Part 33

In a Soninka story of Senegambia in Contes Soudanais (C. Monteil), p. 145, there are incidents of the same type. A hunter met with a female gazelle, which recommended him to look for a larger animal. He fired at it, but it did not fall. Then he killed it with a charmed bullet, saying, "Eh! Who is the stronger?" The animal replied, "Oh, oh! It is not finished!" It made the same remark when he cut its throat, when he skinned it, and also when he carried it home and learnt that his wife and son had died of colic. The man said no more words, but cut it up and placed it in a pot on the fire, on which it repeated the words. After cooking it for some hours he found the meat as hard as at first, and it murmured, "It is not finished." Neighbours seeing him cooking all day inquired what was in the pot. A voice came from it, "An antelope that won't be cooked. It is not finished." At last the man threw a magical powder into the pot, and the meat then became cooked, and he ate it without any ill result.

NO. 173

HOW THE PARROT EXPLAINED THE LAW-SUIT

In a certain country there is a King, it is said. For the King there is not a Queen. Near the royal palace there is a widow woman; the King is associating with that widow woman. The King gives the woman at the rate of five hundred masuran a day.

While they were living in that way, another man thought of conversing much with that woman. Having thought it, one day the man having come near the woman, says, "Ane! Every day in a dream I am conversing much with you regarding the doubt in my mind."

Then the woman said, "If so, seeking five hundred masuran come and converse much with me."

After that, the man, seeking five hundred masuran, came on the following day. Having come there he gave the five hundred masuran into the hand of the woman. After that, the woman, taking the masuran and having placed them in the house, says to the man, "Ha; now then, should we converse much in the dream it is so much, should we converse in reality it is so much (that is, they are equal). Now then, our talk is finished; go you away." Having said it she neither gave the masuran nor conversed much with the man; she drove the man away.

After she drove him away the man instituted a law-suit before the King who associates with the woman. After he instituted it, when hearing the action the King, because he is associating with the woman, declared judgment for the woman to win, and the man's [claim] came to be rejected. While the Parrot which had been reared in the palace was [there], this man's [claim] comes to be rejected.

On account of it, the Parrot having gone there said to the King, "How was the way the woman won that law-suit? Is it not as though one saw a reflection below the water, what one says in a dream?" Having said [this], the Parrot explained the law-suit, and the five hundred masuran became the property of the man.

Owing to it, the woman, through enmity against the Parrot, catching the Parrot and having given the Parrot into the hand of her girl (daughter), said, "Pluck this Parrot and cook it, and place it [for me to eat] when I come." Having said [this] the woman again went to the palace.

The girl, having plucked the Parrot and finished it and placed the Parrot there, went into the house for the bill-hook in order to cut up the Parrot. At the place where the Parrot was put there was a covered drain. The Parrot having gone rolling and rolling over fell into that drain. When that girl, taking the bill-hook to cut up the Parrot, came there, the Parrot was not [there]. After that, the girl through fear of that woman having killed a chicken which was there, cooked it, and placed [it ready].

That woman having come and said, "Where is it? Quickly give me the Parrot's flesh," asked for it. Then that girl brought the fowl's flesh and gave it.

Well then, that woman while eating the fowl's flesh, says, "Is it the Parrot's flesh! This I am eating is indeed the mouth that cleared up the law-suit! This I am eating is indeed the Parrot which said that he ought to give the masuran to that man!" Saying and saying it, she ate all the flesh of the chicken. When she was saying these things that Parrot stayed at the end of the drain; keeping them in his mind he remained silent.

When cooking at the house, having washed the cooking pots they throw down the water at the end of the drain in which is the Parrot. Having squeezed coconut [in water, to make coconut milk], they also throw the coconut refuse there. When the Parrot, continuing to eat these things, was there a considerable time the Parrot's feathers came [again].

The woman thoroughly performed meritorious acts. The woman, having told a carpenter, causing a statue of Buddha to be made and placing the statue in the house, makes flower offerings evening and morning to it.

After that, the Parrot having gone near a Barbet, said, "Ane! Friend, you must render an assistance to me."

The Barbet asked, "What is the other assistance?"

Then the Parrot said, "In the house of such and such a woman there is a statue of Buddha made of wood. You go and prepare a house (chamber) in it of the kind that I may be inside it. When I have gone inside it block it up."

Afterwards the Barbet having said "Ha" and come with the Parrot, the Barbet dug out a house in the statue of the size that the Parrot can be in it. At the time when the Parrot crept into it, having blocked it up from the outer side so that they were unable to know the place where it was dug, the Barbet went away.

After that, when the Parrot was there a considerable time, that woman every day in the morning and evening having come near the statue, and said stanzas, and made flower offerings, goes away. The Parrot every day remains listening.

One day the woman having come and said stanzas, when she was making the flower offerings the Parrot being inside the statue said, "Now then, indeed! You are near going to the God-world. Still you have been unable to do one [really] meritorious act. Just as you are doing that meritorious act they will take you to the God-world while you are alive."

Then the woman thought, "After the speaking of the statue, I am indeed near going to the God-world." Thinking it, she asked, "What is that meritorious act?"

Then the Parrot said, "Having taken only this statue of Buddha half a mile (haetaekma) away and placed it there, and put all the other things in this house, and locked the house up, and sat outside, and set fire to this house, that indeed is the meritorious act."

After that, the woman having taken the statue of Buddha and placed it half a mile away, and come back, and put all the other things into the house, and shut the door of the house, and locked it, the woman, sitting outside, set fire to the house. While the house is burning the woman is looking on, having said, "To take me to the God-world they will come at this very instant, they will come at this very instant."

Then the Parrot, having been inside the statue of Buddha, came out, and having come flying says to this woman, "Haven't you gone yet to the God-world? There! Look! It is indeed in the God-world that that fire is blazing. Thou atest my mouth? For thy eating the mouth of the Parrot which explained the law-suit, this is what the Parrot did. There!"

Having said [this] the Parrot flew away and went to the flock of Parrots.

North-western Province.

In Old Deccan Days (M. Frere), p. 118, a woodcutter dreamt that he married a dancing-girl and gave her a thousand gold muhrs. A dancing-girl who heard him say this determined to try to get the money from him, so she claimed him as her husband, demanded it from him, and took the matter before the Raja. Her friends having supported her statements the Raja could not decide the case, but a merchant's clever parrot (Vikrama Maharaja in disguise) gave judgment in favour of the woodcutter. When the girl afterwards obtained the parrot as a reward for her dancing, she ordered her maid to cook it. While the servant went for water after plucking it, the parrot got into the drain for kitchen refuse, the servant substituted a chicken for it, and the dancing-girl ate this, jeering meanwhile at the parrot. After its feathers grew again, it flew off and perched behind the statue of the deity in a temple. When the girl prayed to be transported to heaven, the parrot replied, "Your prayer is heard," and told her to sell everything, give away the money, break down her house, and return in seven days. She obeyed, and was accompanied by a crowd when she returned. Then the parrot flew over her head, told her it was a chicken she ate, and jeered at her. She fell down, dashed her head on a stone, and died.

In Folk-Tales of the Telugus (G. R. Subramiah Pantulu), p. 17, a courtesan demanded one hundred pagodas from a Brahmana who had seen her in a dream. He appealed to the King, who promised to give her payment. He caused the money to be hung from the top of a post, and told her to take it out of a mirror placed beneath.

In the Tota Kahani (Small), p. 14, a merchant who had left his parrot in charge of his house heard on his return from a journey that his wife had misconducted herself. Thinking the parrot had informed him she plucked out its feathers and threw it out, pretending the cat had run off with it. The parrot lived in a tomb at a cemetery on fragments of food left by travellers. When the merchant drove his wife away she went to the cemetery, and heard a voice--the parrot's--from a tomb telling her she should be reconciled to her husband after shaving her head and fasting for forty days. She did this; the parrot then told its master the wife's story was true regarding its being eaten by a cat, and that God had sent it to reconcile the husband and wife. The husband then brought her home again.

In A. von Schiefner's Tibetan Tales (Ralston), p. 163, when a merchant who had made a bet of five horses that a courtesan could not induce him to visit her, stated that he had been with her in a dream, she claimed the horses. The King was unable to give a decision, but the Minister's wife settled the matter by allowing her to see the reflection of the horses at the edge of a sheet of water.

In the same work, p. 172, after the King of Videha had married the daughter of the King of Pañcala, the latter induced his daughter to send him a clever parrot that was assisting the former King against him. He plucked it bare, threw it out of the window, a falcon caught it, and being promised daily food placed it in a temple, where it got hid and ordered offerings to be made daily by the King, who thought this was the deity's voice. When its feathers had grown, it induced the King, Queen, Prince, and Ministers to come with shaven heads to receive forgiveness of their sins, and then it flew aloft jeering at them.

NO. 174

THE PARROT AND THE CROW

A crow beginning to roost at the house at which a Parrot roosts, when much time had gone, as those two were talking together the Crow asked the Parrot, "Friend, what do you eat?"

Then the Parrot said, "I eat fruits possessing a good flavour."

Having said, "If so, I also must eat the [same] kinds of fruits," the Crow went with the Parrot to the midst of the forest. When it was eating fruits for many days, as the Crow was unaccustomed to that food, not having eaten the food [before], it arrived at great privation.

Thereafter, at the time when the Parrot asked at its hand [regarding it], the Crow says, "This food, indeed, not being customary for me, from somewhere or other having found flesh you must give me it. If not, I shall now eat the flesh of your body," it said.

The Parrot said, "If so, stay there a little until I have sought for flesh and returned," and went to seek flesh. Having gone, and walked and walked, being unable to find and take a little flesh from anywhere, it came to the royal house, and when it looked a piece of meat had been hung up in the cooking house.

Having seen it, the Parrot went near the Crow and said, "Friend, there was not flesh anywhere, only inside the [cooking] house at the royal house a piece of meat has been hung. I will go on the wall and cut the string of the piece of meat. When I cut it you, taking it, fly away."

The Parrot having gone, cut the string that was tied to the piece of meat. When it was falling on the ground, the Crow, taking the piece of meat, flew away. Having gone it ate it with pleasure.

That day the cooking man, being without meat to cook for the King, went to the King and said, "There is no meat to cook for you, Sir, to-day. In this manner a Crow took it away." Thereupon he told him to seek the Crow and shoot it.

Thereupon this Crow having said, "This Parrot is better than I for walking and seeking food," frightened it, and said that it was better for seeking and bringing meat; and it employed the Parrot, and making it seek meat began to eat [in that way].

Then this Parrot for the purpose of causing this Crow to be killed having settled upon the roof of the house of the man whom [the King] told to shoot and kill that Crow, spoke to him.

The man saying, "A Parrot that speaks well!" went to catch it. The Parrot having stayed looking, without going away, until the time when it is caught, said at the hand of the man, "Should you come with me, I will show and give you the Crow which ate that King's meat."

Having said "It is good," the man went on the ground. The Parrot having gone [through the air] above, remained talking and talking with the Crow. Thereupon the man shot the Crow; the Parrot flew off and went away.

The King asked, "How did you shoot to-day the Crow that you were unable to shoot for so many days?"

The man said, "A Parrot settled on the roof of my house. Having remained there while I went to catch the Parrot, the Parrot said to me, 'I will show you the place where the Crow is.' Afterwards, having gone with the Parrot I shot the Crow."

Thereupon the King, in order to ask the Parrot about these matters, told him to seek the Parrot, and come back. He was unable to find the Parrot.

Central Province.

NO. 175

THE CROW AND THE DARTER

In a country, at the time when a Crow is walking about and seeking food, having seen a Darter [352] eating small fishes, [353] and gone near the Darter, he said, "Friend, because there is no food for me assist me."

Thereupon the Darter having said, "It is good; I will give you food," and having constructed the nest on the high ground at the side of the tank at which the Darter stays, and told the Crow to be in the nest, the Darter brought small fishes, and gave [them to him] near the nest.

When he was [there] a long time eating the fishes, the Crow, having thought of going to his country in which he stayed [before], said to the Darter, "Friend, I must go to my village," he said.

The Darter says, "Why are you going?" When he asked, "Can't you remain and eat the small fishes I give?" to say otherwise, because there was not a fault of the Darter's the Crow says, "Friend, because there is one fault at your hand I must go," he said.

[As an excuse] for the Crow to go, because there was no fault he says to the Darter, "Friend, every day at the time when you go to seek fish, drawing up your anus to me you go to the bottom of the water. Because it is so I cannot endure it."

"If so, go you away," the Darter said.

North-western Province.

The latter part of the story reminds one of the rude-mannered peacock of the Jataka story No. 32, and also of one which lost its election as King of the birds owing to its indecent behaviour. Cinq Cents Contes et Apologues (Chavannes) vol. ii, p. 332.

NO. 176

CONCERNING THE CROWS AND THE OWLS

In a rock cave Crows and Owls made their dwelling. At night (rae dawasata) the eyes of the Owls see; the Crows' do not see. Night after night having fallen, when the Crows and Owls had eaten, [the Owls] seized and seized the Crows, and began to pluck off the feathers [and eat them]. By that act the Crows began to be destroyed.

Thereafter the Crows spoke together: "Should we [continue to] make our dwelling with this party we shall all be destroyed. Because of it let us go to another country."

Out of that set one Crow said, "You must make me stay [in order] to come [after] having killed the Owls. You all go." He said further, "Having plucked off my feathers [until I am] like a pine-apple fruit, go ye." Afterwards those Crows having seized that Crow and plucked off his feathers [until he was] like a pine-apple fruit, went away.

The Owls having come, when they looked there was not a single Crow. They asked that Crow, "What is it, friend, that has happened to you?"

Then the Crow says, "Ane! Friend, they said to me also, 'Let us go.' Because I said, 'I will not,' they seized me and plucked off my feathers, and the whole of them went away."

Afterwards the Owls said, "Friend, can you show us the country in which the Crows are?"

Then the Crow says, "If you will assist me a little I can show you it. Until the time when my feathers come you must bring and give me food."

The Owls, having said, "It is good," nourished the Crow until the time when its feathers came. It having said, "Ane! Friend, as it becomes evening a chill strikes me. At the time when you are coming you must bring and give me a very little firewood to warm me on account of the cold," the Owls one by one brought and gave the firewood. It heaped up on both sides of the doorway all this firewood that they are bringing.

At the time when all the Owls were inside the rock cave, after they were there, the Crow, having heaped all that firewood in the doorway, stealing a fire-stick and having come [with it], set fire to the firewood at the doors. All the Owls having been burnt, became ashes. The Crow went to the party of Crows.

North-western Province.

In Le Pantcha-Tantra of the Abbé Dubois, the owls lived in a cave, the crows in a great tree some distance away. The Chief of the owls intended to cause himself to be elected King of the Birds. The crows foresaw the dangers to which this would expose them, and one of their Ministers offered to endeavour to save them, and going as a humble suppliant became an intimate friend of the owls. He afterwards went to the crows, returned with them at noon, each carrying firewood, blocked up the entrance to the cave while the owls were asleep, and then set fire to the wood and suffocated them.

In the Katha Sarit Sagara (Tawney), vol. ii, p. 64, the crows lived in a great banyan tree; at night the owls killed many on account of their preventing the owl-King's election as King of the Birds. By his own advice the feathers of a crow-Minister were plucked out, and he was left under the tree. When the owls found him he told them that this was his punishment for recommending the crows to conciliate the owls; he was taken to their cave and fed well until his feathers grew afresh. He then offered to bring the crows back to their tree where the owls could kill them, and at his recommendation the crows blocked the entrance to their cave with grass and leaves. The crow then fetched all the crows, each one carrying a stick and he himself a firebrand, the grass and sticks were set on fire, and all the owls were destroyed.

In Les Avadanas (Julien), No. V, vol. i, p. 31, the story is similar. It is also given in a contracted form in Cinq Cents Contes et Apologues (Chavannes), vol. iii, p. 144.

NO. 177

THE FEMALE LARK

In a certain country a female Lark [354] having laid two eggs on the path on which they go and come at a rock, remained sitting on the two with affection.

One day, when a tusk elephant was going along the path the elephant placed its foot on the two eggs; so the two eggs were broken to pieces.

Owing to it the female Lark became at enmity with the tusk elephant, thinking that she must kill it; and one day having gone near the Frog the bird said, "Friend, laying two eggs on the path on which all go and come at such and such a rock, I remained sitting on the two with affection. [Although] so many persons went by there, nothing happened to those two eggs. One day the tusk elephant having come, trampled on my two eggs, and having broken them to pieces went away. On account of it, of what assistance will you be to me?"

Then the Frog says, "Ane! Friend, I will be of any assistance you tell me."

After that, the female Lark, having said, "It is good," and having gone from there, went near the Crow. Having gone there, she says to the Crow, "Ane! Friend, having laid two eggs on the path on which all go and come at such and such a rock, I remained sitting on the two with affection. [Although] so many persons went along the path, nothing happened to my two eggs. One day the tusk elephant having come, trampled on the two eggs, and having broken them to pieces went away. On account of it, of what assistance will you be to me?"

Then the Crow says, "Ane! Friend, I will be of any assistance you tell me."

After that, the female Lark said, "It is good."

At that time, there not being water in the water-holes there was much drought. One day the tusk elephant, being without water, is walking about seeking it.

The bird having seen it,--in the garden where the tusk elephant was walking there was a very deep pool like a tunnel,--the bird having gone near the Frog, said, "Friend, to-day the tusk elephant being without water is walking about seeking it. In the garden in which the tusk elephant is walking there is a pool like a tunnel. You go to the pool and cry out. Then the tusk elephant having said, 'There is water indeed,' will come there."

After that, the Frog came and cried out in the pool. Then the tusk elephant thought, "At the place where that Frog is crying out there will indeed be water." Thinking "At places where there is nothing Frogs do not cry out," it went there. When it was listening and looking, the tusk elephant fell into that pool which was like a tunnel. Well then, the tusk elephant cannot come ashore from there.

The Frog, having come ashore, says to the female Lark, "Look there. Friend, I was of another assistance [to you]. Now then, you look [after it yourself]." Having said it the Frog went to a tank.

After that, the female Lark having gone near the Crow, says to the Crow, "Ane! Friend, that tusk elephant which broke into bits my two eggs has fallen into the pool in such and such a garden. You go and pluck out its eyes, and pierce and pierce its face in two or three places with your bill, and come back."

After that, the Crow having come, plucked out the tusk elephant's two eyes and ate them; and having pierced and pierced the face in two or three places with its bill, came ashore, and said to the female Lark, "Look there. Friend, I was of another assistance [to you]. Now then, you look [after it yourself]." Having said it the Crow went away.

After that, the female Lark having gone near the Bee says to the Bee, "Friend, the Frog was of assistance to me, the Crow also was of assistance to me; only you have not yet been. The tusk elephant that broke to pieces my two eggs has fallen into the pool at such and such a garden, and his eyes have been plucked out. You go and beat [and sting] his head."

After that, the Bee having come and beaten the tusk elephant's head, the tusk elephant died in that very pool. Afterwards the Bee also went away.

On account of it, they still say in the form of verse:--

Being a handful merely, the Bush Lark Hen Got a tusker killed. Was it right, O Hen? [355]

North-western Province.

According to a variant from Uva, the nest of the bird, containing its two young ones, fell on the path on which the elephants passed. The bird begged them to be careful, and not to tread on them, but the king of the elephants deliberately trampled on the young birds. With the help of the crow, the blue-fly, and the frog, the elephant was killed, and the bird then strutted about on its dead body.