are caught in my net."

Having ascended the tree, as he was going [along it] the Kinnara says, "What is this, Bola? Are these dead without any uncanny sound?" Having climbed onto the tree, after he looked [he saw that] a part having hung neck downwards, a part on the branches, a part in the net, they were as though dead.

Then the Kinnara saying, "Ada! Tell ye the Gods! Yesterday having climbed the tree I had no trouble in spreading the net; to-day having come to the tree I have no trouble in releasing the net. Ada! May the Gods be witnesses of the event that has occurred! What am I to do with these dead bodies!" and freeing and freeing each one from the net, threw it down on the ground.

As he threw them to the ground he said "One" at the first one that he threw to the ground, and having taken the account [of them], after all had fallen, at the time when the Kinnara, freeing the net, was coming descending from the tree, the whole flock of Parrots went flying away.

Village Vaedda of Bintaenna.

A version of this story from the North-western Province, by a Duraya, though shorter, contains the same incidents, the tree, however, being another Fig, the Aehaetu, Ficus tsiela. It ends as follows--

"As he [the Kinnara] was throwing them down in this way, having been counting and counting 'One,' the Parrot which he counted last having flapped its wings and screamed, [according to a pre-arranged plan, to show] that the man was cheated and that it had escaped, flew away. All the Parrots having gone, after they had looked into the account of the whole flock [found that] they were all correct.

"Then the Parrots said, 'Let us not give a resting-place to the Crow. At the places where he goes he is a dangerous one. To us also, this danger came now [through him]. Ada! Because we gave this one a resting-place. O Vishnu, burst thou lightning on him who did this to us! Ada! Where shall we all go now?' After flying and flying in the midst of the forest, all went to each place where they had relatives."

The story is given in Old Deccan Days (Frere), p. 114, with the variations that a thousand crows came to the tree instead of one, and that snares of thread were used in place of the net. The last parrot did not escape, but was taken away and sold.

In Tota Kahani (Small), p. 64, when a parrot and its young ones were caught in a net they feigned death. All the young ones escaped by this means. The mother was captured and sold to the King, and regained her liberty by pretending to fetch some medicine to cure his illness.

NO. 35

HOW A JACKAL SETTLED A LAWSUIT.

In a village there is a rich foolish man. One son was born to the man. When they had been there in that way for a long time, as the rich man's son was growing up, his father died. Then all this wealth came into the hands of his son. The son was a fool just like the father.

One day, having seen a wealthy man going in a carriage in which a horse was yoked, that rich man's son thought he ought to go in that way in a carriage in which a horse was yoked. This rich man having gone home spoke to a servant, and said, "I will give thee thy expenses for going and coming. Go thou, and buy and bring me a horse," he said. Having said it, he gave him a hundred masuran, and having given them sent him away.

This servant having gone on and on, went to a great big country. Having gone there, he made inquiry throughout the country--"Are there horses to sell in this country?"

Then a man of that country said, "The Gamarala of this country has many horses," he said. This servant who went to bring horses having given a masurama to the man whom he had met, said, "Please show me the house of the Gamarala who has the horses," he said. So the man, calling the servant, having gone to the Gamarala's house, sent him there.

The Gamarala asked these men, "What have you come here for?"

The servant who went to get horses said, "I have come to take a horse for money," he said.

"For whom?" he asked.

"For a rich man in a village," he said.

Having given fifty masuran he got a horse. After he got it he again gave a masurama to that man who went with him. Having given it, and the two persons having gone a considerable distance, [86] this man left both the horse and the man to go [alone], and went home.

When the servant had taken the horse, and gone a considerable distance, after he looked [he found that] night was coming on. On seeing it, taking the horse and saying, "This night I cannot go," having sought and sought for a resting-place, he met with a place where there were chekkus (mills for expressing oil). There this man found a resting-place; and having tied the horse to an oil-mill, this servant went to a village, and ate and drank, and having returned went to a shed at the side of the oil-mill, and lay down to sleep. Having become much fatigued because he had brought this horse very far, the servant went to sleep.

At dawn, the man who owned the oil-mill, having arisen and come near the oil-mill, when he looked saw that a horse was tied near the oil-mill. So this man thought, "Last night the oil-mill gave birth to a horse"; and unloosing it from the place where it was tied, the owner of the oil-mill, having taken the horse home, tied it in the garden.

Then the servant having opened his eyes, after he looked, because the horse was not near the oil-mill went seeking it. Having seen it tied in a garden close to a house, he spoke to the [people in the] house, "Having tied this horse near the oil-mill, in the night I went to sleep. This one breaking loose in the night came here." Unfastening it, as he was making ready to go, the man who owned the house came running, [and saying], "Where did my oil-mill give birth to this horse for thee last night?" he brought the horse back, and began to scold the servant. Then the servant thought, "Now I shall not be allowed to go and give this horse to the rich man. Because of it, I must go for a lawsuit."

As he was going seeking a trial he met with a place where lawsuits were heard. The servant having gone [there] told the judge about the business: "When I was bringing yesterday the horse that I am taking for a rich man, it became night while I was on the road. As there was no way to go or come, I tied and placed the horse at this oil-mill, and went to sleep. Having arisen in the morning, after I looked, because the horse that I brought was not there I went looking and looking along its foot-prints. Having seen that it was tied in the garden near the house of the oil-mill worker, thinking, 'This one breaking loose has come here,' I unfastened it. As I was making ready to bring it away, having scolded me and said that the oil-mill gave birth to the horse, he took it," he said to the judge; and stopped.

Then the judge says, "If the oil-mill gave birth to the horse, the horse belongs to the man who owns the oil-mill," the judge said.

The servant having become grieved says, "What am I to do now? Without the masuran which the rich man gave me, and without the horse that I got after giving fifty masuran, having gone to the village what shall I say to the rich man, so that I may escape?" he said with much grief.

Then a Jackal having come there along the same road, and having seen it, asks the servant, "Because of what matter are you going sorrowing in this way?"

The servant says to the Jackal, "Jackal-artificer, [87] is the trouble that happened to me right to thee, according to what was said?"

As they were going along, the Jackal, having gone behind him, asks again, "Tell me a little about it, and let us go. More difficult things than that have happened to us--folds [full] of scare-crows tangled together. As we cleared up those with extreme care there is no difficulty in clearing up this also." So the Jackal-artificer said to the servant.

Then the servant told the Jackal the way in which the rich man gave the servant one hundred masuran; the way in which, having given fifty masuran, he got the horse; the way in which, having brought the horse, he tied and placed it at the oil-mill; the way in which the oil-mill owner, unfastening the horse, went and tied it; the way in which, after he went to ask for it he would not give it, saying that the oil-mill gave birth to the horse, and came to scold him; then also what the judge said. The servant told [these] to the Jackal-artificer, making all clear.

Then the Jackal-artificer says, "Ane! That's thick work. I'll put that right for you. You must assist me also," he said. "You yourself having gone near the judge again, and made obeisance, you must say, 'The oil-mill did not give birth to the horse. The owner of the oil-mill, unfastening it from the place where I tied it, took it away. I have evidence of it. Having heard the evidence please do what you want,'" so the Jackal taught him.

So the servant having gone, made obeisance to the judge. "What have you come again for?" the judge asked.

Then the servant says, "The oil-mill did not give birth to the horse. Unfastening it from the place where I tied it, and having gone, he tied it up. I have evidence of it. Having heard the evidence do what you want, Sir," he said.

The judge says, "It is good. Who is your witness?"

"The Jackal-artificer," he said. So the judge sent a message to the Jackal to come. That day the Jackal did not come. On the following day, also, he sent a message. He did not come. Next day he sent a message. That day the Jackal, having thoroughly prepared himself, came to the judgment court.

After the judge asked, "Dost thou know about this lawsuit?" "Yes, Sir," the Jackal-artificer said.

"Why didst thou not come yesterday," the judge asked the Jackal.

"Yesterday I did not come; I saw the sky," he said. While saying it the Jackal was sleepy.

Again he asked, "Why didst thou not come on the first day?"

"On that day I saw the earth," he said. While saying it the Jackal was sleepy.

"Why hast thou come to-day?" he asked.

"To-day I saw the fire," he said.

"Having seen the sky why didst thou not come?" the judge asked.

Then the Jackal says, "O Lord, the sky cannot be trusted. Sometimes it rains, sometimes it clears up. Because of that I did not come." Having said it he was sleepy.

"Having seen the earth why didst thou not come?" he asked.

"That also cannot be trusted," he said. "In some places there are mounds, in some places it is flat; in some places there is water, in some places there is not water," he said. Having said it he was sleepy.

"What hast thou come to-day for?" the judge asked.

"To-day I saw the fire," he said. "Because of that I came," he said. Then the Jackal says, "After the fire has blazed up you do not look after your cold hut. I do not look after my palace also." [88] Having said it the Jackal was sleepy.

On account of that saying the judge having become angry, "Being here what art thou sleeping for?" he asked.

"Ane! O Lord who will become a thousand Buddhas [in future existences], I am very sleepy indeed," he said.

"Why, Bola?" he asked.

"Last night I went to look at the fishes sporting on the land. Because of that I am sleepy," he said.

Then the judge having become angry with the Jackal, says very severely, "Having beaten him, cast ye him out."

This rascally Jackal having prayed with closed paws, saying, "O Lord, who will become a thousand Buddhas," fell down and made obeisance.

"In what country, Bola, Jackal, do the fish who are in the water sport on the land?" the judge asked the Jackal.

The Jackal said, "I must receive permission [to ask also a question], O Lord. How does an oil-mill which expresses the kinds of oils give birth to horses?"

Then the judge, having become ashamed and his anger having gone, told the rich man's servant to take away the horse.

Village Vaedda of Bintaenna.

In Indian Fables, p. 45, Mr. P. V. Ramaswami Raju gives a South Indian variant of the latter part of this story. A thief stole a horse that was tethered to a tree, and then stated that he saw the tree eat the horse. The case was referred to a fox [jackal]. The fox said he felt dull. "All last night the sea was on fire; I had to throw a great deal of hay into it to quench the flames, so come to-morrow and I shall hear your case." When he was asked how hay could quench flames, he replied, "How could a tree eat up a horse?"

In Indian Nights' Entertainment, Panjab (Swynnerton), p. 142, there is a story about a foal that was born in the night while a mare was left near an oil-press, and was claimed by the oil man. The King who tried the case decided that the "mare could not possibly have had this foal, because, you see, it was found standing by the oil-press." A jackal assisted the owner to recover it, and fell down several times in the court, explaining that during the night the sea caught fire, and he was tired out by throwing water on it with a sieve, to extinguish it. When asked how this could be possible, the jackal retorted by inquiring if any one in the world ever heard of an oil-press's bearing a foal.

In the interior of West Africa there is a variant, given in Contes Soudanais (C. Monteil), p. 23. A mare was buried near a house, and a pumpkin spread from the adjoining piece of land, until it extended round the stake to which she was formerly tied. When the owner of the pumpkin split open a fruit that grew near the stake, there were two foals inside it, which the owner of the mare claimed. The judgment was that as a dead mare could not bear foals nor a pumpkin contain horses, neither of the claimants had a right to the foals; but as one sowed the pumpkin, and the other had watered it, each should take one foal.

In another tale in the same volume, p. 141, a hyaena had a bull and a hare a cow, which bore a calf in the hare's absence. This was claimed by the hyaena, as having been borne by the bull. The dispute was referred to a male rat, which sent its young ones to say that it could not leave its hole, as it was about to bear young ones. When the hyaena laughed at the idea, and inquired when such an occurrence had been known, the rat replied, "Since it has been the bulls which bore calves."

NO. 36

THE JACKAL AND THE TURTLE

At a village there is a large pond. At the margin of the pond two Storks [89] live. When they had been eating the small fishes in that pond in that way for a long time, the pond became dried up by a very great drought. These two Storks having eaten the small fishes in the pond until they were becoming finished, one day a Stork of these two Storks having spoken to the other Stork, says, "Friend, now then, that we have been here is no matter to us. Because of it let us go to another district." Thus he spoke.

Now, a Turtle stayed in the pond. The Turtle having heard the speech of these two Storks, the Turtle says, "Ane! Friends, I also now have been staying in this pond a long time. The pond having now dried up, I also have nothing to eat, nor water to be in, and nowhere to go. Because of it, friends, having taken me to the village to which you two go, put me down there," the Turtle said to the two Storks.

Then one Stork says to the Turtle, "Ane! Bola, foolish Turtles! How wilt thou go with us to another village?"

Then the Turtle says, "Ane! Friends, I indeed cannot go flying to the village to which you go. You two somehow or other having gone with me must put me there."

Then the two Storks say to the Turtle, "If thou, shutting thy mouth, wilt remain without speaking anything, we two having gone to the place where there is water will put thee down there," the two Storks said.

Having said this they brought a stick, and said to the Turtle, "Grasp the middle of this stick tightly with the mouth, and hold it tightly."

Having said this, the two Storks [holding the stick near the ends] took the Turtle. While they were going flying, as they were going above a dried field a Jackal saw the shadow going with the two Storks carrying the Turtle. Having seen it the Jackal says, "Isn't this a troublesome comrade they are taking?"

Then the Turtle having become angry, says, "The troublesome comrade whom they are taking is for thy mother." So the Turtle's mouth was opened. Then the Turtle fell on the ground. The two Storks left him and went away.

The Jackal having come running, after he looked saw the Turtle, and turning and turning it over to eat, when he tried to eat it the Turtle says, "I have now for a long time been staying dried up without water. In that way you cannot eat me. Having gone with me to a place where there is water and put me in it, should I become soaked you will be able to eat me," he said to the Jackal.

Then the Jackal having taken hold of the Turtle with his mouth, and placed it in a pond containing water, when he had been treading on it [to prevent it from escaping] for a little time, the Turtle says, "Now every place is soaked. Under the sole of your foot, Sir, I have not got wet. Should you raise the sole of your foot a little it would be good," it said. So the Jackal raised the foot a little. Then the Turtle crept to the bottom of the mud. The Jackal quickly seized the Turtle [by its leg] again.

After he had caught it the Turtle says, "The Jackal-elder-brother being cheated has got hold of the Ketala [plant] root." The Jackal-elder-brother quickly having let go the Turtle, speedily got hold of the Ketala root that was near by. Then the Jackal being unable [to go deeper], the Turtle going yet a little further in the water, says, "Bola! Even to-day you are Jackals! When didst thou eat us?"

Many Jackals prated to the Jackal about the Turtle. On account of the Jackal's being unable to eat the Turtle or to seize it, he became much ashamed. While he was there, having contrived and contrived a trick, saying he must somehow or other kill the Turtle, another Jackal came there to drink water. Having drunk water, he asks the other Jackal, "What, friend, are you thinking of and clenching your nails about?"

Then the Jackal who was unable to seize the Turtle, says, "Friend, a Turtle cheated me, and went into this pond. Having become angry on account of that, I am looking for it in order to kill that one should that one come onto the land," he said to the other Jackal.

That Jackal says, "Ae, Bola! Fool! How many Turtles are there yet in the pond? How canst thou seek out the one that cheated thee?" the Jackal that came to drink water said.

Every day in that manner this Jackal comes to the pond to drink water. One day when he came to drink water, having seen that a crowd of Turtles are grimacing on the lotus, the Jackal says, "If ye and we be friends, how much advantage we can gain by it!" Having spoken thus on that day the Jackal went away.

Having gone, when he met the Jackal whom the Turtle cheated he said, "Friend, having met with a crowd of Turtles while they were in the pond to-day, I spoke words [to them]. We must devise together a trick to kill them." Having said this the two Jackals talked together.

Again, on a day when the Jackal went to the pond to drink water, having seen in the [same] way as on that day the Turtles grimacing on the lotus, the Jackal says, "How can ye and we remain in this manner? Should ye and we, both parties, take wives [from each other] wouldn't it be good?" the Jackal asked the Turtles.

Then the Turtles say, "If so, indeed how good it would be!"

"Then one day we will come and speak with ye [about] the wedding." Having said this the Jackal went away.

Having gone he says to the Jackals, "[After] speaking words with the Turtles who are in that pond regarding taking and giving wives I have come away."

Then the other Jackals said, "It is very good. Some day let us all go." So they spoke.

Again on a day, after the Jackal had gone to the pond to drink water, on that day, having seen that Turtles more than on the other day were [there], he says, "Friends, to-day about all of you are [here]. Because of it, on what day will it be good to come and summon [our wives]?" he asked.

"We will say in a day or two days," they said.

The Jackal having drunk water and having gone, said to the other Jackals, "They said they will say in a day or two days [on which day we are to go to summon our wives]."

Then the Jackal whom the Turtle cheated said, "In some way or other we must completely destroy them. Friends, somehow or other having gone and spoken about this wedding, make ready quickly," he said.

On the following day this Jackal went to drink water, and to speak about the wedding. Having drunk water the Jackal asked the Turtles, "When will it be good to come?"

"To-morrow will be good," the Turtles said.

Then the Jackal says, "We shall all come. All ye also having got ready be present."

Having said this, the Jackal quickly came running, and after all the Jackals had collected together, said, "Let nobody of ye go anywhere to-morrow. We must all go to call the Turtles for the wedding, and return."

The Jackal whom the Turtle cheated said, "Somehow or other having sought out the Turtle that cheated me and called it to the wedding, I must torture it and kill it," he said.

After that, all the Jackals having collected together, started to go to call the Turtles for the wedding. Having set off, the Jackal who drank water at the pond having gone in front to invite the Turtles [to be ready], said, "They are coming to summon you to the wedding. All ye having prepared for it be pleased to be quite ready," he said.

Then all the Turtles having come and climbed onto the branches of trees fallen in the pond, were looking out.

The Jackal who came with the message having gone back near the Jackals, said, "All the Turtles having climbed on the trees and the branches, are present looking out till we come."

Well then, all the Jackals having started, while they were going with the tom-tom beaters, the Jackal who drank water at the pond said, "You stay here. I will go and look if the Turtles are coming or what."

Having gone, after he looked [he saw that] all the Turtles in the trees, more than the Jackals, all having climbed onto the branches, were looking out. Having seen [this] the Jackal says, "Haven't you tom-toms, drums, kettle-drums?" the Jackal asked the Turtles. "There! we indeed are coming beating well the tom-toms, kettle-drums, drums, and [blowing] trumpets," he said.

Then the Turtle Chief said, "Beat our tom-toms," he said.

Then all the Turtles began to beat tom-toms by singing, "Gaja, Gaja; Gora, Gora; Baka, Baka," enough to destroy the ears.

Then the Jackal having come running to the front of the Jackals, said, "All the Turtles having climbed completely along the branches of the trees are there. We all having gone near the Turtles must go along the trees that we can mount onto, and seize the Turtles," he said.

Then the Jackal Chief said, "Not so. As we come very near the Turtles beat this tom-tom verse," he said. Then all at a leap having jumped onto the trees where the Turtles are he told them to seize them. The very tom-tom verse that he told the tom-tom beaters to beat on the tom-toms is, "Ehe; Kata, kata, kata. Ehe; Kata, kata, kata."

Then when they were far off, the Turtles having seen the Jackals coming, said, "There they are, Bola. Now then, get ready."

As they were coming near, beating the tom-toms, "Ehe; Kata, kata, kata. Ehe; Kata, kata, kata," the Turtles having heard all this, all the Turtles began to cry out, "Baka, Baka," as they came near.

Then, as they came very near, singing "Baka, Baka," all the Turtles sprang into the pond [and disappeared].

On account of this thing that they did, the Jackals became still more ashamed. "These Cattle-Turtles have cheated us," they said; and having become angry, went away.

The way the Jackal-artificers called the Turtles to the wedding is good.

Village Vaedda of Bintaenna.

The first part of this tale is found in the Jataka story No. 215 (vol. ii, p. 123). In it two Hansas or sacred Geese asked a Turtle to accompany them to their home, a golden cave in the Himalayas. They carried it like the Storks. The Jackal is not introduced at all. Some village children saw the Turtle in the air, and made a simple remark to that effect. The Turtle, wishing to reply, opened its mouth, and was smashed by falling in the King's court-yard.

In the Panchatantra (Dubois), as well as in a variant of the North-western Province of Ceylon, and elsewhere in the island, the story does not end at this point, but with the escape of the Turtle after the Jackal had soaked it in the water.

In the Katha Sarit Sagara (Tawney), vol. ii, p. 37, the story ends with the fall of the Turtle, which was being carried to a lake in which there was water. In this case, as in the Jataka story, the point to be illustrated only required the Turtle to fall and be killed.

The variant of the North-western Province is practically identical with the first part of the Vaedda tale, but the drought is stated to have lasted for seven years. The Jackal was about to howl, and on turning his head upward for the purpose saw two Black Storks carrying the Turtle.

He asked, "Where are you taking a present?" (referring to the way in which a considerable load is sometimes carried slung on a stick, the ends of which rest upon the shoulders of two men, one in front and the other behind). The Turtle replied, "For your mother's head." When the Jackal tried to eat it he heard the Turtle laughing inside the shell, and said, "Friend, what are you laughing at?" The Turtle said, "I am laughing at your thinking you can eat me in that way. I have been dried up for seven years, and if you want to eat me you must first soak me in water." The Jackal did this, and the Turtle escaped in the way related by the Vaeddas.

The rest of the story is, I think, found only among the Vaeddas. Although it is clear that it must have been invented by the settled inhabitants of villages, the marriage custom according to which the bride was to be taken to the bridegroom's house to be married is not that of the modern Sinhalese, but is in accordance with the story related in the Mahavansa, i, p. 33, regarding the marriage of a Vaedi Princess at the time of Wijaya's landing in Ceylon. The Sinhalese custom is found in the story of the Glass Princess (No. 4), in which six Princes accompanied by their parents, went to their brides' city to be married, returning home with their brides afterwards.

It is probable that the original story ended with the escape of the Turtle from the Jackal after it was placed in the water. It is a folk-tale, and not a story written to illustrate a maxim. It appears to have been invented to show the folk-lore superiority of the Turtle's intelligence over that of the Jackal. The Turtle is always represented as a very clever animal, not only because of the ease with which he can protect himself by withdrawing his head and legs inside the shell--of which Mr. A. Clark, formerly of the Forest Department of Ceylon, and I once had an amusing illustration at a pool in the Kanakarayan-aru, when his bull-terrier made frantic attempts to kill one, like the Jackal--but possibly also because, as I was told of another amphibious animal in West Africa, "he lives both in the water and on the land, therefore he knows the things of both the land and the water."

In The Orientalist, vol. i, p. 134, the story as far as the escape of the Turtle was given by Mr. H. A. Pieris, the animals concerned being wrongly termed Tortoise, Cranes, and Fox; the two latter animals are not found in Ceylon. To this the Editor added the story found in the Hitopadesa, in which the animals were a Turtle and two Geese, which agreed to carry the Turtle to another lake in order that it might not be killed by some fishermen next day. Some herdsmen's boys saw it, and remarked that if it fell they would cook and eat it. The Turtle replied, "You shall eat ashes," fell down, and was killed by the men.

In the Katha Sarit Sagara (Tawney), vol. ii, p. 37, the birds were "Swans" (probably Hansas, which are always represented as geese in ancient carvings in Ceylon). Some men made remarks to each other on the strange object that was being carried, and the Turtle, on asking the birds what the chattering was about, fell and was killed by the men.

In Old Deccan Days (Frere), p. 310, a Jackal escaped from an Alligator [Crocodile] in the same manner as the Turtle.

In Wide-Awake Stories (Steel and Temple), p. 155--Tales of the Punjab, p. 147--an Iguana or Monitor Lizard outwitted a Jackal who had caught him by the tail as he was entering the hole in which he lived. Both pulled for a long time without any result. At last the Lizard said he gave in, and requested the Jackal to allow him to turn round and come out. When released he disappeared into the hole.

NO. 37

THE LION AND THE TURTLE

In a jungle there is a Lion King. While he was there, one day there was no prey for the Lion King when he was walking about seeking it. He obtained nothing as prey that day. As the Lion through fatigue was staying below a great big tree, avoiding the heat, he went to sleep.

While he was sleeping, a Turtle came out [of the bushes], having set off to go away from there. As he was going along, a "sara, sara" sound was heard, having been made by the dry leaves. The Lion King having opened his eyes [90] at the sound of this Turtle's going, after he had looked saw the Turtle, and having become angry sprang at once near the Turtle. Having said, "Bola! What art thou going on a rapid journey in this manner for? Didst thou not see that I am [here]?" the Lion King pushed against the Turtle.

Then the Turtle says, "O Lord who will become a thousand Buddhas [in future existences], I didn't come to cause you alarm, Sir; I am walking to procure my food," the Turtle said to the Lion King.

"What art thou going to seek and eat in this forest?" the Lion asked.

Then the Turtle says, "O Lord, I am walking to obtain and eat any sort of things that I can eat," the Turtle said.

Then anger having gone to the Lion, he sprang to eat the Turtle. Then the Turtle, having brought his head inside, became like a stone. After he became thus, the Lion turning the Turtle to that side and to this side, and having clawed him and bitten him, looked at him, having been unable to do anything to him. After he had been looking the Lion says, "Having been like a what-is-it stone, didn't you preach to me in overbearing words?"

When he had been looking at him a little time, as the Turtle, having put his head outside again, was going off, the Lion says, "Bola, art thou a being who can do anything?"

"O Lord, the things that you, Sir, can do you do. I do the things that I can do," the Turtle said.

"Bola, canst thou, who endest by drawing slowly and slowly what is like a lump of stone, run, jump, roar, swim in rivers that way and this way, equal to me? And what canst thou do to me, who having roared and caused the bottom of the ears to burst, and killed every animal, eats it?" the Lion said.

Then the Turtle says, "You, Sir, frighten and eat even all. You cannot frighten and kill, nor eat, me except on land. In the water, you, Sir, cannot swim that side and this side equal to me," the Turtle said to the Lion.

After the Lion, having become angry, said, "Wilt thou come to swim that side and this side with me? If not, I will put thee under a large stone," the Turtle having become afraid that he would kill him, having given his word to swim with the Lion that side and this side in a river, went near the river.

Having gone [there] the Turtle met with yet a Turtle, and said, "Friend, a great trouble has befallen me to-day." After the friendly Turtle asked, "What is it, friend?" the other Turtle says, "The Lion King has come and wagered with me to swim that side and this side," he said.

Then the Turtle says, "Why are you afraid of that, friend? Say, 'It is good.' I will tell you a good trick; you act in that way. What is it? You place a red flower in your mouth. I will place a red flower in my mouth. You having been on this side with the Lion King, and having sprung into the river and hidden at the bottom of the water very near there, remain [there]. I having hidden near the river bank on that side will be [there]. The Lion King having come swimming, as he is going to land on that side, I being near the river bank and having said, 'Kurmarsha,' [91] taking the flower will land [before him]. You also in that way having been hidden near the bank on this side, as the Lion King is going to land, having said, 'Kurmarsha,' quickly land [before him]." The friendly Turtle having said [this], hid at the bottom of the water near the bank on that side of the river.

The Turtle that spoke with the Lion went near the Lion. Then the Lion asks, "Art thou coming to swim?" he asked.

"Yes, Your Majesty," the Turtle said.

Then [after they had gone to the river] the Lion said to the Turtle, "Thou, having swum in front, be off. I having come slowly shall get in front of thee," he said.

Then the Turtle, also holding a red flower in his mouth, having descended to the river, and having gone a little far, got hid at the bottom of the water. While it was hidden, as the Lion was going swimming near the river bank, the other Turtle which stopped at that side, having got in front before the Lion landed, and said, "Kurmarsha," having placed a red flower also in his mouth, landed on the river bank at once.

The Lion having seen him, again sprang into the river. As he came to this side, the Turtle that remained at the bank at this side, having got in front of the Lion at once, taking the flower also, said, "Kurmarsha," and landed.

Again the Lion swam to the other side. In that very way the Turtle having been there and said, "Kurmarsha," landed [in front of him].

Thus, in that way, when swimming seven or eight times, the Lion, who was without even any prey that day, having become unable to swim, and being without strength in the middle of the river, died.

Village Vaedda of Bintaenna.

In a variant of the North-western Province, the Lion lived in a cave, and met the Turtle when he went to the river to drink. He told the Turtle that it was unable to travel quickly because it always lived in one place. The Turtle shrugged its shoulders, and replied, "Can you travel better than I?" The Lion challenged it to race with him, and the Turtle accepted the challenge, fixing the time eight days later.

The race of the two animals was not across the river, but along it, a series of Turtles having been stationed at various points where it was arranged that the Lion should come to the bank and call out, "Friend." At each place a Turtle rose on hearing this, and said, "What is it, friend?" At the fifth stage, the Lion leapt over two stages as quickly as one, and broke his neck.

The resemblance of the race in this variant to that between Brer Rabbit and Brer Tarrypin in Uncle Remus is striking; it even extends to the number of stages, five in both stories.

In The Orientalist, vol. i, pp. 87, 88, Mr. W. Goonetilleke gave a variant from Siam, by Herr A. Bastian, in which the animals were the Garuda [or Rukh] and the Turtle; and two others by Lord Stanmore, from Fiji, where the animals were a Crane and a Crab in one instance, and a Crane and a Butterfly in the other, the insect being perched on the bird's back during the race.