Part 29

In Folk-Tales of Kashmir (Knowles), 2nd ed., pp. 191 ff., four Princes were changed into stones by a Jogi, or Hindu ascetic. In a footnote, p. 192, Mr. Knowles gives references to such metamorphoses elsewhere, among them being the turning of a hunter into stone [310] owing to a curse by Damayanti. Mr. Knowles states that many stones in Kashmir are believed to be the petrified bodies of men who have been cursed. I do not remember seeing or hearing of any instances of such petrifaction in Ceylon, but we may gather from the story just given and that numbered 136 that such a belief is held there.

In the same work, pp. 401-403, there is an account of two Princes who went in search of a wonderful bird, and were changed into stone when they turned back in alarm. Their younger brother was more successful, and got a pot of magic water, which when sprinkled on his brothers and on many other stones lying on the ground, caused them to resume their human state.

In Folk-Tales from an Eastern Forest (W. Skeat), p. 67, it is remarked that the Malays believe that there were once numerous gigantic spirits who could transform people whom they addressed by name into wood or stone.

In the Preface to The Kathakoça, p. xiii, Mr. Tawney quoted Dr. Bühler's words regarding the Jain belief in animism,--that souls are to be found "in apparently lifeless masses, in stone, in clods of earth, in drops of water, in fire and in wind"--and mentions that as far as he knew, the Jains stand alone in this belief. Nevertheless, in the cases of Ahalya and Rambha, and the Apsaras of the Katha Sarit Sagara,--who, while she was in the form of an image or relief, shed tears on seeing her husband,--as well as in the examples in the other folk-tales, [311] the notion appears to be that the soul or spirit continued to exist in the petrified body, which was ready to return to its original state as soon as some necessary occurrence took place, whether a sprinkling of charmed water which neutralised the former spell, or the termination of a period fixed by a curse, or otherwise. We can perhaps see further evidence of the existence of the same belief in India and Ceylon in the stone statues of guardian deities, such as Bhairava, Nagas, Yakshas, and Rakshasas, carved at religious edifices; they, as well as the figures in the Euphrates Valley and Egypt, appear to have been thought to act as protectors because, although formed of stone, a soul existed in them, that is, so far as evil spirits were concerned they were living stones, and not mere scarecrows.

In Cinq Cents Contes et Apologues (Chavannes), vol. iii, p. 219, there is an account of the death and burial of a Prince aged fifteen, whose soul remained in his body afterwards. When a pine tree which had been planted over the grave sent down a root that reached his heart, the soul became alarmed, climbed up the root, and lodged among the leaves of the tree. It had other adventures.

In the Arabian Nights (Lady Burton's ed., vol. i, p. 145), a lady described her arrival at a city in which the King and Queen and all the inhabitants had been transformed by Allah into black stones, with the sole exception of the King's only son, a devout Muhammadan.

In vol. vi of the same work, p. 121, a man arrived at a great city in which all the inhabitants, with the exception of the royal Princess, had been changed into stone at the prayer of a Muhammadan Prophet. In both these instances the petrified persons were not revived.

See also the Notes after the last story in vol. iii.

In Kaffir Folk-Lore (Theal), p. 36, a rock opened at a boy's request, and he and his sister lived in it, leaving and returning at will. At p. 83, some boys when chased by cannibals took refuge in a rock which "a little man" turned into a hut; to the cannibals it was still a rock.

With regard to the remarks on the last page, two Sinhalese histories, the Rajavaliya and Pujavaliya, give a legend which indicates a belief that even the statues of guardian animals possessed souls. It is recorded of King Mitta-Sena (A.D. 435-436) that on one occasion when the state elephant was not ready for him when he had been worshipping the Tooth-relic of Buddha, "the King became angry and asked whether the great elephant image could not take him on its back. The elephant, made of tile [brick] and mortar, approached the King, made him to sit on his back, took the King to the city, placed him in the palace, and went away" (Raj., Gunasekara's translation, p. 54).

It is probable that the figures of guardian animals or deities carved only in relief, or even represented in paintings, may have been thought to possess souls of their own--that is, to act protectively as sentient beings.

It is merely a step forward to the idea in the Quatrain of wise old Omar Khayyam:--

"I saw a busy potter by the way Kneading with might and main a lump of clay; And lo! the clay cried, 'Use me tenderly, I was a man myself but yesterday!'"

NO. 155A

THE STORY OF THE ELDER SISTER AND YOUNGER BROTHER

At a certain village there was a Gamarala. While a woman contracting (lit., tying) marriage with him was [there], a female child and a male child were born. After they two were born the woman died.

After that, for the man they again brought a woman. Because the woman [312] did not take notice of the children, the children think, "There is no advantage to us in staying here; let us leave the country and go." Having said [this] they began to go.

While they were thus going they entered a forest jungle, and at the time when they were proceeding in it the flowers of a Kina tree [313] having blossomed and faded, the elder sister picked up flowers that had fallen, and took them and smelt them.

Having said, "These flowers are not good," the younger brother went up the tree and plucked flowers. At the time when he was descending the younger brother disappeared (naeti-wuna). The elder sister through grief at it remained at the bottom of the tree.

While a King of the city was going hunting, having seen that the woman is staying under the tree, the King came near and spoke [to her]. Thereupon the woman did not speak; but the King, holding her by the hand, [314] went summoning her to the city [and married her].

While staying at the city, the woman having become pregnant a child was born. The King told her to fix a name for the child. Then also (et) the woman did not speak.

While the two persons were staying thus for a little time, again a child was born. The King told the woman to fix a name for that child also. Then also this woman did not speak. "Why don't you speak?" the King asked. Then also she did not speak.

On yet a day, the King went hunting with the Ministers, and having gone walking and come near the city, told the Ministers to go. The Ministers having gone there, say at the hand of that woman, "A bear bit (lit., ate) the King to-day."

When they are saying it falsely, the Queen, taking the two children, and having descended from the palace to the path, and fallen on the ground, sitting down says to the two Princes, "Sun-rays Prince, Moon-rays Prince, weep ye for your father; I am weeping for my younger brother."

The King having secretly come again near the palace, remained listening. Having seen it, the Queen, taking the two Princes, got into (etul-wunaya) the palace. The King having come to the palace and entered it, said, "Why did you not speak for so much time?"

Then the Queen says, "After our mother was summoned and came to our father, after I and a younger brother were born our mother died. Then they brought a step-mother. Because that mother disregards [315] younger brother and me, younger brother and I left the country, and having entered a forest jungle, when we were coming the flowers of a Kina tree had blossomed and fallen. Taking the faded flowers I smelt them. Thereupon younger brother said, 'Don't smell the faded flowers; I will pluck and give [you] flowers.' Having said [this] and gone up the tree, at the time when [after] plucking the flowers he was descending, younger brother disappeared. Owing to grief at that I remained unable to speak."

Afterwards the King, taking axe and saw and calling people, having gone near the Kina tree, and cut and sawn the tree, when he looked [inside it] the younger brother who was lost was [there]. Then the King, calling the younger brother, came to the city, and showed him to the elder sister. The elder sister arrived at happiness again.

North-western Province.

The story provides no explanation of the cause of the brother's imprisonment inside the trunk of the tree. Apparently the deity--presumably a Yaka--who resided in the tree punished him in this manner for plucking the flowers, yet the King cut down the tree with impunity. At the present day, the Sinhalese villagers would not venture to injure or pluck flowers from a tree infested by a Yaka. Many years ago all refused to fell a Kumbuk tree of this kind which it was necessary to remove from an embankment I was restoring; but some of my Tamil coolies had not the same scruples when encouraged by extra pay, to counterbalance the risk. Probably they would have been less venturesome in their own country.

The notion that a person may exist inside a tree trunk in a state of suspended animation is found in other folk-tales. In No. 47, vol. i, a Naga Princess became a tree; in an Indian variant on p. 269, the tree was a girl imprisoned thus by Rakshasas. (See the notes after No. 155, and also p. 245 of this volume.)

NO. 156

THE QUEEN AND THE BEGGAR

At a city there exists a Beggar, begging, and continuing to eat [thus]. There is a travellers' shed near the pool at which the Queen of that city bathes. The Beggar having come [after] begging and begging, eats at that travellers' shed.

When the Queen was coming [after] bathing in the water, the Beggar went in front of her. Having said, "Why did a Beggar like thee come, and come in contact with me?" [316] she spat three times.

He having felt (lit., thought) much shame, went to the house of the washerman who cleans the cloths of the city. He remained doing work for him for wages. The washerman asked, "Why are you working for wages?"

"[In order] one day to get the crown and [royal] suit of clothes [317] I am working for wages,--at the time when the King (raju) is coming to the chamber," [he said].

At the time when [the King] was coming to the chamber in which is the Queen, he stopped, investigating [matters]. Before the King came, [the Beggar], putting on the royal ornaments [and clothes], went. The guards finished the auspicious wish; [318] after that he went into the chamber.

The Queen having come and given the auspicious wish, he forbade the adjuration. [319] When forbidding it, having said, "What [sort of] woman art thou also!" he spat in her face. This one having spat went away.

After that the King came. The guards thought, "To-day the King went here; what came he again for?" After he went to the chamber the Queen did not give him the auspicious wish. The King inquired why she did that.

Having said, "Now, on one occasion (gamanaka), as I am bad you spat in my face; have I now become good?" she asked.

After that, the King [on hearing her account] sitting down there, wrote two bars of a four-line stanza (siwpada de padayak):--

"The angry tone displayed, the King is desolating; The courier bold who charmed my love, long bound, is flying. Speak not so harshly, here with frowns me eyeing; He will not long rejoice, I pride that day abating." [320]

Having given these two bars of a four-line stanza to the Ministers, [321] he said he will give many offices to persons who explain them. [322]

North-western Province.

NO. 157

THE FROG IN THE QUEEN'S NOSE

In a certain country there are a woman and a man, it is said. The woman has also a paramour. One day the man went to a rice field to plough. At that time, this woman having quickly cooked milk-rice, made it ready to give to her paramour to eat.

While that man (her husband) was ploughing, the yoke broke; after that, the man came home. Having seen that the man was coming, she quickly put the pot of milk-rice under the bed in the maduwa (open shed). That man as soon as he came sat upon the bed; then the man was burnt [by the hot rice under him]. Thereupon the man looked under the bed. When he was looking he saw the pot of milk-rice. Afterwards, having taken the milk-rice the man ate it.

At that time, when the Queen of the King of the country was smelling a flower, a little young frog that was in the flower had gone into her nose, seven days before. Up to that very time, six men came, saying that they can take out the frog; they came at the rate of a man a day. Having come there, when he is unable to take it out they cut the man's neck. At that rate they beheaded the six men who came.

That day the King caused the proclamation tom-toms to be beaten:--"To the person who should take out the young frog that is in the Queen's nose, I will give a district from the kingdom, and goods [amounting] to a tusk elephant's load."

Then this woman having heard it, went running, and said, "My husband can," and stopped the proclamation tom-toms. [323] She stopped them because the man of the house ate the milk-rice without her succeeding in giving it to the paramour, with the motive that having killed this man she should take the paramour to live [there].

Having stopped the proclamation tom-toms, and come near her husband, she said, "I stopped the proclamation tom-toms now. You go, and having taken out that young frog which is in the Queen's nose, come back."

Then this man through fear of death lamented, and said, "Now six men have been beheaded, men who thoroughly know medical treatment. I not knowing anything of this, when I have gone there they will seize me at once and behead me. What is this you did?"

Thereupon, through anger about the milk-rice she said, "There is no staying talking and talking in that way. Go quickly." As she was saying the words, the messenger whom the King sent arrived there to take the man to the palace.

Well then, having [thus] quickly driven away the man, the woman speedily cooked milk-rice again, and having sent to the paramour to come, and given him to eat, made the man stop at that very house.

Then the woman says to the paramour, "Thus, in that manner the gallows-bird [324] of our house by this time will be killed. Now then, you remain [here] without fear." The paramour having said, "It is good," stayed there.

Well then, when the messenger brought that man to the palace, he said to the King: "Maharaja, Your Majesty, this man can take out the frog."

While he was there, having become ready for death, the King, having been sitting at the place where the Queen is, says to this man, "Ha, it is good. Now then, don't stop [there] looking. If thou canst, apply medical treatment for this and take thou out the young frog. If thou canst not, be ready for death."

Thereupon that man, having become more afraid also than he was, began to relate the things that happened to the man:--

"When to plough I went away, snapped the wooden yoke in twain; When the yoke in pieces broke, slowly home I come again; When I to the house returned, I upon the bed remain; When upon the bed I lay, felt my rear a burning pain; When my hinder part I burned, 'neath the bed I search amain; When beneath the bed I look, hidden milk-rice there had lain. As I ate that rice, I ween these afflictions on me rain. Having this affliction seen, jump out, O Froggy-pawn!" [325]

Having said [this] he ended. The Queen, from the time when he began to tell this story being without a place for passing down the breath, when this story was becoming ended, because that breath had been shut back gave a snort [326] (huh gala), and when she was sending the breath from her nose, the young frog quite of itself fell to the ground.

Well then, having given this man a district from the kingdom, and goods [amounting] to a tusk elephant's load, they made him stay at the palace itself. That woman became bound to that paramour.

North-western Province.

In the Arabian Nights (Lady Burton's ed., vol. iii, p. 360), an Arab doctor was taken before a King, who ordered him to cure his sick daughter. He was told by the attendants that all who failed were put to death. He discovered that her malady was a religious one, and cured her.

NO. 158

CONCERNING A BEAR AND THE QUEEN

At a certain city there were a sister and two brothers. These three one day went to eat Damba [fruits]. Having gone thus, the two brothers went up the Damba tree, [327] the sister remained on the ground.

At that time a Bear having come, went off, taking the woman. Having thus gone, placing her in a rock cave he provided subsistence for her. Thereupon the two brothers, being unable to find her, went home.

During the time while the Princess was in the rock cave she was rearing a cock. On yet [another] day the two Princes in order to make search for the Princess went into the midst of the forest. Then having heard the crowing of the cock which the Princess was rearing, they went to that place. At that time the Bear was not there; on account of food it went into the midst of the forest.

Then [the brothers] having met with the sister, they spoke to her. The Princess said, "The time when the Bear comes is near. Because of that return to the village, and come to-morrow morning to go with me." So both of them went to the village.

After that, the Bear having come, at the words which he had heard walked away growling and growling with anger. Thereafter the two brothers came, and returned with the Princess to the village. Two children had been born to the Bear; with those two also they went.

Thereupon the Bear having come to the rock cave, and perceived when he looked that the Princess and children were not [there], came [after them] of his own accord. When he came, he saw by the light the Queen and two children. Those two sprang off and went away.

The Bear asked the Queen, "What are you going for?"

"A cleverer Bear than you told me to come. Because of that I am going," she said.

The Bear having said, "Where is there a cleverer Bear than I? Show me him," went [with her].

Then the Queen, having gone near a well, showed the reflection of the Bear that was at the bottom of the water. At that time the Bear which was on the ground sprang into the well in order to bite the Bear that was in the well. Having sprung in he died.

Then the two brothers, and the Princess, and the two children went home and stayed there.

North-central Province.

In Le Pantcha-Tantra of the Abbé Dubois, the animals had made an agreement with a savage lion that one of them should be given to it each day. When the jackal's turn came he determined to find some way of destroying their enemy. Seeing his own reflection in a well, he went to the lion and informed him that another lion was concealed in a well, and waiting for an opportunity to kill him. When the lion demanded to be shown him, the jackal led him to the well; showed him his own reflection, and the lion sprang at it. The jackal then summoned the other animals, which rolled large stones into the well and killed the lion.

In the Hitopadesa there is a similar story, the two animals being a lion and a stag which said another lion had delayed it.

In Indian Fables (Ramaswami Raju), p. 82, the animals were a tiger and hare.

In Folk-lore of the Telugus (G. R. Subramiah Pantulu), p. 15, they were a lion and fox (jackal) which stated that another lion had carried off a fox that it was bringing as the lion's food.

In Indian Nights' Entertainment (Swynnerton), p. 4, they were a tiger and a hare which laid the blame on another tiger for his being late, saying it claimed the country.

In Old Deccan Days (M. Frere), p. 172, they were a lion and a jackal and his wife who stated that they had been delayed by another lion.

In The Enchanted Parrot (Rev. B. H. Wortham) this story is No. XXXI. The animals were a lion and a hare which said he had been kept a prisoner by a rival lion. This is the form of the tale in the Katha Sarit Sagara (Tawney), vol. ii, p. 32.

In Folk-Tales from Tibet (O'Connor), p. 51, they were also a lion and a hare which recommended the lion to eat a large and fierce animal that lived in a pond, in place of itself.

In Fables and Folk-Tales from an Eastern Forest (W. Skeat), p. 28, they were a tiger and a mouse-deer which said it had been stopped by an old tiger with a flying-squirrel sitting on its muzzle, and so had been unable to bring it an animal for food. The squirrel which accompanied the mouse-deer sat on the tiger's muzzle and the deer on its hind-quarters when it went to drive the other away. The tiger then sprang at its reflection in the river, and was drowned.

NO. 159

THE LEOPARD AND THE PRINCESS

In a certain country there are seven Princes, it is said. Younger than all seven there is their younger sister. For the seven Princes seven Princesses have been brought; a Prince having been brought for the younger sister, is settled there.

While they are thus, the younger sister has pregnancy longings (doladuk). One day, while the younger sister and her elder brothers were going to their houses, having seen the whole seven Princesses eating Damba [fruits] the younger sister also stayed there to eat them, and asked at the hand of the eldest sister-in-law, "Sister-in-law, a Damba fruit for me also."

Then the sister-in-law said, "There will not be Damba here to give."

She asked at the hand of the next sister-in-law. That sister-in-law also replied in the same way. Thus, in that manner having asked at the hand of the whole seven, not even one person gave it.

Afterwards, the younger sister having cooked and eaten, went alone to pluck Damba, and having ascended the Damba tree, while she was eating Damba it became night.

A Leopard having come near the Damba tree [said], "[How] if you should throw down a Damba branch with your golden little hand?"

After that, the Princess threw down a Damba branch. The Leopard having eaten [the fruit on] it, said again, "[How] if you should throw down a Damba branch with your golden little hand?"

Again she threw one down. Then the Leopard said, "Holding fast, fast, [how] if you should slowly slowly descend?"

Then through fear the Princess is there without descending.

The Leopard another time said, "Holding fast, fast, [how] if you should slowly slowly descend?"

The Princess descended. Then the Leopard, placing the Princess on his back, went to his rock cave. While living in that manner the Princess bore a child. The Leopard and Princess stayed there very trustfully. The Leopard had much goods. The paddy store-rooms had been filled, the millet store-rooms had been filled, the meneri store-rooms had been filled, there are many cattle.

When they had been living there many days, the Leopard said, "I am about to go on a journey to-morrow; I shall be unable to return for two or three days. You, shutting the rock cave, must be [here]. Until the time when I come do not go outside." On the following day the Leopard went away.

Well then, while the Princess was alone in the rock cave, the elder brothers of the Princess having come hunting, a great rain rained. The Princes having been [sheltering] near a tree, when they were walking along in the rain they met with the rock cave, and saw also their younger sister.

"What art thou here for? We sought and sought so much time, and could not find thee. Here thou art! What was the manner in which thou camest here?" they asked at the hand of their younger sister.

Then the younger sister said, "I asked for Damba at the hand of sisters-in-law. The whole seven did not give it. On account of that I came to eat Damba, and while I was alone in the Damba tree the Leopard came.