Story 167 - The Story Of The Cobra And The Prince

IN a country, during the time when a Prince is causing cattle to graze, the cattle having borne [calves] he goes to take milk in the morning every day, it is said.

While he was going one day, at the time when he was bringing milk having met with a Nagaya and a female Cobra,^[1] the Nagaya said,

“Will you bring and give me every day, morning by morning, one leaf-cup of milk ?”^[2]

he asked. The Prince said,

“I will bring and give it.”

When he was bringing and giving it no long time, one day when he was taking the milk on that day the Nagaya was not [there]; the female Cobra and a Rat-snake were [there]. W ell then, at his hand the female Cobra asked for the leaf-cup of milk. The Prince did not give it; he poured the milk into an ant-hill.

At the time when the Nagaya came from the journey on which he went, the female Cobra says,

“The Prince having come, not giving the milk went away.”

When she said this, the Nagaya having become angry went to the house at which the Prince stays, and remained at the corner of the mat on which the Prince sleeps.

While it is [there] the Prince says [aloud to himself],

“Now for a long time I was going and giving milk to a Nagaya and a female Cobra. To-day I went, taking the milk. When I was going the Nagaya was not [there]. Because the female Cobra and a Rat-snake were on the anthill, the female Cobra asked me for the milk. Not giving it I came home, having poured it into an ant-hill.”

The Nagaya having become angry regarding it, came back, and having bitten and killed the female Cobra, heaped her up. On the following morning, at the time when the Prince took the milk only the Nagaya was [there]; the female Cobra was killed.

Further, the Nagaya says to the Prince,

“Lie down there.”

The Prince without lying down began to run away. At the time when the Nagaya was going chasing after him the Prince fell.

The Cobra having mounted on his breast, [said],

“Do you without fear extend your tongue.”

The Prince afterwards in fear stretched out his tongue. On his tongue the Nagaya with the Nagaya’s tongue wrote letters. “Having heard all kinds of creatures talk you will understand them. Do not tell it to anyone,” [he said]. Afterwards the Nagaya died. He burnt up the Nagaya.

The Prince having come home, while he is [there], when the Prince’s wife is coming out from the house small red ants (kumbiyo) say,

“A woman like the boards of this door, having trampled [on us] on going and coming, kills us,”

they said. The Prince having understood it, laughed.

When his wife in various ways was asking,

“Why did you laugh ?”

anger having come to him [he determined to burn himself on a funeral pyre, so] he said,

“You in the morning having cooked food and apportioned it to me too, eat you also.”

Having eaten it, at the time when they are going, taking an axe, and a [water] gourd, and fire, two pigs having been digging and digging at a tank a pig says,

“That Prince to-day will die.”

The [other] pig says,

“The Prince will not die. Having constructed a funeral pyre (saeyak), the Prince will mount on it. Water-thirst having come, he will tell his wife to bring water,”

it said.

“She having gone, when she is bringing the water she will slip and fall and will die,”

it said.

He having constructed the funeral pyre, when the Prince mounted on it a water-thirst came. He told his wife to bring water. She went [to the tank for it], and having gone slipping through the amount of the weight, she fell in the water and died. Having put his wife on the pyre and burnt her, afterwards he went home.

North-western Province.

 

Note:

This story affords an illustration of a common belief in Ceylon, that cobras sometimes pair with rat-snakes. The Prince is evidently thought to have acted in a becoming manner in refusing to give the milk to the female cobra when she was improperly associating with the rat-snake during the absence of her mate.

Regarding the drinking of milk by cobras, mention is made in the Jataka story No. 146 (vol. i, p. 311) of an offering of milk, among other things, made to Nagas. Dr. Chalmers Mitchell, F.R.S., the Secretary to the Zoological Society, has been good enough to reply as follows to my inquiry regarding the drinking of milk by cobras:— “I have not myself seen Cobras drinking milk, but I am sure that they will do so, and I see no reason to doubt it, as certainly many other snakes will drink milk.”

In Cinq Cents Contes et Apologues (Chavannes), vol. i, p. 382, there is a story the first part of which is a variant of this one, the latter part being a variant of the tale which follows. The daughter of a Naga King was beaten by a cow-herd, and complained to her father that the King of the country had done it. The Naga went at night as a snake, and while under the King’s bed heard him tell the Queen that he had saved the girl from the cow-herd. Next day the Naga appeared before the King, offered to fulfil any wish of the King’s, and at his request gave him the power of understanding the speech of all animals, informing him that he must be careful to let no one know of it (or, as the translator added in a note, the penalty would be death).

When the King afterwards laughed on hearing the talk of some butterflies about their food, the Queen vainly asked the reason. After this occurred three times the Queen threatened to kill herself. The Naga, to save the King, by its magic power^ caused hundreds of sheep to cross a river in his presence. When the ram refused to return for a ewe she threatened to commit suicide, and reminded him that the King was about to lose his life because of his wife. The ram replied that the King was a fool to perish for the sake of his wife, and that the ewe might die, he had others. The King reflected that he had less wisdom than the ram, and when his wife again threatened to kill herself told her that she was free to do so; he had many wives and did not need her.

In Folklore of the Santal Parganas (collected by Rev. Dr. Bodding), p. 394, a cow-herd who had relieved a Bonga (deity) of a heavy stone which had been placed on him, received from him the power to understand the language of ants. To give him this knowledge the Bonga merely blew into his ear. One day, when the man laughed heartily on hearing two ants abuse each other over a grain of rice, his wife insisted on being told the cause. On his telling her he lost the power conferred on him.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Spelt by the narrator both haepinna and haepinni.

[2]:

Udeta udeta eka eka kiri gotuwa.