Story 108 - Holman Pissa

CERTAIN King had a very beautiful Princess (daughter). With much affection he sent the Princess to school. Having sent her, during the time while she was learning, the teacher who was instructing her asked this Princess,

“Princess, wilt thou come to marry me ?”

Thereupon, the Princess because he was her teacher did not scold him, and did not say,

“It is good”;

from that day she stopped going to school.

At that time the Princess arrived at maturity. Because that teacher was also the astrologer (naekatrala), the King went near him to ask about the naekata ^;(prognostics depending on the positions of the planets) for her arriving at maturity.

When he went, the teacher, in order to marry the Princess to himself, said on account of the manner in which she arrived at maturity,

“Should you keep this Princess in this city, this city will become desolate throughout.”

At that time, the King, the father of this Princess, having heard that Word, becoming afraid, prepared a little ship ; and having put food inside the ship, and put in the Princess, and spread the sails, and gone down to the mouth of the river, sent her away.^[1]

Thereupon, that ship having gone, descended near yet a city. At that time, the ship was visible to the King of that city. Having been seen by him, he told the Minister to look at it and return. Then the Minister having gone, when he looked a Princess of beauty such as could not be seen [elsewhere] was inside the ship.

In order that the Minister might marry the Princess, he went to the King, and said,

“O Lord, Your. Majesty, a leopardess is coming in the ship.”

Thereupon the King having said,

“It is good. If so, let us go to look at the leopardess,”

set off.

Then the Minister, because the Minister’s lie is coming to light, having gone to the road, said at the hand of the King,

“O Lord, Your Majesty, I did not say it in the midst of your multitude. What though I said leopardess ! It is a Princess who is wonderful to look at.”

The King taking that speech for the truth, having gone, when he looked it was a good-looking Princess. Then the King having asked the Princess regarding the circumstances, came back, summoning her to the palace, and married her.

When she was there a little time a Prince was born. Having been born, during the time while he was there, that teacher who had imposed [on the King], in much grief wrote false letters to the whole of the various cities that her father the King was very unwell, and that having seen the letter she was to come speedily; and he sent the letters.

The King who had married this Princess having received the letter and looked at the letter, told the Princess. Because a King does not go to yet [another] city, he told the Princess to go with the army and Minister, and come back, and started off the Princess-Queen to go to the city at which is her father the King.

Thereupon, at the time when the Queen, carrying that Prince, was going with the Minister on the sea, the Minister said thus to the Queen,

“O Queen, now then, that King does not matter to us. Because of it, let us go to another city.”

Then the Queen, at the time when they were going ashore, said thus,

“Why do you speak in that manner in the company of that crowd ? We are now going ashore; when we have gone ashore let us go somewhere or other,”

she said.

The Minister said,

“It is good.”

Having come ashore and said,

“Let us go to another city,”

and gone a little far, the Queen gave into the Minister’s hand the Prince, and having said,

“I will go aside and return,”

went and hid herself. Having hidden herself, and gone into a tree on which are many leaves, she remained looking in the direction of this Minister. When he had been looking out for a considerable time, she remained there looking on, and said,

“When I am not [there], he will put down the Prince and go; then having gone there I will go away, carrying the Prince.”

While she was looking, the Minister, having called the Queen, because she was lost took the Prince by both legs, and having split him, and thrown him into the sea, he sought the Queen. He could not find her.

After that, this Minister went away. Having gone, he said to the King of the city,

“The Queen got hid, and went off with another man.”

This Queen thinking,

“What is it that he has killed that Prince! My womb has not become barren,”

descended from the tree, and having gone through the chena jungle to a cemetery at another city, came out into the open ground. Having come out, when she looked about a daughter of a Moorman (a resident of Arab descent) having died, he came near the grave in which she was buried, and saying and saying,

“Arise, daughter; arise, daughter,”

the man was weeping and weeping.

This Queen trickishly having stayed looking at it, and thinking,

“It is good. This Moorman will come to-morrow also, and will weep here. Then, having been lying at the grave, when he is calling I will get up,”

remained hidden there. After the man went away, she scraped away a little earth on the grave, and at the time when the man was coming she remained lying there.

The man having come, when he was calling,

“Arise, daughter,”

she said,

“What is it, father ?”

and arose. Thereupon, the man having put on the face cloth,^[2] closing her to the extent that [her face] should not be visible to anyone whatever, took her to the man’s house, and placed her on the floor of the upper story.

That Minister having gone back, and said that the Queen went off, at the very time when he was saying it, it caused the young younger brother of the King to seek the Queen, and he came away [for the purpose].

Having come away, and come seeking her through the whole of the various cities, and come also to the city at which is this Queen, while he was walking [through it] this Queen, who was on the floor of the upper story, saw him, and waved her hand to the Prince, and causing him to be brought, wrote a letter and threw it below from upstairs.

The Prince taking the letter, when he looked at it she said [in it] that the danger which had occurred to her was thus. [It continued],

“Because of it, to-day night having brought a horse to such and such a place, and put on it two saddles, and made ready for both you and me to go off, come and speak to me.”

So the Prince having made ready in that very manner, came at night, and [leaving the horse went near, and] spoke to the Queen.

Then the Queen, having descended from the floor of the upper room, and come running by another path, a man of the city who walks about at night, called Holman Pissa, was [there]. The man met her first.

After that, having gone holding the man’s hand, sitting on the back of the horse she gave him the whip, and told him to drive it along a good path. At that time, that Solman Pissa, owing to his insanity,^[3] turned down a bye-path without speaking at all, and driving the horse they began to go away. As he was going driving it, it became light. There when the Queen looked the man was a madman.

In order to come away and save herself from the man, she said,

“It is good. Now then, we two must get a living. Because of it, go and bring water for cooking.”

The madman having said,

“It is good,”

went for water.

Thereupon this Queen having bounded off, went along in the chena jungle, and came out (eli-baessa) at another city.

Then this Solman Pissa having come bringing water, when he looked the Queen was not [there]. Because of it, he said,

“Ane ! If there is not my piece of gold what should I stay for ?”

and began to seek her. At that time, the teacher, and the King, and the Minister, and the King’s son, and the Moorman, and Holman Pissa were seeking her.

After that, this Queen having got hid in the chena jungle of the city to which she went, while she rema.ned there looking out, she saw that an Arab having died they are bringing him to bury.

Having buried the Arab, after they went away this Queen broke open the grave, and taking all the few Arab clothes, dressed in the Arab trousers and put on the Arab jacket. Tying on the turban,—there was an axe—hanging it on her shoulder, she went to the Arab shops at the city, and practising the means of livelihood which that party were practising, she stayed [there] a little time.

The younger brother of that King having gone to his village, while he was there the King of the city died, and there being no one for the sovereignty, they decorated the tusk elephant and sent it [in search of a King]. At that time, the tusk elephant having gone, kneeled down near that Arab Queen. After that, they appointed the Arab Queen to the sovereignty, and she remained there. She issued commands in such a way that to either the place where she bathes or the place where she sleeps, no one whatever could come.

When she was there in that manner no long time, the city King who had first married her, having shot (with an arrow) a deer, when he was coming bounding along was unable to catch the deer. The Queen's father, the King, taking dogs and having gone hunting, while he was there this King’s dogs having seen the deer, they also began to chase the deer along the path. While they were coming chasing it, they came to the city at which this Arab Queen is staying. At that time, the people of the city having shot the deer, killed it.

After it died, the three parties began to institute lawsuits.

The King who had married the Arab Queen says,

“If I had not shot it, how would your dogs chase it ?”

The King, the Arab Queen's father, says,

“If there had not been my dogs, how would you catch the deer ?”

The men of this city say,

“If we had not killed it, how would you kill the deer ?”

After that, as they were unable to settle it, they came for the law-suit, near the Arab King (Queen). That King having explained the law-suit, and said that it belonged to the whole three parties, ended the law-suit.

None whatever of those parties was able to recognise this Queen yet; the Queen recognised all. Recognising them, she said,

“Nobody of you can go away; I must give you an eating (kamak).”

Having said [this] she caused all to remain.

Having stopped them, the Queen went away and dressed in woman's clothes, and having returned, asked,

“Can you recognise me ?”

Then all the party asked her about the matters. The Queen having told them the manner in which all had occurred, caused that Moorman to be brought, and gave him presents. In addition, having caused Holman Pissa to be brought, she gave him to eat and drink. To the teacher because he taught her letters she did nothing. To the King’s younger brother she gave very great presents and wealth.

Because that Minister, having seized both the legs of the [baby] Prince, had split him in two, having taken the Minister to the place where there are two Palmira trees, and brought the [tops of the] trees together at one place, and tied an arm and leg, and an arm and leg to each of the two trees, they let go the two trees. At that time, in the very way he split that Prince he was split in two.

After that, just as before, she remained exercising the sovereignty in a thorough manner.

North-central Province.

 

Note:

The “Arab” mentioned in the tale might be an Afghan.

In the Katha Sant Sagara (Tawney), vol. ii, p. 606, a young Brahmana who had arranged to elope with a girl, sent a servant to her house at night with a mule. When she mounted it the man took her away a long distance and came to another city, telling her that he intended to marry her himself. She acquiesced; and when he went to buy the articles for their wedding she fled, and took refuge with an old man who made garlands. After some time the young Brahmana came to the same town, was seen by her, and married her.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

The account of the girl who was set afloat by the advice of an astrologer who wanted to marry her is also found in No. 139, where other references are appended.

[2]:

Mukkaduwa. I have not seen this yashmak or veil worn in Ceylon; it is the top and back of the head which are covered in public by a cloth, which reaches to the waist or lower. The edge of this is sometimes drawn and held across the lower part of the face when strangers are passing.

[3]:

Pissi gateta, probably intended for pissi gahatata, owing to {his] insane affliction. Solman Pissa means “the madman of uncanny noises.”