Ammā (step-mother), having collected cobras'eggs, polangās'1 eggs, and the like, the eggs of all kinds of snakes, and having cooked cakes made of them, came to the place where the girl was. The girl's Loku-Ammā told her to eat some of the cakes. When she did not eat them, that woman, taking some in her hand, came to her and rubbed some on her mouth. At that very moment the girl became a female cobra, and dropped down into a hole in an ant-hill. Her father and Loku-Ammā went home again. The infant was crying on the bed. Afterwards, when the girl's younger brother was saying to the golden Kaekiri: They'll me myself to kill devise ; the cobra returned [in her woman's form], and having suckled and bathed the infant, and sent it to sleep, again [becoming a snake] goes back to the ant-hill. Then the King having returned, asked the younger brother, "Where, Bola, is thy elder sister?" The child said, "Our father and Loku-Ammā having cooked a sort of cakes came and gave us them, and LokuAmmā told elder sister to eat. Afterwards, as she did not eat, Loku-Ammā, taking some, rubbed them on elder sister's mouth. At that very moment elder sister became a female cobra, and dropped down into an ant-hill." Then the King asked, "Did she not return again, after she had dropped down into the ant-hill?" The child replied, "While I was calling her she came back once." The King said, "Call her again in that very way." They'll me myself to kill devise; In bed the gold-hued nephew cries; 1 Daboia russelli. 2 Un mamma nasinḍayi, Ranwan bāēnā aende andanḍayi, Afterwards, the cobra came [in her woman's form], and having suckled and bathed the child, and sent it to sleep, cooked for the King, and apportioned the food for him. Then when she tried to go away [in her cobra form], the King cut the cobra in two with his sword. One piece dropped down into the ant-hill; the other piece became the Queen, and remained there. After that, the King collected cobras, polangās, all kinds of snakes, and having, with the Queen, put them into two corn measures, they took the two boxes, and went to the house where the Queen's father and Loku-Ammā were. There they gave them the two boxes, and said, "We have brought presents for you. Go into the house, and having shut the door, and lowered the bolt, open the mouths of the two boxes. Otherwise, do not open the mouths in the light." The King and Queen remained outside. The Queen's father and Loku-Ammā, taking the two boxes, went into the house, and having shut the door and bolted it, opened the mouths of the two boxes. At that moment, the snakes that were in them came out, and bit both of them, and both of them died. Afterwards, the King and Queen came to the city, and stayed there. North-western Province. In Folk-Tales of Bengal (Day), p. 132, a girl received a fan, the shaking of which summoned a Prince, however far away he might be. At p. 239 also, a Queen received a golden bell, the ringing of which summoned the absent King. In the Sinhalese story, it is evidently to be understood that the shaking of the chain would be heard by the King while he was away, although the narrator omitted to mention this. IN No. 14 The Four Deaf Persons N a certain city there were a woman and a man, it is said. Both of them were deaf. A female child was born to that man, and this child was also deaf. The man to whom she was given in marriage when she grew up was also deaf. The girl's husband went to plough a rice field at the side of the high road. While he was ploughing, a man who was going along the road asked the way. Continuing to plough with the yoke of bulls, the deaf man said, “I brought this bull from the village. This other bull is from father-inlaw's herd." What are the facts about the bulls to me? Tell me the way," the man said. The deaf man replied, "The bull is from my herd." The man said again, "What are the facts about the bulls to me? Tell me the way." Then the deaf man, replying, "Don't say that another time," beat the man with the goad, and the man having received the blows went away. Afterwards, the deaf man's wife having brought cooked rice to the field, he unfastened the cattle which had been ploughing, and while he was eating said to the woman, “A man came just now, and saying, 'Whose is the yoke of bulls?' quarrelled with me about them." The woman replied, "Through seeking firewood and water and vegetables, and cooking, I was a little late in the day in coming.” Having quarrelled with him over it, she bounded off, and having gone home, went to the place where her mother was plaiting a mat, and said to her, "Mother, our house man quarrelled with me, saying that I was late in taking the rice." The woman said, " Marry thy father! What is it to thee whether my works are good or not good now?" and she quarrelled with her. The woman having gone to the place where her husband was watching a sweet-potato chena during the day time, on account of thieves uprooting the plants, said, "To-day my daughter having taken cooked rice to the field, and having given it and returned, quarrelled with me, saying that the plaiting of my mat was bad. I also indeed scolded her a great deal, saying, 'What is it to thee whether my works are good or not good now?' I have come to tell you about it." Then the man said, "Bola, you infamous woman! Because I stopped in the chena you cooked and ate three sweetpotatoes, did you?" and he beat and drove away the woman. Then saying that it was useless to go on with the chena when his wife was eating the crop, he cut the fence, and abandoned it to the cattle. And the man left the village and the district, and went away. North-western Province. The quarrels of deaf persons through misunderstanding each other's remarks form a common subject of folk-tales. The mistakes of three deaf people are related in Folklore in Southern India (Naṭēša Sāstrī), p. 3 ff., and Tales of the Sun (Kingscote and N. Sāstri), P. I ff. The Abbé Dubois published another amusing South Indian variant, which recounted the mistakes of four deaf men (le PantchaTantra, 1872, p. 339 ff.). The four persons in it were a shepherd, a village watchman, a traveller who was riding a stolen horse, and a Brāhmaṇa. The shepherd requested the watchman to look after his flock during his temporary absence. In reply the latter refused to let him have the grass that he had cut. On the shepherd's return, he offered him a lame lamb as a reward for the trouble he thought the man had taken, but the watchman fancied he was being accused of laming it. They stopped a horseman who was riding past, and asked him to decide their quarrel. In reply, he admitted that the horse was not his. Each thought the decision was against him, and cursed him for it; and while the quarrel was at its height they referred it to a Brāhmaṇa who came up, who replied that it was useless for them to stop him, as he was determined never to return to his wicked wife. "In the crew of devils I defy any one to find one who equals her in wickedness," he said. The horse-thief, observing men coming in the distance, made off on foot, the shepherd returned to his flock, the watchman, seeing the lamb left, took it home in order to punish the shepherd for his false charge, and the Brāhmaṇa stayed at a rest-house, and went home again next day. In the Contes Soudanais (W. Africa), by C. Monteil, p. 18 ff., there is a story which resembles both this South Indian one and the Sinhalese one, in part. A shepherd in search of a lost sheep asked a cultivator about it. He replied, "My field begins before me and ends behind me." The shepherd found the sheep, and offered it to the cultivator in payment for quarters for the night. The latter thought he was being charged with stealing it, and took him before a village headman, who remarked, "Still another story about women! Truly this can't continue; I shall leave the village." When he told his wife to accompany him, she said she would never live with a man who was always talking of divorcing her. |