Story 254 - Matalana

IN a certain country there was a man called Matalana, it is said. This man was the son of the concubine of the King of that country, it is said. That Matalana from infancy was getting his living by committing robbery.

Having been committing robbery in this manner, and having arrived at the age of a young man, Matalana having spoken to his mother, asked,

“Mother, who is our father ?”

Thereupon his mother says to him,

“Son, thou art not a so-so (ese-mese) person. The King of this country is thy father.”

When his mother said thus, having said,

“It is good. If so, I will do a good work,”

he began to steal things belonging to the King. During the time while he is thus committing robbery, the King in various ways having fixed guards, endeavoured to catch the thief, but he was unable to seize him.

Matalana getting to know that guard has been very carefully placed at the royal house, without going for robbety to the royal house began to steal the goods belonging to the King that are outside.

Thereupon the King, having thought that somehow or other having caught the thief he must put him in the stocks, and having made the guards stop everywhere, caused a carpenter to be brought and said,

“Having seized the thief who steals the things that are the King’s property, to make him fast in the stocks make a pair of stocks in a thorough manner. Regarding it, ask for and take the whole of the requisite things from the royal house.”

When the Bang ordered it, the carpenter, taking all the things suitable for it and having gone, made the stocks. On the day on which they were finished, Matalana, having arrived at the carpenter’s house, and having been talking very well [with him], asks the carpenter,

“Friend, what is this you are making ?”

Thereupon the carpenter says,

“Why, friend, don’t you know ? These are indeed the stocks I am making for the purpose of putting in the stocks the thief who steals the goods belonging to the King,”

he said.

When Matalana asked,

“Ane! How do you put the thief in the stocks in this,”

the carpenter having put his two legs in the two holes of the stocks, to show him the method of putting him in the stocks at the time while he is making them, Matalana, having [thus] put the carpenter in the stocks, taking the key in his hand [after locking them], struck the carpenter seven or eight blows, and said,

“[After] opening a hard trap remain sitting in it your own self, master,”

and saying a four line verse also,^[1] went away.

On the following day, when the King came to look at the stocks he saw that the carpenter has been put in the stocks.

When he asked,

“What is this ?”

he ascertained that the thief named Matalana, who is stealing the goods belonging to the King, had come, and having put the carpenter in the stocks and struck him blows went away.

Thereupon the King having said,

“It is good, the way the thief was put in the stocks !”

dismissed the carpenter and went away.

After that, Matalana having gone stealing the King’s own clothes that were given for washing at the washerman’s house, at night descended to the King's pool, and began to wash them very hard. The washerman, ascertaining that circumstance, gave information to the King. Thereupon the King, having mounted upon the back of a horse and the army also surrounding him, went near the pool to seize Matalana.

Matalana getting to know that the King is coming, the army surrounding him, came to the bank at one side of the pool, carrying a cooking pot that he himself had taken, and having launched [it bottom upwards] and sent it [into the pool], began to cry out,

“Your Majesty, look there! The thief sank under the water; [that is his head]. We will descend into the pool from this side; Your Majesty will please look out from that side.”

While he was making the uproar, the foolish King, having unfastened [and thrown down] his clothes, descended into the pool.

Then Matalana [quickly came round in the dark, and] putting on the King’s clothes, and having mounted upon the back of the horse, says,

“Look there, Bola, the thief! It is indeed he.”

When he said,

“Seize ye him,”

the royal soldiers having seized the King, who had unloosed [and thrown off] his clothes, tied him even while he was saying,

“I am the King.”

Having tied the King to the leg of the horse on which Matalana had mounted, and, employing the King’s retinue, having caused them to thrash him, Matalana, in the very manner in which he was [before], having unloosed [and thrown off] the clothes [of the King], bounded off and went away.

After that, the retinue who came with the King having gone taking the [supposed] thief to the royal house, when they were looking perceiving that instead of the thief they had gone tying the King, were in fear of death. The King, not becoming angry at it, consoled his servants; and having been exceedingly angry regarding the deed done by Matalana, and having thought by what method he must seize Matalana, made them send the notification tom-tom everywhere.

After that, Matalana, again arranging a stratagem to steal clothes from the washerman, and preparing a very tasty sort of cakes, hung the cakes on the trees in the jungle, in the district where the washerman washes. Matalana, taking in his hand two or three cakes and having gone eating and eating one, asked the washerman for a little water.

Thereupon the washerman asked Matalana,

“What is that you are eating ?”

“Why, friend, haven’t you eaten the Kaeppitiya^[2] cakes that are on the trees near this, where you wash ?”

he asked.

Thereupon the washerman says,

“ Ane ! Friend, although I washed so many days I have not eaten cakes of trees of the style you mention that are in this district,”

he said.

“If so, please eat one from these, to look [what they are like].”

When he gave it to the washerman, the washerman having eaten the cake and having found much flavour in it,^[3] says,

“Ane ! oyi! Until the time when I have gone [there] and come [after] plucking a few of these cakes, you please remain here.”

When he said it, having said,

“It is good. Because of the heat of the sun I will stay beneath this tree,”

Matalana, having sent the washerman to pluck the Kaeppitiya cakes and return, [after] tying in a bundle as many of the King’s clothes as there were, went away [with them].

When the washerman comes [after] plucking the cakes, either the clothes or the man he had set for their protection, not being visible, he went speedily and gave information to the King. The King having become more angry than he was before, again employed the notification tom-tom [to proclaim] that to a person who, having seized, gives him this Matalana who steals the things belonging to the King, he will give goods [amounting] to a tusk elephant’s load, and a share from the kingdom.

Matalana, ascertaining that he sent the notification tomtom, having stayed on the path and made the notification tom-tom halt, promised:

“I know Matalana. Within still three months I will seize and give that Matalana while in a courtesan’s house.”

The notification tom-tom beater, accepting this word, went, and when he gave information to the King, the King, because of the anger there was [in him] with this thief, having become much pleased told him to summon the man to come.

Thereupon, after Matalana came to the royal house, when he asked,

“In about how many days can you seize and give Matalana ?”

he said,

“In about three months I can.”

After that, Matalana having been like a friend of the King until three months are coming to an end, one day, at the time when the King is going to the courtesan’s house, he said to the King’s Ministers and servants,

“To-day I saw the place where the Matalan-thief is. In order to seize him [be pleased] to come.”

Summoning in the night time the whole royal retinue, and having gone and surrounded the house of the courtesan, and said [the King] was Matalana, there and then also they seized the King. When they seized him in this way, the King through shame remained without speaking. After that, seizing the King and haying gone, and having very thoroughly struck him blows, and put him in prison, and kept [him there], in the morning when they looked, just as before they saw that the King had been seized, and struck blows, and put in the stocks.

After all these things, Matalana, having again broken into the King’s house, stealing a great quantity of goods, reached an outside district, and dwelt there.

Western Province.

 

Notes:

This story is partly a variant of No. 92 in vol. ii.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Not given by the narrator.

[2]:

A jungle bush or small tree on which lac is formed, Croton lacciferum.

[3]:

Lit., much flavour having fallen.