Story 216 - The Story of Goliu-Bayiya

^[1]

IN a country there was, it is said, a man called Gonaka-Bokka. There were ten younger ‘brothers of that Gona-Bokka, it is said.

The ten younger brothers spoke:

“From elder brother Gona-Bokka there is not any advantage for us [because he idles and does no work]. It is difficult for us, doing [house] work for ourselves. On account of it, we will bring one [woman in] marriage for us ten persons.”

After having said it, having said,

“Let us go to the village called Otanna-pahuwa,”

the young younger brother went to the village, it is said. He went to that Otannapahuwa to ask about the marriage.

After that, the other nine persons speak, it is said:

“When we say to our elder brother, ‘Gona-Bokka,’ the woman they are bringing for us will say, Bola, that the name called Gona-Bokka is not good caste [enough] for her. The woman they are bringing for us will come [now]. On account of it, let us call him Goliu-Bayiya. Let us give her to our Golu-Bayi elder brother also to neutralise^[2] our [inferior] names,”

they are talking together, it is said.

Then, several days wearing down the road, the youngest brother of all having come, said, it is said,

“Elder brothers, I went to ask at Otannapahuwa. The woman indeed is of good lineage (wanshe). They sent word, ‘Who gives in marriage to a young youngster?^[3] Tell the elder brothers, one of them, to come.’”

After that, the ten persons speak [together], it is said,

“Let us send elder brother Goliu-Bayiya, older than we ten, to ask about the marriage,”

they talk.

Well, the person they call Goliu-Bayiya is a great fool, it is said.

After that, those ten spoke:

“Elder brother, if you also agree (lit., come) to the things we say, you also come [after] calling [a woman] to live in one marriage for the whole of us eleven.”

After that, Goliu-Bayiya said,

“It is good; I will go.”

Causing them to cook a lump of rice, he set off and went. He goes and he goes. Because he does not know the path, having gone [part of the way], sitting down on a rock in the midst of the forest he ate the lump of cooked rice.

Having eaten it, while he is there a woman of another country, having become poor, is coming away, it is said, along the path. Having come, she sat down near the rock on which is that Goliu-Bayiya.

After that, the woman asks, it is said,

“Of what country are you ? Of what village ?”

the woman asked the man.

The man said,

“I am going to Otannapahuwa to ask about a marriage,”

he said. [He told her of his brother’s visit.]

After that, the woman says,

“Aniccan dukkhan ! The woman of that village who was asked is I. My two parents, having made a mistake, drove me away. Because of it I am going to a place where they give to eat and to drink,”

she said.

After, that, Goliu-Bayiya having thought,

“Because the woman is good-looking, and because she has been asked before, not having gone at all to Otannapahuwa I must go [back] calling her [in marriage],”

summoning the woman whom he met with while on the path he came to the village.

Having come, he says to his younger brothers,

“I went to Otannapahuwa.”

Having said,

“The bride,—there, [that is] the woman; for the whole of us let us call her [to be, our wife],”

he said.

After that, the other ten persons, because they had not seen her [before], from that day marrying the woman stayed [there with her].

Marrying her, while they were there several days the younger ten persons speak:

“Elder brother quite alone, without anyone whatever [to assist him], came back calling our [bride in] marriage. It was good cleverness that our elder brother showed (lit., did). Because of it let us all do work. Having handed over our wife to our elder brother Goliu-Bayiya to guard her continually, let us do work. Elder brother, guard the woman,”

they said.

Having said,

“It is good; I will guard her,”

to the places where the woman goes and comes, and to all other places if the woman goes, that Goliu-Bayiya also goes.

While [matters were] thus, one day a man came to the village for trading. The man’s name was Gaetapadaya. That Gaetapadaya for several days having continued to do trading at the same house, stayed in the maduwa (open shed) at the same house [at which the brothers lived]. While staying there, Goliu-Bayiya’s wife associated with the same man they call Gaetapadaya.

While they are thus, on a day when the first-mentioned ten persons went to work, Gaetapadaya says to the aforesaid Goliu-Bayiya,

“I saw a dream to-day. What was it ? At such and such a place on the path I saw that a Sambhar deer is dead.”

Gaetapadaya told Goliu-Bayiya to look at it and come back.

While Goliu-Bayiya went to look at the Sambhar deer, Gaetapadaya taking the woman, taking also the goods that were at the house, both of them absconded.

Tom-tom Beater. North-western Province.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

The text is given at the end of this volume.

[2]:

Makanta, to obliterate, but the meaning of the narrator appears to be more nearly expressed by the word I have inserted.

[3]:

When a woman has more than one husband (brothers always), she goes through the marriage ceremony with the eldest, and is formally given to him only.