Folklore of the Santal Parganas - Cecil Henry Bompas (paper ebook reader .TXT) 📗

is standing in the fields all right," and could not

understand what the old man meant. The next day they both set off to

visit some friends at a distance; and the son-in-law carried his shoes

in his hand except when they came to a river when he always put them

on; and when they were going along in the sun he carried his umbrella

under his arm, but when they came to any shady trees he put it up;

and he did the same on the way back. The old man was very astounded

at this but made no remark. On reaching the house however he told his

daughter that he was sorry that her husband was a mad man and told

her what had happened. His daughter said, "No, father, he is not mad:

he has a very good reason; he does not wear his shoes on dry ground

because he can see where he is going; but in a river you cannot see

what is under-foot; there may be sharp stones or thorns and so he

puts on his shoes then; and he puts up his umbrella under trees lest

falling branches should hit him or the droppings of birds fall on him,

but in the open he can see that there is nothing to hurt him."

 

Her father admitted that these were good reasons and he had been

foolish not to understand them; he then took his leave.

 

And in the following January he visited them again; and when he saw

their stock of rice he asked how much they had, and the son-in-law

said that there was only what he saw. "But," said the old man, "When

I saw your fields you had a very fine crop coming on." "The crop was

good," answered the son-in-law "but I owed rice to the money-lender

and I have had to pay that back and I have had to pay my rent and

this is all that I have left." "Ah!" said the father-in-law, "when

I saw your fields I told you that you had not dammed up the outlets;

by outlets I meant these drains; as water flows away through an outlet

so has your wealth flowed away to money-lenders and landlords; is not

this so?" And the son-in-law admitted that he was right and that his

words had had a meaning.

 

CXXIX. (Ramai and Somai.)

 

Once two poor men named Ramai and Somai came to a village and took

some waste land from the headman, and ploughed it and sowed millet;

and their plough was only drawn by cows and their ploughshare was

very small, what is called a "stumpy share;" and when they had sowed

a little the rains came on; and Somai gave up cultivation and took

to fishing and for a time he made very good profits by catching and

selling fish; and he did not trouble even to reap the millet he had

sown; he laughed at Ramai who was toiling away clearing more land

and sowing maize and rice. He used to go and look at him and tell

him that he would never get a crop while he had nothing better than a

"stumpy" plough; it would probably break to pieces one day and then he

would be helpless; he had much better take to fishing which gave quick

and easy returns. Ramai made no answer, but when the rains were over

there was no more fishing to be done; and Somai was left to starve

and had to go from village to village begging. But Ramai reaped his

millet and lived on that till his maize was ripe and then his maize

supported him until his rice was ripe and he always had plenty to eat;

and to show his despite for Somai, after he had had a good dinner,

he would come out in front of his house and call out "What of the

stumpy share now?" Every day after eating he would come out and say

"At first I worked hard and suffered hunger but now I am eating in

happiness; and you were happy then but now you are starving."

CXXX. (The Two Brothers.)

There were once two brothers who were constantly quarrelling and

one afternoon after a heated quarrel the younger brother asked the

villagers to come and judge between them. The villagers agreed to meet

the next morning. At cockcrow the next day the elder brother went to

the other's house and woke him up and said "Brother, this is a bad

business; you have called in the villagers and they will certainly

fine us both for quarrelling; it would be much better for us to save

the money and spend it on a pig; then we and our families could have

a feast." "I quite agree," said the younger brother, "but now I have

summoned the villagers, what can be done? If I merely tell them to

go away, they will never come again when I summon them."

 

The elder brother said, "I have a plan; when they come they will ask

how the quarrel began and what abusive words I used; and then you

must tell them that that is a point which they have to decide; and

then they will be able to do nothing and will go away." The younger

brother agreed to this and when the villagers came and asked what the

quarrel was about he said, "Don't you know what the quarrel was? That

was the very matter I wanted you to decide; if you don't know, how

can you judge about it?" And this answer he repeated to all their

questioning; then they got angry and said that he was mocking them;

and they declined to give any decision, but said that the brothers

must give them dinner as they had detained them so long; but the

brothers flatly declined to do so as no decision had been given,

and the villagers went away grumbling, while the brothers bought a

pig with the money they had saved and had a jolly feast and as they

ate the elder brother said: "See what a good plan mine was; but for

it we should now have been feasting others at our expense."

 

CXXXI. (The Three Fools.)

 

Once upon a time three men were sitting at the foot of a tamarind

tree and a stranger came up to them with a bunch of plantains on his

shoulder and he put the plantains on the ground in front of them and

bowed and went away. Thereupon the three men began to quarrel as to

who was to have the plantains; each said that they were his because

it was to him that the man had bowed. So they started calling each

other "Fool" and after quarrelling for some time one said "Well, yes,

I admit that I am a great fool" and the other two asked why he thought

himself a fool and he said "Well one day my wife went to the jungle

with the other village women to get firewood and left our baby in my

charge; as she was a long time coming back the child became hungry

and began to cry; I walked him about but he would not stop crying;

I tried to feed him with rice and with rice water and with _Gur_

and with cow's milk but he would not eat or stop crying; I was in

despair when his mother came back and took him up and gave him the

breast and the child was quiet at once.

 

Seeing this I said to my wife "Human milk must be sweeter than

anything else." My wife said "Who can say whether it is nice; we

all drink it when we are infants; but when we grow up we cannot say

what it is like." Then I said that I would try what it was like and I

sucked her breast and found that it was much sweeter than cow's milk;

after that I formed the habit and used to drink her milk every day;

and as I left none for the child it died soon afterwards of starvation;

this shows what a fool I am."

 

Then one of the other men said "But I am a bigger fool than you." And

they asked him in what way; and he said "I was married and was very

much in love with my wife; once when she had gone on a visit to her

father's I went to fetch her home; and she was got up in all her

finery, with her hair well dressed and vermilion on her forehead

and red _arta_ on her feet. On our way home it began to rain and we

took shelter in a village; and when the shower was over we went on;

and we came to a river which was in flood from the rain; the water

was up to a man's armpits and I decided to carry my wife across so

that the _arta_ on her feet might not get washed off. So I took her

on my shoulder and to prevent her feet getting wet I held her feet

uppermost and as her head was under water when I got across I found

that she had been drowned; and if I had not been such a fool she

would not have been killed."

 

Then the third man said "And I also am a fool. I had quarrelled with

my own family so I lived with my wife in a house alone at the end of

the village and we had no children. Now I was very fond of smoking;

and one night I wanted a light for my hookah but there was none in the

house; so I started to go and ask for a light from some neighbour;

but as it was very dark I did not like to leave my wife all alone:

nor did I like to send her out alone to ask for the light; so at last

I took my hookah in my hand and set my wife astride on my shoulder

and went round from house to house like that, asking for a light;

and all the villagers laughed like anything; so I am a fool." Then

they agreed that they were all three fools and had better divide the

plantains equally among them and go home; and that is what they did.