Story 209 - The Story of the Brahmana

IN a city a Brahmana has a small piece of ground; only that belongs to him. He sold that place for three masuran. “Now then, I shall go and earn a living. You remain [at home], getting a livelihood to the extent you can,” he said to his wife.

When the Brahmana was going along a path, yet [another] Brahmana was going in front. From the Brahmana who is going in front this Brahmana asks,

“Emba ! Brahmana, will you say a word [of advice] to me ?”

“If you will give me a masurama I will say it,” he said. This one said,

“I will give it.”

After he gave it, he says,

“When you have gone to a country don’t require honour.”

Having said it, the two persons go away [together].

When they had been going a considerable distance, this Brahmana asked,

“Will you still say a word [of advice] to me ?”

“If you will give me yet a masurama I will say it,” he said. “I will give it,” he said.

After he gave it, he said,

“Don’t do anything without investigation.”

He goes on in silence.

When they had gone still a considerable distance, this one spoke,

“Emba! Brahmana.”

“What is it?” he asked. “Will you say yet a word [of advice] to me ?” he asked.

“Then will you give me still a masurama ?” he said. Having said,

“I will give it,”

he gave him one masurama.

“To one’s own wife don’t tell a secret.”

The Brahmana [whom he had met], turning to go along a different path, asked at the hand of this one,

“Are there still masuran in your hand ?”

Then this one said,

“I sold a plot of ground, and brought three masuran. For even my expenses there is no other in my hand.”

Having said,

“If so, I will say a word without payment (nikan); don’t tell lies to Kings,”

he went away.

Thereupon this one being weakened by hunger, at the time when he was going on, a nobleman (sitanan kenek) of a city near there having died and there being no one to bury him, they gave notice by beat of tom-toms that they will give nve hundred masuran to a person who can [do it].

This destitute Brahmana asked the tom-tom beater,

“What is that tom-tom beating for ?”

The tom-tom beater says,

“A man of this country has (Med and there is no one to bury him. Because of it I am beating the notice tom-tom,”

he said.

This Brahmana thought, ‘“When one has gone to a country do not require honours,’ he said.” Having thought,

“Because it is so I must bury this nobleman,”

this one said,

“I can,”

and went.

Thereupon this dead nobleman’s son says to the Brahmana,

“Thou having quite alone buried this dead body, come [to me]; I will give thy wages.”

This one having said,

“It is good,”

and taken away the corpse, and cut the grave, thinks,

“A sooth-saying Brahmana said to-day, ‘Without investigation don’t do a thing.’”

Having said this he unfastened the cloth round the waist of this dead nobleman, and looked at the body. There was a belt. He unfastened it and looked [at it]; the belt was full of masuran. Having taken them he buried the corpse and came to the nobleman’s house. Well then, the nobleman’s son gave the Brahmana nve hundred masuran.

This one having taken them, came near a goldsmith, and causing him to make for his wife the things that she needed, he went to the Brahmana’s village. Having gone he spoke to his wife and gave her these articles.

After he gave them this woman asks the Brahmana,

“Whence did you bring these ?”

in order that he should say the manner in which he brought them.

This one thought,

“Yet [another] Brahmana having taken one masurama from me said, ‘To one’s own wife don’t tell a secret,’ didn’t he ?”

Thinking this, not telling her the way in which he brought them, he said,

“Having become thirsty when I was coming home, when I looked about there was not a place to drink at. Having drunk a great quantity of Euphorbia milk^[1] because the thirst was excessive, I was lying down upon a rock. Then the rock having split, masuran were thrown out. Collecting as many as I could, I got these things made,”

he said to his wife.

As soon as he said it (kiwa wahama), this woman having gone running told it in this manner to a great number of women besides. Thereupon the women having come running to their houses said it to their husbands. Those persons, about twenty-five, taking cooking pots, went to drink Euphorbia milk. Out of the persons who drank it a portion died; the other persons [after] vomiting came back.

Having said to this Brahmana and his wife,

“You told our men to drink Euphorbia milk, and caused them to die,”

those women instituted a law-suit before a King.

Thereupon the King caused both parties to be brought.

The King asks the Brahmana,

“How did this occur ?”

The Brahmana says,

“Your Majesty (Devayan wahanse), having given three masuran, I asked for and got three words [of advice] from a Brahmana.

‘Having gone to a country don’t require honours,’

he said;

‘Without investigation don’t do a thing,’

he said;

‘To one’s own wife don’t tell a secret,’

he said; thereupon, the masuran being finished, he said without masuran,

‘Don’t tell lies to Kings.’”

He then repeated to the King the true story (already given) of his adventures and actions, which I omit; and he ended by saying

“On account of [the other Brahmana’s] saying,

‘Don’t tell lies to Kings,’

I told you the fact.”

The King having investigated the law-suit, set free the Brahmana and the Brahmana’s wife.

Tom-tom Beater. North-western Province.

 

Notes:

With this may be compared the advice given to the Prince in the story No. 250 in this volume.

In Indian Nights’ Entertainment (Swynnerton), p. 213 ft., a poor weaver who went away to improve his fortunes after borrowing forty rupees, met with a man who was silent until paid twenty rupees, when he said, " Friend, when four inen give you [the same] advice, take it.” When he gave the man his remaining twenty rupees, and said, " Speak again,” the man warned him not to tell his wife what happened to him. After this, the weaver met with four men sitting round a corpse, and consented to carry it to the adjoining river for them, and throw it in. He found diamonds tied round its waist, appropriated them, returned home, repaid his loan, and lived in luxury. The village headmen wished to know how the weaver became rich, and the man’s wife pestered him about it until he stated that while on his travels he was told to drink half a pint of mustard oil early in the morning, and he would then see hidden treasure. The headman’s wife being told this by her, gave her husband and six children the dose at night, and in the morning they were all dead. When the King held an inquiry she charged the weaver’s wife with advising her to do it; but the latter totally denied it, and the headman’s wife was hanged.

In Folk-Tales of Kashmir (Knowles), 2nd ed., p. 32, a Brahmana’s wife sold to a Prince for a lakh of rupees four pieces of advice written by her husband, and the King banished the Prince for his foolishness in wasting the money thus. The advice was that

1. a person when travelling must be careful at a strange place, and keep awake,
2. a man in need must test his friends,
3. a man who visits a married sister in good style will be well received, but if poor will be disowned,
4. a man must do his own work well.

The Prince was saved from murder by keeping awake at night in his lodgings; was nearly executed when he visited his brother-in-law as a poor Yogi; rid a Princess of two snakes which issued from her nostrils, and was appointed her father’s successor; was then received with humility by his brother-in-law, and cured his father’s blindness by laying his hands on his eyes.

At p. 332, four exiled Princes agreed to keep watch at night over the corpse of a great merchant; the reward was to be four thousand rupees. They had adventures with the corpse and demons.

In Folklore of the Santal Parganas (collected by Rev. Dr. Bodding), p. 53, a Prince paid a man his only three gold coins for three pieces of advice, and the man gave him a fourth free of charge. The first was not to sit without moving the stool or mat offered; the second, not to bathe where others bathed; the third, to act according to the opinion of the majority; and, lastly, to restrain his anger, hear an explanation, and weigh it well before acting. The first saved him from being dropped into a well; the second saved his purse when left behind on bathing; the third obtained for him a roll of coin out of the waist cloth of a corpse which he threw into a ravine; and on returning home at night, when he found a pair of slippers and a sword outside his wife’s door, inquiry showed that only her sister was with her.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

The milky sap which exudes from cuts in the bark or leaves. It is acrid, and blisters the skin if left on it.