Story 192 - The Jackal and the Gamarala

IN a certain country, while a Gamarala, being without cattle to plough, was going for the purpose of asking for a yoke of cattle after making a lump of milk-rice, he met two Jackals.

Thereupon the Jackals ask,

“Where, Gamarala, are you going ?”

“I am going to borrow (lit., ask for) a yoke of cattle to plough.”

“What things are on your head ?”

“A box of milk-rice.”

“Should you give us the box we will plough.”

Having said,

“Ijaw ! Eat ye it,”

he gave it. Thereupon the Jackals ate it.

After that, having come dragging the two Jackals and tied the yoke [on their necks], they tried to draw [the plough]; the Jackals cannot draw it. After that, having beaten and beaten them he threw them into the weeds.

On the following day, while he is going [after] cooking a box [of milk-rice], having met with two Jackals [they said],

“Gamarala, where are you going ?”

“I am going to borrow a yoke of cattle to plough.”

“What things are on your head ?”

“On my head is a box of milk-rice.”

“Should you give us the box we will plough.”

“Yesterday also, having given milk-rice to a yoke of Jackals I was foolish.”

“They were Jackals of the brinjal (egg-plant) caste; owing to being in full bloom we are Jackals of the tusk elephant caste,”

they said.

After that, having said, “Indaw,” he gave them it. After they ate it, having come dragging the two Jackals and tied the yoke [on their necks], he tried to plough. Thereupon, when they were unable to draw [the.plough] having beaten and beaten them he threw them into the weeds. At that time they saw that those [former] Jackals are groaning and groaning. These Jackals also having gone away, lay down.

A Jackal having gone near the Wild Cat,^[1] says,

“Preceptor, [tell me] how to eat a little milk-rice from the Gamarala’s house ?”

“If so, having hidden at the place of the firewood bundles remain [there].”

After that, the Jackal having gone, remained hidden at the place of the firewood bundles. Having waited there, at the time when the Gamarala’s wife is going for water the Cat told the Jackal to come into the house. Thereupon the Jackal having gone into the house got upon the platform (at the level of the top of the side walls). Then the Cat having gone, gave him a little milk-rice in a piece of coconut shell. While he was on the platform with the Cat it became evening.

At that time, in the evening the Jackals having come to the rice field, howled. Thereupon this Jackal said,

“Preceptor, I must bring to remembrance my religion.”^[2]

Then the Cat said,

“Ane ! Appa ! Having killed thee they will kill me.”

Again the Jackals at midnight having come into the rice field, howled. Thereupon the Jackal [said],

“Preceptor, I must bring to remembrance my religion; I cannot endure it.”

When [the Cat] was saying,

“The top of thy head will be split,”

he howled,

“Hokkiya!”

Then the Gamarala having awoke, at the time when he looked on the platform he saw that a Jackal was [there]. Thereupon, having beaten the Jackal he killed it outright.    .

Washerman. North-western Province.

 

Note:

In the Tota Kahani (Small), p. 221, after an ass and a stag which were friends had feasted one night in a garden, the ass became exhilarated and suggested that they should sing a song together. The stag endeavoured to prevent this, but the ass would not listen to it, and began to bray, on which the gardener came with some men, and caught and crucified both the animals.

In Folk-Tales from Tibet (O’Connor), p. 64, a hare and a fox induced a wolf to leave a dead horse on which it was feeding, and to accompany them to a house where there was a wedding feast, at which they could obtain plenty to eat and drink. They got through a window into the larder, and after feasting abundantly decided, at the hare’s suggestion, to carry away other provisions, the hare some cheese, the fox a fowl, and the wolf a jar of wine through the handle of which he put his head. Then the hare proposed a song before they started, and after some persuasion the wolf began to sing. When the people heard it they rushed to the larder. The hare and fox jumped through the window, but the wolf was stopped by the jar of wine, and was killed by the men.

In A. von Schiefner’s Tibetan Tales (Ralston), p. 323, an ass joined a bull which was accustomed to break through a fence and feed in the evening in the King’s bean-field. After eating, the ass suggested that it should sing; the bull told it to wait until he had gone and then do as it pleased. When it began to bray it was seized, its ears were cut off, a pestle was fastened to its neck, and it was set free. The same story is given in Cinq Cents Contes et Apologues (Chavannes), vol. ii, p. 374.

In the former work, p. 337, and in the latter one, vol. ii, p. 417, it is stated with reference to the jackal’s uncontrollable desire to howl, " it is according to the nature of things that jackals, if they hear a jackal howl without howling themselves, lose their hair.”

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Wal-bowa, a domestic cat that has become wild, or the descendant of such a cat.

[2]:

After the manner of the Muhammadans, who chant prayers in the evening after sunset, and later on in the night.