Story 185 - The Cobra and the Polanga

AT the time of a drought there was not even a little water for a Cobra to drink, it is said. Well then, when the Cobra went to a village, a little child at a house was playing with the water in a large bowl. The child’s mother was not at home.

The Cobra having gone there, while it is drinking the water the child throws water out of the coconut shell on the Cobra’s head, and strikes it with hand and foot. On account of it nothing angry is aroused in the Cobra; having drunk its belly full of water it goes away.

Thus, in that manner, when the Cobra was going drinking and drinking the water for two or three days, one day it met with a Polanga.^[1] The Polanga asked,

“Where, friend, do you drink water ?”

The Cobra said,

“I drink it nowhere whatever. In this drought where is there water for anyone to drink ?”

Again the Polanga said,

“Friend, do not you say so; you have drunk. Tell me also the quarter where you drink.”

After the Cobra had continued not telling it, it afterwards said,

“At such and such a house a little child is playing and playing with the water in the bowl. Having gone there, as I drink the water the child throws water on my head with the coconut shell, and strikes me with hand and foot. Not becoming angry at all, I drink and come away. You, indeed, will be unable [to restrain yourself]. If you can [remain] without doing anything [to the child], go and drink, and come away.”

The Cobra having sent the Polanga, went behind, and having got hid, while it remained looking on [the child] throws water on the [Polanga’s] head with the coconut shell, and strikes it with hand and foot. Until the time when the Polanga drinks its belly full, it remains doing nothing [to the child]. After it drank it bit the crown of the child’s head. At the blow the child fell into the bowl as though dead.

The Cobra having come running, sucked the poison from the crown of the child’s head, and having made it conscious pursued after the Polanga. Having joined the Polanga it bit and killed it.

From that day the Cobra and Polanga are opposed.

North-western Province.

 

The Widow and the Mungus

I have not met with this tale as a true village folk-story, but it was related as one of the episodes in the series of tales included under the title of “The Four Panditayas,” in which various stories were told in order to induce a King not to execute the youngest Panditaya for wiping off the Queen’s body a drop of blood which fell on her at night when he cut in two a cobra that was about to bite the King. The whole story is an Indian one.

The account given to me is as follows:—[The Panditaya said,]

“O Lord, Your Majesty, I myself will tell you a story, be pleased to hear it.”

Having said this he began thus:—

“At a time, at a city a widow-mother reared a Mungus. The widow-mother alone takes firewood, and water home. One day the woman having placed her child in the house, while the Mungus stays there she went for firewood. Having gone for firewood, when she was returning, the Mungus,^[2] having blood smeared on its body and head, came in front of the widow-woman. The woman thought that having indeed bitten her child it came here. At the time when through anger at it she struck the Mungus with the firewood sticks that were in her hand, causing it to fall, it died.

“When she came home, having seen that the Mungus had bitten in pieces a Polanga which came to bite (lit., eat) the child, she said, ' Ane ! If not for my Mungus the Polanga would have bitten my child. Now, not making inquiry I killed the Mungus, the Mungus!’ and having become grieved she died. After her death the child also died.”

P. B. Madahapola, Ratemahatmaya,
North-western Province.

 

Note:

In The Orientalist, vol. i, p. 213, Mr. H. A. Pieris gave this story, the widow killing the Mungus with the rice pestle, and in the end committing suicide.

In the Hitopadesha and Cinq Cents Contes et Apologues (Chavannes), vol. ii, p. 300, the story is similar, the owner of the animal being a Brahmana, who was overwhelmed with grief when he realised what he had done.

Regarding the supposed enmity between the Cobra and Polanga, Capt. R. Knox wrote,

“if the Polonga and the Noya meet together, they cease not fighting till one hath kill’d the other.”

(Hist. Rel., p. 29.) In my own experience I have seen nothing to support this belief; but as both snakes live on similar food it is probable that on their casually meeting when in search of it the stronger or fiercer one will drive the other away, and occasionally this may result in a fight.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Daboia russelli, the most venomous snake in Ceylon. 26

[2]:

Lit., by the Mungus.