Chapter 4 - Indian Literature in the Philippines

-265- 51 The in-
boo, while in the Tinggian, the ladder (alden).
genuity of the reply in both the tales show a markedly
highly developed wit of these two primitive peoples.
The Santal tale, however, tends to be dramatic, as
shown in the carrying of the door all the way from the
man's in-law's home to his. That, too, at midnight!
It
is possible though that it could have been bamboo posts,
or the bamboo floor referred to as the source of the curry,
There would have been
instead of the door or the ladder.
a
a much more drmatic and picturesque scene had the son-in-
law removed the posts causing the house to fall. It could
have been the bamboo floor, thus causing the house to be
uninhabitable.
This lit-
For a
4.6. The Secret Message or Death Letter.
erary element recurs in Indian folk-literature.
locus classicus, the tale from the Kathās., the story of
Sivavarman 52 may be taken. Sivavarman, suspected of having
had sexual intimacies with one of the king's (Adityavar-
man's) queens who became pregnant was sent to a neighbour-
ing chief with a secret message instructing the chief to
51T1k. agdán, Tag. hagdán, etc., "ladder".
Bông, Tag, lebong, ete., Thamboo shoots".
Ilk. ra-
52 Tawney, 1 (Bk. 1, Chapter 5, Tale 1-c), p. 52.