The Talking Thrush Part 27

But although the Landcrabs slid down the Cat's gullet easily enough, you must know that they are hard creatures, too hard for a Cat to bite; so they took no harm at all. They found themselves amongst a crowd of creatures. There was the King, sitting with his head on his hands, very unhappy; there was the King's newly-wed bride in a dead faint; there was a company of soldiers, trying to form fours, but rather muddled in mind; there was a herd of elephants, trumpeting loudly; there was a donkey braying and the Washerman beating the donkey with a stick; there was the Parrot, whetting his beak on his own claws; then there was the old Woman abusing them all roundly; and last of all, five hundred cakes neatly piled in a corner. The Landcrabs ran round to see what they could find; and they found that the inside of the Cat was quite soft. They could not see anything at all, except by flashes, when the Cat opened her mouth, but they could feel. So they opened their claws, and nip! nip! nip!

"Miaw!" squealed the Cat.

Then came another nip, and another great Miaw!

The Landcrabs went on nipping, until they had nipped a big round hole in the side of the Cat. By this time the Cat was lying down, in great pain; and as the hole was very big, out walked the Landcrabs, and scuttled away.

Then out walked the King, carrying his bride; and out walked the elephants, two and two; out walked the soldiers, who had succeeded in forming fours-right, by your left, quick march! out walked the donkey, with the Washerman driving him along; out walked the old Woman, giving the Cat a piece of her mind; and last of all, out walked the Parrot, with a cake in each claw. Then they all went about their business, as if nothing had happened; and the Parrot flew back to whet his beak on the branch of the mango-tree.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Notes

Notes

1.--The Talking Thrush

Told by KaSHI PRASaD, village school, Bhinga, district Bahraich, Oudh.

Man sows cotton-seeds in garden--Phudki bird sees him--Makes her nest of the cotton--Goes to a Behana, and says, "If I bring you cotton, will you card it, and give me half, keeping half yourself?"--He does so--"Now make it into b.a.l.l.s" (Piuni)--Does so on the same terms--A Kori spins thread on the same terms--And weaves it into cloth--Similarly a tailor makes it into clothes--She flies to court and sits on a peg--Says the King, "Give me your suit"--She does so, and says, "The King covets my suit"--"Come here, and I will return it"--She comes, and he catches her--"I will cut you in pieces"--"The King will cut me in pieces to-day"--He cuts her up and tells his servant to wash them--"To-day the King is washing and cleaning"--Puts her in a pan of oil--"To-day the King is frying me in oil"--Eats her--"I shall go into the King's stomach"--The Bird puts out its head--Two soldiers attempt to cut it off and mutilate the King so that he dies.

The _motif_ is much the same as in No. 2 of the collection. The pieces of the Thrush speak like the fish in the tale of the "Fisherman and the Jinni" (Burton, "Arabian Nights," Library Edition, I. 59).

2.--The Rabbit and the Monkey

Told by DANKHAH RABHA, in the Bhutan Hills. Taken without essential change from _North Indian Notes and Queries_, iv. -- 465.

3.--The Sparrow's Revenge

Told by SHIN SAHaI, teacher of the village school of Dayarhi Chakeri, Etah District. Another version of the _Podna_ and the _Podni_, _N.I.N.Q._ iii.

83. Compare the _Valiant Blackbird_, No. 28 below.

Hen Sparrow tells her husband to go into the jungle and fetch firewood to cook _khir_ (rice milk)--A _Chamar_ kills him--Hen makes carriage of straw, yokes two rats to it, and drives off to take vengeance--Meets a Wolf--"Where are you going?"--"To take vengeance on the Chamar who killed my husband"--"May I help?"--"It will be kind"--Meets a Snake, who salutes her with, "Ram! Ram! Whither away?"--Replies as before, and same thing happens--So with a Scorpion--They arrive at the house of the Chamar--Wolf hides near the river--Snake under pile of cow-dung fuel--Scorpion under the lamp--The Sparrow flies up to the eaves and twitters--Out comes Chamar--Says she, "A friend awaits you near the river." To the river he goes--Wolf seizes him--His wife goes to the heap for fuel--Snake bites her--She calls to her son, "Bring the lamp"--Scorpion stings him--They all die--Hen Sparrow gets another mate, and lives happily ever after.

It is part of the Faithful Animal cycle (Temple, "Wide-awake Stories,"

412; Clouston, "Popular Tales and Fictions," i. 223 _seqq._). This form of tale, in which the weaker animal gets the better of its more powerful oppressor, is common in Indian folk-lore. Compare No. 1 of this collection.

4.--The Judgment of the Jackal

Told by SHIUDAN CHAMAR, of Chaukiya, Mirzapur.

_N.I.N.Q._ iii. 101.

Merchant puts up at house of Oilman--Oilman ties the horse to his mill--Next morning Merchant asks for it--He replies, "It has run away!"--"But what is that horse?"--"My mill gave birth to it in the night"--Appeal to Siyar Panre, the Jackal--"Go back and I will come"--He bathes in a tank--Delay--They seek him, and find him sitting by the tank--"Why did you delay?"--"Too busy; the tank caught fire, and I have just put it out"--"You are mad; who ever heard of a tank on fire?"--"Who ever heard of a mill bearing a foal?"--Oilman returns horse.

A parallel may be found in the Buddhist _Jataka_, No. 219 (Cambridge translation, ii. 129), another Version from the Frontier in Swynnerton's "Indian Nights' Entertainment," p. 142. Compare Stumme, _Tunisische Marchen_, vol. ii., Story of an Oilman.

5.--How the Mouse got into his Hole

Told by BISRAM BANYA and recorded by MAHARAJ SINH, teacher of the school at Akbarpur, Faizabad district.

6.--King Solomon and the Owl

Told by MUNSHi CHHOTe KHaN, teacher of the village school at Ant, District Sitapur, Oudh.

[A new legend of the Fall.]

Solomon hunts alone--An Owl asks him to receive him--Solomon asks, "Why do you hoot all night?"--"To wake men and women early for prayer: travelling is difficult, for treasure is dearer than life"--"Why do you shake your head?"--"To remind mankind that the world is but a fleeting show, and to show my disapproval of their delight in worldly things"--"Why do you eat no grain?"--"_Adam ate wheat in heaven, and was turned out of it on that account._ Adam prayed, and G.o.d sent him into the world, and blessed him to be the father of mankind. If I eat one grain I expect to be cast into h.e.l.l"--"Why do you drink no water in the world at night?"--"Because Noah's race was drowned in this world in water. If I drink, it would be hard for me to live"--Solomon is pleased, and asks the Owl to remain with him, and advise him on all points.

There is no verse in the original.

All through the eastern world the owl, from its a.s.sociation with graveyards and old ruins, is regarded as a mystic bird, invested with powers of prophecy and wisdom (Crooke, "Popular Religion and Folk-lore of Northern India," i. 279).

7.--The Camel's Neck

Told by BACHau, a Kasera, or bra.s.sfounder, of Mirzapur, North-West Provinces.

Camel practises austerities--Bhagwan is pleased, and appears to him--"Who are you?"--"Lord of the Three Regions"--"Show me your proper form"--Bhagwan appears in his four-handed form (Chaturbhuji)--Camel does reverence--"Ask a boon"--"Let my neck be a _yojan_ long"--"Be it so"--The neck becomes eight miles long--He can now graze within a radius of four miles (sic)--It rains--He puts his neck in a cave--A pair of Jackals eat his flesh--The Camel dies--A wise man says--

"alas dokh mahan dekhyo phal kaisa bhaya; Yaten unt ajan, maran lagyo nij karm se."

"Idleness is a great fault: see what was the result of idleness. By this the foolish Camel died, simply owing to his own deeds."

This is one of the very common cycle of tales where the fool comes to ruin in consequence of a stupid wish. In the "Book of Sindibad," it appears as the "Peri and the Religious Man" (Clouston, "Book of Sindibad," 71); La Fontaine has adopted it as the "Three Wishes," and Prior as "The Ladle." The Italian version will be found in Crane, "Italian Popular Tales," 221. The four-hand G.o.d is Vishnu in his form as Chaturbhuja.

8.--The Quail and the Fowler

Told by RAMESWAR-PURI, a wandering religious beggar of Kharwa, District Mirzapur.

Fowler catches a Quail--"I'll teach you three things, and if you free me I'll teach you a fourth: (1) Never set free what you have caught; (2) What seems to you untrue you need not believe; (3) What is past you should not trouble about"--He sets the Quail free--Says the Quail, "I have in my stomach a gem weighing 1 seers, and worth lakhs of rupees; had you not let me go you would have that gem"--Fowler falls on the ground in misery--Says the Quail, "You forget my teaching: (1) You set me free; (2) You did not ask how a body so light could contain such a gem; (3) You are troubled about what is past"--Flies away--Fowler returns home a wiser man.

Compare the "Laughable Stories of Bar-Hebraeus," E. A. W. Budge (Luzac, 1897), No. 382, where a Sparrow acts as this Quail does. See also the "Three Counsels worth Money" in No. 485.

9.--The King of the Kites

Told by RaM DeO, Brahman, of Mirzapur.

Frog and Mouse dispute, each saying he is King of the Kites--The dispute lasts for several years--They refer it to a _Panch_ (Committee of Five)--The other three are Bat, Squirrel, Parrot--They cannot decide--A small Kite appears--Carries off both Frog and Mouse, and eats them--The rest depart--The dispute does not arise again.