Laos Folk-Lore of Farther India Part 5

"You, yourselves, offered to carry the mountain-top to us. Your words are stronger than your deeds. You say you will aid us, then ask us to help you," the people replied. This they said, thinking to goad the giants on to the labor of bringing the mountain-top to the desired place.

"We offered to aid you," retorted the giants, "but you sit and watch while we do all. Had you done your part, we would have done ours. Now, you shall labor, and we, from our high mountain, will laugh at you."

Thereupon they left the work and sought their homes, and wearily did the men of the plains dig the earth, carrying it in small loads into one place to build the mound, and sadly did they look toward the East, where they could see the mountain-top the giants had carried such a distance to them, and most bitterly did they repent not having done their share.

The temple is builded now, and from afar the people can see the gleam of the spire when the eye of day first opens in the East, or closes in the West, and, to this day the mountain-top lies there far distant from the mountain range and equally far distant from the city of the plains, and the people point it out to strangers, saying, "If you ask aid from others, it is well to put your own heart into the work."

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Group of Buddhist Priests.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Interior of a Buddhist Temple.]

Cheating the Priest

Upon a time a man and his wife went a day's journey from their village to the bazaar to sell their wares, and it fell upon the day of their return that it rained heavily, and as they hurried along the highway, they sought shelter from the head priest of a temple. He, however, would not even let them enter. They begged to be permitted to sleep in the sheltered place at the head of the stairs, but this also the priest refused. Angered, they went under the temple and there rested.

When the priest had lain down on his mat in the room just over the place where the man and his wife were hidden, he heard the man say to his wife, "It will be good to be again with our young and beautiful daughter. I trust all is well with her."

Having heard these words, the priest arose hastily and called, "Come up, good people, and sleep in the temple. Here, too, are mats to rest upon."

And, as they talked of their beautiful daughter, the priest asked, "When I am out of the temple, released from my vows, will you give me your daughter to wife?"

Looking at his wife, the husband replied, "It is good in our sight."

When the morning came and they wished to steam some rice for their breakfast, they had no pot, but the priest freely offered the use of his pot and insisted upon their using of the sacred wood for their fire, the wood which was used in propping the branches of the Po tree.[13]

Being ready to go on their way, the priest presented them with gifts of food, silver and gold, saying, "I will soon leave the priesthood and come to marry your beautiful daughter."

But three days had pa.s.sed, when the man and his wife came again to the temple and told the priest that their daughter was dead, and a long time they all mourned together.

"I will ever remain true to my love for your daughter. Never will I leave the priesthood," vowed the priest, while the man and his wife returned to their home, spent the silver and gold the priest had given them, and cheerfully laughed at him, for never had they had a daughter!

13: The sacred tree of Buddhists.

The Disappointed Priest

In a temple of the north lived a priest who had great greed for the betel nut.[14] One day, compelled by his appet.i.te, he inquired of a boy-priest if no one had died that day, but the boy replied he had heard of no death.

A man, while worshipping in the temple, overheard the priest's words, and on his return to his home, said, "The priest wants some one to die so he can have betel to eat. Let us punish him, because he loves the betel nut better than the life of a man. Make me ready for the grave, then wail with a loud voice and the priest will come."

When all was ready, they wailed with a loud voice and the priest, filled with cheerful thoughts of satisfying his appet.i.te, came quickly.

The people all said, "We must hasten to the grave with our dead brother.

As it is already evening, we will not have the feast until we return."

All hastened to the place of burning, and, upon reaching it, they took one end of the cloth covering the body and placed it in the hands of the priest, while the other end they left on the body of the supposed dead man.

"While you ask blessings on our dead brother, we will go prepare wood for the burning," said the people, and, leaving the priest praying, they returned as they had come, cut thorns and briars and placed them on and about the path, so the priest could not escape unhurt. Then they hid themselves.

As the darkness closed about him, the priest prayed fast and loud. Lo!

the man stirred and groaned, and the priest cried, "O, my father, I am asking blessings on thee! Why movest thou?"

Again the man rose up and groaned even louder, and the priest, terrified, ran away towards the temple. Caught by the briars, he fell headlong, cut and bleeding. With great effort, he at last reached the temple, and with much pain had his wounds dressed by the boy-priest. Not until he had rested, did he inquire of the boy if the people of the dead man had brought any betel to the temple in his absence.

"No," said the boy-priest. "Go to the house of the dead man and eat with them."

But the priest most vehemently said, "If ten or twenty men die, I will not go again. Die like that man! I shall never go again."

14: Areca nut. Chewing this nut is a habit common among all the peoples of Farther India and Malaysia.

The Greedy Priest

In the compound of a temple in the south there was a large fruit tree, the fruit of which was coveted by all, as they pa.s.sed, but the head priest would permit no one to eat of it, because he was greedy and selfish and wished but to satisfy his own appet.i.te.

Two men, talking together, said they would obtain fruit from the priest, and they would have it without price.

One came and asked for the fruit. The priest refused him gruffly, saying, "I need it for my own use." The man replied, "I desired it to eat with my venison curry, of which I have so much that I want you to come and eat with me." On hearing this the priest said, "Take what you want." Filling his scarf with the coveted fruit, the man left the priest, saying, "I will call for you as the eye of day closes."

Shortly after, the second man came and begged for fruit and likewise was refused, until he said he wished it to eat with his pork curry, and, that as the eye of day closed, he would come for the priest to eat with him, when the priest said, "All you desire, take." And the man filled a large basket with the coveted fruit.

As the eye of day closed, the two men called together for the priest.

When they reached a fork in the road, one laid hold on the arm of the priest, and said, "Come with me first, my house is down this way."

"Come with me first," said the other, "my family will already be eating."

Thus they disputed, drawing the greedy old priest this way and that until he was bruised and tired, when he said, "It is enough. I will neither eat of the venison, nor of the pork."

And the men went home and laughed, for neither had the one venison nor the other pork.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Monastery Grounds at Chieng Tung, Laos.]

The Ambitious Priest

There is a tale of an old priest who prayed each day that the G.o.ds would give him a jewel of great price--one that had the power to make him fly as a bird.

A young priest in the temple hearing his prayer, secured the eye of a fish and hid it in his room, and when again the old priest prayed for the jewel, the young priest brought the eye of the fish and gave it to him. Then was the old priest glad, "Now can I rise up as though on wings and fly from this earth," said he.

Selecting two large palm leaves, thinking "I must have wings first," he tried to fly, but could not.

The young priest said, "From here you cannot fly; it is not high enough.

Go up to the roof of the temple and fly from there."

Acting on this suggestion, the old priest went up to the roof, but fell from his high place, and, lo, when they came to him, he was dead!