Story 253 - The Woman Pre-eminent in Cunning

^[1]

AT a city there was a very rich Hetti young man.

During the time when he was [there], they brought a bride^[2] for the young man. What of their bringing her! The Hetti young man was [engaged] in giving goods to many ships. Because of it, while the bride^[3] married (lit., tied) to the Hetti young man was staying at home, the Hettiya went to give goods to ships. Having gone, [before his] coming back about six months passed.

At that time, [while he was absent], the Hetti girl who was married [to him] one day went to the well to bring [water]. When she was going, a beard-cutting Barber man having stayed on the path and seen this beautiful woman, laughed. Thereupon the woman, not looking completely on that hand, looked at him with the roguish eye (hora aehin), and went to the village.

On the following day also, the Barber having come, just as before laughed. At that time also the woman, just as before, looked with the roguish eye, and went away.

The woman on the following day also came in order to go for water. That day also, the Barber having stayed on the path laughed.

That day the woman having spoken to the Barber, asked,

“What did you laugh for when I was coming ? Why ?”

The Barber said,

“I did not laugh at anything whatever but because of the affection which you caused,”

Thereupon the woman asked,

“Were you inclined to come with me?”

The Barber said,

“Yes.”

Then this woman said,

“If you come, you cannot come in that way.^[4] The Great King having gone, after the Second King has come to Ceylon (Seyilama), after jasmine flowers have blossomed without [being on] creepers, having cut twenty, having stabbed thirty persons, having pounded three persons into one, when two dead sticks are being kneaded into one having mounted on two dead ones, should you come you can talk with me.”

Thereupon the Barber went home, and grief having bound him because he could not do [according to] the words which this woman said, he remained unable to eat cooked rice also.

At that time the Barber woman asked,

“What are you staying [in this way] for, not eating cooked rice, without life in your body ?”

The Barber said,

“I thought of taking in marriage such and such a Hetti woman. Owing to it the Hetti woman said, ‘When the Great King has gone, when the Second King has come to Ceylon, when the flower of the creeperless jasmine has blossomed, having cut twenty, having stabbed thirty, having pounded three persons into one, when two dead sticks are becoming knocked into one, come mounted on the back of two dead ones.’ Because I cannot do it I remain in grief.”

Thereupon the Barber woman said,

“Indo! Don’t you get so much grief over that. For it, I will tell you an advice.

‘The Great King having gone, when the Second King came to Ceylon,’

meant (lit., said), when the sun has set and when the moon is rising.

‘When the creeperless jasmine flower is blossoming,’

meant, when the stars are becoming clear.

‘Having cut twenty,’

meant, having cut the twenty finger [and toe] nails.

‘Having stabbed thirty,’

meant, having well cleaned the teeth (with the tooth-stick), to wash them well.

‘Having pounded three persons into one,’

meant, having eaten a mouthful of betel (consisting of betel leaf, areka-nut, and lime) you are to come. [These] are the matters she said.^[5] Because of it, why are you staying without eating ? If you must go, without getting grieved go in this manner, and come back.”

Thereupon the Barber having gone in that manner, while he was there yet two [other] persons heard that those two are talking. When they heard—there is a custom in that country. The custom indeed is [this]: There is a temple [, kovila ] in the country. Except that they give [adulterers, or perhaps only offenders against caste prohibitions in such cases as this ?] as demon offerings (bili) for the temple, they do not inflict a different punishment [on them]. Because of it, seizing these two they took them for the purpose of giving [them as] demon offerings for the temple.

This Barber woman, learning about it, in order to save her husband undertook the charge of the food offering^[6] for the temple, and went to the temple taking rice and coconuts. Having gone there, and said that they were for the kapuwa^[7] (priest) of the temple, she came away calling her husband, too.

Then to that Hetti woman this Barber woman [said],

“ Having said that you are cooking the food offering (puse) which I brought, stay at the temple until the time when the Hettirala comes. The deity will not take you as the demon offering (billa).^[8] Your husband having come back will seek and look [for you].

When he comes seeking, say,

‘I having married my husband, he went away now six months ago. Because of it, having told my husband to come I undertook the charge for [cooking] the food offering.^[9] Just as I was undertaking the charge he came. Because of it, not having seen the face of my lord (himiya), paying respect to the deity I came to cook the food offering.’

Continue to say this.”

Thereupon the Hetti woman having done in that very manner, the Hettiya came. Well then, she having made the woman [appear] a good woman, [her husband], taking charge of her, came calling her to the house, and she remained [there] virtuously (hon̆da seyin).

 

Notes:

This story was related by a woman in the North-central Province, to a man whom I sent to write down some stories at a village at which I had been promised them. Her name, given as Sayimanhami (Lady Simon), and expressions she used, show that she probably belonged originally to the Western Province.

It is difficult to understand how the condemned persons escaped. The interesting fact of the tale is the reference to the presentation of human offerings at a temple devoted to either one of the demons or the goddess Kali. The Sinhalese expression, aeviyan wa'hanse, deity, given in the text, might be applied to either.

In the Katha Sarit Sagara (Tawney), vol. i, p. 91, it is related in one story that

“whenever a man is found at night with another man’s wife, he is placed with her within the inner chamber of the Yaksha’s (Manibhadra) temple.”

In the morning the man was punished by the King; the country in which this occurred is not stated, but it was far from Tamralipta. When a merchant and a woman were so imprisoned, the merchant’s wife, hearing of it, went at night with offerings, and was permitted to enter. She ohanged clothes with the woman, and sent her out; and in the morning, as the woman in the temple was found to be the merchant’s own wife, the King dismissed the case, and freed the merchant “as it were from the mouth of death.” Thus the usual punishment appears to have been death, as in the Sinhalese tale.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Prayoga parannawanta gaeni.

[2]:

Man̆gulak, a word which usually means a [wedding] feast, but is often used in the villages to signify the bride.

[3]:

Kasade, literally “marriage,” here also used to signify the bride.

[4]:

That is, merely because he was inclined to go.

[5]:

The narrator omitted to make the woman explain the last two cryptic sayings. The final one, that he was to go mounted on the back of two dead ones, of course means that he was to wear a pair of shoes or sandals.

[6]:

Puseka, also puse later on. Doubtless this is the Tamil pusei (Skt. puja), one meaning of which is food given as a religious offering. Puseka is puse+eka, one, used in such instances to express the definite article, as in koteka, the coat.

[7]:

Kapiwata in the text. The meaning is uncertain, kapi being a monkey, a sacred animal at Hindu temples.

[8]:

Perhaps because she would acquire sanctity through cooking the consecrated food.

[9]:

That is, made a vow to present or cook a food offering.