PART II

STORIES TOLD OF OR BY THE LOWER CASTES

NO. 38

THE MONKEY AND THE WEAVER-BIRD

In the midst of a forest there were a Wandura (a large grey Monkey, Semnopithecus) and a Weaver-bird.

One day the Monkey came to the tree in which the Weaver-bird lodged, and after that a great rain-storm began. The Weaver-bird without getting wet remained in much comfort in its nest; the Monkey stayed in a fork of the tree, getting thoroughly soaked.

Then the Weaver-bird said, "Why does a person endowed with hands and feet, and strength, like thee, get soaked in this rain? Such a small animal as I am having built a house stays in it without getting wet. Not a drop of rain leaks into it. If I were equal to thee I should build a good house."

On account of that remark the Monkey became angry, and saying, "What is my business to thee?" broke down the nest of the Weaver-bird.

Then the Weaver-bird went to the [Monkey] King, and instituted an action [against the Monkey]. Afterwards, orders were issued by the King to seize the Monkey. After remaining in concealment, the Monkey, thinking, "If I should be caught they will kill me," plucked a Jak fruit, and went with it to the King. After that [the King] caused the Weaver-bird to be brought, so that he might try the case.

As he was inquiring into the case, it came to be accepted that on account of his breaking down the nest the fault lay with the Monkey. Then the Monkey said, "The action is coming to an end. Will the Maharaja be pleased to look behind me?"

At that very time, when the King having considered [his judgment], looked around, he saw that there was a Jak fruit behind the Monkey. Then the King, thinking, "The Jak fruit has been brought to be given to me for the sake of obtaining my favour," said to the Weaver-bird, "The fault is in thy hands. Whether he gets soaked or however he may be, it is no affair of thine."

Having said this, the King drove her away; and the Monkey, having given him the Jak fruit, went away.

At that time animals were able to talk.

Potter. North-western Province.

The first part of this story is given in the Hitopadesa, but not the trial before the Monkey King.

NO. 39

THE JACKAL DEVATAWA

In a certain country there was a dead Elephant, it is said. A Jackal having gone to eat the Elephant's carcase, and having eaten and eaten a hole into the Elephant from behind, passed inside it. While he was eating and eating the carcase of the Elephant as he remained inside it, the skin [dried and] became twisted up, and the path by which the Jackal entered became closed.

A man who was a tom-tom beater was going near it, taking a tom-tom for a devil-dance. Then among the bones the sound of tom-tom beating was heard. So the Jackal asked, "Who is going here?"

The tom-tom beater said, "I am going to this devil-dance."

The Jackal said, "What art thou going this way for, without permission?"

The tom-tom beater replied, "O Lord, I am going without knowing about this [permission's being necessary]."

The Jackal asked, "What wilt thou obtain for the dancing?"

The tom-tom beater said, "I receive presents and the like."

Then the Jackal said, "I will give thee a present better than money. It is owing to thy good luck that thou hast come this way. I am a Devatawa (deity) who is guarding his own treasure here. If I am to give thee the treasure, split one eye (end) of the tom-tom which is in thy hand, and having filled it with water and brought it here, pour it on this Elephant."

After that, the tom-tom beater having plucked out the eye of the tom-tom, filling it with water brought it, and poured it on the Elephant's dried up carcase. The Jackal, also, sitting inside it, worked and worked it into the skin with its muzzle. Having made the skin pliable it sprang out, and went away.

When this man looked inside, no deity was there, but there were many maggots. So the man, taking his broken tom-tom, went home.

In a few days afterwards, a rain having fallen, the Elephant's carcase floated, and went down into the water-course. From the water-course it passed down to the stream. A flock of crows covered the carcase. As they were going eating and eating the dead body, it descended into the river, and from the river it passed down to the great sea. There the skin having rotted began to fall to the bottom. After the crows had looked [around], there was not even a tree [to be seen], and before they were able to fly to a place where there were trees their wings were broken, and they died.

Washerman. North-western Province.

A variant related in another village is nearly the same. Some tom-tom beaters passing the Elephant's carcase were accosted by the Jackal, to whom they replied that they were going to "a poya tom-tom beating," that is, one given on the Buddhist sabbath, at the quarter of the moon. When he inquired what profit they would get from it, they stated that they would receive cakes and milk-rice. "You don't want cakes and milk-rice," he said, "I will give you gold. Bring water to this Elephant's carcase." They did so, breaking open the "eyes" of their tom-toms for the purpose, and the Jackal escaped.

The story concludes: "For the tom-tom beaters there was neither gold, nor cakes and milk-rice. Having broken their tom-toms, lamenting and lamenting they went to their village."

In the Jataka story No. 148 (vol. i, p. 315), a Jackal became imprisoned in the same way, but escaped when a tempest soaked the skin. The tale is also given in No. 490 (vol. iv, p. 206).

In the Katha Sarit Sagara (Tawney), vol. i, p. 77, a man crept inside the skin of an Elephant from which jackals had eaten the flesh. A rain-storm caused it to contract (?) and closed the aperture. The flood carried it into the Ganges and thence to the sea. There a Garuda [Rukh] picked it up, and took it to Ceylon, where the man escaped when it tore open the hide. I insert the following as an account of the supposed state of things in Ceylon under the rule of Vibhisana, the Rakshasa King of Ceylon, after the death of Ravana: "Two Rakshasas contemplated him from a distance with feelings of fear." They reported his arrival to Vibhisana, who sent for him and entertained him in a friendly and hospitable manner. When asked how he came to Ceylon, the Brahmana cunningly replied that he had been sent by Vishnu, who had informed him that Vibhisana would present him with wealth. He stayed some time in the island, and was allowed a young Garuda on which to ride about the country, and at last he was carried back to Mathura by it.

In Old Deccan Days (Frere), p. 179, a Jackal got inside a dead bullock, and informed the scavengers who came to bury it that he was the god of their village. They poured water on the hide, and he escaped.

In Indian Folk Tales (Gordon), p. 61, a live Elephant swallowed a Jackal. The Jackal fed on the heart and killed the Elephant, but was imprisoned inside when the skin dried up. When the God Mahadeo (Siva), who was passing, heard cries and inquired who was there, the Jackal, after ascertaining who it was, said that he was Sahadeo, father of Mahadeo, and induced the latter to prove his identity by causing a heavy rainfall, owing to which the skin was softened and he escaped.

It is said in the Southern Province that all tom-tom beaters are fools. [92] In the North-western Province the same opinion is held regarding some of them. To what extent it is justified I am unable to say, but an example which supported the general notion fell under my own observation. Some jungle was being cut for an irrigation channel, at the side of an uncultivated field belonging to a tom-tom beaters' village, and one of the men came to watch the progress of the work. I questioned him regarding eggs. He stated at first that only things which could fly laid eggs, but he admitted that this rule did not apply to crocodiles, lizards, and snakes. About bats he was not certain, but thought they do not lay eggs. Rats certainly do not lay them, he said.

I had seen a Green Bee-eater flying near us, and I observed a small hole such as this bird makes as its nest-hole, in the sandy ground. I drew his attention to it, and he at once asserted that it was a rat-hole; of that he had no doubt whatever. "Well then, let us see if there are any eggs in it," I said, knowing that it was then the breeding season of the Bee-eaters.

He looked on, smiling ironically, while I got one of my men to open the tunnel carefully. When he came to the end, there on the sand, in a little saucer-shaped cavity, were four shining, spherical white eggs of the bird. The man was astonished, but was quite satisfied that they were rat's eggs. "I saw them with my two eyes," he said to my men, who all laughed at him.

The following stories were written for me as the foolish doings traditionally attributed to the tom-tom beaters of a village in the North-western Province. Apparently the village is at the side of a rice field.

NO. 40

A KADAMBAWA MAN'S JOURNEY TO PUTTALAM

In order to go to Puttalam, a Kadambawa man having yoked his bull in his cart, sent it in advance with the cart, saying, "My bull knows the way to Puttalam." He himself walked behind the cart.

The bull [being without guidance], having gone completely round the rice field, came again to the path leading to the man's house. There the man's children came out, saying, "Ade! Has our father been to Puttalam and come back?"

The man [thinking he had come to another village] said, "What are you saying 'Father' to me for? I am a Kadambawa man. I am going to Puttalam." Then he again sent on the bull in front [as before].

In the same manner as before, the bull having gone round the rice field came again to the house. Then those children saying, "Ade! Has our father been to Puttalam and come back?" went on in front.

Then the man said, "Ha! At each place that I go to, the boys call me 'Father.' I am a Kadambawa man. I am going to Puttalam. At a village on the road, also, certain boys said 'Father' to me." So saying, he again sent on the bull in front.

In the same way as before, the bull turning round the rice field came again to the village. Again the man's children said, "Ade! Has our father been to Puttalam and come back? Have you come on in front [of the others who went]?"

Then the man said, "Ha! At each place that I go to, the boys say 'Father' to me. I am a Kadambawa man. I am going to Puttalam. At two villages on the road the boys called me 'Father.'"

As he was setting off to go again, the man's wife came and spoke to him. Then the man having recognised that it was his own house, unfastened the bull, and having sent it off to eat food stayed quietly at home.

In The Orientalist, vol. ii, p. 102, there is a story by Mr. A. E. R. Corea, in which a man who was going to a village in order to hire out his bull, allowed the animal to take its own way while he trudged behind it. The bull wandered about eating, and at last lay down near a stream. The man being tired out also lay down, and fell asleep. He was close to his own house, and was found by his children when they went for firewood. When they spoke to him, he denied that he was their father, and drove them away; but his wife afterwards came, and by means of her broom-stick convinced him that he was at home.

NO. 41

THE KADAMBAWA MEN AND THE HARES

The Kadambawa men having gone to set nets, a great many hares were caught in the nets. Afterwards the men, having seized the hares, doubled up the hind legs of the hares at the joints, and the fore-legs at the joints, and threw them on the ground, in order to make a heap of them in one place afterwards. Then all the hares ran away into the jungle.

After all the hares in the nets had been finished, when they looked for the dead hares there was not even one hare. Then the men were astonished at the coming to life of the hares which they had killed, saying, "How thoroughly we killed the hares!" After having become fixed like stone [with astonishment] until nightfall, they went in the evening to their houses.

NO. 42

THE KADAMBAWA MEN AND THE MOUSE-DEER

The Kadambawa men having appointed a wedding-[day], and having caught a great many Mouse-deer [for eating at it], tied clappers on their necks like those on goats, and having made an enclosure put them in it, and came away. The Mouse-deer escaped into the jungle.

Having gone to it on the wedding-day, when they looked there was not one Mouse-deer left. Then the men, saying, "Ane! The Mouse-deer that we reared have all gone," came back to the village, much astonished.

NO. 43

THE KADAMBAWA MEN AND THE BUSH

As the Kadambawa men were going away with some drums one night, to attend a devil-dance, they met with a Wara [93] bush on the path, which looked like an elephant. The men became afraid, thinking, "Maybe an elephant has come onto the path." At the shaking of the leaves of the Wara bush they said, "He is shaking his ears."

Being afraid to go past the elephant, they beat the drums until it became light, to frighten the Wara bush. When they looked after it became light, it was not an elephant; it was a Wara tree. After that, they came back to their village. So they had neither the devil-dance nor went to sleep.

NO. 44

HOW THE KADAMBAWA MEN COUNTED THEMSELVES

Twelve Kadambawa men having gone to cut fence sticks, and having cut and tied up twelve bundles of them, set them on end leaning against each other [before carrying them home]. Then a man said, "Are our men all right? Have all come? We must count and see."

Afterwards a man counted them. When he was counting he only counted the other men, omitting himself. "There are only eleven men; there are twelve bundles of fence sticks," he said.

Then another man saying, "Maybe you made a mistake," counted them again in the same way. He said, "This time also there are eleven men; there are indeed twelve bundles of fence sticks."

Thus, in that manner each one of the twelve men counted in the same way as at first. "There are eleven men and twelve bundles of fence-sticks. There is a man short," they said, and they went into the jungle to look for him.

While they were in the chena jungle seeking and seeking, a man of another village, hearing a loud noise of shouting while he was going along the road, having come there to see what it was, found these twelve men quarrelling over it. Then this man asked, "What are you saying?"

The men said, "Twelve of our men came to cut fence sticks. There are now twelve bundles of sticks; there are only eleven men. A man is short yet."

When this man looked there were twelve men. So he said, "All of you take each one his own bundle of fence sticks." Then the twelve men having taken the twelve bundles of sticks came to their village.

In Indian Fables (Ramaswami Raju), p. 61, twelve pigs crossed a stream, and counting themselves in the same way on the opposite bank, thought that one had been drowned.

In Indian Nights' Entertainment (Swynnerton), p. 305, seven Buneyr men [weavers] counted their number as six, and were so delighted when a shepherd proved that there were seven that they insisted on doing a month's free labour for him. Next day, however, one killed his mother in driving a fly off her face, and another chopped off the heads of several goats for mocking him by chewing their cud while he was eating, so he dispensed with the rest of their services.

In the Adventures of the Guru Paramarta (Dubois, 1872) the Guru and his five foolish disciples, after long delay because of the danger, crossed a river in which the water was only knee-deep. On reaching the far bank one of them counted the party several times, omitting himself, and they concluded that one had been drowned in the river, which they had heard was a treacherous one. They lamented, and cursed the river, one after another, until a traveller arrived. When he had heard their story he offered to restore the missing man to them by means of magic, for which service they agreed to pay him all the money they had, forty panams of gold. He said to the Guru, "It is a very little thing in comparison with the service that I promise to render you. However, as you say it is all that you possess, and as you are in other respects a good man who does not intend any malice thereby, I consent." He set the six persons in a row, and struck each one a good blow on the back with his stick as he counted him in a loud voice.

In the Laughable Stories, of Bar-Hebraeus (Budge), the counting tale is No. 569. A man counted his asses and found there were ten, then having mounted on one he omitted it, and made the number nine. He dismounted and found there were ten; mounted again and counted only nine. He got down again, and saw that there were ten. Then saying, "Verily there is a devil in me, for whenever I mount an ass I lose one of them," he went on foot for fear of losing one permanently.

The counting incident is found in China also. In A String of Chinese Peach-Stones, by W. A. Cornaby, p. 276, a stupid Yamun underling who was taking a rascally monk to prison, kept counting the things he had with him, "Bundle, umbrella, cangue (the heavy wooden collar on the prisoner's neck), warrant, monk, myself." On the way he got drunk and went to sleep. The monk took advantage of the opportunity to shave his head and place the cangue on his neck, after which he absconded. When the man awoke, and began to count the things, he found everything there but himself.

NO. 45

THE KADAMBAWA MEN AND THE DREAM

When some Kadambawa men, having joined together, were going away to Puttalam, it became night while they were on the road. Having got a resting-place, and cooked and eaten, while they were sleeping a tusk elephant appeared to a man in a dream.

On the morning of the following day the man said to the other men, "Friends, last night I saw an evil dream."

The men asked, "What was in the dream?"

The man said, "I saw a tusk elephant."

Then the men began to interpret the dream. They said, "What is the meaning? If there is a tusk elephant there will be elephant's dung; if elephant's dung, paddy [which the elephant has eaten]; if paddy, uncooked rice; if uncooked rice, cooked rice; if cooked rice, it is a thing [found only] in the village. Therefore the elephant means the village. Something must have happened. It is useless for us to go on. Let us go back to the village." So all, weeping and weeping, set out to return to the village.

As they came to the rice field of the village, the women and boys of the village having heard the men coming crying and crying aloud, said, "Ane! Our men are coming crying and crying. What is it? It will be a dreadful thing." So the women and boys, having come from the houses to that side of the field before those men came across, began to cry also.

On seeing them, the man who saw the dream said to those other men, "Look there! Did I tell you falsely?" Then the men cried the more. Having seen it, these boys and women, they also cried more and more. The two parties having come quite near each other still cried. The women and boys on that side of the stile [at the edge of the field], these men on the field side of it, except that they cried said nothing.

While they were crying and crying until it became night, as a man from another village was going along the path he heard this uproar, and came to see what it was. He asked at the hand of the men, "What is it? Who is dead?"

Then the men, crying and crying, said, "Who is dead we don't know."

After that, the man having gone near those women and boys, asked, "What is it? Who is dead?"

Then those persons also said, crying and crying, "Who is dead we don't know."

Afterwards the man having stopped the crying of both parties, when he had asked them about it, there was nothing dreadful. So the man went away, and these men and women and boys, they also went to their houses.

In Indian Nights' Entertainment (Swynnerton), p. 348, a weaver girl said to herself that it would be a good thing if she married in her own village, but if she had a son and he were to die, how her relatives and friends would lament! The thought of it made her cry. When her aunts and friends observed it they all cried too, and her father and uncles and brothers coming up and seeing all these people crying, also cried. When a neighbour asked the men what it was about, who was dead? they could not tell him, but referred him to the women. He then learnt that these also did not know, but cried because they saw the girl crying.

NO. 46

THE FOUR TOM-TOM BEATERS

This story is told in the Southern Province to illustrate the foolishness of this caste.

Four Tom-tom Beaters when proceeding along a road together, met a man of lower caste than themselves. Before passing them he made an obeisance, and (as usual in such cases) said, "Awasara," "Permission"--that is, "Have I permission (to pass)?"--and then walked away.

While the Tom-tom Beaters were going along afterwards a dispute arose over it, each person claiming that he was the one who had been addressed, and to whom the obeisance had been made, as being the superior man of the party. Each maintaining his own view, and being unable to settle it in any other way, the four persons decided to refer the matter to the man himself. They therefore turned back and ran after him, and on overtaking him requested him to state from which of them he had asked the permission. As the question plainly indicated the sort of persons they were, he replied, "From the biggest fool among you."

This left matters just where they were, as each one, in order to prove his claim to the obeisance, then declared himself to be the greatest fool; and at last they related their foolish actions. These were pointless, and I did not preserve the details. Each, however, had two wives, this being one of the grounds on which all based their claims, and the details they gave consisted of accounts of the ill-treatment that they received from these women.

In Indian Nights' Entertainment (Swynnerton), p. 65, a traveller threw four pence to four weavers, each of whom claimed all the money. A second traveller's reasonable suggestion that each should take a penny was rejected, and they ran after the man, and asked for whom he had given them. When he inquired which was the wisest they told stories that only indicated their extreme stupidity, and in the end he gave them four pence each, all being equal in this respect.

The Abbé Dubois gave a similar story from the Tamil of Southern India, the men being four Brahmanas to whom a soldier said, "Saranam, eiyar" ("Homage, Sir"). The four replied, "Asirvatam" ("Benediction"), and the man went off. After disputing about it, they ran after him for a league, and asked him whom he saluted. He said, "Well, it is the biggest fool of four whom I intended to salute." Eventually the matter was referred to the headmen of the next village, who after hearing their accounts of their silly deeds, decided that each one might claim superiority over the others. "Thus," said they, "each one of you has gained his case." The men were satisfied, as each had won.

In Folk-Tales of Hindustan (Shaik Chilli), p. 1, there is a version in which two men were saluted by an old woman as they passed her. After a dispute over it, when they ran back and asked her about it, she replied that she saluted the greater fool of the two. Then they related their experiences to her, and she adjudged one to be a bigger fool than the other.

NO. 47

THE GOLDEN TREE

At a certain city there is a King, it is said; there are three Princes of that King. The King, while sleeping, saw in a dream that a Golden Tree sprang up, and on that Golden Tree a Silver Flower blossomed. A Silver Cock that was sitting on the Silver Flower crowed.

Afterwards the King caused the three Princes to be fetched. When the eldest Prince had been brought he asked him, "Son, can you explain this dream which I have had?"

The Prince asked, "What appeared in the dream, Father-King?"

The King said, "A Golden Tree having been created, on it a Silver Flower blossomed, and a Silver Cock crowed while sitting upon the flower."

The Prince said, "Ane! Father-King, I cannot interpret it; perhaps my two younger brothers will explain it."

Then the King having caused the next Prince to be fetched, asked him, "Son, can you explain this dream?"

The Prince asked, "Father-King, what appeared in the dream?"

The King told him the manner in which the things appeared in the dream.

The Prince said, "Father-King, I cannot explain it; perhaps younger brother will interpret it."

Then the King having caused the youngest Prince to be brought asked him, "Son, can you explain this dream?"

The Prince asked, "Father-King, what appeared in the dream?"

The King told him the manner in which the things appeared in the dream.

Then the Prince said, "O Lord, Your Majesty, I will interpret that dream, but I must first go in search of the explanation."

After that, the three Princes obtained leave of absence for three years. Having got it, the three persons, cooking a bundle of rice, and taking from their father permission to depart, started to go in search of the interpretation. Having gone on and on, they came to a junction of three roads. Having arrived at it, and eaten the bundle of cooked rice, the eldest Prince said, "I will go along this road; you go on those two roads." So the eldest Prince went along one road, the second Prince went along another road, and the youngest Prince went on the remaining road.

Having gone on and on, the youngest Prince arrived at the house of a widow woman. The woman said, "Ane! Son, what have you come here for? We have not even firewood for cooking."

The Prince asked, "Why, mother, is that?"

The widow woman said, "There is a Yaka in the jungle in which is the firewood. The Yaka has now eaten all the people of this city; few people are now in it."

The Prince asked, "How does that Yaka seize the men?"

The widow woman said, "When they go to the jungle and are cutting firewood, he comes saying 'Hu,' and eats them."

Afterwards the Prince, taking his sword, went to the jungle, and chopped a piece of firewood. The Yaka came, saying "Hu." Then the Prince chopped at the Yaka with that very sword, and the Yaka died there. After that, the Prince, taking a bundle of firewood, returned to the house of the widow woman.

The widow woman asked, "Son, did you meet with the Yaka?"

The Prince said, "I met with him; I killed the Yaka."

Then having cooked with the firewood, she gave the Prince to eat.

On the morning of the following day the King went to the jungle, and chopped firewood. That day the Yaka did not come, saying "Hu." Afterwards, through the Yaka's not saying "Hu," the King went to look for him, and saw that the Yaka was dead. So the King returned to the city, and saying, "I must find now, in a moment, the man who killed the Yaka," caused proclamation to be made by beat of tom-toms to that effect.

Having heard it, this widow woman, summoning the Prince, went to the palace, and told the King that he had killed the Yaka. After that the King asked at the hand of the Prince, "How did you kill the Yaka?"

The Prince said, "I went to the jungle, and while I was chopping firewood the Yaka having come crying "Hu," sprang onto me. Then I speedily chopped at him and killed him." Having heard this, the King gave the Prince a district of that kingdom, and an elephant's load of goods.

Afterwards the Prince gave all those things to the widow woman, and having gone away to another city, came to the house of a widow-mother. Having arrived there, the Prince said to her, "Ane! Mother, you must give me a resting-place to-day."

The widow-mother said, "I can indeed give you a resting-place, but there is no place to sleep in. You cannot sleep in the veranda; a light falls there during the night, and any person who sees that light dies. Nobody can stop the light. In order to stop it, the King has made public proclamation by beat of tom-toms that to any person who stops it he will give an elephant's load of goods, and a district of the kingdom."

The Prince asked her, "Mother, where does the light fall first?"

The widow-mother said, "In an open grass field in the middle of the city."

The Prince then said, "If so, go and tell the King to fix a raised platform at the place where the light falls, and having placed there a winnowing basket made of cow-dung, and a large pot of water, to come away. I will go there to-night and stop it."

So the widow-mother went and told the King. After that, the King prepared the things in that very manner, and came away.

In the evening, the Prince, having eaten food, went onto the platform. Near midnight, while he was there the light fell there. When the Prince looked, the Naga King of the world of the Nagas, having come there, had ejected from his mouth the Cobra Stone, and having gone far away was eating food [as a cobra].

Then this Prince put the cow-dung winnowing basket on the stone, whereupon the Naga King came crying out to the water-pot, taking it for the person [who had done it]. The Prince then chopped at him with his sword, and the Naga King died. After that, taking the Cobra Stone, the Prince washed it with water from the pot, and put it away in the waist pocket of his cloth.

While he was there it became light. Then the King came to see if he had stopped the light. When he looked he saw that the cobra was lying in a heap. The King asked at the hand of the Prince, "Did you stop the light?" The Prince said, "Look there! The very one that made the light has been killed there." Afterwards the King gave the Prince an elephant's load of goods, and a district of that kingdom.

Afterwards, the Prince having given to the widow woman all the things that had been given to him, went along the path on which the Naga King had come, to the world of the Nagas. When he got there, all the three Princesses of the Naga King whom he had killed were there, sitting in one spot.

The Princesses said to this Prince, "What have you come for? Should our father the King return now he will eat you."

The Prince saying, "Your father the King cannot come. I have come here after killing your father the King," showed them the Cobra Stone.

Then the Princesses asked, "What have you come here for?"

The Prince said, "I have come on account of a sooth-saying, in order to get it explained."

The Princesses asked, "What is the sooth?"

The Prince said, "At the time when our father the King was sleeping, a Golden Tree having sprung up, and a Silver Flower having blossomed on it, a Silver Cock which was sitting upon the flower crowed."

The three Princesses said, "We cannot explain it here. Let us go to your father the King."

The Prince said "Ha," and the three Princesses and the Prince set off to come to him.

They came to the junction of the three roads at which at first the three Princes separated. Having arrived there they went along the road on which the eldest brother of the Prince had gone, and having met with him the Prince said, "Let us go back, elder brother, these three Princesses will explain the dream"; so they returned. Then they all went along the road on which the next brother had gone, and having found him the Prince said, "Let us go back."

Having summoned him to go with them, those three Princes and the three Princesses, six persons, having met together in this manner, came to the Princes' city. Having arrived there, this youngest Prince caused their father the King to be called. So the King came to them.

Then these three Princesses who had come from the world of the Nagas said to this youngest Prince, "Cause us three persons to stand at the thread" (that is, to toe the line). So this Prince caused them to stand at the thread.

Then the three Princesses said, "Cut off our three heads at one stroke." So this youngest Prince cut off their three heads at one stroke. Thereupon the Golden Tree was created, and the Silver Flower having blossomed on it, the Silver Cock that was sitting on the top of the flower crowed.

Then this youngest Prince chopped down the Golden Tree with his sword, and the three Princesses came to life again. Having come to life, the three Princesses asked at the hand of the King, the father of the Princes, "Was it thus in the dream that appeared to you?" The King said "Yes." Then the three Princesses told him that they were the Golden Tree, and the Silver Flower, and the Silver Cock.

After that, the three Princesses, having been married to the three Princes, remained there.

Tom-tom Beater. North-western Province.

The Cobra King with the gem, a diamond, which he laid down while feeding, and swallowed afterwards, occurs in Old Deccan Days (Frere), p. 36. A girl, disguised as a Prince, hung in a tree a large iron trap fitted with knives underneath. Below it she scattered flowers and sweet scents "such as cobras love," and when the Cobra came at night she dropped the trap on him, and killed him. When she went to wash the diamond in the lake, the water on being touched by it rolled aside, and revealed a path which led to the garden at the Cobra's palace. In the garden she found a tree with a silver stem, golden leaves, and clusters of pearls as fruits. In the end, the Cobra's daughter came away with her.

In Folk-Tales of Bengal (Day), p. 18, a Cobra rose out of a tank, with a brilliant gem on its hood, which shone "like a thousand diamonds," and lit up everything around. The snake put it down and went in search of food, and swallowed the two horses of a Prince and his friend, the son of the Minister, who were belated, and sitting in a tree. While the snake was at some distance, the Minister's son descended, covered the gem with horse dung, and climbed back. The snake rushed to the spot, but could not find the gem, and eventually died. Next morning they descended, washed the gem in water, and saw by its light a palace under the water, in which they found a Princess whom the Prince married.

In the Jataka story No. 253 (vol. ii, p. 197) we learn that the Naga King called Mani-Kantha, "Jewel-throat," appears to have kept the gem in his throat. He said--

Rich food and drink in plenty I can have By means of this fine jewel which you crave.

In the story No. 543 (vol. vi, p. 94), the Naga gem is mentioned as "the jewel which grants all desires." Naga youths are described as placing it on a hillock of sand, and "playing all night in the water by its radiance." One on the head of the Naga King is referred to on p. 97 as being one which, "bright-red like a lady-bird, glows on his head a diadem."

In the Panchatantra (Dubois), three jogis when killed while eating became three large copper pots filled with gold and valuable jewels.

In Wide-Awake Stories (Steel and Temple), p. 176--Tales of the Punjab (Steel), p. 166--a Princess was brought to life by cutting off, at one blow of the Sword, the heads of a pair of ducks.

In The Indian Antiquary, vol. i., p. 115, in a Bengal story by Mr. G. H. Damant, a King dreamt of a silver tree, with golden branches, diamond leaves, and pearl fruits; peacocks were playing in the branches and eating the fruits. The tree was a girl, imprisoned by Rakshasas. When a Prince cut her in two she became the tree; when he dropped the knife she took her own shape again.

NO. 48

THE SEVEN PRINCESSES

In a certain country there are a King and a Queen, it is said; there are seven Princesses [the daughters] of the King. A Prince younger than those seven is born.

The King went to a war, and having gone there the King was defeated in the war. When he returned, the royal food was not made ready for the King. Having arrived, he asked the Queen, "Why did you not prepare the royal food for me?"

Then the Queen said, "I cannot bring up your children, and prepare the royal food for you also."

The King asked, "Why? What have the Princesses done?"

The Queen replied, "They go to the river, and after bathing there come back and rub oil on their heads, and comb their hair, [instead of assisting me to prepare the food]."

On account of that the King settled to behead the seven royal Princesses next day.

The Queen having cooked a bundle of rice and given it to those seven said, "Go to any place you like, or the King will behead you to-morrow."

After that, they went off to the river, and after sitting there and eating the bundle of rice, the seven went away.

Having gone on and on, they went to the house of a Rakshasa. When they got there the Rakshasa was not at home. The seven persons asked for and obtained a resting place from the Rakshasi (female Rakshasa). Then the youngest Princess said, "We have no food; give us something to cook." So the Rakshasi gave them a little paddy.

The youngest Princess, taking the paddy, said to the other six Princesses, "Elder sisters, come and pound this small quantity of paddy." The six persons refused.

After that, the Princess having pounded it, when she went out to winnow it saw that there was a heap of human bones behind the house. The Princess bearing that in mind winnowed it, and returned without speaking about them. Then she called the Princesses to come and cook it; they did not come.

Afterwards the Princess having cooked, summoned those six persons to eat the rice. The six persons refused. Thereupon the Princess fed the six Princesses [by dividing the rice and giving each one her share of it].

Now, in the evening the seven Princesses went to sleep. There were seven girls at the house, the daughters of the Rakshasa, and the seven wore white clothes. The seven Princesses wore blue clothes. Then the youngest Princess having awoke in the night, took the seven white cloths of the seven Rakshasa girls, and put them on the Princesses, placing the dark cloths of the Princesses on the girls.

The Rakshasa having returned during the night, and having learnt from his wife of the arrival of the Princesses, put one of the girls out of those who wore the dark cloths, in a large cooking-pot, and having boiled her the Rakshasa ate his own daughter.

After seeing this, when the Rakshasa had gone to sleep, the little Princess, awaking those six Princesses, told them about it, and all the Princesses escaped together during the night. Having come to a river they remained there lying on a sandbank.

A King having come that way while they were there, asked, "Are you Yakas or human beings?"

The Princesses asked, "Is it a Yaka or a human being who asks?"

The King replied, "It is indeed a human being who asks, not a Yaka."

Then the Princesses said, "We indeed are human beings, not Yakas," [and they told him how they had escaped from the house of the Rakshasa and had come there].

On hearing this the King said, "Can you go with me?"

The Princesses having said, "We can," went with the King to his palace, and became his Queens. [94]

On the night of the following day, a daughter of the Rakshasa, having heard how the King had taken away the Princesses, came there, and remained lying on the sandbank.

On the next day, also, the King having come that way asked, "Are you a Yaka or a human being?"

The Rakshasa's daughter said, "Is it a Yaka or a human being who asks?"

The King replied, "It is indeed a human being who asks, not a Yaka."

The Rakshasa's daughter said, "I also am indeed a human being, not a Yaka."

Then the King said, "If so, can you go with me?"

The Rakshasi having said, "I can," went with the King to the palace, [and also became his wife.]

After a long time had gone by, all those seven Princesses were about to have children. One night, when the Princesses were asleep, the Rakshasi plucked out the eyes of the seven Princesses by magic, without awaking them, and having done so hid all the eyes. Then when the seven Princesses, having arisen, tried to go about, they were unable to go; they found that they could not see, so they lay down again.

Afterwards the King came to awake them. "Why are you sleeping yet?" he said.

The seven Princesses replied, "We are unable to get up; we have no eyes."

The King asked, "How have your eyes become displaced?"

The seven Princesses said, "What has happened we do not know; they have been plucked out while we were asleep."

Afterwards the King having said, "If so, go where you like," drove them away. The King allowed only the Rakshasi to stay.

The seven Princesses, having gone on and on, and having fallen down at a pool, gave birth to seven Princes there. Now, there was no food for the seven, so having cut up the Prince of the eldest Princess, and divided the body into seven parts, they ate for a day. On the next day, having cut up the next Princess's Prince and divided the body, they ate it. Thus, in that manner they ate the six Princes of the six persons.

On the next day they settled to cut up the Prince of the youngest Princess. Then the youngest Princess, on each of the days having put away her portions of flesh, said, "You shall not cut up my Prince. Look, here is your flesh," she said, and gave them the six portions of flesh. The six persons ate them.

[The narrator did not state how they subsisted after that.]

While this youngest Princess was rearing that Prince there, after the Prince went to the chena jungle one day, he met with a Vaedda. The Vaedda said, "Let us go together to the King's city." [95] The Prince said "Ha," and went with him. There the King saw him, and being pleased with him gave him food and the like. The Prince having eaten, after he had come again to the pool the Prince's mother asked, "Where did you go?"

The Prince said, "I went to the King's city."

His mother asked, "What did you go for?"

The Prince replied, "I went 'simply'" (that is, for no special purpose).

The Princess having said, "Aha!" while she was still there the Prince said, "I am going to the forge."

Having gone to the forge he said to the smith, "Make and give me a bow and an arrow." The smith said, "Cut a stick and come with it." So the Prince went to the chena jungle to cut a stick. There was no suitable stick, but a golden shoot had fallen down there, and having taken it he gave it to the smith. The smith said, "This is not good; bring another stick," so the Prince went and brought another stick. The smith made a good bow and arrow out of the stick, and gave them to him.

Then the Prince having taken the bow and arrow, and shot a deer, carried it to the city. After he had gone there they gave him paddy, rice, flesh, and cooking-pots, and the like for it. Then the Prince having taken them to the pool where the Princesses were, gave them to his mother the Queen. Afterwards he shot a deer every day, and having taken it to the city carried back to the Princesses the things that he received for it.

One day having shot a deer, as he was about to take it to the city the Prince's mother told him to carry it to the palace. While he was there the Rakshasi saw him, and having made inquiry got to know that he was the son of the youngest Princess. So she said to him, "Take a letter to our house for me," and gave it to him.

As the Prince was going that day taking the letter, it became night, so he went to a city, and asked a widow woman for a resting-place for the night. The woman of the house said, "Ane! What have you come to this city for? A Yaka has eaten all who were in this city. To-night he will be coming for my daughter."

The Prince asked, "How will the Yaka come?"

The woman said, "Four miles away he says, 'Hu'; then a mile away he says, 'Hu'; and having come from there near the stile at the road, he says, 'Hu'."

The Prince asked, "Are there Kaekuna [96] seeds here?"

The daughter said, "There are," and she gave him a sackful of them.

Then he told the daughter, whose father had been the King of the city, not to be afraid. "If the Yaka should come I will kill him," he said. So the Prince went to sleep, placing a sword that he had brought at his side, and laying his head on the waist pocket of the Princess.

Afterwards the Yaka cried "Hu," when four miles away, and tears fell from the eyes of the Princess on the breast of the Prince when she heard it. Next, the Yaka cried "Hu," when a mile away. The Princess having spoken words to him on hearing it, he arose. "What is it?" he asked. The Princess said, "The Yaka is coming." Then the Prince emptied the sack of Kaekuna seeds at the door, and took up his sword.

As the Yaka, having come, was springing into the doorway, he slipped on the seeds, and fell. Thereupon the Prince cut and killed the Yaka with his sword, and having put his body in a well which was there, covered it up with earth.

After the Prince had told the Princess about himself and the seven Princesses, he said, "I must go now."

The Princess asked him, "What else is there in your hands?"

The Prince replied, "There is a letter which the Queen has ordered me to take to her home."

The Princess having said, "Where is it? Let me look at it," took it, and when she looked at it there was written in it, "Mother, eat the Prince who brings this letter, and eat the eyes of those seven persons."

Then the Princess having torn up the letter, wrote another letter, "Mother, having taken care of the Prince who brings this letter, send medicine for the eyes of those seven persons." Having written it she gave it into the hands of the Prince.

The Prince carrying the letter, and having taken a bundle of cooked rice to eat on the way, went to the house of the Rakshasi. As he was coming near the house he saw a Rakshasi sitting at the road. When she saw him she said, "The flesh of that one who is coming is for me."

The Prince asked, "What art thou saying?" and gave the letter to the Rakshasi, and asked for the medicine for the eyes. After reading the letter the Rakshasi prepared abundant food for him, and gave him lodgings that day.

Next day, showing him a tree, she said, "After you have rubbed the juice of this tree on the eyes of the persons who are blind, their eyes will become well."

The Prince said, "If so, tie a little of it in a packet and give me it." So the Rakshasi having tied up a packet of it gave him it.

Then the Prince having taken it back, rubbed it on the eyes of those seven persons, and their eyes became well.

Afterwards, the Prince having gone with them to the city where he killed the Yaka, married the Princess, and remained there.

North-western Province.

This story does not appear to have been met with among the people of Southern India, but variants are well-known in other parts of the country. In all these forms of the tale the wicked Rakshasa Queen is killed.

In Indian Fairy Stories (Ganges Valley), by Miss Stokes, there are two variants, pp. 51 and 176. In both, a demoness or Rakshasi whom the King married induced him to cause the eyes of his other seven Queens to be plucked out, and six of the infants whom they bore were eaten, the seventh being saved as in Ceylon.

In one story the boy was sent for the milk of a tigress, an eagle's feather, and night-growing rice; in the other he went for rose-water, flowers, and a dress. A friendly Fakir in one tale, and a Princess in the other, substituted other letters for those in which the demons or ogres were instructed to kill him, so that he was well received and succeeded in his errands. In one case he got the blind Queens' eyes, and ointment to make them as before; in the other he brought back magic water that cured them.

In Tales of the Punjab (Steel), p. 89, and Wide-Awake Stories (Steel and Temple), p. 98, the demoness Queen persuaded the King to give her the eyes of the seven Queens, which she strung as a necklace for her mother. The seventh boy, who was shooting game for the blind Queens' food, was sent for the eyes and got thirteen, one having been eaten. The written message which requested that he should be killed was changed by a Princess. On two other journeys he obtained the Jogi's white cow which gave milk unceasingly, and rice that bore a million-fold, by the aid of which the seven Queens became the richest people in the kingdom. After he had married the Princess who assisted him, the King heard the whole story, and killed the demoness.

In Folk-Tales of Bengal (Day), p. 117, the Rakshasa Queen, after getting the seven Queens' eyes plucked out, ate up all the people, and no one remained to attend on the King. At last the boy offered his services. He always left before night, the time when the Ogress caught her victims. She sent him to her mother for a melon, with a letter which he tore up. He got back safely, bringing a bird in which was the life of the Ogress Queen; when he killed it she died.

In The Indian Antiquary, vol. i, p. 170, there is a Bengal story by Mr. G. H. Damant. The Ogress or Rakshasa Queen obtained the eyes of the seven Queens from the King, and sent the boy for sea-foam, and afterwards for rice grown in Ceylon, "the home of the Rakshasas," that ripened in one day. A Sannyasi, or Hindu religious mendicant, changed him into a kingfisher on one trip and a parrot on the other, which brought the things, being re-converted into a Prince on the way back. Lastly, he was sent to Ceylon for a cow a cubit long and half a cubit high. The King paid him heavily for getting these things, and for the last one was obliged to sell his kingdom and give the proceeds to the boy. The Sannyasi instructed him to conciliate a Rakshasi by addressing her as "Aunt," and to deliver a pretended message from the Ogress Queen. He was well received, and learnt that the Rakshasas' lives were in a lemon and the Ogress Queen's in a bird. He cut the lemon and thus killed all the Rakshasas, brought back the blind Queens' eyes, and killed the bird, and with it the Ogress Queen.

In Folk-Tales of Hindustan, Allahabad (Shaik Chilli), p. 105, the seven Queens were thrown into a large dry well; it is not stated that their eyes were plucked out. The seventh boy got his grandfather, a carpenter, to make him a wooden flying horse. He was sent for singing-water, magic rice, and news of the Rakshasa Queen's relatives. He met a lion, a wolf, and various other savage animals, which he appeased by addressing them as "Uncle," "Cousin," etc. A kind Yogi changed his letter, and he was welcomed by the Rakshasas, whose lives he learnt were in a number of birds. These he killed, taking back a pea-hen in which lay the life of the Ogress Queen, as well as the magic water and rice. Each of the animals sent a cub with him, and on his return these performed a dance, at the end of which he killed the pea-hen and the Ogress died. The persons who had been eaten by the Ogress revived when the magic water was sprinkled on their bones. The magic rice plant, called Vanaspati, grew into a tree forty yards high, and bore cooked rice.

In Folk-Tales of Kashmir (Knowles), 2nd ed., p. 43, the seven Queens' eyes were put out, and they were thrown into a large dry well. The seventh boy was sent for the milk of a tigress, and then to the grandparents of the Ogress Queen. A friendly Fakir having altered the messages, he was well received, got medicine that cured the blind Queens' eyes, and also killed the birds and smashed a spinning-wheel in which were the lives of the Ogress Queen and her relatives.

At p. 446, also, the eyes of a Queen which had been plucked out were replaced and healed.

A variant of the Western Province of Ceylon, in which there were twelve Queens, whose sight was not regained, however, has been given already. See No. 24.

NO. 49

MR. JANEL SIÑÑA

In a certain city there are a King and a Queen, it is said. There are six Princes. The youngest Prince of the six plays with (lit. beats) the ashes on the ash-heap at the corner of the hearth; the other five Princes are doing work, and going on journeys together.

The King said at the hands of the Queen that he must behead the Prince who was [idling] on the ash-heap. Then the Queen said, "What is the use of beheading him? Let us send the Prince whom we do not want to any place where he likes to go."

Having come to the Prince, the Queen says, "Son, the King says that he must behead you; on that account go away to any place you like."

Then the Prince said, "If so, give me a bundle of cooked rice, and a thousand masuran, in order to go and trade."

So the Queen gave him a package of cooked rice and a thousand masuran.

The Prince took the masuran and the package of cooked rice, and having gone on and on, when he was coming to a travellers' shed [saw that] a man was taking a brown Monkey, [97] in order to throw it into the river. This Prince called the man, and the man thereupon brought the Monkey and came to the travellers' shed.

The Prince asked, "Where are you taking that Monkey?"

The man said, "I am taking this to sell."

The Prince asked, "For how much will you give it?"

The man said he would give it for a thousand masuran. The Prince gave the thousand masuran that were in his hands, and got the Monkey, and that man having taken the thousand masuran went away.

The Prince having unfastened the package of cooked rice, and given some to the Monkey also, and the Prince himself having eaten, took the Monkey and came back to the very city of the King. When he came there the King was not at the palace; only the Queen was there. The Queen asked, "What sort of goods have you brought?"

The Prince says, "Mother, having given that thousand masuran I have brought a Monkey."

Then the Queen says, "Ane! Son, should the King and the rest of them get to know that, he will behead you and behead me. As you have taken that Monkey put it away somewhere."

So the Prince took the Monkey and put it in a rock cave in the jungle, and shutting the door came to the palace. While he was there the King saw him, and having seen him, called the Queen and said, "I shall not allow that one to stay in my palace for even a paeya (twenty minutes). I shall behead him to-morrow."

Afterwards the Queen came to the Prince and said, "Son, the King says he must behead you to-morrow, therefore go to any place you like, and do not come back."

The Prince said, "Give me a package of rice, and a thousand masuran."

Afterwards the Queen having cooked a package of rice gave him it, and a thousand masuran. The Prince taking them, and having gone to the rock cave where the Monkey was, took it and went to [another] city. At that city he ate the package of rice at the travellers' shed, and having gone to the hearth the Prince slept on the ash-heap.

The Monkey went away to dance in cities. Having gone and danced, collecting requisite articles, he came back to the place where the Prince was, and the Prince cooked some of the things he brought, and gave him to eat. The Monkey goes every day to dance; and having danced, the Prince and Monkey, both of them, eat the things he brings. In that way the Monkey brings things every day.

One day, the Monkey having gone to a city and danced, fell down at the palace at that city. Then the King came and asked, "What is it, Monkey? Why have you fallen down there?"

The Monkey says, "I have come to beg and take the measure [98] in which masuran are measured."

Afterwards the King gave him the measure for measuring masuran. The monkey having taken it and having been absent for as much as a month, brought the measure back.

Then the King asked, "What is this, Monkey, that having taken the measure thou hast been such a time [in returning it]?"

The Monkey says, "For just so much time I measured masuran."

The King asked, "Having measured them did you finish?"

Then the Monkey said, "Ando! Could it be finished? Not even a quarter was finished."

The King said, "Aha!" and was silent.

The Monkey that day also having danced in that city, the King gave him many presents. Taking them, and stealing a cloth from a field where clothes were spread out [to dry], while he was coming a man having met him in the road asked the Monkey, "Monkey, to whom dost thou give the articles that thou art taking every day?"

The Monkey says, "I give them to our Mr. Janel Siñña. I am supporting that gentleman."

The Monkey having gone to the place where the Prince was, says, "Here is a cloth. It is good for the gentleman, is it not?" and he showed him the cloth which he had stolen.

The Prince threw it aside, and said, "This cloth which I have is enough."

Next day the Monkey having come to that city and danced, lay down on the lawn of the palace. Then the King asked, "What is it, Monkey, that you have fallen down there for?"

Then the Monkey says, "Our Mr. Janel Siñña burnt his cloth while drinking. I have come to ask you to cause the cloth to be woven for him [anew]."

The King said, "If so, bring it."

Afterwards the Monkey having gone to the place where the Prince was, brought a thin cloth and gave it to the King. Afterwards the King caused one to be woven, and gave it to him.

Then the Monkey says at the hand of the King, "You ought to marry your Princess to our Mr. Janel Siñña."

The King said, "Ha. It is very good."

The Monkey, begging two copper pots, [99] went away, and having gone, heated water in the two copper pots, and having made the Prince bathe, said to the Prince, "Do not eat largely of the sorts [of food] after I have cooked and given [the food] to you [at the palace]. I have asked for a [Princess in] marriage for you after I went there."

Afterwards the Monkey, summoning the Prince also, went to the palace of the King of that city. Having gone there, and prepared a seat at the King's table, and made ready the food, after the Prince sat down to the food seven Princesses themselves began to divide [and serve] it.

Then that Prince began to eat very plentifully. The Monkey having come and nudged him with his finger, said, "You have eaten enough." Taking no notice of it, the Prince went on eating. Having eaten that, he shaped his hand [into a cup] and reversing it there [when full], ate in excess.

Then the King asked the Monkey, "What, Monkey, is [the reason of] that?"

The Monkey said, "Our Mr. Janel Siñña having been overheated [by his bath] could not eat. Through that indeed it has befallen that he has lost his senses." That also the King kept in mind.

Then the Prince and the King's eldest daughter were married.

After that, the Monkey said that he wanted a thousand bill-hooks, and a thousand digging-hoes, and a thousand axes, and a thousand people. The King gave him a thousand bill-hooks, and a thousand digging-hoes, and a thousand axes, and a thousand people. [With these the royal party set off to deliver the Princess at the Prince's palace.]

Afterwards, having given the tools to those people, the Monkey goes in front. The King and the Princess and the Prince come after. That Monkey goes [in the trees] jumping and jumping, and changing branches. The thousand people went footing and footing the road.

While going thus they met with a city. Then the King quietly told the Monkey to halt; it stopped. Then the King asked the Monkey, "Whose is that city that is visible?"

The Monkey says, "This city is our Mr. Janel Siñña's. It has been rented out to his work-people." Afterwards the King went on, keeping that also in his mind.

The Monkey again went in front. Then again they met with a city. Again the King having called the Monkey asked, "Whose is that city?"

Then the Monkey says, "It is our Mr. Janel Siñña's. It has been rented out to his work-people. In that way are the cities belonging to our Mr. Janel Siñña [given out]."

Again the Monkey went off in front. Having gone thus, he went to the house of a Rakshasa, and having made the house ready in a second, when he stepped aside the King and the Prince and Princess went in.

The King made the thousand work-people stay there, and having handed over the Princess, next day went back to his city.

Afterwards the Monkey asked at the hand of the Prince, "For the help that you gave me I also am assisting you. What favour besides will you give me?"

Then the Prince says, "When you have died I shall weep abundantly, and having made a coffin, and put you in the coffin, I will bury you."

Then the Monkey said, "So much indeed is the assistance I want."

One day the Monkey lay down, trickishly saying that he was getting fever. The Prince did not even go in that direction. Next day and the next day he stayed there; on those days he did not go.

On the third day the Monkey cunningly shutting his eyes remained as though he had died. The Prince said to a man, "Look if that Monkey is dead."

The man having gone near the Monkey, when he looked it was dead [in appearance]; he said at the hand of the Prince that it was dead. The Prince said, "Having put a creeper round its neck, drag it in the direction of that jungle, and having thrown it there come back."

When the man tried to put the creeper on the Monkey's neck the Monkey got up. "Don't put the creeper on my neck," he said.

Having gone near the Prince he said, "After I was dead [apparently], you were taking me without having put me in a coffin. Why do you [arrange to] drag me, having put a creeper on my neck? Don't take even so much trouble."

Having said this, the Monkey went off to the midst of the forest, and died.

Tom-Tom Beater. North-western Province.

Of course, this is an Eastern form of Puss-in-Boots.

In Folk-Tales of Bengal (Day), p. 226 ff., there is an account of a clever match-making Jackal which induced a King to marry his daughter to a weaver.

NO. 50

THE NIKINI STORY [100]

In a certain country there are a man and a woman, it is said. There is a girl (daughter) of those two persons.

The girl was asked [in marriage] for a Gamarala of another country who had much wealth in money. The girl having been summoned, and having gone to the Gamarala, and been with him for a long time, he went to chop jungle [for making a chena]. There he met with a fawn, and having returned home said to the girl, "Bolan, there was a fawn in the chena."

The girl said, "Ane! After you have gone to-morrow bring it." On the following day the Gamarala brought it.

When the girl had reared it for a long time, a longing came to her, and she lay down. Afterwards the Gamarala asked the Deer, "What, Deer, is thy elder sister's illness?"

Then the Deer said, "Our elder sister has a longing."

The Gamarala said, "What can she eat for it?"

The Deer replied, "Our elder sister can eat the stars in the sky."

Afterwards the Gamarala, having gone to seek the stars, and to seek for the corner of the sky [where it joined the earth, so as to ascend to them], searched until he became aged, but was unable to find the corner; and the Gamarala died.

Then the girl, having sold the Gamarala's village, took the money that was obtained there, and the wealth that he possessed [and left]. While the girl and the Deer were going on their way they met with a King. He asked the Deer, "Where, Deer, are ye going?"

The Deer said, "Our elder sister on account of thirst is going to seek a little water."

Then the King said, "Wilt thou give thy elder sister to me [in marriage]?"

The Deer said "Ha"; so having placed the Deer and the Deer's elder sister on the back of the King's elephant, they went to the palace.

When a long time had passed, a longing came again to the girl, and she lay down.

The King asked the Deer, "What is thy elder sister's illness?"

The Deer said, "Our elder sister has a longing."

The King asked, "What can she eat for it?"

The Deer said, "Should you bring for our elder sister the sand which is at the bottom of the ocean, if she slept upon it she would be well."

Afterwards, when the King was going to the bottom of the sea to take the sand, he was soaked with the water, and died.

After this, when the Deer and the Deer's elder sister, taking all the King's things, and cooking a bundle of rice, were on their way again, they met with a man. The man asked the Deer, "Where, Deer, are ye going?"

The Deer said, "We are going to seek a man for our elder sister."

The man said, "If so, give thy elder sister to me."

The Deer said "Ha," and the Deer and the Deer's elder sister went to the man's house.

When they had been there a long time, a longing came to the woman, and she lay down. The man asked, "What, Deer, is thy elder sister's illness?"

The Deer said, "Our elder sister has a longing."

The man asked, "What can she eat for it?"

The Deer said, "Our elder sister must eat Nikini. Should she not eat it, it will not only be very difficult for her [to recover]; her life will be lost." Now the sort called "Nikini" is not in any place whatever in the world. That ignorant man, not knowing of its non-existence, on account of the love that he bore for his wife went away on a search for Nikini.

Afterwards, when the foolish man was on his way to seek for Nikini, a man was ploughing. The man who was ploughing asked, "Where are you going?"

This man said, "I am going to seek for a little Nikini."

Then the man said to this man, "If so, come here [and help me to plough]."

Those two having ploughed during the whole of that day, went in the evening to the house of the man who had been ploughing. Both of them having eaten cooked rice, the man who went to seek for Nikini asked that man, "Ane! Now then, tell me the place where there is Nikini."

The man said, "Ane! I don't know. Go you away."

After that, when he had slept there that night, that man gave him a little cooked rice. Having eaten a little, while he was going on his way to seek for Nikini, a man was chopping earthen ridges in a rice field. The man asked, "Where are you going?"

This man said, "I am going to seek for a little Nikini."

Then that man said, "If so, come here [and help me]."

After those two persons had chopped the ridges during the whole day, they went in the evening to the man's house. While they were [there], having eaten cooked rice this man who went to seek for Nikini said, "Ane! Tell me the site where there is Nikini."

The man said, "Ane! I don't know. Go and ask at the hand of another person."

When this man had slept there that day night, on the next day that man gave him a little cooked rice. Having eaten it he set off to go and seek Nikini. Then a man was sowing a rice field. The man asked him, "Where are you going?"

This man said, "I am going to seek for a little Nikini."

The man asked, "What for?"

This man replied, "A longing has come to our house-mistress, so she told me to go and bring a little Nikini."

The man said, "If so, come here and sow."

For the whole of that day those two sowed. In the evening they came to the man's house, and both of them having eaten cooked rice, while they were there this man said, "Now then, tell me the place where there is Nikini."

Then the man said, "Yako, [101] that was not [asked for] through want of Nikini. That was said through wanting to cause you to be killed. Your wife has a paramour."

The man quarrelled with him, saying, "Not in any way. My wife is very good. She has great love for me. If you again say such a thing as that one is there, I shall strike you."

The other man asked, "What will you give me to catch that paramour for you?"

The person who went on the search for Nikini said, "I have a gem which has continued with us from generation to generation. I will give you that gem." [The man accepted this offer].

Then the two persons made a cage called, "The Cage of the God Sivalinga," and tied white cloth in it [as a lining], and trimmed a wooden cudgel and placed it inside. The man [who had gone for Nikini] was also placed inside the cage with a cloth on his shoulders, and closed in with similar cloths. Men having been fetched [and engaged to carry it]--saying that he was bringing the God Sivalinga--took it on their shoulders, and going off with it they went to a Hettirala's shop.

Then that man said [to the person inside the cage], "After I have placed it inside the shop, take the cash-box which is in it, and put it inside the cage."

The Hettirala asked, "What is that cage?"

The man said, "Our deity, the God Sivalinga."

The Hettirala asked, "What is it, then, that is necessary for offering to that deity?"

The man said, "The cooked rice from two quarts of raw rice, and sweet plantains are wanted."

So the Hettirala brought and gave him the cooked rice from two quarts of raw rice, and ripe sweet plantains. After that, the man gave to the man in the cage the cooked rice from a quart of the raw rice, and half the plantains. The other man ate the rice from the other quart, and the remaining plantains.

In the evening the man gave the cage into the hands of the Hettiya, and told him to place it in the house. So the Hettiya put the cage in the house. [During the night the man inside it stole the cash-box.] When it got near midnight the man asked for the cage, saying, "Hetti-elder-brother, give me my cage so that I may go." The Hettirala gave it.

As the man, taking the cage, was going along he met with a city. Then that man said [to the man in the cage], "After I have taken this cage and placed it in the palace, you get the things in it and put them inside the cage." Having said this they went to the palace. The King asked, "What is that?"

The man said, "Our deity, the God Sivalinga. We are able to say sooth and the like."

The King asked, "What do you require for him?"

The man said, "Rice cooked from raw rice, and sweet plantains are necessary."

So the King gave him cooked rice and sweet plantains. The man having given [a share of them] to the man in the cage, said, "It is necessary to place this cage inside the palace [for the night]."

The King having said "Ha," he brought it, and placed it inside the palace. As it was becoming light the man said, "Now then, I want the cage in order to worship the deity." So the King gave him the cage.

Afterwards, as the man was taking the cage near a tank it became light. He remained there until it was night, and then went to the house of the man who went to seek Nikini, and found that the woman had called in another man who was there. That man asked, "What is that?"

The man said, "This is our deity, the God Sivalinga. We are able to tell sooth."

The man said, "Ha. It is good. There is a sooth that we, too, require to ask about."

Then the [pretended] Kapurala, whom the God Sivalinga was [supposed to be] goading [102] to it, became possessed. When he was saying sooth, the wife of the man who went to seek Nikini and the false husband who had joined her, came with their arms interlaced, and saying to the deity that a long time had elapsed since her husband had gone in search of Nikini, they asked, "Has anything happened to him now?"

At that time the God Sivalinga said through the person possessed by Sivalinga, "The man has now become blind. Besides that, he will not be permitted to return to his village. He will die while in that state."

Then because he said this in the manner that was in the mind of the woman, she took the food off the fire, and together with the false husband brought the deity to her house, and gave the rice cooked from two quarts of raw rice, and sweet plantains, in order that the Kapurala might present an offering.

That night, when he had eaten, the Kapurala said, "We must place this our cage inside that [room]."

"You may do it," they said, and they placed it in the house.

Then when the wife of the man who was inside the cage and the false husband were spreading mats [to lie upon], and making ready for sleeping, the Kapurala who remained outside said, "Except that [cage], there is no room for two." Thereupon the man who was inside the cage came out, and beat the false husband even on the cheeks with the cudgel that he had taken. So the man died.

After that, the man, as it was becoming light, went and threw the Deer's elder sister into the river. Having returned, and gone to the village with the Deer, the man who went for Nikini cooked for the other man, and gave him to eat. Then the two divided the money, and he gave the man the gem which he had, as a present for him, and sent that man back to his village.

Afterwards this man, taking another wife, remained there. [According to another version, however, he became a Buddhist monk.]

Tom-tom Beater. North-western Province.

The story is also related in a contracted form in the Western Province.

In a variant by a Tom-tom Beater of the North-western Province, a young Boar takes the place of the Deer, and the woman married first a King, and afterwards a Rakshasa who was sent for the Nikini. At the Boar's suggestion he died by jumping into a fire made by the girl, and the Boar then followed his example, and was burnt up. The girl is represented as "smearing a great deal of gold on herself" before this, apparently becoming gilded.

NO. 51

THE AET-KANDA LENIYA [103]

At a certain city there are the King and the Queen, it is said. They had one son, and while the Prince was living there the Queen bore yet [another] Prince.

One day the two Princes having gone to the river to bathe, a Princess from another city came to bathe [at the same place], and the eldest Prince hid the robes of the Princess. Afterwards, on his inviting the Princess she went with the Prince to his city.

After they had gone there, when the King got to know of it he said, "Should this rascal stay with me the kingdom will be destroyed," and he ordered them to behead the Prince. Then the Queen, the Prince's mother, having cooked a bundle of rice and given it to him, said, "Go away where you like [or the King will behead you]."

The Prince having taken the packet of cooked rice to the river, ate it with the Princess. After eating it the two persons went to the house of a widow woman. The Prince made the Princess stay with her, and having given the Princess's robes into the hands of the widow woman, said, "Mother, put those robes into that box and this box" (that is, here and there, not all in one place, so that the Princess should not be able to find them).

Afterwards, when the Prince had gone to the forge to get a sword made, the Princess said to the widow woman, "Mother, give me my robes to look at."

The widow woman said, "Ane! Daughter, I don't know where they are."

The Princess said, "Why are you telling me lies? Give them to me."

On account of that, the widow woman opened the boxes, and gave the robes to the Princess. The Princess took the robes, and saying, "Should he see me again it will be as [wonderful as] if he should see the young of the Aet-Kanda Leniya, or white where charcoal has been rubbed," went away to the city of the Princess.

When the Prince came after getting the sword made, he asked at the hand of the widow woman, "Where is the Princess?"

The woman said, "On her asking for her robes I gave them. Taking them, she said, 'Should he see me again it will be as [wonderful as] if he should see the young of the Aet-Kanda Leniya, or white where charcoal has been rubbed' [and then she went away]."

The Prince on that account rubbed and rubbed charcoal, and when he looked there was a little white [colour]. Having seen it, he told the widow woman to cook cakes. When they were cooked he took some and ate; and tying up a cloth package of them, and taking it, and the sword, he went off.

As he was passing through the middle of a forest, he saw a cobra beginning to climb a tree in which were the little ones of the Aet-Kanda Leniya, and he cut it in two with the sword. While he was climbing the tree after killing it, the little ones of the Aet-Kanda Leniya came to eat him. Then he said to the little ones, "O unrighteous ones! Why are ye coming to eat me? Look ye on the ground."

When the Aet-Kanda little ones had looked on the ground, and seen the cobra that he had cut in two, they said, "[As you have saved us from the cobra] we will render you any possible assistance."

Then the Prince after going to the nest where they were, unfastened the package of cakes, and having given to them also, ate. After eating, the little ones of the Aet-Kanda Leniya said, "Mother will indeed eat you to-day when she has come."

The Prince said, "Ane! Somehow or other you must save me."

They said "Ha," and made him creep among their wings.

While he was there the Aet-Kanda Leni (the female Rukh, their mother), having pierced with its claws a tusk elephant, came bringing it, after flying round the sea in three circles. After she had come she said, "What is this, children! Here is prey for you; are you delaying to eat? On other days you come screaming for it."

Those young ones said, "Mother, to-day we are not hungry. Food has been given to us."

"Whence?" she asked.

The little ones said, "There is a man with us; [he gave it to us]."

"Show me him," the Aet-Kanda Leni said.

"You will eat him, mother," they replied.

The Aet-Kanda Leni said, "I will not eat him."

"If so, take us and swear," [104] the little ones said.

Then the Aet-Kanda Leni swore, "I will not eat him."

After that, the little ones showed the Aet-Kanda Leni the Prince. The Prince said to the Aet-Kanda Leni, "Look at the foot of the tree; [I have saved your little ones by killing the cobra]."

After having looked, the Aet-Kanda Leni said, "I will give you any possible assistance because you have done this."

Afterwards, the Prince having descended from the tree was unable to cross the river. So the Aet-Kanda Leni broke a stick, and bringing it in her mouth told the Prince to hang from it. While the Prince was hanging, the Aet-Kanda Leni flew to the other side of the river; after [leaving him there] she returned to the nest where the little ones were.

The Prince went on. As he was going along, some men were taking a great many elephants. "What are you taking those elephants for?" he asked.

Those men said, "We are taking them to kill at the city."

The Prince said, "I will give you these hundred masuran; let them go."

Those men, saying "Ha," took the hundred masuran, and let the elephants go.

After that, when he had gone much further still, he saw men taking a great many pigs. The Prince asked, "Where are you taking these pigs?"

"We are taking them to kill at the city," the men replied.

The Prince said, "I will give you these hundred masuran; let them go."

The men said "Ha," and taking the hundred masuran let them go.

When the Prince had gone still a little further, men were taking a great quantity of turtle-doves. "Where are you taking those turtle-doves?" he asked.

"We are taking them to the city to kill," the men replied.

The Prince said, "I will give you these hundred masuran; let the turtle-doves go."

The men said "Ha," and taking the hundred masuran let them go.

When he had gone a little further still, men were taking a great many fire-flies. "Where are you taking them?" the Prince asked.

Those men replied, "We are taking them to the city to fry."

The Prince said, "I will give you these hundred masuran; let them go."

The men said "Ha," and taking the hundred masuran let them go.

When he had gone a little further yet, seven widow women came to the well for water [which they said they wanted in order] to pour water on the head of that Princess, who had become marriageable. A widow woman said to that Prince, "Take hold of this water-pot [and help me to lift it up]." Then the Prince having taken the jewelled ring that was on his hand, put it in the water-pot [unobserved]; after that he took hold of the water-pot [and helped her to lift it].

When they had taken the water, and were pouring it on the head of the Princess, the jewelled ring fell down. Having seen it [and recognised it], the Princess ordered the woman to tell the Prince to come. So the Prince went there.

After he had gone there [and told her that he had made a white mark with charcoal, and had saved the lives of the little ones of the Aet-Kanda Leniya], that Princess said to the Prince, "[Before I will marry you, you must perform the tasks that I shall give you. First you must] cut a chena suitable for sowing one and a half amunas [105] of mun" (a small pulse).

The Prince said "Ha," and having gone and cut a branch or two at the chena, thought, "Ane! Will the elephants that I set free by giving a hundred masuran render an assistance?" Those elephants that he freed, having come at this word, broke down all that jungle and went away.

After that, the Prince went to the Princess, and said, "The chena has been cut."

"Then set fire [to it]," the Princess said. So the Prince went and set fire [to the bushes]. The chena burnt excellently; nothing remained, so well it burnt.

Having gone to the Princess he said, "I set fire to the chena." Then the Princess gave him one and a half amunas of mun, and said, "Sow this and come back."

When the Prince had gone he took the mun and sowed it at the chena. Afterwards the Prince said, "Ane! Will the pigs that I set free by giving a hundred masuran render an assistance?" Then the pigs that he had freed by giving the hundred masuran all came and dug [with their snouts] the whole of the chena.

The Prince went to the Princess, and said, "I have sowed the chena." After that, the Princess told him to collect and bring back the mun that he had sown in the chena.

So the Prince having gone to the chena, and collected a little mun, said, "Ane! Will the turtle-doves that I freed by giving a hundred masuran render an assistance?" Then the turtle-doves that he had set free having all come, picked up the whole.

The Prince, collecting it and taking it to the city said to the Princess, "After collecting the mun that I sowed in the chena I have come back."

"Then measure it," she said. When he was measuring it there was one mun seed less. As she said this a turtle-dove dropped it at the measuring place.

After that, the father of the Princess put that Princess and seven widow women in a dark room. Having put them [there] the King said, "Unless you select and take out the Princess, or if you take out any other person, I shall behead you."

When the Prince had gone into the room [he thought], "Will the fire-flies that I freed by giving a hundred masuran render an assistance?" Then all the fire-flies having come, fastened on the body of the Princess, as a lamp. After that, the Prince took the Princess out into the light.

[As he had performed all the tasks, the Prince was married to the Princess]. Afterwards the Prince, calling the Princess, went to the house of that widow woman.

Tom-tom Beater. North-western Province.

In a variant of the first part of this story, a youth whose father was dead, and whose mother, finding him in the way, wanted to get rid of him in order to marry another man, was sent by his mother to bring some milk, to be used medicinally for curing a pretended illness of hers.

He was sent first to the Aet-Kanda Lihiniya (Leniya is an alternative spelling), and had the same experiences at its nest, before he got the milk. The young birds told their mother that he was their elder brother, the son of their Puñci-Amma. [106] When he stated that he had come to ask for the milk, the Lihini (the female Rukh) said, "Ando! Son, when did any one get milk from me, and cure a sick person with it? She has done that to kill you, not through want of it. However, since you have come I will give you a little milk." One of the young birds accompanied him to his home. After his mother had drunk the milk she pretended to be still ill, and sent him for the milk of the Demon Hound, [107] which lived in a cave in a forest. I translate this part:--

The woman cooked and gave him a packet of rice. This youth, taking the packet of cooked rice and his sword, and making the little one of the Aet-Kanda Lihini stay at the house, went to the cave where the Demon Hound was. When he arrived, the Demon Hound was not there; only the little ones of the Demon Hound were there.

As the youth was going [to the cave] the little ones came growling to eat him. When this youth unfastened the packet of cooked rice, and showed them it, they stopped. Afterwards, the youth, having divided the packet of cooked rice, gave [part] to the Demon Hound's little ones, and taking some himself, they ate.

After they had eaten, the young dogs said, "When mother has come she will indeed eat you."

Then this youth said, "Ane! To-day you must somehow or other save me. Do not let her eat me."

The young dogs said "Ha," and putting the youth in the hollow of the cave, the young dogs came to this side, [towards the entrance], and remained there lying down.

While they were there the Demon Hound came. After she had come she said, sniffing twice, "Where does this smell of fresh human flesh come from?"

The little ones of the Demon Hound replied, "You eat fresh human flesh, and you bring fresh human flesh; what is this that you are saying?"

The Demon Hound said, "No, children, a fresh human smell is coming to me. Tell me [how it is]. Tell me."

The little ones said, "You will eat him."

The Demon Hound said, "No, children, I will not eat him. Tell me."

The little ones said, "Take us and swear."

After that, the Demon Hound took her little ones and swore, "I will not eat him."

Then the little ones showed her that youth, saying, "Here he is, mother; our little mother's son has come, our elder brother."

The Demon Hound asked at the hand of this youth, "What, son, have you come for?"

This youth replied, "Mother, our mother is ill. On account of it she said, 'Should you go and bring a little milk, when I have drunk it I shall become well.' Because of that I have come to ask for a little milk."

The Demon Hound said, "Ando! Son, when did a sick person get milk from me and become well! To [get] you killed is the explanation of that. However, since you have come, take a little milk and go." So saying she gave him a little milk.

Afterwards, as this youth was preparing to set off with it, a young dog said, "I also want to go with our elder brother," and howling [on account of it was allowed by his mother] to come away with the youth.

Having arrived and given the milk to the woman, after she had drunk it he asked, "Now then, mother, is your illness cured?"

The woman said, "Ando! Son, it is not cured."

The youth asked, "If so, what shall I do?"

The woman replied, "Bring a little milk from the Bear that is in the cave in the forest, and give me it."

He went for it, leaving the young Demon Hound at the house, and his adventures and the conversations were a mere repetition of those at the cave of the Demon Hound. One of the young Bears returned to the house with him.

Lastly, he was sent to bring the milk of the Crocodile that was in the Sea, "the reservoir [108] for the sky, and the reservoir for the earth." He ate his rice on a mound in the sea, after which, as he was descending into the sea, he observed a blue-lotus flower, and found the Crocodile at it. It came to eat him, but he held out his sword in front of him, so it asked him why he had come, and after hearing his explanation, in the very same words as before, gave him a little milk. It warned him, like the other animals, that the sending him for it was only a device to get him killed. He took the milk home, and after drinking it his mother informed him that she was cured. The story is then concluded as follows:--

Having said this, the woman went to the man [whom she wanted to marry], and said, "Now then, there is no means of killing that one. From the places to which he went he has escaped and come back. What, then, shall we do to that one?"

That man said, "Cook to-day after it has become night. I will break something in the lower part of the garden. Then say, 'Son. There! Did you hear something break in the lower part of the garden? Maybe cattle have come in.' He will come to see, and when he has come, I will chop him with the bill-hook, and kill him."

Afterwards, this woman having returned to the house, as she was cooking when it became night, the man came and broke a stick in the lower part of the garden. The woman said, "Ando! Son, maybe cattle have come in. Go quickly [and drive them out]."

Then, as this youth, having gone into the house and taken his sword, was going out, that little one of the Aet-Kanda Lihini, and the little one of the Demon Hound, and the little one of the Bear went with him. The three of them having gone [in front] to the lower part of the garden, bit the man who waited there, and having killed him returned. When this youth went and looked, the man had been killed. Then the youth came back, and having killed his mother stayed quietly there. So that little one of the Aet-Kanda Lihini, and the little one of the Demon Hound, and the young Bear, and the youth remained at the house together.

Tom-tom Beater. North-western Province.

There are Indian versions of several of the incidents of these stories.

In Old Deccan Days (Frere), p. 15, a Prince killed a cobra that was about to ascend a tree in order to destroy two eaglets. They assisted him afterwards.

In the Katha Sarit Sagara (Tawney), vol. i, p. 221, the Garudas or Rukhs are described as being "of the nature of vultures." A Brahmana got hid among the back feathers of one while it was asleep, and was carried by it to the Golden City next day. These birds are referred to (vol. i, p. 78) as breeding on a mountain called Swarnamula, in Ceylon. Compare also the account of Bharunda birds in The Kathakosa (Tawney), p. 164. According to Prof. Sayce, the original idea of the Rukh is to be found in Zu, the storm-bird or god of the Sumerians (The Religions of Ancient Egypt and Babylonia, p. 353).

A lion-headed eagle with outspread wings, holding a lion by each of its feet, formed the symbol of Lagash or Shirpurla, one of the earliest Sumerian cities. It was the emblem of Ningirsu, the god of the city (A History of Sumer and Akkad, by L. W. King, 1910, pp. 98, 100). According to Mr. King's revised chronology, this takes back the notion of this gigantic eagle, which carried off and devoured the largest quadrupeds, to the fourth millenium B.C. Its Sumerian name was Imgig.

In Folk-Tales of Bengal (Day), p. 134, a Prince's wife, disguised as a Sannyasi, or Hindu religious mendicant, on her way to join her husband who was ill--poisoned by lying on powdered glass that was spread over his bed--rested under a tree in which a pair of Rukhs (in this story called Bihangama and Bihangami) had their nest, containing two young birds. She cut in two a snake that was about to climb the tree, and that was accustomed to kill the young ones each year. She overheard the conversation of the birds, which was to the effect that some of their droppings would cure the Prince, if reduced to powder and applied with a brush to the Prince's body, after bathing him seven times, with seven jars of water and seven jars of milk. One of the birds carried her on his back to the Prince, with the rapidity of lightning. At p. 219, we learn that the dung of the young of this bird, when applied fresh to the eyeballs, would cure blindness.

At pp. 189 and 192, a puppy and a young hawk joined a Prince on his journey, but apparently owing to the omission of some incident of the tale they were of no service to him. Such omissions are common; they can only be supplied by collecting variants.

In Wide-Awake Stories (Steel and Temple), pp. 74, 75--Tales of the Punjab, pp. 66, 67--a crow, peacock, and jackal in turn warned a girl against a robber with whom she was going.

At p. 273--Tales of the Punjab, p. 259--Prince Rasalu was given the task of separating a hundred-weight of millet seed from a hundred-weight of sand with which it had been mixed. This was done for him by crickets in return for his saving a cricket from a fire.

In the Jataka story No. 444 (vol. iv, pp. 19, 20), a man laid his hand on the head of a boy who had been bitten by a snake, and then repeated a spell to restore him to health. The boy's father laid his hand on the boy's breast while saying a second spell.

In the Tamil Story of Madana Kama Raja, or "Dravidian Nights" (Natesa Sastri), p. 21 ff., a Prince purchased for a hundred pagodas apiece, a kitten and a snake, which he reared for twelve years. They assisted him afterwards.

At p. 91 ff., a Prince was ordered by a King to bring snake's poison, and afterwards whale's fat.

At p. 109 ff., a Prince who had four heavenly wives lost them through his mother's returning to one of them her celestial garment, which had been concealed. When in search of a way to his wives, he saved an Ant-King, a Frog-King, and a Cricket-King. He went to Indra, who gave him four tasks, of which one was that after an acre of land had been sown with sesame seed and ploughed one hundred times, he was to collect all the seeds. The Ant-King brought his subjects and collected them for him. Another of the tasks, the last one, was the selection of Indra's daughter, who was one of his wives, from the four, who were all given the same appearance. The Cricket-King enabled him to do this, by hopping onto her foot.

NO. 52

THE WIMALI STORY

At a certain city there are a man and a woman, it is said. That woman was about to have a child. She cooked cakes to eat. While she was eating, a crow came, and stayed there looking on. "She will throw me a piece of cake, at least," it thought. The woman did not give it even a bit of the cakes.

Afterwards the crow went to the house of the Rakshasa, and breaking off a mango fruit came to that house, and ate it in front of the woman who ate the cakes. While the crow was eating, the woman thought, "It will throw down a piece of it, at least." The crow did not give her any of it; it ate the whole and flew away.

After the man of the house came, the woman said, "The crow brought a mango fruit, and turned it round and round, and ate the whole of it. [Somehow or other you must get me a mango.]"

After that, the man went to the house of the Rakshasa, and having ascended the mango tree, tried to pluck a mango fruit. As he was plucking it the Rakshasa came home. Seeing the man in the tree, he asked, "Who is that in the tree?"

"Ane! I am in the tree," said the man.

"What are you plucking mangoes for?" he asked.

"For our house-girl to eat. [She is about to have a child, and has asked for one,]" he said.

"Well then, pluck one and descend," the Rakshasa said.

So the man plucked one, and came down. After he had descended the Rakshasa said, "Should she bear a son he is for thee; should she bear a daughter, she is for me."

The man said "Ha," and taking the mango fruit went home.

News afterwards reached the Rakshasa that she had borne a girl. On account of it the Rakshasa went to the house [and took the girl]. As he was returning carrying the girl, he saw two boys going to school, and said, "Boys, boys, say a name for my daughter."

The boys saying, "Wimali, Wimali" (pure or beautiful one), ran away.

So the Rakshasa took the girl to his house, and shared it with her.

Afterwards, when he had gone to eat human flesh, the Rakshasa heard the sound of tom-toms saying, "Wimali," [and thought they were calling the girl]. So he came home, and asked Wimali, "Have you been out?"

"No, I have not been out. I have just got up," Wimali said.

Next day he went again to eat human flesh. After he had gone he heard the sound of tom-toms saying, "Wimali." The Rakshasa came home, and asked Wimali again, "Have you been out?"

"No, I have just put on my cloth," Wimali said.

The Rakshasa having gone to eat human flesh on the following day, again heard the sound of tom-toms saying, "Wimali." He came home and asked Wimali, "Have you been out?"

"No, I have only just combed my hair," Wimali said.

After that, news reached the King that a girl called Wimali was at the Rakshasa's house. Having learnt this, the King came to take away Wimali. When he arrived there [the Rakshasa was out, so] he formed a figure of Wimali out of rice flour, and after placing that figure in the Rakshasa's house, took Wimali to the city.

The Rakshasa came to the house and [finding that she was not there] said, "Wimali will not stay at home." Then he tried to eat her figure, and ate a great part of the flour figure. After he had eaten this [his mouth was choked with the flour, so] he said, "May a mouth be created on the top of my head." When he had said this [the mouth was created, and] the Rakshasa's head being split in two by it, he died.

Tom-tom Beater. North-western Province.

NO. 53

THE POTS OF OIL

A man having gone to the Lower Twelve Pattus (the name of a district) to seek for coconuts, and having collected fifty or sixty coconuts at a shed [where he was lodging, found that] because of their great weight he was unable to bring them; and so he expressed [the oil from] them.

Having expressed it, on the morning of the following day he asked for two large pots, and filling them with the oil he tied them as a pingo (carrying-stick) load (one below each end of the stick), and set off with them.

During the time while he was coming on his way to his village, he met a man in the road, and having given him betel, etc., to eat, said, "Ane! Friend, you must assist me a little. Take this pingo load somewhat far, and hand it over to me. I will give you four tuttu" (three halfpence). [The man agreed to help him, and took the load.]

Then the man, as he was going along the road, thought, "With the funds provided by these four tuttu I shall buy a hen chicken. Having taken it home, after it has become large and laid twelve eggs I shall [set them under it and] get twelve chickens. After the twelve chickens have become big, I shall sell them for sixpence apiece. With that money I shall get a he-goat and a she-goat, and that she-goat will bear two kids.

"When the kids have become large I can sell them for five rupees apiece, and having given the ten rupees I shall get a buffalo cow. While I am rearing the buffalo cow she will bear a calf. At that time I shall go to ask about a lucky hour (fixed by astrology) for taking the [first] milk.

"After I have got to know the lucky hour and gone to take the milk, the buffalo cow, becoming afraid, will kick at me." Saying this, he jumped aside in order to avoid it.

As he was coming on the path, at this time he had reached a foot-bridge formed of a single tree trunk (edanda), and while going along at the middle of it he made the jump [to escape the cow's kick]. As he jumped, he fell off the tree trunk, taking the load of oil with him [and the two pots were smashed].

At his fall, the owner of the oil asked, "Having come so far taking care of this oil, why did you throw it down and break the pots at this foot-bridge, friend?"

The man said, "With the funds provided by the four tuttu I thought of buying a chicken. This happened owing to that."

Afterwards the owner of the oil, saying, "Never mind the spilling of the oil; you must go with me," invited the man to accompany him, and they went together. Having arrived at the village, because he was a capable man [the owner of the oil] gave him his daughter [in marriage].

Not a very long time afterwards, the men of the village said that they must go to Puttalam to load salt and sun-dried fish, and bring them back [bartering part of them on the way home]. The man said, "Father-in-law, I also must go to Puttalam." So the father-in-law made ready a cart load of goods, and giving them to him told him to go with the other men, and said, "[When disposing of the goods] the things which they count you also count and give; the goods which they give 'simply' (that is, without counting), you also give 'simply.'" [109]

Afterwards the men who went from the village, while coming back from Puttalam, from place to place gave the goods they were bringing, and took [in exchange] the things they wanted. The man having observed which goods they counted, counted and gave the same goods, without [taking] money. The goods which the other men gave without counting, that man also gave without counting. Thus, in that manner he gave all the goods loaded into the cart, until at last only the cart and the yoke of bulls remained over.

Afterwards the men who went in the party gave goods, and each one got a horse. This man gave the cart and yoke of bulls and got a horse.

While they were coming bringing the horses, the men of the party gave goods, and each one got a goat of foreign breed. So this man gave his horse, and got a goat.

While they were bringing the goats, the men of the party, saying, "We must each one get a dog with a party-coloured body," gave goods, and got one apiece. So this man gave the foreign goat that he was bringing, and got one.

Having come to a shop where they were selling foreign pots, the men of the party gave goods, and each one got a foreign water-pot. This man giving the parti-coloured dog, also got one.

Afterwards having come very close to their village, each of the men of the party, saying, "I will give four tuttu and get shaved," got shaved. So this man gave that foreign water-pot, and got himself shaved.

In the end the man returned home without either cart, or yoke of bulls, or goods.

Tom-tom Beater. North-western Province.

Some Eastern variants have been mentioned above in the story of the Kitul seeds, No. 26.

In The Orientalist, vol. ii, p. 102, there is a story by Mr. A. E. R. Corea, in which a man who was going in search of work gathered some leaves on the road-side, which are eaten as a vegetable. In another district where there were no vegetables he exchanged them for fishes, a leaf for a fish. Going on, he bartered these for digging hoes, and these again for oxen, with which he set off on his return home. Having nothing to eat, he continued to give two oxen for two rice cakes, until at last he arrived at his house empty-handed.

In the Panchatantra (Dubois), a Brahmana who had been at two feasts on the same day, carried away from the second some pots of ghi--or liquid butter,--milk, and flour, and began to consider how he would acquire wealth by means of them. He would sell them, and buy a she-goat, which would have kids, and in a short time he would possess a flock. He would then sell the goats and buy a cow and a mare, by selling the calves and foals from which he would become a rich man. He would get married and have numerous children, who would be well educated and well dressed. His wife would become inattentive to her duties at the house. During her absence the children would run about near the cows, and the youngest one would be injured by them. For neglecting them he would beat his wife, and taking up his stick to beat her he smashed the pots containing his provisions.

NO. 54

THE MOUSE MAIDEN [110]

There are a King and a Queen of a certain city, and there is a daughter of the Queen.

They asked [permission] to summon the daughter to go [in marriage] to the Prince of another city. The King said "Ha," so they came from that city to summon the King's Princess. After coming, they told the bride to come out [of her chamber] in order to eat the rice [of the wedding-feast]. The Queen said, "She is eating cooked rice in the house."

Then they told her to come out in order to dress her in the robes [sent by the bridegroom (?)]. The Queen said, "She is putting on robes [in her chamber]."

Then they told her to come out in order to go [to the bridegroom's city]. So the Queen told two persons to come, and having put a female Mouseling [110] in an incense box, brought it, and gave it into the hands of the two persons, and said, "Take ye this, and until seven days have gone by do not open the mouth of the box." Having taken it to the city, when they opened the mouth of the box after seven days, a mouse sprang out, [and hid itself] among the cooking pots.

There was also a (servant) girl at the Prince's house. The girl apportioned and gave cooked rice and vegetable [curry] to the Prince, and covered up the cooking pots [containing the rest of the food]. Then the Mouseling came, and having taken and eaten some of the cooked rice and vegetables, covered up the cooking pots, and went again among the pots.

On the following day the same thing occurred. The Prince said to the girl. "Does the Mouseling eat the cooked rice? Look and come back." The girl having gone and looked, came back and said, "She has eaten the cooked rice, and covered the cooking pots, and has gone." The Prince said, "Go thou also, and eat rice, and come back." So the girl went and ate rice, and returned.

Next day the Prince said, "I am going to cut paddy (growing rice). Remain thou at the house, and in the evening place the articles for cooking near the hearth." Then the Prince went. Afterwards, in the evening the girl placed the things for cooking near the hearth, and went out of the way.

The Mouseling came, and cooked and placed [the food ready], and again went behind the pots. After evening had come, that girl apportioned and gave the rice to the Prince. The Prince ate, and told the girl, "Go thou also, and eat rice, and come back." So the girl went and ate rice, and having covered the cooking pots came to the place where the Prince was.

Then the Mouseling came and ate rice, and covered up the pots. After that, she said to the [other] mice, "Let us go and cut the paddy," and collecting a great number of mice, cut all the paddy, and again returned to the house, and stayed among the pots. Next day when the Prince went to the rice field to cut the paddy, all had been cut.

Afterwards the Prince came back, and saying, "Let us go and collect and stack [the paddy]," collected the men, and stacked it, and threshed it by trampling [it with buffaloes]. Then they went and called the women, and having got rid of the chaff in the wind, brought the paddy home.

After they had brought it, the Prince went near the place where the cooking pots were stored, at which the Mouseling was hidden, and said, "Having pounded this paddy [to remove the husk], and cooked rice, let us go to your village [to present it to your parents, as the first-fruits]."

The Mouseling said, "I will not. You go." So the Prince told the girl to pound the paddy and cook rice, and having done this she gave it to the Prince.

The Prince took the package of cooked rice, and went to the Mouseling's village, and gave it to the Mouseling's mother.

The Queen asked at the hand of the Prince, "Where is the girl?"

The Prince said, "She refused to come."

The Queen said, "Go back to the city, and having placed the articles for cooking near the hearth, get hid, and stay in the house."

After the Prince returned to the city, he did as she had told him. The Mouseling having come out, took off her mouse-jacket, and [assuming her shape as a girl] put on other clothes. While she was preparing to cook, the Prince took the mouse-jacket, and burnt it.

Afterwards, when the girl went to the place where the mouse-jacket had been, and looked for it, it was not there. Then she looked in the hearth, and saw that there was one sleeve in it. While she was there weeping and weeping, the Prince [came forward and] said, "Your mother told me to burn the mouse-jacket." So the Mouseling became the Princess again, and the Prince and Princess remained there.

Tom-tom Beater. North-western Province.

The notion of a skin dress that could be put off and on, and that transformed a person into one of the lower animals, is well-known in folk-tales. It is found in Old Deccan Days (Frere), pp. 183, 193, where a King had a jackal-skin coat which turned him into a jackal when he put it on, until it was burnt.

At p. 222, a Princess concealed herself by putting on the skin of an old beggar woman. She was discovered when she removed it in order to wash it and herself. In the end it was burnt by the Prince she had married, and she retained her true form as a Princess.

In Indian Fairy Tales (Stokes), p. 41 ff., there is a Prince who had a monkey skin, which he could put on and off as he wished.

In Indian Nights' Entertainment, Panjab (Swynnerton), p. 344, four fairies came in the form of doves, and took off their feather dresses in order to bathe. A Prince concealed one dress, and the fairy was unable to resume her bird form and fly away.

In The Story of Madana Kama Raja, or "Dravidian Nights" (Natesa Sastri), pp. 56, 57, there is an account of a tortoise Prince who had the power of leaving his shell and assuming his human form. His mother one day saw the transformation, and smashed the shell, after which he remained a Prince.

In Folk-Tales of Hindustan, Allahabad (Shaik Chilli), p. 54 ff., the daughter of the King of the Peris had the form of a monkey while she wore a monkey's skin, and her own form at other times. When a Prince burnt the skin she took fire, and flew away in a blaze to her father's palace. While she was ill there, the Prince discovered her and cured her, and she did not resume her monkey form.

The feather-vest of the Dove-maidens--female Jinn--in the Arabian Nights (Lady Burton's ed.), iii, p. 417 ff., is well known. They removed it for bathing, and could not fly without it.

NO. 55

SIGIRIS SIÑÑO, THE GIANT

In a country there was a great person called Sigiris Siñño. He was a very wealthy person; under him ten hired labourers worked.

During the time while he was in this state, Sigiris Siñño having thought he would drink arrack (spirit distilled from palm juice), began to drink a very little. In that way he became accustomed to drink very largely. Afterwards having come [home] drunk he went to beat the labourers; also he did not give them their wages properly. When he had acted in this manner for many days, they, after speaking together, gave Sigiris Siñño a good beating, and on account of their [short] pay took the goods of Sigiris Siñño, and went away. Then no one would give work to Sigiris Siñño, so he drank until the goods in his house were finished.

Then, there being nothing for this one to drink or eat, and having become like a madman, at the time when he was walking and walking about he saw a man carrying a young coconut. Begging, "Give me that," and taking it, he went to a travellers' resting-shed.

While he was there eating the young coconut after breaking it, a great number of flies began to settle there. After he had struck at the flies with his hand, twenty died. Thereupon this one went to a person who did tin work, and said, "Ane! Friend, do a little work for me and give me it."

"What is it?" the tin worker asked.

This one said, "Cut on a sheet of tin in Tamil and Sinhalese, 'I killed twenty,' and give me it."

Having said, "It is good," he cut it and gave it.

After he had cut and given it, this one took it, and preparing a hanging board, and hanging the sheet of tin on it, put the cord on his neck, and walked along the roads. Men who saw this stepped on one side through fear, and went away.

Certain Tamils having seen this at a city, said to Sigiris Siñño, "In our country the King has a giant. Should any one fight with him and win, the King said he will give him a present of five hundred masuran, and the post of Prime Minister. This being so, can you go there with us [and fight him]," they asked.

Then Sigiris Siñño, thinking, "Let me go even should I be struck by lightning," said, "I am able to fight with the giant," and went to that city with the Tamils.

Having arrived there, these Tamils handed him over to the King under whom that giant had a post. The King asked this one, "I have a giant. Canst thou fight with the giant and win?"

Sigiris Siñño said instantly, "A son who has killed twenty giants better than that one am I."

So the King said to his giant, "Now then, do what fighting thou knowest, and conquer that one."

Then the giant said to Sigiris Siñño, "To-day you must come and swim [against me] in the great sea for eight days. We require from the King ten rupees in order to get things to eat while we are swimming." Having said this and got them, the two giants went to the shops, and got things for the ten rupees.

Then Sigiris the Giant said to that giant, "What are these few things! For one meal I want six quarts of rice and I want three bottles of arrack. I can swim for eight or ten months."

After that, this giant thought, "I can't eat as much as this one, and I can't drink as much, and I can't swim for eight or ten months. Therefore I am indeed unable to swim with this giant and beat him." He told the King so.

The King said, "If so, thou wilt lose."

The giant said, "At swimming I shall lose. We must fight each other."

"It is good," said the King. Then the King asked Sigiris Siñño, "Canst thou fight with this one?"

Sigiris Siñño replied, "I will give that one one blow."

So the King said, "Fight ye each other to-morrow."

Thereupon Sigiris the Giant said, "Not to-morrow. After a month has gone both giants will fight each other. Having proclaimed it, and put both of us into two houses under one roof, you must give us to eat until the month is finished."

The King said, "It is good."

Sigiris the Giant having sought for an iron nail, from that day dug into the wall of the house in which the giant was [which separated their two rooms]. Having dug [nearly through] it, when the month would be finished to-morrow Sigiris the Giant said to that giant, "Ade! Giant, give me a little tobacco."

That giant said, "How can I give you tobacco there?"

Sigiris the Giant replied, "Knock a hole through that wall with your hand, and give me it."

"I cannot," that one said.

Then Sigiris the Giant said, "What sort of a giant art thou, one who can't make a hole through that wall and give me a little tobacco!" Saying, "Look there! Give me it through there," Sigiris the Giant struck with his hand at the place which he had previously bored. When he struck it his hand made a hole through to the other side. That giant becoming afraid at the blow, began to tremble, and thought, "I can't win in fighting with this one."

On the following day they made them come out to fight. The place was filled with people who had come to look on. Sigiris the Giant thinks in his mind, "To-day is indeed my Fate. How shall I escape?" That giant, through fear his thoughts were the same.

The King said, "Strike ye each other."

Having said, "It is good," each one being afraid of the other, said, "Strike thou." Sigiris says to the other, "Thou strike," he says. By that one and by this one not a blow was struck.

Then the King says to Sigiris the Giant, "Strike thou first."

Sigiris the Giant said, "It is good," and thinking of running away, and saying to the people, addressing them loudly, "Get to both sides, and stop there," looked round to run off. At that, the other giant, rolling the people over, began to run away, and the people who were there cried "Hu," after him.

Then the King having become pleased with Sigiris Siñño, and having given him a present of five hundred masuran, established him in the post of Prime Minister.

Tom-tom Beater. North-western Province.

In Wide-Awake Stories (Steel and Temple), p. 89--Tales of the Punjab, p. 80--a weaver who killed a mosquito thought himself a hero, and eventually became the ruler of half the country.

In Indian Nights' Entertainment, Panjab (Swynnerton), p. 208, a weaver killed nine flies on his arm, and called himself Nomar Khan, the Nine-killing Prince. He became Commander-in-Chief.

NO. 56

THE PROUD JACKAL

In the midst of a certain forest a Lion stayed. Having joined with that very Lion, a Jackal was eating and eating the flesh of animals killed by the Lion.

After a few days had gone by, the Jackal, becoming arrogant, said to the Lion, "Don't say 'Jackal' to me."

Thereupon, "What shall I say?" the Lion asked.

Then the Jackal says, "You must call me, saying to me, 'Jackal-artificer' (Nari nayide)."

In this way, when the Lion had said, "Jackal-artificer," for many days, he said, "Don't say 'Jackal-artificer.'"

"What name am I to say?" the Lion asked.

"Say to me, 'Small Lion'; don't say, 'Jackal-artificer,'" he said.

After the Lion had been saying, "Small Lion," for a few days, "Say to me, 'Great Lion'; don't say, 'Small Lion,'" he said to the Lion.

Then the Lion says, "For me to say, 'Great Lion,' you must make the Lion's roar," the Lion said.

Then the Jackal having gone near a tusk elephant, after he had cried out, as the Lion's roar, "Hokkiye, Hokkiye" (the beginning of the customary yelping cry of the Jackal), the tusk-elephant kicked the Jackal.

Thereupon the Jackal died.

Tom-tom Beater. North-western Province.

In the Jataka stories 143 (vol. i, p. 306) and 335 (vol. iii, p. 75), a Jackal who acted as a Lion's servant induced his master to let him go out in the latter's place, in order to kill animals. He howled and sprang at an elephant, but was crushed to death by it.

STORIES OF THE DURAYAS

NO. 57

THE SEVEN ROBBERS

In a country there are seven robbers. Among them, in the same gang, there is a fool. One day they went to commit robbery. While they were there, they got a devil-dancer's box, containing his mask and ornaments. Having brought it, the seven persons went into a rock cave to sleep.

When they had gone there that foolish man became hungry. After the others went to sleep that fool took out the devil-dancer's clothes, and having looked at them put them on.

After he had put them on, one of those men opened his eyes. Then on account of the noise of the bells [of the devil-dancer] the others opened their eyes also. When they saw the man dressed in the devil-dancer's clothes they were frightened, and saying, "Ade! The Kohomba deity is coming," the other six persons ran away.

As they were running, that man who had the clothes ran after them, saying, "Stay there, stay there." While they were running those six persons leaped over a well [in the path]. This one also jumped, but being held back by the clothes he fell into the mouth of the well.

After he had fallen into the well, a woman came to draw water. Then he placed his weight in the bucket when she lowered it. After the woman had got to know of the weight, striving and striving she got the bucket near the mouth of the well. The man who had fallen, and was in it, said, "A little more, my mother." Then the woman hearing this [and seeing what she thought was a demon in the well], let go, and bounded away.

Duraya. North-western Province.

In The Orientalist, vol. i, p. 136, a story is given regarding twenty-five idiots, in which is a variant of this tale. Some robbers whom one of them was assisting left him outside a house with a basket that he had brought out of it. While they were inside searching for booty, he found in the basket the dress worn in representations of a demon termed Gara Yaka, and put it on. When the robbers came out they thought he was the demon himself, and ran off, with the idiot at their heels. In the end, they jumped into a well, were followed by him, and all were drowned.

NO. 58

THE STUPID BOY

In a certain city there are a Gamarala, a Gama-gaeni (his wife), and a son of theirs. The Gamarala went to the chena. The Gama-gaeni lay down, and told the Gama-puta (the son) to examine her head [for insects]. While he was looking through the hair she fell asleep, and a fly settled on her head. "Ade! Fly, do not bite our mother's head," he said, "mother will scold me."

The fly having gone flying away, settled again on her head. Saying, "Now then, this fly is biting mother's head again," he placed his mother's head gently on the ground. Then having gone and taken a rice pestle, and come back with it, he said, "Is the fly still biting the head?" and struck at the fly with the rice pestle, killing his mother with the blow.

The boy's father having come, tried to arouse her. "How is it that mother is dead?" he asked. The boy said, "A fly was biting our mother's head. I struck it with the rice pestle. Because of it she died." So the Gamarala took the woman away and buried her.

Then he came home with the boy. Having arrived, the Gamarala told the boy to make a pot of gruel. Having made the pot of gruel he told the boy to take it, and they went to the jungle to cut fence sticks. The man, cutting and cutting the fence sticks, told the boy to draw them out, and throw them down. Then the boy, taking the fence sticks, threw them into the river.

Taking the pot of gruel, and making a raised platform of sticks, he placed it on it. The Gamarala said to the boy, "Now then, as you have come here, go and drink gruel." Then the boy having gone under the stick frame, and pierced the bottom of the pot, and made a hole through it, placed his mouth under it, and drank a sufficient quantity. Still the gruel comes from the pot, so the boy said to the pot of gruel, "Father is there. Don't come out, gruel."

Having cut the fence sticks, the Gamarala came to drink gruel. There was nothing in the gruel pot. He asked at the hand of the boy, "Where, Ada! is the gruel?"

"The gruel went out while I was saying don't go," he said.

Then the Gamarala thought, "There is no need to keep this boy," and having beaten him he drove him away.

As the boy was going, weeping and weeping, he met with a Buddhist monk. [111] There were two bundles in the Lord's hand. He told the boy to take the couple of bundles. As the boy was carrying them he asked at the hand of the Lord, "What is there in the bundles?"

"Palm-sugar packets, [112] and plantains," he said.

The Lord asked at the hand of the boy, "What is thy name?"

The boy said, "My name is Aewariyakka Mulakka."

As he was coming along from there the boy lagged behind. So the monk spoke to the boy, "Aewariyakka Mulakka, Ada! Come on quickly," he said. Then the boy ate some packets of sugar, [113] and rows of plantains. [114]

The monk having gone to the pansala (monk's residence), when he looked [found that] packets of sugar and rows of plantains were missing. "Ada! where are the other plantains and palm-sugar that were in these?" he asked.

"Lord, I am a packet eater (Mulakka), and a first-row-of-plantains eater (Aewariyakka)," he said. "I ate them." There and then, having beaten the boy, he chased him away.

Then, as a washerwoman-aunt was washing clothes, she saw the boy going along, and asked him, "Can you live at our house?" "I can," he said. She asked his name; Giya ("He went") he said was his name.

Having taken the washed clothes, and placed them in the house, he asked at the hand of the mother for the [unwashed] clothes that were in the house. She told him to come [and take them]. After the boy had come in, the mother asked at the hand of the boy, "What is your name?" The boy said, Awo ("He came"), and took the clothes away.

Afterwards, because both the clothes and the boy were missing, [the washer-woman] having searched and looked for him, went home. On account of her going late the washerman called her [and asked the reason]. She said, "It is because of Giya" (the words might also mean, "It is because he went"). A man who was in the house having heard it, said, "Ada! He said Awo."

While both were saying, "Giya," "Awo," ("He went, he came"), the boy took the clothes, and went to his village.

Duraya. North-western Province.

The fly-killing incident occurs in Indian Nights' Entertainment (Swynnerton), p. 306, in which a Buneyr man killed an old woman by throwing a stone at a fly that was on her face.

In the Jataka story No. 44 (vol. i, p. 116), a boy killed his father by striking with an axe at a mosquito that had settled on his pate, splitting his head at the blow. In the next Jataka tale, a girl killed her mother by aiming a blow with a pestle at the flies that had settled on her head when she was lying down.

In The Orientalist, vol. i, p. 284, there is a Kashmir story by the Rev. J. H. Knowles, in which a bear who had become friendly with a man, killed him by throwing a piece of rock at a bee which had settled on his mouth. Reference is also made to a similar story in the Journal A.S.B., vol. iii, part i, 1883.

A considerable part of the story now given is a variant of No. 10 above. I have inserted it on account of the low caste of the narrator.

When the monk repeated the boy's name on ordering him not to lag behind, he was in reality telling him to eat the plantains and sugar, the meaning of Aewariyak ka Mulak ka being, "Eat thou a first row of plantains; eat thou a packet (of the sugar)."

NO. 59

THE GAMARALA AND THE WASHERMAN

In a certain country there are a Gamarala and a Washerman. [115] Those two persons cut a chena. As they were cutting the chena a jungle-cock crowed. The Gamarala said to the Washerman, "Please catch that crowing jungle-cock, and come back."

Then the Washerman said, "Will you do the chena work until I catch the jungle-cock and come back?" he asked.

"Until you come I will do the chena work," he said.

From there that man came home, and remained there. When the chena [crop] was ripening he caught the jungle-cock, and went back.

"I shall not give thee a share of the chena," the Gamarala said.

Thereupon the Washerman instituted a lawsuit against him.

When they were going for it on the day of the trial, he borrowed a cloth from the Gamarala, and went after putting it on. When the action was being heard the Washerman said, "He will say next that this cloth is that gentleman's."

Then the Gamarala said, "It is so indeed. If not, Bola, whose is that cloth?" he asked.

The Washerman said, "There! I said so. O Lord, when coming on account of this day of the trial, was it necessary for me to ask for a cloth from that gentleman? Am I without clothes to that extent?"

After that, the judge told them to divide the chena in two, [and each take half of it]. Afterwards, having come there they divided it in two.

Again, this Washerman and the Gamarala sowed a paddy field (rice field). Of the paddy plants in the field, those things that were above the ground were for the Washerman, they said. Those which were below the ground were for the Gamarala, they said. Having cut the paddy when the crop ripened, they threshed it by trampling [with cattle], and the Washerman took the paddy. Afterwards they cut the ground; there was nothing for the Gamarala.

Again, these two persons planted onions. This time, those things that were above the ground were for the Gamarala, they said. Those that were below the ground were for the Washerman, they said. When the crop was ready, the Gamarala having cut off the onion stumps, heaps them up together; the Washerman dug up and got the onions.

After that, those two persons got a buffalo bull. The front part of that bull was for the Washerman, they said; the after part for the Gamarala, they said.

Next, the two persons got a buffalo cow. The front part was for the Gamarala; the after part for the Washerman, they said. Thereupon the calves which the buffalo cow bore belonged to the Washerman, he said. When the Gamarala asked for calves because the front part did not give birth to calves, "There is nothing for you," he said.

After that, the Gamarala, in order to build a house, cut Waewarana, Kaetakala, Milla, Kolon trees (good timber trees commonly used in building houses). The Washerman, also, saying, "I also must build a house," cut Paepol, Eramudu, Murunga trees (all of which are soft woods, quite useless for any kind of work).

When the Gamarala's wife was coming near his house, the Washerman, taking the Naekat Pota (an astrological book which deals with prognostications), read aloud from it [these sham prognostications regarding the results to the occupiers if these woods be used in house building]: "For a house of Waewarana, diarrhoea; for a house of Kaetakala, quarrel; for a house of Milla, hanging; for a house of Eramudu, purity; for a house of Paepol, land."

Then the Gamarala's wife having heard this, goes and says to the Gamarala, "You have done a foolish thing again. We shall have only sickness and trouble if we build the house with those trees. In the Naekat Pota it is so written. If we use the trees that the Washerman has cut we shall be fortunate." So the Gamarala went to the Washerman, and persuaded him to exchange trees with him. Then the Washerman built himself a good house with the Gamarala's trees. The trees which the Gamarala got were of no use to him.

Duraya. North-western Province.

The incident at the trial in the first part of this story occurs in a slightly different form in a folk-tale that I heard in Cairo. As I am not aware that it has been published I give it here, condensing the first portion (see No. 60).

The planting incidents are related by Rabelais, in Pantagruel, chapters 45 and 46. For the benefit of readers in Ceylon, I give the account:--

THE DEVIL AND THE HUSBANDMAN

This devil having arrived at the place, addressed a husbandman and asked him what he did. The poor man replied to him that he sowed that field of early wheat to assist him in living during the following year. "But really," said the devil, "this field is not thine; it is mine and belongs to me ...; however, I leave thee the field. But it is on condition we shall share the profit." "I agree to it," replied the husbandman. "I mean," said the devil, "that of the coming profit we shall make two shares. The one shall be what grows above the ground, the other what shall be covered in the earth. The choice belongs to me, for I am a devil of a noble and ancient race; thou art only a villein. I choose that which will be in the ground, thou shalt have that above. When will the reaping be?" "In the middle of July," replied the husbandman. "Now," said the devil, "I need not be present here. In other respects do thy duty. Work, villein, work."

The middle of July having come, the devil presents himself again at the place, accompanied by a squadron of little chorister devilets. Meeting there the husbandman, he said to him, "And now, villein, how hast thou been since my departure? It is requisite to make our division now?" "That is right," replied the husbandman.

Then the husbandman, with his people, began to reap the corn. The little devils similarly drew the stubble from the ground. The husbandman threshed his corn in the air, put it in sacks, and carried it to the market to sell. The devilets did the same, and at the market seated themselves near the husbandman to sell their stubble. The husbandman sold his corn very well, and with the money filled an old sock which he carried at his belt. The devils sold nothing, but on the contrary the peasants jeered at them in the midst of the market.

The market being over, said the devil to the husbandman, "Villein, thou hast cheated me this time; at another thou shalt not deceive me." "My Lord Devil," replied the husbandman, "how have I cheated you who have chosen first? True it is that in that choice you thought of cheating me, hoping that nothing would come out of the ground as my share, and to find, below, the whole of the corn that I had sown.... But you are very young at the trade."... "Leave this discourse," said the devil; "with what canst thou sow our field this following year?" "For profit," replied the husbandman, "and good economy it is expedient to sow radishes." "Now then," said the devil, "thou art an honest man; sow plenty of radishes. I shall protect them from tempests, and shall not hail at all on them. But, understand thoroughly, I keep as my share what shall be above ground; thou shalt have what is below. Work, villein, work."

The time for the reaping having come, the devil was present at the spot with a squadron of household devilets. There, meeting the husbandman and his people, he began to reap and collect the leaves of the radishes. After him the husbandman dug and drew out the large radishes, and put them into sacks. So they went all together to the market. The husbandman sold his radishes very well. The devil sold nothing. What was worse, they jeered at him publicly.

"I see well, villain," the devil then said, "that I am cheated by thee. I want to make an end of the field between thee and me."

I add a variant of the cultivating caste, as some incidents are new.

THE GAMARALA AND THE WASHERMAN. (VARIANT.)

In a certain country there is a Gamarala, it is said. A Washerman, having come there, became friendly with the Gamarala. Having become friendly, he takes charge of the Gamarala's cattle for grazing. During the time while he was grazing them the two persons chop chenas and do rice field work.

Well then, the two persons having become very thoroughly friends, at the time while they were thus, the cattle grazed by the Washerman increased by a buffalo bull and a buffalo cow. Afterwards, the Washerman having come [to the other man] said, "Now then, Gamarahami, [116] we must divide the two cattle between us." The Gamarala said, "Ha. Let us divide them." Afterwards the Washerman having gone and caught the two cattle, tied them up.

The Gamarala went there. Then the Washerman said, "Now then, the Gamarahami indeed has cattle. I myself have no cattle. Because of it, let the after portion of this buffalo cow be for me. The front portion the Gamarahami will be good enough to take." The Gamarala, having consented to that, said, "Ha. It is good." Well then, in complete agreement they shared the buffalo cow.

Again, to share the buffalo bull the Washerman said, "Gamarahami, let the front side of the buffalo bull be for me, the after side the Gamarahami will be good enough to take." Well then, the Gamarala having consented to that also, by the agreement of the two persons they divided the buffalo bull also.

During the time while they were thus, the Washerman having taken the buffalo bull ploughs for himself. The Gamarala also one day was going to take the buffalo bull to plough. Then the Washerman quarrelled with him: "The front part belongs to me; the after part belongs to you. I will not allow you to plough with my side," he said. [117] The Gamarala having become angry came home.

The buffalo cow having gone to the Gamarala's house eats by stealth. Men having come told the Gamarala, "Gamarala, your buffalo cow comes to our rice field [and eats the crop]. On that account attend well to its grazing."

Then the Gamarala said, "Don't tell me. Tell that to the Washerman."

Then the men having gone, told the Washerman, "Washerman, the buffalo cow that you are causing to graze eats by stealth [in our rice field]. Attend well to its grazing."

The Washerman said, "What are you telling me? Doesn't the front half belong to the Gamarahami? Isn't it the Gamarahami who must attend to the grazing?" [118]

The Washerman having come to the Gamarala's house, quarrelled with the Gamarala [over it]. The Gamarala became very angry.

Afterwards, the Gamarala went to institute a lawsuit against the Washerman [on account of these matters]. That day, having entered the suit, and having come back to the village, he went to the Washerman to tell him the day of the trial. Having told him, the Gamarala came home.

On the following day, the Washerman came to the Gamarala. Afterwards, the Gamarala having given the Washerman to eat and drink, and having made ready to go for the day of the trial, the Washerman said, "Gamarahami, I have no [suitable] cloth to wear when going." The Gamarala gave (that is, lent) him a cloth. The Washerman putting on the cloth, both of them went for the trial-day.

After they went, the assessors [119] having assembled heard the lawsuit. When they asked the Gamarala [regarding the matter], the Gamarala said, "The after portion of the buffalo cow belongs to the Washerman; the front portion belongs to me."

When they asked the Washerman he said, "Because the front portion of the buffalo bull belongs to me, I will not allow him to plough with the buffalo bull. Because the front portion of the buffalo cow belongs to the Gamarahami, the Gamarahami must attend to the grazing," he answered.

Then after the assessors had thus asked him they said, "What the Washerman said is true."

Thereupon the Washerman says, "That gentleman (Rahami) will now say that this cloth which I am wearing is the gentleman's, maybe!"

The Gamarala asked, "Yes, indeed. Whose is it, Bola, if that cloth is not mine?"

Then the Washerman says to the assessors, "There! Be good enough to look. Didn't that gentleman just now say that the cloth I am wearing is the gentleman's. In that manner, indeed, he has brought this lawsuit, also."

At that time the assessors said to the Gamarala, "There is not a thing for us to say regarding this [except that] he is to gain [the action] against you."

Then the Gamarala having lost, came back with the Washerman to the village.

At that time, while the Gamarala was angry with the Washerman, the Gamarala, having said that he must build a house for himself, and having gone to the jungle, cut Halmilla, Milla, Waewarana trees; these three sorts [of good timber trees].

Then the Washerman, having got news that he had cut these woods, also went to the jungle, and having said, "I also must build a house for myself," cut Paepol wood, Murunga wood, Eramudu wood; those three sorts [of soft useless woods]. After heaping them together, he wrote a book [of sham prognostications]: "For the house [built] of Halmilla, begging; for the house of Waewarana, killing; for the house of Milla, begging; for the house of Paepol, land; for the house of Eramudu, purity; for the house of Murunga, purity."

After writing these, the Washerman taking up the book while the Gama-Mahage (the Gamarala's wife) was going past for water, says them over every day for the Gama-Mahage to hear. The Gama-Mahage having heard them, said to the Gamarala, "A book of the Washerman's says thus. Because of it, come with the Washerman, and having given him our small quantity of timber speak with him to allow us to take his small quantity of timber."

Afterwards, the Gamarala having gone to the Washerman, asked at the hand of the Washerman, "Washerman, give me your small quantity of timber, and take for yourself my small quantity of timber."

Then the Washerman says, "I don't know [if I can do it], Sir (Rahamiye). I cannot [willingly], through sorrow [at the loss to me], give you my small quantity of timber, indeed; but because the gentleman says it, any way whatever is good. Be good enough to take it."

Afterwards the Gamarala brought [home] the Washerman's small quantity of timber. The Washerman brought the Gamarala's small quantity of timber. Having brought it, the Washerman with the small quantity of the Gamarala's timber thoroughly built the house for himself, the Gamarala also building the house for himself from the Washerman's timber. When only three months had gone, the Gamarala's house fell down, and the Gama-Mahage, having been underneath it, died. The house which the Washerman built from good timber remained in good condition.

North-western Province.

NO. 60

THE TWO THIEVES

Two thieves at Cairo were in love with the same girl, who promised to marry the one who showed the greatest cleverness.

The first one assisted a rich merchant in purchasing some cattle, and eventually purloined a bag of money which the merchant was carrying in the large pocket in the front of his gown, and put a similar bag in its place containing an orange or two.

The theft was discovered when the merchant was about to pay the money for the cattle. The robber assumed the rôle of the sympathising friend, and suggested that a mistake might have been made by the merchant's wife, and the wrong bag given to him. The merchant went home to inquire about it, and on his return the robber ran up to him, and embraced and kissed him, saying, "Hallo, Friend! I am very glad to see you again. I hope you have succeeded in finding your money." As he said this he put back the purse, and took the bag of oranges.

The merchant replied, "I hope God will hear what you say."

The thief said, "You are playing me a trick; put your hand in your pocket, and feel if your purse is not there."

So he put his hand in his breast pocket, and found his bag of money there. The thief explained the matter, and requested him to relate the particulars to the girl, who then decided that she would marry this thief.

I give the rest of the story in full, as it was dictated to me:--

The second thief said, "Oh! that is nothing. I can play a better trick than that. Will you be kind enough to come to-morrow morning to the Government offices to see me?" The merchant man said, "I also will come to see the trick." Then the merchant went away, and the three remained there till evening.

After dinner, the second robber went out to the café to spend the time, and there he met one of the higher class people. The robber said, "Salam," and sat down next this merchant. They both smoked hashish together, and the thief told him, "I have just arrived from outside the city. The four gates are now shut, and I cannot return. I do not know where to go to sleep."

The merchant told him, "Don't you feel ashamed to say that to me when you know what size my house is?"

The robber said, "Thank you for the favour," and at the end of their smoke they went together to the merchant's house. When the two entered, lights were put in the writing room, with two beds for them, so that they might sleep together there.

While the merchant was fast asleep and snoring, the robber awoke, and took the key of the money-box and the seal from the merchant's pocket, opened the box, counted the money, wrote a promissory note giving the amount of each kind of money, signed it with the merchant's seal, and put all back again as before, keeping the note. He then went to sleep again.

Next morning they breakfasted together, becoming very friendly, and the robber said, "Please can you lend me your horse and a clean suit of clothes, because I must go to report a person to the Government?" So the merchant gave him a clean suit and a horse, and told him, "You can change your clothes and wash here. I must go to my office." He then left.

The robber put on the clothes, and rode off to the Government office, and explained his case, and asked for a man to be sent to fetch the merchant, as he had to recover a large sum of money from him. The Chief of the Police sent a man to call him.

When the merchant came, the Chief of the Police asked him, "Why don't you pay this gentleman the money you owe him?"

He says, "Which gentleman?"

"This gentleman," said the Chief of the Police, pointing to the robber.

"This one!"

"Yes, I am the one," said the robber.

The merchant said, "Don't you feel ashamed at saying I owe you some money?"

"Of course," he replied, and then he took out the promissory note, and handed it to the Chief of the Police.

The Chief of the Police looked at it, and said, "Hallo! That is a big amount."

The merchant asked to see it, and he looked at the list, and said, "I have not got so much money in my box. If I have so much in my house it must really be yours."

The Chief of the Police sent some men to bring the box to the station, and on counting the money in it, he found it was exactly the amount written in the promissory note. The woman, and the other robber, and the merchant who was tricked on the previous day were all present and listening, and were all astonished.

The Chief of the Police said, "Well, it must be the claimant's money," and he gave it to him.

The merchant was angry, so the robber said, "I suppose you will be saying next that the horse is yours, and the suit I am wearing"; and when the merchant angrily demanded them the robber requested the Chief of the Police to lock the man up, because he was now trying to steal his horse and clothes.

Then the merchant was locked up, and the robber left the money in the box at the Police Station, and rode off to his own home, where he met the woman and the first robber. He asked them, "How do you like that trick?"

She said, "A very clever man you are," and she agreed to marry him.

After three days they both went to the merchant, and told him the whole story, and returned him the money, and the horse and clothes. And the merchant was so pleased to get them back that he gave them some money to live upon.

In Folk-Tales of Kashmir (Knowles), 2nd ed., p. 297 ff., two thieves had one wife, who agreed that she should belong only to the one who brought her the most valuable spoil in two days. The King executed her, as being the instigator of the robberies they committed.

NO. 61

THE MARGOSA TREE

In a certain city there is a King, it is said. The King thought of growing a Margosa tree without bitterness [in the fruit], so one day he made proclamation accordingly by beat of tom-toms.

While two friends of one village were coming to seek a means of subsistence they heard this sound of tom-toms. When they asked at the hand of a tom-tom beater, "What is the sound of tom-toms for?" he said, "What is it? His Majesty our King will give presents to any person who should grow and give him a Margosa tree without bitterness." One of the friends, saying, "I can [do it]," went to the royal palace.

"Canst thou grow and give me a Margosa tree without bitterness?" the King asked.

"Yes, your Majesty," he said.

"What things dost thou want for it?" the King asked.

"I want monthly a hundred-weight of sugar and a large pot of cow's butter," he said.

After that, the King asked, "Where wilt thou grow it?"

"I must grow it on the edge of a river," he said.

Having built and given him a house on the edge of the river, he gave him a hundred-weight of sugar and a large pot of butter monthly.

Seven times in succession he planted seven trees. Seven times the seven trees were washed away by the river.

During the time while he was there in that way, the other friend having come, asked, "Where is the tree?"

Then the friend who had planted the tree says, "Either the King, or I, or the river." [120]

The words that he said meant, "Either His Majesty the King will die; if not, I shall die, because of no means of subsistence."

"Having cheated the King I get a living. When it is so, the foolish King has been caught by my trick."

Duraya. North-western Province.

NO. 62

THE GAMARALA'S FOOLISH SON

While a Gamarala and a Gama-gaeni (his wife) were at a village, as there were no children to those two for a long time they went to a Dewala, and worshipped the Gods in order to obtain a child. After that they obtained a child. As that child was growing up the Gamarala and Gama-gaeni were becoming very old.

So one day the Gamarala says to the Gama-gaeni, "Before we die we must summon and give a bride to the youth." Having said this they summoned and gave him a small girl.

During the time while they were living thus, the Gamarala had an illness. After that the Gamarala died. Afterwards, while the Gama-gaeni, and the son, and the son's wife were there, one day the wife of the Gama-puta (son of the Gamarala) said, "Now then, let us go to my village, and having gone there, sowing our rice field lands let us do cultivation"; and both of them went.

While they were there, one day, as an illness settled on the Gama-puta's wife, the Vedarala (village doctor) went to see her. The Vedarala asked, "What is the illness?"

Then he said, "My wife has tumours which are growing large." The Vedarala having made a medicine which was to be rubbed [on the places], and having come to the house gave it, saying, "Rub thou this medicine on them."

When he had been rubbing it for four or five days they grew larger. The Gama-puta having seen this, said, "Ada! These tumours are becoming very severe. I cannot go for medicine every day if they go on like this. Let us go to my village." So they set off to come to the Gama-puta's village.

As they were coming, a man was driving a bull on the road. This Gamarala's son asked, "Where are you taking the bull?"

The man said, "I am taking it to my village," he said. "Where are you going?" he asked.

"We are going to my village. My wife has tumours. We are going to apply medical treatment," he said.

"Where? Let us look at them. I also know a little medical art," he said.

Then he showed them. When the man who was taking the bull saw them he said, "They are growing larger; they will never become well," he said.

Then the Gama-puta thought, "This woman does not matter to me." So he said, "It would be good for you to give me that bull and take this woman." So taking the bull he gave the woman.

"This one has water in his stomach (i.e., he had drunk water); you will be careful," the man said.

Then having taken the bull, as he was going to the village he took a large cloth and tied it round the middle of the bull. While he was there after tying it, a man came, carrying a bill-hook on his shoulder. When he saw it he asked, "What is this doing?"

"This one has water in his stomach; on that account I have tied the cloth round it," he said.

Having seen the bill-hook, "What is that?" he asked.

"This is a bill-hook," the man said.

After he asked, "What do you do with the bill-hook?" the man said, "Taking a packet of cooked rice and a water-gourd, it is for cutting the jungle," he said.

When he asked, "Will you take this bull and give me the bill-hook," the man said, "It is good," and having given the bill-hook went away taking the bull.

Then the Gama-puta, having taken the bill-hook, and gone to the village, during the time while he was there thought he would go to cut jungle. Having thought so, he took a packet of cooked rice and a water-gourd, and the bill-hook, and having placed them upon a rock he remained looking on. Seeing that the bill-hook stayed [there] without cutting the jungle, and thinking that it was because he was looking at it, he came home.

Having come and eaten rice, and having gone back afterwards, when he looked, the bill-hook having been put in the sun had become extremely hot. So the Gama-puta thinks, "The bill-hook having got fever, is it on that account it did not eat the cooked rice and did not cut the jungle?"

He went quickly for medicine. Having gone he told the Veda (village doctor). The Veda having looked [at it] told him to bury it under the frame on which the water pots were set. Afterwards, having come home, he buried it under the water-pots' frame. On the following day, after he had looked [he found that] having become thoroughly wetted by the water it was cold. Having seen that, he got into his mind [the notion], "Ada! The medical treatment is very good."

When a little time had gone, one day the Gamarala's wife had a severe illness, having got fever. The Gama-gaeni said, "Son, I have much fever. Having gone for medical advice and brought a little medicine, give me it," she said.

He said, "It is good," and speedily having cut a hole under the water-pots' frame, and put the Gama-gaeni in the hole, he covered her with earth.

Afterwards when he looked, the fever having thoroughly gone down she had become cold like a plantain tree; and saying, "Ada! Mother's fever is completely well," he went away.

Duraya. North-western Province.

In Indian Fables (Ramaswami Raju), p. 71, a variant of the last incident is given. A man with severe fever having cooled a red-hot poker in cold water, thought he could cool himself in the same way, so he sat in a tub of cold water, with a fatal result.

In Indian Nights' Entertainment, Panjab (Swynnerton), p. 83, a weaver got a smith to make a sickle that would cut corn of itself. He laid it beside the standing corn, which he ordered it to cut; but on returning he found no work done, and the sickle ill with fever, through being in the sun. The smith to whom he applied for advice recommended him to tie a string to it, and lower it into a well; this cooled it. When his mother caught fever he treated her in the same way until she died and became cold.

NO. 63

THE JACKAL'S JUDGMENT

At a village there is a tank. A Crocodile, making a burrow in the [foot of the] embankment, stayed in it. Afterwards the mud having dried and become hard, the Crocodile being unable to get out of the hole was going to die.

As a man was going past to fetch a midwife-mother to attend to his wife, the Crocodile, hearing him, said to the man, "Somehow or other manage to save me by breaking up the earth so that I may get out." The man broke up the earth, and let it out.

After that, as there was no water left in the tank, the man, placing the Crocodile on his shoulder, went to the edge of the river. Having gone there, after he had placed it in the water, the Crocodile seized the arm of that man in order to eat him.

"Why wilt thou eat me?" he asked. "Dost thou not know the help I gave thee? Yet thou art going to eat me!"

The Crocodile said, "It is true, indeed, regarding the assistance. It is because I am hungry that I am going to eat thee."

The man said, "It is good. Eat thou me. There are my witnesses, two or three persons. First ask them [regarding the justice of it], and then eat me." So they went to ask the witnesses about it.

Having met with a Kumbuk tree, [121] he said to the Kumbuk tree, "This Crocodile is going to eat me. I ask this one's opinion of it."

"What is that about?"

The man said, "This Crocodile was going to die. I saved it. It is now going to eat me. Is that right?"

Then the Kumbuk tree says, "O Crocodile-cultivator, do not let that man go. There is no animal so wicked as that man. He stays near the tree in the shade, and having broken off the bark and the leaves he takes them away. At last he cuts down and takes the tree."

From there he goes and asks it of the Cow. "O Cow, I saved this Crocodile from death. This Crocodile is now going to eat me. Do you think it right?"

The Cow says, "O Crocodile-cultivator, do not let that man go. That man is a wicked man. He takes our milk, and at last kills and eats us. Do not let him go."

After that he asks it of the Jackal. The Jackal asks, "What is it about?"

He says to the Jackal, "O Jackal-artificer, without letting this Crocodile die, I saved it. Now it is going to eat me."

The Jackal-artificer says, "I cannot give this decision, not having seen what is the meaning of it. You must show me the whole affair from the beginning."

Then the man, placing the Crocodile on his shoulder, and having gone with it and put it in the house in which the Crocodile was at first, [and closed the entrance], and made the soil hard, the Jackal says, "Now then, don't you be afraid. I am on your side."

Then the man says, "Jackal-artificer, hear this case."

"I am both the judge and the witness," the Jackal said. "Now then, taking a cudgel beat thou him until he dies. I saw thy excellence and this one's wickedness."

Duraya. North-western Province.

This is one of the best-known of folk-tales. A Malay variant is given in Mr. W. Skeat's Fables and Folk-Tales from an Eastern Forest, p. 20. A tiger, being released from a cage-trap by a man, seized him in order to eat him. When appealed to, the road and tree were against him. The Mouse-deer, which in Malaya fills the place of the clever animal in folk-tales, got the tiger to return to the cage, and called the neighbours to kill it.

The tiger story is given in Old Deccan Days (Frere), p. 198 ff., and the appeal was made to a banyan tree, camel, bullock, eagle, and alligator [crocodile], which were against the man. The Jackal settled it in his favour.

In Wide-Awake Stories (Steel and Temple), p. 116--Tales of the Punjab, p. 107--the matter was referred to a pipal (or bo) tree, a road, and the Jackal, who induced the tiger to re-enter the trap, and left him there.

In Indian Fairy Tales (Stokes), p. 16, the matter was not referred to others, but the Jackal told the tiger a good way of eating the man, by getting inside a large bag and having him thrown in to it. When it was inside the bag, the Jackal, a dog who was present, and the man tied it up, and beat the tiger to death.

The Panchatantra (Dubois), as in several other instances, comes nearest to the Sinhalese story. A Brahmana carried a Crocodile in a sack from a stream to the Ganges, and was then seized by it. In reply to his appeal to the Crocodile's virtue and gratitude, he was told, "The virtue and gratitude of our days is to devour those who nourish us and who do good to us." Reference was made to a mango tree, an old cow (both of which agreed with the Crocodile), and a Jackal, who, stating that he wished to get to the bottom of the matter, induced the Crocodile to re-enter the sack, after which the Jackal broke his head with a stone.

In Indian Nights' Entertainment (Swynnerton), p. 134, a boy on his way to fetch his bride, killed a mungus that was attacking a snake, which then turned on him, to eat him, but gave him eight days' grace to get married. When he returned with his wife she remonstrated with the snake, and was referred to some trees. One had preserved a thief in its hollow interior, but he found sandalwood there, and cut it down; and now it had become a rule to do evil for good. For the future widow's protection, the snake gave her magic powder capable of reducing to ashes whatever it fell on, so she applied it to the snake, and burnt it to dust.

The tale is found in West Africa also, in a form which is very close to the South Indian and Sinhalese one. In Contes Soudanais (C. Monteil), p. 53, a child found a tired Crocodile, and carried it back to water. The Crocodile asked if he knew how goodness was rewarded. "By evil," the child said. The Crocodile was going to eat him, but referred the matter to an old horse and an old ass (both of which recommended it to do so), and lastly to a Hare, which refused to believe that the child could have carried it. When this was proved, and the Crocodile taken back, the Hare said to the child, "Doesn't thy father eat Crocodile?" "Yes." "And thy mother?" "Yes." "Hast thou not an axe?" "I have one," the child replied. "Then break the Crocodile's head and eat it," the Hare said. In many West African tales the Hare is the clever animal who outwits the others.

NO. 64

THE HERON AND THE CRAB

There is a great big mountain. On the mountain there is a rock-hole [containing water]. In it there are some small fishes. At all other places a Heron [122] eats the small fishes. In this rock-hole the Heron cannot eat the small fishes; he goes along [in the air], above the rock cave.

On account of it, the Heron puts on a false appearance. "I am indeed an ascetic," he said. "I do not kill living creatures," he said.

Thereupon the small fishes came for a talk. After they came he said, "Being in this hole ye cannot go up and down," he said. "Because it is so, I will take you and put you in a river possessing length and breadth," he said.

After that, having taken them one by one he ate them. At the time when he was taking the Crab which remained over from them, the Crab took hold of the neck of the Heron. While on the way, when the Heron was preparing to kill the Crab, the Crab getting to know of it, cut the neck of the Heron with his claws and killed it.

Duraya. North-western Province.

THE POND HERON. (VARIANT.)

At the time of a great drought the water of a pool having nearly dried up, the fishes [123] saw that they were coming near dying. A Pond Heron [124] which saw it, having very speedily come flying, spoke to the fishes: "Friends, I will go and conduct you to a pool in which there is much water," he said. They were pleased at it.

The Pond Heron holding one by his bill, and having gone and put it down at the pool in which there was water, again brought it near those that were in the pool at which the water had dried up, and let it go. The fish which he brought informed them that there was a pool in which there was water, in the way the Heron said. All the fishes that were in the dried-up pool became wishful to go.

Now then, the Pond Heron having taken them one by one, leaving aside the pool in which there was water, took them to a tree near it, and ate them. After not many days the fishes were finished; the Pond Heron ate all. Having eaten them, below the tree on which he put them there was a heap of bones to the extent of a tree in height.

Afterwards having seen that a Crab was in the dried-up pool, the Pond Heron spoke to it: "Friend, you also come to be conducted there," he said.

The Crab also spoke to the Pond Heron: "Friend, my shell is very thin," he said.

"I will take you carefully," the Pond Heron said. After he had said it the Crab became wishful to go.

The Pond Heron took hold of his shell, and the Crab took hold of the neck of the Pond Heron with his two claws. Having taken hold of him the Pond Heron flew away. Having seen that, leaving the pool on this side, he was flying to the tree, the Crab spoke to him. "The pool is here," he said.

"I am taking thee to eat," the Pond Heron said.

At that time having seized the two claws the Pond Heron killed him.

Washerman. North-western Province.

THE POND HERON. (VARIANT.)

In a certain country a Pond Heron stayed, it is said. At the time while the Pond Heron was there, seeking small fishes in the tanks, a great general drought befel. On account of it all the tanks dried up. The Pond Heron ate all the small fishes that stayed in them.

Having eaten them, he remained hungry for two or three days, there being no more small fishes. Having been in that state, and having flown away to seek food, as he was going along he saw that a tank having dried up, small fishes were there, being unable to go elsewhere.

The Pond Heron having gone there, asked the small fishes, "What, friends, are you there for?"

Then the small fishes said, "Ane! Friend, the little water that there was for us having dried up, we are without water."

After that, the Pond Heron said, "If so, friends, there is a good river for you. I will take you to it, and put you down there."

The little fishes said, "It is good, friend. If so, take us and put us down there."

The Pond Heron said, "If so, let one come [first, and see the river]," and holding it with his bill he took it to the river, and put it down.

That small fish going in the water all round the river came near the Pond Heron. Then the Pond Heron having said to the small fish, "Let us go, friend," the small fish said, "Friend, I cannot go."

The Pond Heron said, "No, friend, let us go. Can you remain, without going? Your other people are to come."

Afterwards the small fish said "Ha." So the Pond Heron, taking the small fish with his bill, came flying back. Having come to a great rough tree, and settled on a branch of the tree, he ate the small fish.

Again he went flying to the place where the small fishes were. The small fishes asked, "Friend, one of us went with you. Where is he?"

The Pond Heron replied, "Friends, he said he would not come. He stayed in the river."

Then those small fishes said, "If so, go with us, and put us down in it."

After that, the Pond Heron, taking one of them, settled on the tree at which he ate that small fish, and ate it. Again he came to the place where the other small fishes were. Then those small fishes said, "Friend, take us also, and put us in the river."

The Pond Heron again having taken a small fish and settled on that very tree, ate it. Thus, in that way having taken the small fishes until they were finished, he ate them all.

Having finished the small fishes, a Crab was omitted outside. The Pond Heron came and asked the Crab, "What, friend, are you here alone for?"

The Crab said, "Ane! Friend, the small fishes of this tank went to the quarters where they went. I alone remain."

Then the Pond Heron said, "Friend, shall I take you also to the river, and put you down in it?" The Crab said "Ha."

Afterwards the Pond Heron, holding the Crab with his bill, took it and settled on the tree on which he ate the small fishes. While he was there the Crab asked, "What, friend, have you delayed here for?"

Then the Pond Heron said, "It is here that I ate also the few small fishes that stayed in the tank. It is here I shall eat you also."

Afterwards the Crab, having stiffened his claws a little, seized the neck of the Pond Heron. Then the Pond Heron with his bill tightened his hold of the Crab. Thus, in that way holding each other, both of them died, and fell on the ground below the tree.

Tom-tom Beater. North-western Province.

The Jataka story No. 38 (vol. i, p. 96), about a Crane and a Crab, nearly agrees with the second of these tales, but the ending is like that of the first one, the Crab killing the Crane. It is also much more artificial and developed in the conversations.

It is possible that the story related by the Duraya may represent a very early form of the tale, or perhaps the original one. If the story were derived from the Jataka tale, it is very improbable that in a country where ponds are more numerous than in any other, we should find the pool of the Jataka, to which the fishes were to be taken, displaced in two of these by a river.

The story is given in Indian Fables (Ramaswami Raju), p. 88. A Crane pretended to carry the fish to a pond, and was killed by a Crab.

In Skeat's Fables and Folk-Tales from an Eastern Forest, p. 18, the bird was a Pelican, which was killed by a Crab.

In the Panchatantra (Dubois), a Cormorant came to the fishes at a pool, and allayed their suspicions by putting on an appearance of piety and by alleging that he had become a religious devotee. He informed them that he foresaw a twelve years' drought, in which the pools would dry up and they would perish, and he offered to transport them to a mountain pool fed by a perennial spring. They were eaten on a rock, and the Crab strangled the bird.

In the Katha Sarit Sagara (Tawney), vol. ii, p. 31, the animals were a Crane and a Makara, which is said by the translator to generally mean a crocodile, though in early carvings in Ceylon and India it is a fabulous animal with two short legs and a tail usually curved upon its back. The bird frightened the fish by saying that a man was coming to catch them with a net, and he offered to convey them to a lake. When the Makara was taken to the rock at which the others were killed, he cut off the Crane's head.

This story nearly agrees with that in the Hitopadesa, in which a Crab killed the bird.

NO. 65

THE JACKAL AND THE BRAHMANA

In a certain city a Jackal according to custom was eating the fowls, it is said. Now, as the Jackal was there eating the fowls, by degrees he finished all the fowls in that manner. There was still one fowl at the royal palace.

So this Jackal went to the royal palace to eat the fowl. After he had come there the Jackal tried to catch it, and while he was there striving to eat the fowl it became light. There being no means of going away because of the people, he sought a place in which to remain hidden. As he was seeking it, except that there was open ground and no jungle, when he looked there was only a clump of weeds as a hiding place.

While he was in it peeping out, a Brahmana comes near. This Jackal asked, "You Brahmana! Where art thou going?" he asked.

The Brahmana says, "I am going in search of a livelihood."

The Jackal says, "I will give thee a means of subsistence; carry me here and there," he said.

Then the Brahmana taking the Jackal slung him by his four legs. "Dost thou carry me by the legs to some place to give a livelihood to thee?" he said.

"If not, how shall I carry thee?" the Brahmana asked.

Then the Jackal says, "Having placed me in thy upper garment take me up and go," he said. "Look here! Take me and go thou along the road which leads to this jungle," he said. "Having taken me and gone on it there will be a clump of wild dates. Do thou put me down near the clump of wild dates," he said.

So the Jackal came to the open ground in the bundle. Then the Jackal told this Brahmana, after he had placed the bundle on the ground, to stay looking in the direction of the sun. Having remained looking in the direction of the sun, he told him to look in the direction of the clump of wild dates, and to take the kahawanas (coins) which were placed in it. When he had looked in the direction of the clump of wild dates, the rays of the sun having entered his eyes a yellow colour went into everything, and he thought he saw some money in it.

So the Brahmana crept into the clump of wild dates and passed his hand through it, and looked through it. Then because there were no kahawanas, he came out into the open ground.

When he looked on the path there was no Jackal. Then the Brahmana said, "There is neither the journey that I came for, nor the kahawanas. Ada! Ada!" So he went away.

Duraya. North-western Province.

In this story we find one of the lowest castes of the Chandalas making fun of the highest caste of all, a mild revenge for their treatment by the latter. As part of the joke, the Jackal is represented as addressing the Brahmana in the manner in which the latter would have spoken to a Duraya, and as being carried about by him, thus turning the tables completely, the chief duty of the Durayas being carrying loads for others.

In the Jataka story No. 113 (vol. i, p. 255) a Jackal having overslept himself in some bushes in Benares, concealed himself until a Brahmana came near. By promising him two hundred gold pieces he induced the man to carry him concealed under his robe until they reached the cremation ground. There he told him to dig up a tree in order to get the treasure, and then ran off while the man was occupied with the work.

NO. 66

THE CAT WHO GUARDED THE PRECEPTS

A Cat having seen that a sun-dried fish was in a bag of rice, at the time when he was going to it to eat it, a rosary [hanging there] fell on his neck.

After it had fallen, as he was going away with it on his neck a Jungle-hen met him, and ran off. The Cat then says, "I am guarding (that is, keeping) the Precepts (of Buddha, sil rakinawa). Tummal Kitti, [125] come here and go with me."

While he was taking her with him they met with a Ground Cuckoo. He called this one: "'Bug-bug'-singing Kaccale, [126] I am guarding the Precepts. Come here and go with me."

As they were going they met with a Hare. He called him also: "Tokka [127] the Devil-dancer, come here and go with me. I am guarding the Precepts."

Having gone to a rock cave [as a pansala or monk's residence], while they were there the Cat said, "Tokka the Devil-dancer, Tummal Kitti having scratched [the ground] in the pansala has defiled it. I must kill this one," he said.

When the Hare said, "It is good," he killed her.

After the Cat had said, "It is not a fault to eat a dead one, is it?" when the Hare replied, "No, there is not any fault in it," he ate her.

Afterwards the Cat said, "Tokka the Devil-dancer, this 'Bug-bug'-singing Kaccale has been drinking arrack (palm spirit) until his eyes have become red." When he said, "I must kill this one," he killed it. Then saying, "There is no fault in eating a dead one," he ate it.

Then he said, "Tokka the Devil-dancer, thou having dropped dung in the pansala art defiling it." When he said, "I must kill thee," the Hare said, "Yes, killing me is virtuous and proper. I must first perform a great gallop [128] and a little gallop, two gallops. [129] After that there will be no fault if you kill me," he said.

"Yes, perform them," the Cat said.

Then the Hare having run round [the cave], "There! The small gallop," he said. Again having gone running round, and [then] having jumped over the Cat's head, while he was running away he said, "There! The great gallop," and ran off.

Duraya. North-western Province.

HOW THE CAT BECAME AN UPASAKA. [130] (VARIANT.)

At a certain time, at the house of a Gamarala, milk having been taken and placed on the shelf by him [to curdle], the Gamarala went to the chena.

There is a Cat at the house. The Cat having looked [to see] when the Gamarala was not there, went to the shelf to eat the curds by stealth. Having gone there and eaten them by stealth, as he was coming away the Gamarala came home from the chena, and the Cat, becoming afraid, sprang down.

The Gamarala's rosary was hanging on the shelf. As the Cat deceitfully was springing down, the rosary fell on the Cat's neck. Then while the rosary was on its neck it goes away. Why? Should the Gamarala get to know about its eating the curds he would thrash it inordinately.

Well then, as it was going it met with a Rat. The Rat [seeing the rosary] asked the Cat, "Upasakarala, [131] where are you going?"

"I am going to guard the Precepts," he said. "You also come and go along with me," he said.

At the time when the two were going they met with the Squirrel called the Three-lined Chief. [132] "Upasakarala, where are you going?" he asked.

"We are going to guard the Precepts. You also come and go with us," he said. The Squirrel having said, "Ha. I will come," the three went along [together].

As they were going they met with the Ground Cuckoo called Bum-bum the Tom-tom Beater. "Where, Upasakarala, are you going?" he asked.

"We are going to guard the Precepts. You also come," he said.

The Ground Cuckoo having said, "Ha. If so, I also will come," the four went together.

At the time when they were going they met with the Hare called Tokkan the Devil-dancer. "Upasakaralas, where are you going?" he asked.

"We are going to guard the Precepts. You also come and go with us," he said.

Well then, the five went to the jungle. Having gone on and on, there was a rock cave. Having said, "Look there! Our pansala," he told the people to creep inside. "In order that I may go and rehearse the Precepts, let no single other person besides cause any disturbance," he said.

Then the Rat, being hungry during the night, was wriggling about. So the Upasaka Cat said, "Ade! While Bum-bum the Tom-tom Beater stays there quietly, while the Three-lined Chief stays there [quietly], while Tokkan the Devil-dancer stays there [quietly], this one does not take [to heart] the things that were said. Being on guard over it I must put it out of the way." [133] Saying this, he ate the Rat.

At the daybreak watch the Ground Cuckoo crowed [as usual]. After it had crowed, the Cat said, "While the Three-lined Chief stays there [quietly], while Tokkan the Devil-dancer stays there [quietly], because this one is making noises, and as I am on guard over it, I must put it out of the way," and seizing that one also he ate it.

As it became light in the morning, at the time when the Squirrels were singing, "Tin-Tin," the Three-lined Chief also sang, "Tin-Tin."

Then the Cat said, "While Tokkan the Devil-dancer stays there quietly, and I stay here [quietly], this one having said it through arrogance, and as I am on guard over it, I must put it out of the way." Having said this he ate that one also.

Now then, the Hare called Tokkan the Devil-dancer ascertaining that he was eating it, began to cry in the morning.

"What, Tokkan the Devil-dancer, are you crying for?" he asked.

"I know thoroughly how to dance dances. Because there is no one to look at the dances I was sorry," he said.

After he had said, "If so, dance a little for me to look at it," the Hare said, "Upasakarala, open the doorway so that a little light may fall into the cave. Having seen my dance you must eat me also," the Hare said.

When he moved from the door, out of the way, for a little light to fall inside, the Hare, having jumped to the four corners of the cave, springing over the head of the Cat went away.

P. B. Madahapola, Ratemahatmaya. North-western Province.

HOW THE CAT PERFORMED BELL WORSHIP. (VARIANT.)

In a certain country a man reared a Cat, it is said. The Cat every day goes to eat by stealth in the villages. On account of it the man one day caught the Cat, and having tied a hawk's bell [134] on its neck, let it go.

After that, the Cat, without going that day into the village, went away along the path. As it was going along it met with a Rat. The Rat asked the Cat, "Where, O Cat-Lord, are you going?"

Then the Cat said, "I am going for Bell Worship."

The Rat asked, "Shall I come too?"

The Cat said, "It is good."

The Rat also having set off, as the two were going away they met with a Squirrel. The Squirrel asked the Cat, "Where, O Cat-Lord, are you going?"

Then the Cat said, "I am going for Bell Worship."

The Squirrel asked, "Shall I come too?"

After that, the Cat said, "It is good."

Now then, the Squirrel having set off, as the three were going away they met with a Jungle-cock. The Jungle-cock asked the Cat, "Where, O Cat-Lord, are you going?"

Then the Cat said, "I am going for Bell Worship."

The Jungle-cock said, "I shall come too."

To that the Cat said, "It is good."

The Jungle-cock having set off, the four persons went to a great rock cave in the jungle. Having made those three remain in the direction of the corner, the Cat stayed at the doorway.

After being there [a short time], the Cat first of all said to the Rat, "O Rat, [135] I am hungry."

Then the Rat said, "Let it be according to the wish of the Cat-Lord." After that, the Cat, seizing the Rat, ate it.

In a little more time the Cat said to the Squirrel, "O Squirrel, [136] I am hungry."

At that time the Squirrel also said, "Let it be according to the wish of the Cat-Lord."

So the Cat having seized the Squirrel also, ate it.

In a little more time the Cat said to the Jungle-cock, "O Jungle-cock, [137] I am hungry."

At that time the Jungle-cock said falsely, "Let it be according to the wish of the Cat-Lord."

Afterwards, when the Cat was approaching very near the Jungle-cock, having sprung at the Cat's face and with his spurs having plucked out both his eyes, the Jungle-cock flew away. The Cat there and then died.

Cultivating Caste. North-western Province.

The Precepts of Buddha to which reference is made in the first two stories, are the Ata-sil, or Eight Precepts, the keeping of which by lay devotees, called Upasakas, is a necessary obligation. The first one prohibits the taking of life. The others are against theft, immorality, lying, drinking intoxicants, eating after noon, attendance at theatrical amusements, dancing, singing, etc., and personal adornment.

In the Jataka story No. 128 (vol. i, p. 281) there is an account of a Jackal who pretended to lead a saintly life, standing on one leg because the earth could not support his weight if he stood on all four, he said. He ate the rats which came to pay their respects to him, always seizing the hindmost as they left. The King of the Rats waited till the others had gone, and then sprang at the Jackal's throat and killed him. The next story, No. 129, is similar.

In No. 384 (vol. iii, p. 170) a Crow pretended to be a saint, and also stood on one leg for the same reason, saying that it fed only on wind. When the other birds left it in charge of their young ones it ate them. At last it was killed by the other birds.

In the Maha Bharata (Udyoga Parva) a Cat which pretended to be an ascetic killed the mice that placed themselves under its protection.

In the Hitopadesa a Cat which gained the confidence of the birds by its pious demeanour ate their young ones.

In the Katha Sarit Sagara (Tawney), vol. ii, p. 67, a pious Cat killed a hare and a bird.

NO. 67

THE LIZARD AND THE LEOPARD

At a village there are a Leopard and a Lizard. [138] The Lizard and Leopard cut a chena, it is said. Afterwards both having quarrelled they divided the chena between them. In the part which the Lizard got he planted Kaekiri creepers, which became large; in the part which the Leopard got the Kaekiri died, and he abandoned it.

Then the Leopard ate the Kaekiri fruit in the Lizard's chena, and after eating rubbed himself on his hams over the fruits that were on the ground. So the Lizard gave some Kaekiri fruits to the smith, and having got a small knife made took it away. After getting it made, the Lizard ran it through some plucked Kaekiri fruits [and left it there].

Afterwards the Leopard came to eat Kaekiri. Having eaten, he rubbed himself on the plucked Kaekiri fruits. Then the knife pierced him. Over this matter the Leopard and Lizard quarrelled. Afterwards the Leopard, having eaten cattle flesh, became strong again.

One day the Leopard told the Lizard that the Gamarala had a chena. The Lizard said, "Ade! Where is it? Let me look at it." Having gone with him to it, the Leopard shows him the fruits and says, "Ade! Lizard, eat thou there. Lizard, eat thou here." The Gamarala having heard it and having gone home, began to laugh. The Gama-Mahage (his wife) asked, "What are you laughing at?" The Gamarala said, "A Leopard sitting in the chena was saying and saying to a Lizard, 'Eat thou there, Lizard. Eat thou here, Lizard.'"

Afterwards, when the Lizard was in the chena the Leopard goes to the house of the Gamarala and says, "Gamarala, see! The Lizard is eating thy chena." Then the Gamarala scolded him and said, "I heard thee telling the Lizard, 'Eat thou there, Lizard. Eat thou here, Lizard.'"

Then the Leopard went to the Lizard, and said, "Friend, take thou my piece of chena, and give me thy piece of chena." Because the Lizard was afraid he said, "It is good," and they exchanged chenas. The Lizard planted the abandoned piece in a thorough manner. The Leopard ate the fruits in the part which he got, until they were finished.

After that, the Leopard went to the Lizard again, and said, "Friend, let us exchange chenas again." The Lizard felt anger which he could not bear, but because he was afraid he said again, "It is good," to that also.

Afterwards, the Lizard went to a man, and asked him to tell him a way of succeeding, so as to fight the Leopard. The man said, "When he asks you again, say you will not. The Leopard will come and quarrel with you. Then say, 'We cannot fight in that manner. You go, and after asking your mother about a means of success, return. I will go, and after asking my mother about a means of success, will return.' Having said it and come away, and having rolled in the mud and dried it, and again rolled in the mud and dried it, by rolling in the mud and doing thus you will become big. After that go to fight. The Leopard's claws will not enter your body." All this the man told the Lizard.

Afterwards, one day the Leopard said, "Let us exchange chenas." The Lizard told him as the man said. When the Leopard went to his mother she told him to rub coconut oil over his body.

The Lizard having gone to a mud hole, jumps into it, and climbs onto a post to dry the mud. Again it jumps into the mud and climbs onto the post. Thus, having acted in that manner he caused much mud to be smeared on his body.

After that, having met each other, the Leopard and Lizard quarrelled again, and struck each other on the face. Then the Lizard springs on the Leopard's back and scratches his flesh. The Leopard jumps about, but only scratches mud off the Lizard.

Having fought in that way, the Leopard, becoming afraid, went away. The Lizard went and washed off the mud. The Leopard having gone and crawled under the corn store at a house, while sitting there says, "Bite thou me here, too, Lizard. Bite thou me here, too, Lizard." [139] While he was there saying it he saw a boy [near him]. Then the Leopard says, "Ade! Do not tell any one, or I will kill thee." Because of it, the boy being afraid did not tell any one.

Afterwards the Leopard, thinking, "The boy will tell it," came while the boy [140] was asleep on the bed [in the veranda], and having crept under the bed, lifted it on his back and went off with it, in order to eat him. When the boy awoke and saw that the Leopard was going along carrying him, he caught hold of a branch and hung by it. After the Leopard, having gone a long distance, looked back the boy was not there.

Then the Leopard came running back to seek him. Having seen that the boy was on a branch, the Leopard asked, "Art thou descending to the ground, boy? I shall eat thee."

The boy said, "Ade! Bola, art thou saying Bana? [141] I have no means of stretching out my hands to descend," he said.

"What is in thy hands?" he asked.

"In this hand I have small Lizard's eggs; in this other hand I have large Lizard's eggs," he said. "A sort of Lizards as big as Talipat trunks and Coconut trunks will be coming."

Then the Leopard, saying, "Stay thou there, boy, until I have run a little far," bounded off and ran away.

Duraya. North-western Province.

In The Orientalist, vol. i, p. 117 ff., the latter part of this tale was given by Miss J. A. Goonetilleke, containing the fight of the animals and the incidents that follow it. The animals were a "Bloodsucker" Lizard and a "tiger," a word often used in Ceylon where "leopard" is intended to be understood. There are no tigers in Ceylon.

An incident like that in the chena, in which the knife wounded the Leopard, is found in Old Deccan Days (Frere), p. 177. In it a barber tied a knife to a cucumber, and it wounded a Jackal who began to eat the fruit.

In Wide-Awake Stories (Steel and Temple), p. 240--Tales of the Punjab, p. 227--a woman who was being carried off by robbers while on her bed, seized a branch and climbed up a tree when they paused under a Banyan tree. The same incident is given in The Orientalist, vol. i, p. 40.

With regard to the fear of the lizard which the leopard is described in the Sinhalese story as exhibiting, I am able to state that it is not much exaggerated. Many years ago, on returning to my bungalow one day, at a tank in a wild part of the jungle, I found that a lizard of the species mentioned in this tale--a Katussa or "Bloodsucker"--had entered my bedroom. I brought up a tame, full-grown leopard which I then had, and introduced it to the lizard, as a new experience for it. At first it was inclined to play with the lizard, but on pretending to seize it with its mouth it felt the spikes on the lizard's back, and immediately showed the greatest fear of it. The attempts which it made to escape when the lizard came in its direction were quite ridiculous, and it became so terrified that I was obliged to take it away to the security of its den, a large packing-case under a tree to which it was tethered, leaving the lizard the complete master of the situation, though probably nearly equally alarmed.

NO. 68

THE LION AND THE JACKAL

While an old Lion was in a rock cave, after a Jackal went there the Lion says, "Ane! Bola, I have been thinking of eating fresh pig's flesh." When he said, "When I ran and sprang at some Boars now I couldn't catch one," the Jackal said, "If it come near this cave can't you seize it, Sir?"

"In that way I can still do it. But will a Boar come near me? The thing you are saying would be a wonder."

The Jackal says, "Somehow or other I will bring a Boar."

The jackal having walked about in the jungle, and having seen a Boar, says, "How many days have I now been seeking thee!" After he had said, "Why should I be of assistance to thee?" the Boar says, "Uwah! Why is there so much need of it by me? Thou wilt not be of any assistance to me."

The Jackal said, "Our King is there, having now become old. Is it true or not, Cultivator, that as he told me to seek a person to give the sovereignty to, I have been going about seeking thee? If not, am I telling lies? Come along and go there with me."

Having gone near the Lion, taking him with him, the Jackal says, "Now then, having gone near the King and made obeisance, take the sovereignty." As the Boar was approaching in great fear the Lion sprang at him. After he had seized him, the Boar, pushing off his paws, bounded away.

Then the Jackal says, "Did a thunderbolt strike you, Sir? Why didn't you hold the Boar?"

The Lion says, "Ane! Bola, did I fail? Are you saying it falsely? When will such a Boar come near me again?"

As the King was sorrowful the Jackal says, "Are you mad, Sir, that you doubt my powers? I will bring that one again now."

The Jackal having gone on the path on which the Boar went, and having seen the Boar says, "What is the matter with thee? Ade! Did a thunderbolt strike thee, that thou camest bounding away?"

The Boar says, "What did I come away for? Truly, I was running away. If I had stayed there it would be seen why!"

Then the Jackal says, "If thou hadst stopped he wouldn't eat thee. Art thou a person afraid to have the sovereignty bestowed on thee? What was it? Except that he merely looked at thee he did not attempt to eat thee, Cultivator. If he had done so wouldst thou be thus? [142] No. Did he attempt the crime of eating thee?" [At last the Boar agreed to return to the Lion.]

Afterwards, when they went near the Lion together, the Jackal says, "Friend, go without fear, and tell him to hand over the sovereignty." In that manner the Boar went near the Lion.

Having sprung with great force on the neck of the Boar, and broken the neck, and broken the bone of the head, as he was going to eat the brains the Jackal said, "Don't."

When the Lion asked, "Why not, Bola?" the Jackal says, "Though you, Sir, exercise the sovereignty your wisdom is less than ours. Do kings eat and drink in that manner?" After he had said, "Blood has fallen on your body, Sir. Having gone to the river, bathing and drying your body there, and having returned, be good enough to eat sitting down," the Lion went to bathe.

After he had caused him to go, the Jackal ate the Boar's brains, and remained there silently. The Lion having come back, and taken the skull in his paws, sought for the brain in order to eat it. When he said, "There is no brain," the Jackal said, "Sir, don't you know so much? Having once escaped death and gone away, would he again be caught for killing if he had had brains? That one had no brains," he said.

Duraya. North-western Province.

HOW THE JACKAL CHEATED THE LION. (VARIANT.)

In a more ancient time than this, a Lion King dwelt in a certain forest. A Jackal who lived in that very forest, establishing a friendly state with the Lion began to reside near him. Should I state the mutual trust of them both [it was this]--the Lion knew that although by the aid of the Jackal's means of success (that is, advice and stratagems), the Lion was seizing and eating the flesh of other animals, he did not get from the Jackal any other assistance that ought to be given.

When a little time had passed in that way, it was evident that the Jackal's body was becoming very fat. The Lion saw it, and assuming a false illness remained lying down at the time when the Jackal came. Having seen it, the Jackal made obeisance to the Lion, and asked, "What, O Lord, are you lying down for? Has some ailment befallen Your Majesty? Are you not going to hunt to-day?"

Then the Lion said, "My friend Jackal, a headache having afflicted me to-day, I am in a very serious state. From this time onward, having hunted, and eaten only the small amount of the brains of the animals, I will give thee all the rest of the flesh. Do thou subsist on it. For the reason that I am not well enough to go to hunt this day, thou and I, both of us, must remain hungry. Art thou unable to go hunting [alone] this day only?" he asked.

Thereupon the Jackal said to the Lion, "O Lord, is that which should be done a difficult thing? Your Majesty will stay thus. I will go, and will return calling some animal or other [to come] near Your Majesty." Having instructed him to spring up and seize it as soon as it comes, the Jackal went to seek animals.

While going for this purpose [it saw that] a Goat was tied in a field. Having told many falsehoods to the Goat it returned, inviting it [to come] near the Lion. Then the Lion sprang to seize it. Thereupon the Goat, having become afraid, ran away. The Jackal went [after it], and causing it to turn back again, returned [with it].

Then the Lion, having killed the Goat, went to bathe in order [to purify himself, so as] to eat the small quantity of brains. In the meantime the Jackal removed the brains, and having eaten them replaced the skin.

The Lion having returned after bathing, when he came to split open the skin in order to eat the brains, saw that there were no brains. Having seen it, the Lion asked the Jackal, "Where are my brains?"

Thereupon the Jackal said, "O Lord, if this one had any brains would it have come twice near Your Majesty? It came twice because it had no brains." So saying the Jackal ate the small quantity of flesh also.

Western Province.

Improbable as the notion appears that an animal, other than insects or fishes, would return into the same danger shortly after escaping from it, one instance of this has come under the observation of myself and a friend, with whose approval I insert this account of the occurrence.

As Mr. H. E. H. Hayes, late of the Public Works Department, Ceylon, was walking one day near the water, at the embankment of the Vilankulam tank in the Northern Province, a crocodile made its appearance suddenly in the water near him, apparently attracted by his young terrier. He fired a charge of snipe shot at its head, and it disappeared.

He and I went to the spot on the following day. I remained on the look-out on the top of the bank, while he was partly hidden behind a tree nearer the water. There he tweaked or pinched the dog so as to make it yelp a little. Then we observed a crocodile's head raised among some weeds far out in the tank. Not many minutes afterwards the crocodile's head appeared out of the water only a few feet away from the dog. Mr. Hayes at once shot it with his rifle; and when he recovered it found the shot marks of the previous day in its head.

In this case it might almost be said with truth that the animal had no brains, since the brain of an ordinary tank crocodile is only about the size of a large walnut. When I split the skull of one, the men who were with me could not find the brain cavity, and thought it had no brains.

In Indian Nights' Entertainment, Panjab (Swynnerton), p. 268, a Tiger with a broken leg takes the place of the Lion, and a Jackal brought an Ass to eat what he represented to be the superior grass at the place. After the Tiger had killed it and eaten part of it, he crawled to a spring for a drink, and in his absence the Jackal ate the heart (which the Tiger wanted itself), and gave the same explanation of its absence. The author added a note, "the heart among the Punjabis being the seat of reason."

In the Panchatantra (Dubois), an Ass was brought to a sick Lion King in order that he might eat the heart and ears, as a remedy for his illness. When he was brought back the second time by a Jackal, the Lion killed him and ate the heart and ears.

In the Katha Sarit Sagara (Tawney), p. 85, there is a similar story, except that after killing the Ass the Lion went to bathe, and the Jackal then ate the heart and ears. He told the Lion that "the creature never possessed ears or a heart, otherwise how could he have returned when he had once escaped?"

STORIES OF THE RODIYAS

NO. 69

THE ROLL OF COTTON

In a certain country there is a city. In the city there are two persons, an elder sister and a younger sister. There are two female children of the two persons.

The younger sister took to spinning cotton. At that time her daughter also came there. A roll of cotton was driven away in the wind out of the daughter's hand. Then her mother beat the daughter. "Wherever it should go do thou bring back the roll of cotton," she said. This girl, weeping and weeping, follows the roll of cotton.

She came to a betel plot which a lame man had made. To this girl who was following the roll of cotton the lame man says, "Ane! Pour water on this betel plot and go, please," he said. Afterwards, having poured it she went on. "The betel has been plucked," she said.

As she was going [she came to a place where] a dog was tied. "Ane! Younger sister, tie me in the shade and go, please," he said. "While you are going home to-morrow there will be a haunch of a bull tied up [for you]," he said. So having tied the dog in the shade she went on.

Then the roll of cotton having gone on, stopped in a cane-brake. At that time a King came there. That girl was tying hooked sticks in order to get the roll of cotton. So the King said, "I will bring the roll of cotton. Go thou to the royal palace and cook," he said.

The girl went and cooked. The King got the roll of cotton. The King having gone, gave the roll of cotton to the girl.

After he had given it, both of them ate the cooked rice. After they had eaten it the King called the girl to the house. Having called her, he said to the girl, "Please take from these boxes any box thou wantest," he said.

Then the girl, having looked at them, took a small sandalwood box.

Afterwards the King said, "This will provide a livelihood for the persons who are rearing thee, also," he said.

Taking the box, she came near the dog that was tied up. There the dog had tied up the haunch of a bull. Having taken the haunch of the bull from there, she came near the lame man. Having got betel from there, she came near her mother at the girl's house.

Having come there she opened that box. Having opened it, after she looked [in it she found that] the box was full of silver and gold; the box had been filled. Then that other elder sister and the elder sister's daughter saw these articles [and heard how the girl obtained them].

On the following day that mother and daughter took to spinning cotton. Afterwards, from the mother's hand by force a roll of cotton was carried away [by the wind]; having been carried away she beat the daughter, and told her to bring the roll of cotton. So this daughter, weeping and weeping, goes after the roll of cotton.

She goes near the lame man who is making the betel plot. Then the lame man said, "Please pour water [on these plants]." Having said, "I will not," she went by the place where the dog was. The dog said, "Ane! Elder sister, tie me in the shade and go. As you go [home] I will place a haunch of a bull for you," he said. Having said she would not she went away.

The roll of cotton having gone into the very cane-brake, that also stopped there. Then this girl was tying hooked sticks in order to get the roll of cotton. Then the King [came there, and] said, "I will bring the roll of cotton. Go thou to the palace and cook," he said.

The girl having gone, without any deficiency cooked rice and vegetables. The King having taken the roll of cotton [there], both of them went to eat the rice. Having gone and looked [at it in order] to eat it, they could not eat it; it had the taste of water.

Having called the girl he said, "From these please take for thyself any box thou wantest," he said.

This one having searched and searched, took in her arms a great chest. Afterwards the King said, "Go thou; please open the box at the place where thy mother and father are," he said.

The girl, after it became night, having summoned every one, [143] opened the box. All [the things] in the box were cobras and polangas. The cobras and polangas having bitten the people of the village, destroyed them. They made all the village desolate.

Rodiya. North-western Province.

In Wide-Awake Stories (Steel and Temple), p. 178--Folk Tales of the Punjab, p. 167--there is an account of the good luck of a kind girl and the bad luck of an unkind girl, but the incidents are unlike those of the Sinhalese story.

NO. 70

THE JACKAL AND THE LEOPARD

In a certain country there is a Gamarala. There is a goat-fold of the Gamarala's. At that goat-fold one by one the goats are disappearing during the night. Afterwards the Gamarala having gone there [to watch for the thief] went to sleep. In the hand of the Gamarala there was a lump of salt chillies.

Afterwards the Leopard came at night. The Leopard lifting each goat looks at it. Having looked, afterwards having lifted up the Gamarala [and found he was the heaviest] he took him. Carrying him away he took him to his rock cave. Then the Gamarala quickly [entered it, and] shut the door. The Leopard then was trying to go into the cave. Having heard the uproar the Jackal Panditaya came. "What is this, Sapu-flowers' Minister, you are doing?" he asked.

"In other years I brought goats [and ate them without trouble]. That one having entered the cave has shut the door."

"You, Sir, having put your tail inside the cave be pleased to wave it," he said; the Jackal Panditaya said. "Do not catch hold of the tail," he said [to the Gamarala]. "Otherwise, having put thy foot against the wall, and having folded it two-fold or three-fold, hold it [fast]," he said. "Do not jam a little of the golden salt chillies under the tail of the Sapu-flowers' Minister," he said.

Then the Gamarala having seized the tail jammed in the salt chillies. Afterwards the Sapu-flowers' Minister pulling out his tail bounded away. Having bounded off and gone, he sat down on a flat rock. Afterwards the Jackal Panditaya asked, "What are you on that flat rock for?"

"I am looking if this country is fruitful or unfruitful," [144] he said.

Again, the Gamarala, saving his life, went to the village. The Jackal Panditaya went to the Gamarala. "What is it, Gamarala? Couldn't you kill him?"

"While he was outside how could I, sitting in the cave, kill him?"

"I will tell you a trick for that one," the Jackal Panditaya said. Afterwards he said, "You must make a trap for that one," he said.

"Where shall I make the trap?" [the Gamarala] asked.

"At the fence of the goat-fold," he said.

Afterwards he made the trap. The Sapu-flowers' Minister was noosed in the trap. On the following day the Gamarala came to look. Having come before the Gamarala, also the Jackal Panditaya came near the trap. "Gamarala, to-day indeed he has been hanged," he said.

Etana metana to gasanne Kambul baeta dipanne Kanda sewanata aedapanne

"Strike thou there and here a blow; Knocks upon the cheeks bestow; Drag him to the hill's shadow,"

the Jackal Panditaya said.

Hampottayi to ganne Malu tika mata denne.

Then he said--

"'Tis the skin will be for thee, The little flesh thou'lt give to me."

Rodiya. North-western Province.

Part of this story was given in The Orientalist, vol. iv, p. 30. A Jackal that had followed a Leopard which was trying to get at a man who had taken refuge in a corn store, advised it to insert its tail through a gap in the doorway, and wave it about. When it did so, the Jackal said in the Peraelibasa, [145] which the Leopard did not understand, Katu anuwe potun detak, which when transposed becomes atu kanuwe detun potak, "Two or three twists round the pillar of the corn store." The man acted as advised, and held the tail fast. When some men came up they killed the Leopard.

NO. 71

HOW THE BOARS KILLED THE RAKSHASA

There is a certain city. There is a very great jungle belonging to the city. A wild Sow stays in the jungle. The Sow having come to a house on the high ground, and pains having come to her, gave birth to a little Boar. The men of the house having seen the little Boar, catching it and amply giving it to eat, reared it.

[After he had grown up], one day that village Boar says, "I cannot remain thus." Having thought, "I must go to a great jungle," he went away.

After that, having gone to the jungle, while he was there a Rakshasa having come to that jungle was eating the large Boars. Afterwards the village Boar said [to the others], "I will tell you a good trick," he said.

"What is it?" the other large Boars in the jungle asked.

"Please dig two very large wells. At the bottom make the two wells one," [146] he said. "The large village Boar will be [on the ground] in the middle of the two wells," he said. He told the other large Boars to be round the well.

The Rakshasa every day comes to a rock. The large village Boar asks the other large Boars, "This Rakshasa having come, what will you do as he comes?"

The other Boars say, "This Rakshasa having come makes grimaces at us."

"Then ye also make grimaces," he said.

"Again, he inflates his sides at us."

"Do ye also inflate your sides," he said.

"He makes a very great roar."

"Do ye also at that time roar all together," he said.

On the following day the Rakshasa having come, and having looked in the direction of the Boars, made grimaces, inflated his sides, and made a very great roar. [The Boars did the same.]

Then the Rakshasa thought, "To-day these Boars will eat me." Thinking this he went near the Lion.

Afterwards the Lion scolded him. "Ane! You also having gone, and having been unable [to do anything], have you come back?"

"What am I to do? All that I do the Boars are doing."

Afterwards the Rakshasa again came to the place where the Boars were. After that, the village great Boar says to the other Boars, "To-day the Rakshasa is coming to eat us indeed. What shall we do?" he said to the great Boars. "[This is what we will do.] The Rakshasa having come, when he springs at the great Boars I will jump into the well. Having jumped in, I will come to the ground by the tunnel [and the other well]," he said. "Before I ascend you eat the Rakshasa," he said.

In that way the Rakshasa came. Having come, as he was springing [at the Boar] the Boar jumped into the well. Then the Rakshasa having jumped [in after him] they bit him and ate him up.

Afterwards the great village Boar asked the other Boars, "Who else is there to eat your flesh?"

Then, "Still there is a Lion King," they said. Saying, "Ada! Seeking him there, let us all go," they all went.

The Lion King as the Boars were coming climbed up a tree. Then the Boars at once having broken the roots of the tree, felled the tree to the ground. The Lion ran away.

Then the Boars, saying, "Seize him, seize him!" having gone chasing him, killed the Lion.

Rodiya. North-western Province.

This tale is given in the Jataka story No. 492 (vol. iv, p. 217). A Boar reared by a carpenter joined the wild ones, and taught them how to kill a Tiger that devoured them, by means of two pits. The tunnel connecting them is omitted. The Boar did not jump into the pit; 'only the Tiger fell into one of the pits when he sprang at the Boar. After killing the Tiger they proceeded to kill a sham ascetic who was his abettor, in the same manner as in the Sinhalese story.

Although the Rodiyas are not often present at the services at the Buddhist temples, they go to them occasionally, not, however, being permitted to enter the temple enclosure, but standing outside it. There they can hear the reading of the sacred books (bana), and perhaps in this manner they have learnt the story of the Boars. I have not met with it as a folk-tale elsewhere. The reference to the tunnel connecting the two pits shows that it has independent features. This tunnel alone explains the excavation of the two pits, one to jump into and the other to escape by.

NO. 72

THE GRATEFUL JACKAL

In a certain village there was a boy who looked after cattle. One day, in the morning having taken the cattle [to graze], as they were going to water, that boy, when a python seizing a Jackal was going to eat it, went and beat the python, saying, "Ane! This python is going to eat the Jackal, isn't it?"

Then the python having let the Jackal go seized the boy. So the boy cried out, "Anda! Anda! O my father! The python has seized me!" he cried.

Then the Jackal having come running, when he looked [saw that] the python had caught the boy, and thinking "Ada! Because of me this one seized the boy," the Jackal looking and looking backwards, ran off [to fetch assistance]. After he had looked [to see] if there was any one, there was no one. The Jackal heard several people in the distance. The Jackal went running there. When he was going near the men, the men said, "A mad Jackal has come," they said.

Then again the Jackal came running to the place where the python was. Again he came running to the place where the men were. Having come [there], after the Jackal looked [he saw that] the clothes of men who were bathing were under a tree. The Jackal having gone to the place where the clothes were, taking a waist cloth in his mouth ran off. Having run off, and having put down the cloth at the place where the python, holding the boy, was staying, the Jackal ran into the jungle.

Then those men having seen that the Jackal which had taken the cloth in its mouth was running away, saying, "Ada! The mad Jackal taking our cloth in its mouth is running away," followed the Jackal. When they looked, having seen that the python had seized the boy, they said, "Ada! The python has caught such and such a one's boy and encircled him."

Then those men who were ploughing and ploughing having all come running, and having beaten and thrown down the python, saved the boy. [Afterwards] those men asked at the hand of the boy, "What did the python seize thee for?"

Then the boy said, "As I was coming the python had seized the Jackal, and I was sorry. At that time I tried to save the Jackal, and that one having let the Jackal go, seized me."

Rodiya. North-western Province.

STORIES OF THE KINNARAS

NO. 73

CONCERNING A MONK AND A YAKA

A monk, tying a Yaka [by magical spells] gets work from him. For seven years he got work. Then the time having come for the Yaka to go, the Yaka every day having gone near the monk says, "Monk, tell me a work [to do]."

The monk said one day, "In Galgamuwa tank there will be seven islands. Having gone there and planed them down, come back." After that, the Yaka having gone and planed the tank, and having very quickly come, said at the hand of the monk, "Monk, tell me a work."

Then the monk said, "Having cut a well of seven fathoms, and having cut a Damunu [147] tree, and removed the splinters, and put it down to the bottom of a well, and tied a creeper noose to the Damunu stick, you are to draw it up [from inside the well] to the ground."

Afterwards the Yaka having cut a well of seven fathoms, and cut a Damunu tree, and removed the bark from it, and tied a creeper noose to it, and put the Damunu stick to the bottom of the well, the Yaka sitting on the ground holding the creeper noose tried to draw it out. He could not draw it. When he was drawing it, because there was slime on the Damunu stick he was unable to draw it out.

On account of the time during which the Yaka had been delayed near the well, the monk being afraid of the Yaka, the monk went backwards and backwards for three gawwas (twelve miles). The Yaka having pushed against the monk for so much time, and having got a bill-hook also, on the road he drove him (the monk) away. Having gone there [afterwards] to kill the monk, he met with the monk. After that, the Yaka threw the bill-hook, so that having cut the monk with it he would die. After he had thrown it, the bill-hook was behind, [148] and the monk was in front [of it]. On account of that, the name [of the place] there became Kaettaepahuwa [a village twenty-one miles from Kurunaegala, on the road to Anuradhapura].

Kinnara. North-western Province.

This story is known throughout the district to the north of Kurunaegala. The explanation of the Damunu tree incident which was given to me is that the monk, being unable to find enough work for the Yaka, gave him this task as one that would provide occupation for him for a long time. When the bark is freshly removed, the Damunu sticks are extremely slippery. The creeper was tied at one end in a ring which was passed over the smooth stem of the tree. When the Yaka endeavoured to raise the tree by pulling at the creeper, the ring slipped up the stem instead of raising the tree.

Elsewhere in the same district I heard of another man, a villager, who had mastered a Yaksani (female Yaka), and who made her perform work for him. In appearance she was an ordinary female, and the man's wife was unaware of her true character, as he had not informed her of it, being afraid of alarming her. The man kept the Yaksani under control by means of a magic iron nail, which he had driven in the crown of her head. One day during his absence she went to her mistress, and told her that a thorn had run into her head while she was carrying firewood on it, and that she was unable to draw it out. The woman extracted the nail for her, and the Yaksani, being then free, killed the family, and escaped.

In Folk-Lore of Southern India (Natesa Sastri), p. 272--Tales of the Sun, p. 285--there is a story of a landowner who learnt an incantation by means of which he summoned a Brahma-Rakshasa, who became his servant, at the same time informing him that if he failed to provide work the Rakshasa would kill him. Everything he could think of was done in an incredibly short time--tank repaired and deepened, lands all cultivated--and there being nothing more to be done the wife gave the demon a hair of her head to straighten. He failed to do it, but remembering that goldsmiths heated wires when about to straighten them, he placed the hair on a fire, which burnt it up. He was afraid to face his mistress after it, so he ran away.

Regarding the thorn in the demon's head, see No. 20.

NO. 74

THE THREE SUITORS

In a certain country dwelt a man and a woman, it is said. These two had a son and a daughter.

When a man came one day and asked for the daughter [in marriage] at the hand of the father, the father said, "It is good. Come on Wednesday." The man having said "Ha," went away.

Afterwards another man came and asked for the girl at the hand of the mother. The mother said, "It is good. Come on Wednesday." The man having said "Ha," went away.

After that, yet a man came and asked for her at the hand of the girl's younger brother. The younger brother said, "It is good. Come on Wednesday." The man having said "Ha," went away.

Well then, the company of three persons having come on Wednesday and eaten rice and betel, caused the girl to come out [of the house], inviting her to go. Then the three persons endeavoured to call her to go in three [different] directions. Because the girl was unable to settle the dispute she ate a kind of poison, and lying down died there and then. Afterwards they buried her.

After that, the man who came first went to a sooth-sayer. The man who came next watched alone at the place where they buried her. The man who came last having said, "It doesn't matter to me," went to his village.

The man who went to ask for sooth having inquired about it, came to the place where they buried the girl. Having come and made incantations in the manner prescribed by the sooth-sayer, he made her arise, and got her [back to life]. After she had recovered she went to the village. The man also went there.

Now then, after the three men had come together there, the man who brought her back to life asked, "To whom do you belong?"

The girl said, "The man who watched alone at the grave is my mother. The man who went to inquire of the sooth-sayer is my father. The man who went to his village is my man."

Having said this, the girl went with the man to his village.

Kinnari. North-western Province.

This is a story of Vikrama and the Vampire, one of the puzzling questions set to the King being a decision as to whom the girl belonged.

In Indian Nights' Entertainment (Swynnerton), p. 237, the girl threw herself down from the house-top. One of the suitors sprang on the funeral pile, and was burnt with her. The second watched over the grave. The third became a Fakir, and learnt how to revive the dead. He revived both the girl and the burnt suitor. The merchant whose opinion was required decided that the two who were burnt together were brother and sister, the Fakir who gave them renewed life was their father, and the man who merely sat by the grave must become her husband.

In the Jataka story No. 150 (vol. i, p. 321), there is an account of a person who had learnt the spell for reviving the dead. In this case it was a tiger, who killed him.

In Tota Kahani (Small), p. 139, out of three suitors for the hand of a girl who was carried off by a fairy, one learnt the manner of her disappearance and the place where she was, the second made a magical flying wooden horse, on which the third rode to rescue her, killed the fairy, and brought her back. The Parrot's decision was that the last one had the best right to her, as he had risked his life for her.

NO. 75

THE CROCODILE AND THE JACKAL

In a river in a certain country a Crocodile stayed, it is said. While it was living there, the Crocodile having become friendly with a Crab, the Crocodile said to the Crab, "Friend, you call the Jackal to drink water, so that I may seize and eat the Jackal after he has come." The Crab said "Ha."

On the bank of that river there were Muruta [149] trees, and there were flowers on those Muruta trees. The Crocodile said to the Crab, "I will lie down on the high ground. You bring flowers that have fallen below those Muruta trees and cover me." Having said [this], the Crocodile lay down on the high ground near the water, and the Crab having brought the Muruta flowers covered the Crocodile.

Having covered him, the Crab, calling the Jackal, came to drink water. The Crocodile stayed as though dead. Then the Jackal having come near the Crocodile said, "In our country, indeed, dead Crocodiles wag their tails. This Crocodile, why doesn't he wag his tail? Maybe he isn't dead."

Then that Crocodile which remained as though dead, wagged his tail. After that, the Jackal, without stopping even to drink water, bounded off, and went away.

Afterwards the Crocodile said to the Crab, "Friend, to-morrow I will stop at the bottom of the water. You come there with the Jackal. Then I will seize and eat him."

The Crab having said "Ha," on the following day came with the Jackal to the place where the Crocodile was. Then the Crocodile seized the Jackal by the foot [as he was going to drink water]. The Jackal said--

Kimbulundae raewatundae Ketala ale dae gandae?

"Are the Crocodiles cheated quite, Thus the Ketala yam to bite?"

Then the Crocodile let go. After that, on that day also without drinking water he bounded off, and went away.

From that day, the Jackals having become angry with the Crabs, and having seized and bitten the Crabs in the rice fields, place the Crabs' claws on the earthen ridges in the fields.

Kinnara. North-western Province.

In The Orientalist, vol. ii, p. 46, there is a story of a Jackal and a Crocodile, in the latter part of which the first incident is given, the tree being a Veralu (Elaeocarpus serratus). The Crab is not introduced into it.

In the Jataka story No. 57 (vol. i, p. 142) a Crocodile endeavoured to entrap a Monkey by lying still on the top of a rock. The Monkey, suspecting some trick, from the unusual height of the rock, addressed the rock and inquired why it did not reply as usual. The Crocodile then spoke.

In Indian Folk Tales (Gordon), p. 63, the God Mahadeo (Siva) took the place of the Crocodile, in order to be revenged on the Jackal for cheating him in the matter of the dead elephant (see No. 39, note); and the two incidents of the shamming death and seizure of the root are related.

In Old Deccan Days (Frere) p. 310, a Jackal escaped from an Alligator [Crocodile] in the same manner.

NOTES

[1] See note at the end of the Introduction.

[2] Cf. Jataka, No. 206 (vol. ii, p. 106).

[3] From the Tamil kuppam, a village of small houses, perhaps + ayam, ground.

[4] The Tamil stories of Mariyada Raman, or some of them, are known in one district. Arabic is unknown.

[5] Folk-Tales of Kashmir, Knowles, 2nd ed., pp. 258 and 331.

[6] Agata anagata, as the early cave inscriptions say.

[7] Asurendraya.

[8] It is one of the greatest possible insults in the East to strike a person with a broom. Even demons are supposed to be afraid of being struck by it, and thus it is a powerful demon-scarer.

[9] A Kayiya, usually to provide help in clearing jungle, or ploughing, or reaping, for which no pay is given, but the party are fed liberally.

[10] Ma Vi, the name of the largest variety of rice.

[11] Twenty-eight miles. According to Indian reckoning of about six winks to a second, as given in the Maha Bharata, this would be an orbit of about 14,500,000 miles, with a diameter of 4,620,000 miles.

[12] That is, the sun rises in the latitude of the district where the story was related. This would be within a day or two of February 22.

[13] I cannot explain this remark.

[14] This is, where refreshing breezes blow.

[15] The deity of the planet Saturn.

[16] The narrator understood this to mean that large upright sheets of glass were fixed round the bed.

[17] Mini Ran Kukula. The spelling in this and other instances is according to the manuscripts, except in such words as Rakshasa and Rakshasi, the village forms of which are Rasaya and Rasi; and Brahmana, which is usually given as Brahmanaya.

[18] A word without any special meaning in English, often used in addressing a person familiarly and somewhat disrespectfully.

[19] Amu (Paspalum scrobiculatum), the Tamil Varaku, a small grain cultivated in jungle clearings.

[20] Three halfpence.

[21] Elawa gihin melawa awa, "Having gone to that world I came to this world." This is a common saying, meaning in village talk, "What a long and tiring journey I have had." According to the Rev. C. Alwis it also means, "I almost died, and recovered." (The Orientalist, vol. i, p. 62.)

[22] Light rice cakes.

[23] Old flower-seller.

[24] Moringa pterygosperma.

[25] A thing only done by a man's wife.

[26] Wangi tunak aeti, kembi dolahak aeti, Apata waeduna duka me asapan kota kotali.

[27] Evidently a modern interpolation, as the Princess was represented as using only a writing style.

[28] Loku mama.

[29] Lit. necks.

[30] This is the dress of a villager when visiting friends. A white jacket is now often added.

[31] Literally, "Are we bad?"

[32] Up to this point the story follows one related by a Duraya; the rest belongs to the cultivating caste.

[33] Literally, "Is there any coming for her?"

[34] Great Mother: The title of a mother's elder sister; her younger sister is called Puñci-Amma, Little Mother. The letter c is pronounced as ch in transliterations. I follow the village writers in not marking the various forms of n; they write punci or punci.

[35] Moringa pterygosperma.

[36] Ran oncillawa.

[37] A well-to-do woman of the village. Gama-Mahage is the title of the wife of a Gamarala, a village headman or elder.

[38] To search for insects. She would sit down for the purpose.

[39] Daboia russelli.

[40] Un mamma nasindayi, Ranwan baena aende andandayi, Ranwan akka samine wendayi.

[41] In these stories the Yakas are always evil spirits or demons.

[42] Piyanan-wahanse.

[43] The word used indicates the use of guns, and not bows and arrows.

[44] A Vedarala (medical practitioner) or another man who knows the spells and magical practices which have power over demons.

[45] Araksha baendala.

[46] E minihata waehila, mayan wenda patangatta.

[47] The Sinhalese title is, "The manner in which the Youth who looked after the Goats became King."

[48] Inferior Gods, ruled by Indra.

[49] Raja Gurunnanse, probably the Purohita Brahmana, the King's spiritual adviser.

[50] A supernatural being who could take at will either a human form or the shape of a cobra (naya or naga).

[51] Dohta karanawa = Dashta k., to give a poisonous bite.

[52] Panicum sp., probably miliare, an edible grass seed.

[53] Kankariya.

[54] Wes.

[55] Gigiri walalu.

[56] Silambu.

[57] Learned Brow.

[58] On account of the strangeness of this speech, I give the Sinhalese words as they were written: Umba kaburupanjati jati umbe muna (sic.) penendawat epa. Umbata hena waediyamin umbe jatakaya ganin. It appears to be a Rabelaisian joke, and was considered such by the person who narrated it.

[59] Otunne malu. This proves that the story is Indian, and perhaps from the Panjab, there being no camels in Ceylon.

[60] The usual village spelling.

[61] Great Happiness.

[62] Equivalent to saying, "What things do you know?" Saestara, the noun used, means sooth, knowledge of things, and science.

[63] The title "Vedarala" is applied both to native medical practitioners and to demon expellers, who are also sooth-sayers.

[64] Twenty rupees, in a variant.

[65] Sihi buddi naetuwata mona saestara kiyamanada? This might also be interpreted, "On account of the absence of Sihibuddi what saying of sooth is there?" The long final i of female names is usually shortened in conversation.

[66] A South Indian gold coin, with the figure of a boar, Varaha, on the obverse, said by Winslow to be worth three and a half rupees.

[67] "A box in which the most valuable ornaments of the most frequent use are kept, and which for the sake of safety is always placed at the foot of the bed" (The Orientalist, vol. i, p. 59, footnote).

[68] Kumandaeyi mama karanne, which if not very clearly heard might be translated, "It is Kumanda; I am doing it," or "I will do it."

[69] He might do any unusual acts of this sort without exciting much astonishment, while apparently under the influence of "possession."

[70] Kurulu gama Appuge rissa giya. This might be translated, "On the birds' moving, Appu's strength went."

[71] Sillu, "Hopscotch," a game omitted from my account of village games in Ancient Ceylon. I have seen boys playing a form of Hopscotch which may be this one. I do not understand the reference to "dragging" the counters home after it, unless the meaning is "carrying." The Sinhalese verb used is adinawa, which is sometimes employed with this other meaning.

[72] Sadhu Maharajani.

[73] Gamaya.

[74] Ge-dora, which probably means only "house-door" in this case, and not buildings, etc., in general.

[75] A creeper with long sharp thorns, punctures by which usually cause ulcers.

[76] Polmicca kirilli.

[77] An imitation of the song of the bird, apparently.

[78] Mat ekka giyama nakeyi?

[79] "Stooping man, there is heat, heat."

[80] Kujija is a man who stoops. He may have thought it said, "Stooping man, you are refuse."

[81] Kuti is a bend. He appears to have interpreted it as, "Stooping man, you are bent, bent."

All these expressions are imitations of some of the notes of the bird's song.

[82] Ge dorata.

[83] A Muhammedan trader or pedlar, called "elder brother" in an honorary sense.

[84] Plural of Bola, regarding which see No. 5.

[85] Lit. "making."

[86] Hungak dura, "a great deal far," a common village expression.

[87] Nari-nayide; see also No. 56, and p. 28.

[88] The meaning is that no appearances can be trusted, not even those of the earth and sky; but that sometimes untrustworthy things, even such a dangerous thing as fire, are wrongly trusted. He was referring to the judge's acceptance of the ridiculous statement regarding the birth of the horse.

[89] Kokka, a word applied to several species of large waders. The name of the Black Stork is Mana, but probably this is the bird referred to, as in the Sinhalese variant.

[90] Aehae aeragassi.

[91] Apparently this is Kurma, turtle + marsha, mrish. The meaning would be "Permit the Turtle" (to precede you). In The Orientalist, vol. i, p. 87, in which this part of the story is also given, it is stated that there is a saying, Kurmaya prativadena sinhasya maranan yatha, "As the death of the lion by the reply [? Kurmarsha] of the turtle."

[92] As in India, the tom-tom beaters were the weavers also in Ceylon, until cheap imported cloth put an end to weaving. In the Folk Tales of Bengal (Day), p. 233, the "proverbial simplicity" of weavers is mentioned, and in several stories in Indian Nights' Entertainment (Swynnerton) their foolishness is the chief theme. In the Jataka story No. 59 there is an account of a foolish tom-tom beater boy also. See also the story No. 10, in this volume.

[93] Calatropis gigantea.

[94] This is prosaic love-making!

[95] Probably in order to sell deer's flesh there.

[96] Canarium zeylanicum.

[97] Macacus pileatus.

[98] Berae.

[99] Haeliya.

[100] Called also, "The Deer and the Girl and Nikini."

[101] An expression often used in village talk, without any connexion with its literal meaning, "O demon." "Fellow!" nearly expresses its ordinary meaning, which is less respectful than that of the word Bola.

[102] Totra karanawa.

[103] Also written Lihiniya, "the Glider," a name applied to some hawks and swallows, etc. The whole name is "Tusk-Elephant-Mountain Hawk," or Eagle. I could learn nothing of the "Tusk-Elephant Mountain." This bird is the Rukh or Roc of the Arabian Nights.

[104] Apparently she was to swear by them, touching them at the time. See No. 8, in which a Prince and Princess touched each other when swearing an oath.

[105] An amuna is 5·7 bushels in the district where this story was told.

[106] Little Mother, an expression meaning the mother's younger sister, or the step-mother.

[107] Yabbaelli, apparently a kind of demon in the shape of a dog.

[108] Talla.

[109] The word used, nikan, "no-act," is employed in several senses; when a thing is given nikan, it usually means "without payment." To come or go nikan, is to come or go without any special reason or business, and also to go empty-handed, as in a former tale.

[110] Mi Paetikki. It might be either a rat or a mouse.

[111] Unnanse namak. In the villages, namak, "a name," takes the place of kenek, "person", in speaking of monks.

[112] Hakurun.

[113] Mulakun.

[114] Aewariyakun.

[115] Senawalaya.

[116] A contraction of Gama-ralahami. Hami is an intermediate form between swami, "lord", and himi; Wanniyas still use the latter.

[117] The yoke of the plough is placed on the neck and fastened there, on the Washerman's half of the animal.

[118] Because the mouth which grazes is in the Gamarala's half of the cow.

[119] Rate wissa. The word is new to me; this appears to be the meaning.

[120] Raja ho, ma ho, ganga ho. "Either the King, or I, or the river" [floods] will come to an end (naeti wenawa). He meant that if the periodical floods in the river did not come to an end, the job would last during the King's life-time, and that if he gave it up he had nothing else to live upon.

[121] Terminalia glabra.

[122] Kokka, a word which also means Egret, and some other large wading birds.

[123] Lula (Ophiocephalus striatus).

[124] Kanakoka (Ardeola grayi).

[125] Triple-wreathed famous one.

[126] Probably, "He that moves about in the jungle," derived from the Tamil words kadu, jungle--in compounds, kattu--and salam, Skt. cala, moving, unsteady. The bird is Centrococcyx rufipennis, which utters a booming call, and has red eyes.

[127] Tamil, tonku, to move with leaps, Skt. twang, to leap, gallop + ka, doer.

[128] Maha tokkama.

[129] Tokkam dekak.

[130] Lay devotee.

[131] Rala is an honorific termination, nearly equivalent to our Mr.

[132] Tun-iri Mudiyanse, (Sciurus tri-striatus), a small squirrel with three yellow dorsal lines.

[133] Lit. "Having guarded, I must place it."

[134] Mini-gedi.

[135] Miyane.

[136] Lenane.

[137] Wali-kukulane.

[138] Katussa (Calotes sp.), a small lizard with a long tail, and spikes on the back, commonly called "Bloodsucker" in Ceylon.

[139] Perhaps this means that the Leopard found some places where the Lizard had not yet bitten him.

[140] A variant says it was the Gamarala.

[141] "Art thou reciting the Buddhist Scriptures?" Used colloquially with the meaning, "What nonsense you are talking."

[142] Ehema nan ehemada, "If so (would it be) so?"

[143] Seramantama.

[144] That is, as we should say, "I have come here to enjoy a view of the scenery!"

[145] There appears to be some doubt regarding the spelling of this compound word. I give it as I have heard it. Except in the last letter I have followed that of the late Mr. W. Goonetilleke, the learned Editor of The Orientalist, who in vol. i, p. 8, of that journal said of it: "Perelibase therefore means 'the language of transposition,' or 'the transposed language.'" In Clough's Dictionary the second word is spelt basa. In Mr. A. M. Gunasekara's excellent Sinhalese Grammar the spelling is peralibasa in the Index, and perali base (or bhashawa) in the paragraph dealing with it. Professor E. Müller-Hess has drawn my attention to the form pereli on one of the inscribed tablets at Mihintale.

[146] That is, unite them by a tunnel.

[147] Grewia tiliaefolia (?).

[148] Kaetta pahuwuna.

[149] Lagerstroemia flos-reginae.