Story 231 - The Son and the Mother

^[1]

IN a certain covmtry a widow woman lived with her only son, it is said. At the time when her son arrived at a young man’s age, this woman for the purpose of bringing and giving him a [bride in] marriage, having descended to the road, set off to go to a village not distant from it. While this woman was going thus, in order to quench her weariness she went to a travellers’ shed that was at the side of the path.

After a little time, yet [another] woman having arrived at this very travellers’ shed, when these two were conversing one of those persons asked [the other] on account of what circumstances she went along by that road. At that time the woman who had come first to the travellers’ shed gave answer thus, that is,

“My husband having died I have only one son. Because of it, in order to seek a marriage for that son I set out and came in this manner,”

she said.

Thereupon the other woman says,

“My husband also having died, I have only one daughter. I came on the search for a suitable husband for that daughter,”

she said.

After that, these two persons ascertaining that they were people belonging to the [good] castes, agreed to marry the son and daughter of these two persons. [After] promising in this manner, having given in marriage the other woman’s daughter to the son of the first-mentioned woman, because the daughter’s mother is living alone they summoned the whole four persons to one house, and resided there.

When they are coming and dwelling in that manner a very little time, the young man said to his mother that his wife was not good.

A very little time having gone thus, the young woman says to her husband,

“I cannot reside here with your mother. Because of it [please] kill her. If it be not so, having gone away with my mother we shall live alone,”

she said.

Although even many times he did not give heed to the word of his wife, because the young man was unwilling to kill his mother, in the end, at the time when his wife set off to go away, he said,

“It is good; I will kill mother. You must tell me the way to kill her.”

Thereupon his wife said thus,

“In the night time, when thy mother is sleeping, taking completely^[2] the bed and having gone [with it], let us throw it in the river,”

she said.

In the night time, at the time when all are sleeping, the young woman having tied a cord to the leg of the bed on which her mother-in-law is sleeping, went to sleep, placing an end of the cord in her hand.

The young man having seen this circumstance, after his wife went to sleep unfastened the end of the cord that was tied to the leg of his mother’s bed, and tied it to the leg of the bed of his wife’s mother.

While it was thus, suddenly this young woman arose, and spoke to her husband:

“Now the time is good,”

she said.

When he asked,

“Because there is darkness how shall we find our mother’s bed ?”

“I have been placing a mark,” the woman said.

Well then, because the end of the cord was tied to the leg of this woman’s bed, both together lifting up the bed went and threw it in the river.

After it became light, when she looked, perceiving that the young woman’s mother was thrown into the river, and coming to grief, and having wept, she said thus to her husband,

“For committing some fault^[3] we have thrown my mother into the river. Well, let us kill your mother, too,”

she said again.

The husband being not satisfied with this, because the request of his wife was stronger than that [disinclination], said,

“It is good; let us kill her.”

When her husband further asked,

“By what method shall we kill mother?”

she said,

“When thy mother is asleep, lifting up the bed completely and having gone [with it], and having placed a pile of sticks at a new grave, let us bum her.”

The husband approved of her word.

On the following day, subsequently to its becoming light, when the woman whom the two persons were lifting up was asleep, having gone [after] lifting up the bed completely, they placed this woman together with the bed on the middle of the pile of firewood which they had gathered together previously. But to set fire to the heap of firewood they did not remember to take fire. Because of it, and because to bring fire each person was afraid to go alone, both set off and went.

During the time while they were going thus, when strong dew was falling like rain the woman who was asleep on the pile of firewood having opened her eyes, said,

“Am I not at this grave mound ?”

She also having looked far and near,^[4] thought,

“It is indeed a work, this, of my son and daughter-in-law;”

and having descended from the pile of firewood, lifting up a new corpse that was at the grave, and having gone and placed it upon that bed that was on the pile of firewood, she plucked off her cloth, and having clothed the corpse she entered the jungle quite unclothed.

The son and daughter-in-law having come, remained looking about. Then her son and daughter-in-law procuring fire,^[5] and having come to the new grave, both persons made the fire bum at the two ends of the pile of firewood, and went away.

The woman, who had looked very well at this business, because she was unclothed could not come near villages. Having entered a forest wilderness that was near there, when going a considerable distance she saw a rock house (cave).

Having gone to this rock house, when she looked [in it] she saw that a great number of clothes, and ornaments, and kinds of food and drink were in this rock house, and having thought,

“For these there will be owners,”

she remained quite afraid to seize them.

At that time a gang of thieves who owned the goods, hundreds of thousands in number, that were in this rock house, having come and looked in the direction of the rock house, saw that an unclothed Yaksani had entered there.

Having become afraid at it, the whole of them bounded off, and having gone running arrived near a Yakadura,^[6] and said thus,

“Friend, one Yaksani having entered is now staying at the rock house in which are the goods that we collected and placed [there] during the whole eight years in which we now have been committing robberies. Because of it, should you by any means of success whatever drive away the Yaksani for us, we will give a half from the goods,”

they said to the Yakadura.

Thereupon the Yakadura being pleased, when he went to the neighbourhood of the rock house with the thieves, the thieves, through fear to go, halted.

The Yakadura having gone quite alone to the rock house, when he asked the woman who was unclothed,

“Art thou a human daughter^[7] or a Yaksani ?”

she gave answer,

“I am a human daughter.”

At that time the Yakadura said,

“If so, I cannot believe thy word. Of a Yaksani, indeed, there is no tongue; of a human being there is the tongue. Because of it, please extend the tongue [for me] to look at it, having rubbed my tongue on thy tongue,”

the Yakadura said.

Thereupon this woman thought thus,

“If so, these men having thought I am a Yaksani, are afraid of me. Because of it, having frightened them a little more I must get these goods,”

she thought.

Having thought thus, and having come near the Yakadura, at the time when he extended the tongue she bit his tongue.

Thereupon, when the Yakadura began to run away, blood pouring and pouring from his mouth, the thieves, having become more frightened at it, ran away; and having said,

“If she did so to the Yakadura who went possessing protective spells and diagrams, [after] uttering spells over limes, and uttering spells over threads coloured with turmeric, how will she do to us ?”

they did not go after that to even that district.

Well then, that woman, putting on clothes that were in the rock house, and having eaten and drunk to the possible extent [after] making up the goods into bundles as much as possible, came to look for her son.

When the daughter-in-law and son saw her coming while afar, having arrived at astonishment at it, they asked,

“How have you who were put on the pile of firewood and burnt, come again ? Whence are these goods ?”

Thereupon the woman says,

“Why, Bola, don’t you know that after their life, when they have burnt men they receive goods ?”

she asked.

Then her daughter-in-law, having thought that she will be able to bring goods, said,

“Ane ! Please bum me also in that way.”

Having said,

“It is good,”

the mother-in-law, having gone taking her daughter-in-law, and having put her on the pile of firewood, set fire [to it].

At that time,

“Apoyi! I indeed cannot stay,”

she cried when she began to burn.

Thereupon her mother-in-law cries out,

“Ha! Ha! Don’t cry out. Should you cry out you will not receive the goods. While you were burning me did I also cry out ? Ane ! Because you are stronger than I, [after] making a great many articles into bundles come back,”

she said. In this manner having told and told her, and having burnt the daughter-in-law, the mother-in-law went home.

After a few days had gone, her son asks,

“Mother, you by this time came bringing the goods. This giantess^[8] has not [come] yet; what is that for ?”

he asked.

She said,

“No, son; she is staying to bring a great many goods.”

Having waited, one day the son having thoroughly tied the mother to kill her, on account of the manner in which he accepted the daughter-in-law’s word, she said,

“Why, Bola, fool! Dead men having arisen from the dead, will there be a country also to which they come ?^[9] I came in this manner,”

and having told her whole story, and employed her son, they went taking a great many carts, and brought to the village the whole of the goods that were in the abovementioned rock house.

After that, this son contracted another marriage. Having seen his wealthiness, the King of that country gave him a post as Treasurer.^[10]

Western Province.

 

Notes:

This is also a folk-tale called “The Wicked Daughter-in-law,” in the North-western Province, the parents of the young man being a Gamarala and Gama-Mahage. The wife wished to kill her mother-in-law because the latter and her own mother were quarrelling. She and her husband threw the first bed into a forest pool (eba). The incident of the return of the robbers to the cave where they had hidden their plunder is omitted; the Mahage simply put on a number of silver and gold articles and carried home a bundle of others, including necklaces and corals. She told her daughter-in-law that there were many more at the burial ground, and the latter went to fetch them. When she arrived there she saw a fresh corpse, and became so much afraid that she fainted, and fell down and died.

This story is given in The Jataka, No. 432 (vol. iii, p. 303).

In the Katha Sarit Sagara (Tawney), vol. i, p. 88, a servant girl who had absconded with her master’s store of gold, climbed up a leafy tree to escape from him. One of his servants climbed up it in search of her. Seeing that she would be captured, she pretended to be in love with him, and as she was kissing his mouth she bit off his tongue, and he fell down unable to speak. Her master thought he had been attacked by a demon, and at once ran oft.

In Cinq Cents Contes et Apologues (Chavannes), vol. iii, p. 141, a woman who wished to kill her mother-in-law persuaded her husband to believe that if she were burnt she would be re-born as a deity, and receive continual offerings from them. They made a great fire in a deep trench, gave a feast at it, and when the people had gone pushed the mother over the edge into it, and ran off. She fell on a ledge in the side of the trench and thus escaped, was unable to return home in the darkness, and climbed up a tree for safety from animals and demons. While she was there, robbers came to the foot of the tree with valuable articles they had stolen, and when they heard her sneeze ran ofi, thinking she was a demon. In the morning she returned home with a heavy bundle of jewellery they had left, told the daughter-in-law that she had become a deity and had therefore received these valuables, and offered to send her also. The fire was made up afresh, the man pushed his wife into it, and she was burnt up.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Puta saha Maeniyo ; in the folk-tales the word meaning “son” is always spelt thus, with long a.

[2]:

Pitimma

[3]:

That is, as a punishment for some fault of theirs they had killed the wrong person.

[4]:

Aet maet.

[5]:

That, is, blowing the glowing fire-sticks into flames.

[6]:

A demon expeller of low caste.

[7]:

Manuksa duwek: in the reply the first of these words is manussa.

[8]:

Yodi, an expression often applied jestingly to a child, or a person who thinks herself strong.

[9]:

In Sagas from the Far East, p. 22, a Khan’s son with a friend had killed two serpent deities which ate the people, when he went to be their prey in the place of his father. His friend then suggested that they should return home, but the Khan’s son replied,

“Not so, for if we went back to our own land the people would only mock us, saying,

‘The dead return not to the living !’

and we should find no place among them.”

In vol. i, p. 77, of these Sinhalese tales, a man asks,

“Can anyone in the other world come to this world ?”

But other Sinhalese stories show that there is, or was, a belief that people who have died may sometimes reappear on earth immediately, in their previous form, and not merely as new-born children, the common idea, as on p. 308, below. See Nos. 191 and 210. For the text of the sentence see p. 416.

[10]:

Siti tanaturak.