At a certain village there is a woman, it is said; the woman went in a dīga [marriage]. Having gone in the dīga, when she is there a great many days she began to eat by stealth (horā-kanḍa). Afterwards the man having said, “I don’t want the woman who eats by stealth,” and having gone [with her] to her village, put her back [there].

Afterwards, after many days went by, yet [another] man having come, went back, calling her [in marriage]. [When living] near (i.e., with) that man also she began to eat by stealth. Afterwards that man also having said, “I don’t want this woman who eats by stealth,” and having gone [with her] to her village, put her back [there].

Thus, in that way she went in ten or twelve dīga [marriages], it is said. Because she eats by stealth, they bring her back and place her [at home again].

Afterwards, still a man came and asked [for her in marriage]. The woman’s father said, “Child, I gave her in ten or twelve dīga [marriages]. Because she eats by stealth, having brought and brought her, they put her [back here]. Because of it, should I give her to you it will not be successful,” he said.

Then the man said, “Father-in-law, no matter that she ate by stealth. If you will give her give her to me,” he said. Afterwards the woman’s father said, “If you are willing in that way, even now call her and go,” he said. Thereupon the man, calling her, went away.1

Having investigated for a great many days, when he looked [he saw that] she eats by stealth. Afterwards the man said to the woman, “Bolan, it has become necessary for me to eat a [special] food. How about it?” he said.

“What is it?” the woman asked.

“It is in my mind to eat milk-cake,”2 he said.

Then the woman said, “Is that a very wonderful work? Let us cook it on any day you want it,” she said.

Afterwards the man said, “If so, when you cook it I cannot look and look on, eyeing it, and [then] eat it. To-day I am going on a journey; you cook.”

Having said [this], the man dressed himself well, and having left the house behind, and gone a considerable distance [returned and got hid]. When he was hidden, the woman, taking the large water-pot, went for water. Having seen it, the man went running, and having got on the platform in the room (at the level of the top of the side walls), remained looking out.

The woman, taking rice and having put it to soak and pounded it into flour, began to cook. After having [cooked some cakes and eaten part of them, she] cooked a fresh package of cakes, and finished; and having put the fresh package of cakes into syrup, and laid the packet of cakes over the others which remained, and covered them, she took the water-pot and went to the well, and having taken water after bathing, set off to come back.

The man quickly descended from the platform, and having gone to the path, got hid. The woman came to the house, taking the water, and having placed the water-pot [there], when she was taking betel the man came out from the place where he was hidden, and came to the house.

Afterwards, the woman having apportioned the milk-cake on the plate, and said, “In̆dā! Eat,” gave him it. Thereupon the man, looking in the direction of the plate, says, “What are ye saying? Get out of the way. Should she eat it secretly in that way, it is for her stomach, and should she eat it openly it is for her stomach,” he said. In that way he says it two or three times. The woman heard.

Afterwards the woman asked, “Without eating the milk-cake, what do you say that for?” she asked.

Thereupon the man says, “These flies are saying to me that after you were cooking, you cooked a fresh package of cakes, and having finished, and put the package of cakes into syrup, you ate the package. Afterwards I said, ‘Should she eat it secretly (hemin̥) it is for her (un̥daege) stomach; should she eat it openly it is for her stomach,’ ” he said.

Beginning from that day, the woman, having said, “Do you tell tales in that way?” began to kill the flies. She also stopped eating by stealth.

Tom-tom Beater. North-western Province.

In a certain country there are a woman and a man, it is said. The woman has a pregnancy longing to eat Kaṭuwala [yams]. There is a Bitch, also; she also has a pregnancy longing; that also is to eat Kaṭuwala [yams].

After that, the man and the woman and the Bitch, the three, went to uproot Kaṭuwala [yams]. Having gone there, and the man having said, “This is for her of ours” (his wife),1 when he uprooted it on it there was no yam. Having said, “This is for the Bitch,” when he uprooted it on it there were yams such that the hands could not lift them. Uprooting them, and having come home and boiled them, when they were eating the Bitch stayed at the doorway. Without giving [any] to the Bitch the man and woman ate them.

Afterwards the Bitch thought, “For their not giving the Kaṭuwala [yams] to me may the children born in my body be born in the woman’s body, and the children born in the woman’s body be born in my body.”

The Bitch went to the forest jungle (himāle); having gone, and entered a rock cave, she bore two Princesses. Having borne them the Bitch went to eat food. [The Princesses grew up there.]

Then a Vaeddā having come shooting, when he looked there are two Princesses. Having seen them, the Vaeddā, breaking and breaking branches [to mark the way to the cave], came to the city. Having come there he told at the hand of the King, “In the chena jungle, at such and such a place, in a rock cave there are two Princesses. It is to say this I have come here.”

Afterwards the King sent the King’s two Princes to go with the Vaeddā to summon the Princesses and come. While going there the Vaeddā said on the road, to the Princes, “When I have gone and am begging for a little fire at the hand of the two Princesses, they will open the door in order to give the fire. Then you two must spring into the house.”

Having gone near the rock cave, the Vaeddā asked for fire. Then the Princesses having opened the door a very little, when they were preparing to give the fire the two Princes sprang into the house. Then the two Princesses fainted, having become afraid. Afterwards, causing them to become conscious, summoning the two Princesses they went to the city [and married them].

The Bitch having come, when she looked the two Princesses were not [there]. After that, having gone along the path on which they had gone breaking branches she went to the city in which the Princesses are.

Having gone there, when she went to the place where the elder Princess is, the Princess said, “Cī, Cī,2 bitch!” and having beaten her, drove her away.

Having gone from there, when she went to the place where the younger Princess is, she bathed her in water scented with sandal wood and placed her upon the bed. Then the Bitch became a golden ash-pumpkin.

Then the Prince having come, asked at the hand of the Princess, “Whence the golden ash-pumpkin upon the bed?”

The Princess said, “Our mother brought and gave it.”

Then the Prince thought, “When she brought so much to the house, after we have gone to her house how much will she not give!”

Having said to the Princess, “Let us go,” they take a cart also. On the road on which they are going there is a spired ant-hill (kot hum̆baha).

Having gone near the ant-hill the Princess said, “Anē, Nāga King! Whence has our mother silver and golden things? Let a thunderbolt strike me!”

Then the Cobra [came out, and] not having raised his hood, said, “Look there. There are silver and golden things as much as you want [in the cave].”

After that, the Prince and the Princess having taken the cart, and gone near the rock cave, when they looked silver and golden things had been created. Afterwards, loading them in the cart they brought them away.

The elder Princess’s Prince having seen that they are bringing silver and golden things, [and having heard their account of their journey for them], said at the hand of the Princess, “Younger brother having gone in that way, brought from your village silver and golden goods. Let us also go to bring [some].”

When the elder Prince and Princess, having taken a cart, were going near the spired ant-hill that was on the road, the Princess said, “Anē, Nāga King! Whence has our mother silver and golden goods? Please give me a thunderbolt.”

Then the Cobra having come and having raised his hood, bit the crown of the Princess’s head, and went back into the ant-hill.

The Prince, taking the cart, came to the city. The Princess died there.

Tom-tom Beater. North-western Province.

In a certain country there are a woman and a man; there are a boy and a girl of those two. During the time when these four were [there], they heard the notification tom-tom at another city. Then the man said, “I am going to look what this notification tom-tom is that we hear.”

After the man went to the city the King said, “Canst thou guard my elephants?”

The man said, “What will you give me?”

The King said, “I will give a thousand masuran, and expenses1 for eating.”

Thereupon the man says, “It is too little for me and my wife, and my boy and girl, for us four persons.”

After that the King said, “I will give two thousand masuran, and expenses for eating for you four persons.”

Thereupon the man said, “Having returned to my village I will go and call my wife and children to come.”

As he was going, a jewelled ring of a Maharaja had fallen [on the path]. This man, taking the jewelled ring in his hand, thought, “It is bad for me to destroy this jewelled ring; this I must give to the King.”

Thinking thus he went home, and summoning his wife and children came to the city. After he presented2 that jewelled ring to the King, the King asked, “Whence [came] this jewelled ring to thee?”

This man said, “This jewelled ring as I was going to the village had fallen on the path. It is that [ring] indeed which I placed [before you] as this present.”

After that the King [said], “A ring of a greater King than I! Because it is so it is bad to destroy this ring. What dost thou say about [thy reward for] it?”

“I say nothing. The thing that is given to me I will take.”

Thereupon the King said, “Are you quite satisfied [for me] to give a district from the kingdom, and goods [amounting] to a tusk elephant’s load?” This man said “Hā.”

After he said it the King gave them. Thereupon this man took charge of the guarding of the elephants.

One day when he was guarding the elephants the Rākshasa came. This man asked, “What came you for?”

The Rākshasa said, “It is to eat thee that I came.”

This man said, “What will you eat me for? Eat our King,” he said.

After that, the Rākshasa having come into the city, when he went near the King the King asked, “What hast thou come for?”

The Rākshasa said, “I came to eat you, Sir.”

“Who, Bola, told thee?” the King said.

Thereupon the Rākshasa said, “The man who guards the elephants told me.”

Then the King said, “What will you eat me for? Go thou and eat the man who guards the elephants.” Afterwards the Rākshasa went near the man who guards the elephants.

Thereupon the man asked, “What have you come here again for?”

The Rākshasa said, “The King told me to eat you,” he said.

After that, the man said, “[First] bring the few silver and gold articles that there are of yours,” he said.

The Rākshasa having gone home, after he brought the few silver and gold things this man said to the Rākshasa, “Having come [after] drawing out a creeper, tie a turn on the elephant’s neck and on your neck tie a turn.”

The Rākshasa having come after drawing out a creeper, tied a turn on the elephant’s neck and tied a turn on the Rākshasa’s neck. Afterwards this man said, “Hā; now then, come and eat me.” When the Rākshasa tried to go dragging the elephant, the elephant struck the Rākshasa; then the Rākshasa died.

Afterwards, while this man, taking those few silver and gold things, is guarding the elephants, one day having been soaked owing to the rain when is he squatting at the bottom of a tree, a snake appeared.

This man thinking, “Anē! I must go to warm myself with a little fire,” having gone away, when he looked about there were two Princesses in a rock-house (cave). Having seen them he went near [and said], “Anē! Will you give me a little fire?”

Afterwards the eldest Princess said, “Come here; having warmed yourself a little at the fire go away.”

After that, the man went into the rock-house and warmed himself at the fire, and taking the elephants came to the city, and told the King, “Having seen that in this manner there are two Princesses in a rock-house I came to tell you,” he said.

The King said, “Our elder brother and I and you, we three, let us go to-morrow to fetch the two Princesses.” The man said “Hā.”

On the following day the three persons having gone near the rock-house, that man went near that rock-house and asked for fire. At that time, when the eldest Princess is preparing to give the fire these three persons sprang in, and having drawn the two Princesses outside, when they were seizing them the two Princesses lost their senses. Afterwards restoring them to consciousness they came to the King’s city.

When the mother of these two Princesses [after] seeking food came to the rock-house, these two Princesses were not [there]. After that, when this widow woman is going weeping and weeping along a path, having seen that a great tusk elephant King is on the path this woman said, “Did you meet with my two Princesses?”

The tusk elephant King said, “Two royal thieves and a man who guards the elephants, placing the two Princesses on the back of an elephant went away.”

Afterwards, when this widow woman was going to the city along the path on which they took the tusk elephant she saw that the elder Princess is near the well. This widow woman having become thirsty asked for a little water.

The Princess said, “Go away, widow woman, there is not any water to give thee.”

Afterwards, when this widow woman met with the younger sister’s house, the Princess having been in the house came out, and said, “Our mother!” Quickly having bathed her with coconut milk scented with sandal wood and placed her on the bed, as she is going aside that woman said, “Daughter (putē), go for a little silver and gold for yourself. As you are going along the path on which you came there will be a tusk-elephant King. The tusk-elephant King will give it.”

Afterwards, [when she had got the silver and gold] the Princess and the widow woman went away. They went away with another King.

Tom-tom Beater. North-western Province.

There is a man’s elephant. Yet [another] man having gone [to him], said, “Friend, give (that is, lend) me your elephant; there is a work for me to do for myself,” and asked for it. Then the man who owned the elephant says, “Take it and go.” Afterwards the man having taken it, while it was doing his work the elephant died.

Afterwards this man having come, says, “Friend, while your elephant was with me it died. On that account am I to take an elephant and give it to you; or if not am I to give the money it is worth?” he asked.

Thereupon the man who owned the elephant says, “I don’t want another elephant; I don’t want the money, too. Give me my elephant itself,” he says.

Then this man says, “I cannot give the elephant that died. Do the thing that thou canst,” he said.

Thereupon the man who owned the elephant says, “I will kill thee.”

One day, having seen this man who owned the elephant coming, this man’s wife says to the man, “Placing a large water-pot near the door, shut the door.” This one having said, “It is good,” placed a large water-pot near the door, and shut the door.

Thereupon the man who owned the elephant having come to the house, asked the woman, “Where is thy husband?” Then the woman said, “There. He is in the house.”

Having said, “Open the door, courtesan’s son,” when he struck his hand on the door the door opened, and the water-pot was broken.

Then this woman asks for it, saying, “After thou hast broken my water-pot, give it to me immediately.”

The man said, “I will bring a water-pot and give you it.”

“I don’t want another; give me my very water-pot,” she says.

Thereupon, being unable to escape from this woman, having said, “For the debt of the elephant let the water-pot be substituted,” the man who owned the elephant went away.

Tom-tom Beater. North-western Province.

In a certain country there are a girl and the girl’s father, it is said. While they were there, one day the man went to plough, saying to the girl, “Bring gruel to the rice field.” They spring across a stream as they go to the rice field.

The girl, cooking gruel, pouring it into a wide-mouthed cooking-pot and placing the pot on her head, goes away to the field. While going there she met a Prince near the river. The girl asked at the Prince’s hand, “Where are you going?” Having told him to sit down and given to him from the gruel, she said, “Go to our house and wait until the time when I come after giving the gruel to father;” and placing the gruel pot on her head she went to the far bank of the river.

Then the Prince asked, “Are you coming immediately?”

The Princess said, “Should [it] come [I] shall not come; should [it] not come, I shall come.”1

The Prince got into his mind, “This meant indeed (lit., said), ‘Should water come in the river I cannot come; should water not come I will come.’ ”

Again the Prince asked, “On which road go you to your house?”

Then the girl unfastened her hair knot; having unloosed it she went to the rice field.

Afterwards the Prince thought to himself, “Because of the girl’s unloosing her hair knot she goes near the Kitul palm tree indeed.”2

The Prince having gone near the Kitul tree to the girl’s home, remained lying down in the veranda until the girl came.

The girl having given the gruel came home. Having come there and cooked for the Prince she gave him to eat. Then the girl’s father came. After that, the girl and the Prince having married remained there.

While they were [there], one day the Prince said, “I must go to our city.” Then the girl also having said that she must go, as the girl and the girl’s father and the Prince, the three persons, were going along there was a rice field.

The girl’s father asked at the hand of the Prince, “Son-in-law, is this rice field a cultivated rice field, or an unworked rice field?”

Then the Prince said, “What of its being cultivated! If its corners and angles are not cut this field is an unworked one.”

When they were going still a little distance there was a heap of fence sticks. Concerning it the Prince asked, “Father-in-law, are these cut fence-sticks, or uncut fence-sticks?”

Then the father-in-law says, “What of their being cut! If they are not sharpened these are uncut sticks.”

Well then, having gone in that manner, and gone to the Prince’s city, he made the girl and the girl’s father stay in a calf house near the palace, saying, “This indeed is our house.”

The Prince having gone to the palace said at the hand of the Prince’s mother, “Mother, I have come, calling [a wife] from such and such a city. The Princess is in that calf house. Call her and come back after going [there].”

After that, the Queen having gone near the calf house, when she looked a light had fallen throughout the whole of the calf house. The girl was in the house. After that the Queen, calling the girl and the girl’s father, came to the palace.

Well then, the girl, and the girl’s father, and the Prince remained at the palace.

Tom-tom Beater. North-western Province.

In a certain country a boy was sent by his two parents near a teacher for learning the arts and sciences. Then the boy, [after] learning for a long time the sixty-four mechanical arts,1 came back to his home.

The boy’s parents asked the boy, “Did you learn all the sciences?” The boy told his parents that he learnt the whole of the sciences. At that time his father asked, “Did you learn the subtlety (māyama) of women?” Thereupon the boy said he did not. Having said, “[After] learning that very science come back,” he was sent away again by his two parents.

The boy having set off from there, at the time when he was going along, in the King’s garden were the King and Queen. The King was walking and walking in the garden. The Queen, sewing and sewing a shawl,2 was [sitting] in the shade under a tree. Having seen that this very boy is going, the Queen, calling the boy, asked, “Where are you going?”

Thereupon the boy says, “When I came home [after] learning the arts and sciences, and the sixty-four mechanical arts, my parents asked, ‘Did you learn the arts?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ Then they asked, ‘Did you learn the subtlety of women?’ When I myself said I did not, because they said, ‘[After] learning that very science come back,’ I am going away to learn that very science,” he said to the Queen.

Thereupon that very Queen said, “I will teach you the subtlety,” and calling the boy near, placed the boy’s head on the Queen’s thigh, and having told him to lie [still], and taken the shawl that the Queen was sewing and sewing, and covered the boy [with it], the Queen remained sewing and sewing. At that time the King was not there.

After that, the King came there. Then the Queen, having called the King [and said], “I wish to tell you a story,” told the King to listen to the story. The King was pleased regarding it.

The Queen, leaving the thigh on which was the head of the above-mentioned boy, having placed the head of the King on the other thigh, and told him to lie [there], told the story. The story indeed was:—“Like we are here, a King and Queen of the fore-going time, like we came here went for garden-sport, it is said. At that time the King went to walk in the garden, it is said. While that very Queen was staying [there] sewing a shawl, a boy came there. Then the Queen asked the boy, ‘Where are you going?’ Thereupon the boy says, ‘Because my parents said I am to learn the subtlety of women, I am going away to learn that very subtlety,’ he said. Then the Queen having said, ‘I will teach you,’ called the boy, and having placed his head on her thigh, and told him to lie [still], sewed the shawl. At that time the King came, like you now have come here. Then, having told the King to place his head on the other thigh and having told him this story, with the shawl that covered the boy she covered the King.” [As she said this, she covered the King with the shawl.] Thereupon the boy quickly jumped up and went away.

When his parents afterwards asked the boy, “Did you learn the subtlety of women?” he said that he had learnt it.

Tom-tom Beater. North-western Province.

In a certain country there is a Prince, it is said. After the Prince became big, for the purpose of marrying him they began to visit all cities to seek an unpolluted Princess. Because they did not meet with one according to the Prince’s thought, he began to look at many sooth books.

While looking, from a book he got to know one circumstance. The matter indeed [was this]:—There was [written] in the book that when the Prince remains no long time inside the hollow of a large tree, a Princess will be born from the Prince’s very blood. Thereupon having considered it, according to the manner in which it was mentioned he stayed inside the tree. When he was there not much time he met with a Princess, also, in that before-mentioned manner. The Prince thereupon took the Princess in marriage.

After he took her in marriage, having constructed a palace in the midst of that forest both of them stayed in it. While they are [there], the Prince having come every day [after] shooting animals, skinned them, and taking the skins and having fixed them on the wall, asks the Princess, “What animals’ skins are these?” He asks the names from the Princess. Then the Princess says, “I don’t know.”

On the day after that, after the Prince went for hunting a Vaeddā came near the palace. The Princess having seen the Vaeddā called him. Then the Vaeddā went to the palace.

After he went the Princess asked the Vaeddā, “What animals’ skins are these?” The Vaeddā informed (lit., told and gave) the Princess of the names of the animals. Then the Princess asks the Vaeddā, “Where do you live?”

The Vaeddā says, “I, also, live very near this palace, in the midst of the forest.”

The Princess says, “Vaeddā, advise me how to cause you to be brought to me at the time when I want you.”

Then the Vaeddā said, “I will tie a hawk’s-bell in my house, and having tied a cord to it, and tied it on a tree near the palace, and pointed it out, at the time when the Princess wants me shake the cord. Then I shall come,” he said.

The Vaeddā having informed the Princess about this matter, after the Vaeddā went away the Prince having come back [after] doing hunting, just as on other days asked the Princess the names of these animals. That day the Princess told him the names of the animals. After that, she was unable to inform him of the name of the animal he brought.

The Prince having reflected, walked round the palace. When he looked about, having seen that a cord was tied to a tree he shook it. Then having seen that the Vaeddā comes to the palace the Prince remained hidden. The Vaeddā having come and spoken to the Princess, after the Vaeddā went away the Prince having gone to the palace went for hunting.

Walking in the midst of the forest he went near a river, and when he was looking about having heard the talk of men the Prince went into a tree. Having gone [there], while he was looking three men (minis) came, and having slipped off their clothes and finished, after they descended to bathe from the three betel boxes of the three persons three women came out. They having opened the mouths of the three betel boxes of the three women, when he was looking the Prince saw that three men are inside their three betel boxes.

After that, the Prince descended from the tree to the ground, and asked the three men [when they had bathed], “Who are you?”

Then the men say, “We all three are ascetics,” they said. After that the Prince, calling the three persons, went to the palace. Having gone [there] the Prince told the Princess to cook rice for twelve.

After she cooked he said, “Having set twelve plates of cooked rice, place them on the table.”

After she put them [there] the Prince told the ascetics to sit down to eat cooked rice. After they sat down he said, “Tell the three wives of you three persons to sit down.” [They came out and sat down.] Then when he told the three men (minis) who are in the three betel boxes of the three women to sit down, all were astonished.

Then he told the Princess to call that Vaeddā, and return. “I don’t know [anything about him],” the Princess said untruthfully. Then the Prince pulled that cord; the Vaeddā came running. Afterwards the whole twelve sitting down ate cooked rice.

Afterwards, those said three ascetics and the Prince having talked, abandoned this party, and the whole four went again to practise austerities (tapas rakinḍa).

Tom-tom Beater. North-western Province.