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

 

There was once a cowherd named Sona who saved a few rupees and he

decided to buy a calf so as to have something to show for his labours;

and he went to a distant village and bought a bull calf and on the way

home he was benighted. So he turned into a Hindu village and went to an

oilman's house and asked to be allowed to sleep there. When the oilman

saw such a fine calf he coveted it and he told Sona to put it in the

stable along with his own bullock and he gave him some supper and let

him sleep in the verandah. But in the middle of the night the oilman

got up and moistened some oil cake and plastered it over the calf;

he then untied his own bullock and made it lick the oil cake off the

calf, and as the bullock was accustomed to eat oil cake it licked it

greedily; then the oilman raised a cry, "The bullock that turns the

oil mill has given birth to a calf." And all the villagers collected,

and saw the bullock licking the calf and they believed the oilman. Sona

did not wake up and knew nothing of all this, the next morning he

got up and went to untie his calf and drive it away, but the oilman

would not let him and claimed the calf as his own. Then Sona called

the villagers to come and decide the matter: but they said that they

had seen him bring no calf to the village and he had not called any of

them to witness it, but they _had_ seen the bullock licking the calf;

why should the bullock lick any but its own calf? No one ever saw a

bullock lick a strange bullock or cow and so they awarded the calf

to the oilman. Then Sona said that he would call someone to argue the

matter and he went away meaning to get some men from the next village:

but he lost his way in the jungle and as he went along a night-jar

flew up from under his feet; he called out to it to stay as he was in

great distress, and the bird alighted and asked what was the matter,

and Sona told it his trouble. Then the night-jar said that it would

argue the matter for him but it must have a colleague and it told Sona

to go on and ask the first living being he met to help; so he went on

and met a jackal and the jackal agreed to help the night-jar, and they

told him to call the villagers to the edge of the jungle and not to

let them bring any dogs with them. So Sona brought all the villagers

to the jungle and the night-jar and jackal sat side by side on a stone.

 

Then Sona asked the villagers whether they would let him take away

the calf or no, and they persisted in their previous opinion. At last

one man said, "What are your advocates doing? it seems to me that they

are asleep." And at this the two woke up with a start and looked about

them, and the night-jar said "I have been asleep and dreamed a dream:

will you men please hear it and explain its meaning?"

 

And the jackal said, "I too have had a dream, please explain it for

If you can explain the meaning you shall keep the calf and, if

not, the boy shall have it." The villagers told them to speak and the

night-jar said, "I saw two night-jar's eggs and one egg was sitting

on the other; no mother bird was sitting on them, tell me what this

means." And the jackal said, "I saw that the sea was on fire and the

fishes were all being burnt up, and I was busy eating them and that

was why I did not wake up, what is the meaning of this dream?" And

the villagers said. "The two dreams are both alike: neither has

any meaning; an egg cannot sit on an egg, and the sea cannot catch

fire." The jackal said, "Why cannot it be? If you won't believe that

water can catch fire why do you say that a bullock gave birth to

a calf? Have you ever seen such a thing? Speak," And they admitted

that they had never seen a bullock have a calf, but only cows. "Then,"

said the jackal, "explain why you have given the oilman a decree." And

they admitted that they were wrong and awarded the calf to Sona and

fined the oilman five rupees for having deceived them.

 

 

 

XIII. (The Koeri and the Barber.)

 

There was a well-to-do man of the Koeri (cultivating) caste and

opposite his house lived a barber who was very poor; and the barber

thought that if he carried on his cultivation just as the Koeri did he

might get better results; so every day he made some pretext to visit

the Koeri's house and hear what work he was going to do the next day,

and with the same object he would listen outside his house at night;

and he exactly imitated the Koeri: he yoked his cattle and unyoked

them, he ploughed and sowed and transplanted just when the Koeri did

and the result was good, for that year he got a very fine crop. But he

was not content with this and resolved to continue to copy the Koeri;

the Koeri suspected what the barber was doing and did not like it. So

he resolved to put the matter to the test and at the same time teach

the barber to mind his own business. In January they both planted

sugar cane, and one day when the crop was half grown the barber

was sitting at the Koeri's house and the Koeri gave orders to his

servants to put the leveller over the crop the next day and break it

down; this was only a pretence of the Koeri's, but the barber went

away and the next day crushed his sugar cane crop with the leveller,

the whole village laughed to see what he had done; but it turned out

that each root of the barber's sugar cane sent up a number of shoots

and in the end he had a much heavier crop than the Koeri.

 

Another day the Koeri announced that he was going to sow _but_ (pulse)

and therefore ordered his servants to bring out the seed and roast

it well, that it might germinate quickly; and the barber hearing this

went off and had his seed _but_ roasted and the next day he sowed it,

but only a very few seeds germinated, while the crop of the Koeri

which had not really been roasted sprouted finely. The barber asked

the Koeri why his crop had not come up well, and the Koeri told him

that it must be because he had not roasted the seed enough; the few

seeds that had come up must have been those which had been roasted

most. But in the end the laugh was against the Koeri, for the few

seeds of the barber's which germinated, produced such fine plants

that when he came to thresh them out he had more grain than the Koeri,

and so in 3 or 4 years the barber became the richer man of the two.

XIV. (The Prince Who Acquired Wisdom.)

 

There was once a Raja who had an only son and the Raja was always

urging his son to learn to read and write in order that when he came

to his kingdom he might manage well and be able to decide disputes

that were brought to him for judgment; but the boy paid no heed to

his father's advice and continued to neglect his lessons. At last

when he was grown up, the Prince saw that his father was right and

he resolved to go away to foreign countries to acquire wisdom; so he

set off without telling anyone but his wife, and he took with him

a purse of money and three pieces of gold. After travelling a long

time, he one day saw a man ploughing in a field and he went and got

some tobacco from him and asked him whether there were any wise men

living in that neighbourhood. "What do you want with wise men?",

asked the ploughman. The Prince said that he was travelling to get

wisdom. The ploughman said that he would give him instruction if

he were paid. Then the Prince promised to give him one gold piece

for each piece of wisdom. The ploughman agreed and said. "Listen

attentively! My first maxim is this: You are the son of a Raja;

whenever you go to visit a friend or one of your subjects and they

offer you a bedstead, or stool, or mat to sit on, do not sit down

at once but move the stool or mat a little to one side; this is

one maxim: give me my gold coin." So the Prince paid him. Then the

ploughman said. "The second maxim is this: You are the son of a Raja;

whenever you go to bathe, do not bathe at the common bathing place,

but at a place by yourself; give me my coin," and the Prince did

Then he continued, "My third maxim is this: You are the son of a

Raja; when men come to you for advice or to have a dispute decided,

listen to what the majority of those present say and do not follow

your own fancy, now pay me;" and the Prince gave him his last gold

coin, and said that he had no more. "Well," said the ploughman, "your

lesson is finished but still I will give you one more piece of advice

free and it is this: You are the son of a Raja; Restrain your anger,

if anything you see or hear makes you angry, still do not at once take

action; hear the explanation and weigh it well, then if you find cause

you can give rein to your anger and if not, let the offender off."

 

After this the prince set his face homewards as he had spent all

his money; and he began to repent of having spent his gold pieces

on advice that seemed worthless. However on his way he turned into

a bazar to buy some food and the shopkeepers on all sides called out

"Buy, buy," so he went to a shop and the shopkeeper invited him to sit

on a rug; he was just about to do so when he remembered the maxim of

his instructor and pulled the rug to one side; and when he did so he

saw that it had been spread over the mouth of a well and that if he

had sat on it he would have been killed [1]; so he began to believe

in the wisdom of his teacher. Then he went on his way and on the

road he turned aside to a tank to bathe, and remembering the maxim

of his teacher he did not