Village Folk-tales of Ceylon (Sri Lanka), vol. 1-3
by Henry Parker | 1910 | 406,533 words
This folk-tale entitled “the crab and the frog” is gathered from oral sources sources, tracing its origin to ancient Ceylon (Sri Lanka). These tales are often found to contain similarities from stories from Buddhism and Hinduism. This is the story nr. Story 185a from the collection “stories of the cultivating caste”.
Story 185a - The Crab and the Frog
AT a certain time for a certain Frog food became deficient. Having gone near a certain Crab he brought paddy. He having brought the paddy, after not much time had gone the Crab asked the Frog for the [repayment of the] paddy debt.
Then the Frog said,
“I will afterwards give [you] the debt.”
For the Frog’s getting two from the naeliya[1] that holds four patas, the Crab falsely asked for seven.
So the Frog in this fashion swears:—
“By Karagama Devi, by the one daughter of mine, out of the naeliya of four patas [it was], two, two, two, two.”[2]
Then the Turtle, being there, says from a side,
“If [you] got them, give; if [you] got them, give.”[3]
Notwithstanding this, the Frog did not give them.
North-western Province.
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
A dry measure said by Clough to be about three pints wine measure. See the Additional Notes at the end of this volume.
[2]:
Karagama Devi pal, eka mage duwa pal, hatara pata naeliyen dek, deka, deka, deka. LU., “the protection of Karagama Devi,” etc. The oaths of this kind most commonly heard are amma pal, “by [my] mother,” and aes deka pal, “by [my] two eyes.” But ammappa pal, " by [my] mother and father,” and maha polowa pal, " by the great earth,” are not unusual.
[3]:
Gatta nan di, galta nan di. All these are imitations of the voices of croaking frogs, the first being the rapid and shriller cries of the small frogs, and the second the deeper and slower calls of the larger frogs.