Story 9 - Tamarind Tikka

IN a certain city there are seven elder brothers and younger brothers, it is said. The seven have a younger sister, who cooks and gives food to all seven.

While the seven brothers were cutting and cutting the sides of an earthen ridge (nira) in the rice field, they saw seven women coming, and said to them,

“Where are you going ?”

The seven women replied,

“We are seven elder sisters and younger sisters ; and we are going to seek seven elder brothers and younger brothers.”

Then the seven brothers said,

“We are seven elder brothers and younger brothers. Stop with us.”

The seven sisters said “ Ha."

The seven brothers having brought the seven sisters to their house, leaving them there went again to the rice field, and chopped the ridges. Those seven sisters having boiled seven pots of paddy and spread it out to dry, said to their sister-in-law,

“We are going for firewood ; you stay at home and look after these things.”

After they had gone, that sister-in-law fell asleep. Then rain having fallen, the seven large'mats (magal) on which the paddy was spread were washed away. When the seven sisters came, and saw that the mats and paddy had been washed away, they seized that woman, and having beaten her, drove her away from the house. So she went to the foot of a Tamarind tree on the roadside, and stayed there.

When a long time had passed after she went there, all those seven women bore girls. The woman under the Tamarind tree bore a boy.

As the eldest brother was going along the road on which was the tree, the woman said,

“Ane ! Elder brother, look at my boy’s horoscope.”

He said,

“I will not.”

As the next brother was going she said,

“Ane ! Elder brother, look at my boy’s horoscope.”

He said,

“I will not.”

Thus, in that way all the six elder brothers refused. Afterwards, when the youngest brother Was going, on her saying,

“Ane ! Elder brother, look at my boy’s horoscope,”

he said “Ha,” and went.

When he looked at it, the astrologer said,

“He is born such that he will bring misfortune to those seven girls. The child will be so lucky that he might obtain a kingdom.”

Then the brother having returned, said to that woman,

“That one has been born such that he will eat thee. Knock his head on a stone or root, and kill him.”

The woman saying,

“It is good. Let him eat me,”

reared him.

The child having become big, said at the hand of the woman,

“Mother, now then, oughtn’t you to bring me an assistant (i.e. a wife) ?”

The woman replied,

“Ane ! Son, who will give in marriage to us ?”

Afterwards the youth went to a place where they were grinding flour, and having put a little flour under his finger nail, came back.

“Mother, mother, quickly hold a basin,”

he said. The woman held one. Then, when he put into the basin the little flour that was under his finger nail, it filled it and ran over.

Having gone again to a place where they were expressing coconut oil, in the same way he took a little coconut under his finger nail, and came back.

“Mother, mother, hold that quickly,”

he said. The woman held it. That also was filled and overflowed.

Again, having gone to a place where they were warming Palm-tree syrup, in the same way he took some under his finger nail, and came back.

“Mother, mother, hold that quickly,”

he said. That also was filled and overflowed. Afterwards the youngster said,

“Mother, cook cakes with those things, and give me them.”

So the woman having cooked them, tied up a pingo (carrying-stick) load, and gave it to him.

The youngster, taking the pingo load, went to his eldest uncle ^[1]. After he asked him for his daughter’s hand in marriage, the uncle said,

“Be off! Be off! Who would give in marriage to Tamarind Tikka ?”

From there he went to the next uncle, and asked him. That uncle spoke in ihe same manner. All the six elder uncles spoke in the same manner.

Then he went to the youngest uncle, and when he asked him the uncle said,

“Put the packages of cakes there, then.”

(Intimating by this that he accepted him as a son-in-law. He alone knew of the nature of the boy’s horoscope.)

Afterwards, having cooked and given Tamarind Tikka to eat, the uncle said,

“My buffalo cow has died, Tamarind Tikka. Let us go and bury it, and return.”

Tamarind Tikka said “Ha,” and having gone to the place where the dead buffalo was lying, said,

“Uncle, shall I make that get up ?”

The uncle said “Ha.” So Tamarind Tikka went to the low bushes at the edge of the jungle, and came back cutting a white stick. Then calling out,

“Into the cattle-fold, Buffalo cow ! Into the cattle-fold !”

he struck the buffalo. Then the buffalo cow that had been dead got up, and came running to the cattle-fold. By the calves from that buffalo cow the cattle herd was increased.

One day, while the six uncles and Tamarind Tikka were watching cattle in the field, the uncles said,

“Tamarind Tikka, we will watch. You go and eat, and come back.”

After he had gone home, the six uncles cut all the throats^[2] of his cattle. When he returned the six uncles said,

“Ane ! Tamarind Tikka. Some men came, and having tied us all and thrown us down in the dust, cut all the throats of your cattle. Not a thing could we do.”

Tamarind Tikka said,

“Ha. It is good.”

As he was going away, having seen people burying a corpse he waited while they were burying it, and after they had gone he dug out the grave, and raised the dead body to the surface. Then lifting up the body and taking it to a tank, he bathed it, dressed it in a cloth, tied a handkerchief round its waist, tied a handkerchief on its head, put a handkerchief over its shoulder,^[3] and placing it on his shoulder went away with it.

After nightfall, having gone to a village, Tamarind Tikka set the body upright against a clump of plantain trees, and asked at a house,

“Ane ! You must give us a resting-place to-night.”

When he said this the men in the house replied,

“There will be no resting-place here. Go away, and ask at another house.”

Then he said,

“Ane ! Don’t say so. Our great-grandfather is coming there.”

Women were driving cattle out of that garden. Tamarind Tikka said to them,

“Ane! Our great-grandfather is coming there. His eyes cannot see anything. Don’t hit him, any one.”

Then a woman at the raised terrace of the shop, having knocked down a stump, when she was throwing it at the cattle the dead body was hit, and fell down. At the blow Tamarind Tikka went running there, and cried out,

“Appe ! Great-grandfather is dead.”

The men came out of the house and said,

“Tamarind Tikka, don’t cry. We will give you a quart measure of money.”

“I don’t want either a quart measure of money or two. Our great-grandfather is dead,”

Tamarind Tikka said, and cried aloud.

Again the men said,

“Appa! Tamarind Tikka, don’t cry. We will give you three quart measures of money.”

Tamarind Tikka said,

“I don’t want either three or four. I want our great-grandfather.”

Again the men said,

“Tamarind Tikka, don’t cry. We will give you five quart measures of money.”

Tamarind Tikka said,

“I don’t want either five or six. Give me my great-grandfather.”

The men said,

“Tamarind Tikka, don’t cry. We will give yon seven quart measures of money.”

Then Tamarind Tikka said,

“Ha. It is good. Give me them. What of that! Will bur great-grandfather come to his senses again ?”

Taking the seven quart measures of money, and returning to his village, Tamarind Tikka spread a mat on the raised veranda of his house, and having put the seven quart measures of money on it, was counting it. The six uncles having come, said,

“Whence, Tamarind Tikka, this money ?”

“O! Will people with cattle hides to sell become in want of money ?”

he said.

After that, the six uncles having cut the throats of all the cattle they had, and tied the skins into pingo loads, taking them to the villages asked,

“Will you buy cattle hides ?”

The men said,

“Go away. Go away. Who will give money for cattle hides ?”

Then the uncles having come to their village, becoming angry with Tamarind Tikka, spoke together,

“We must kill him.”

So they went to him and said,

“Tamarind Tikka, let us go on a journey together.”

He asked “Where ?”

The six uncles said,

“A daughter of ours has been asked in marriage. On that account we must go to-day to eat betel at the house of the people who have asked for her.”

Tamarind Tikka said “Ha,” and went with the uncles.

Having gone very far, they came to a foot-bridge made of a tree trunk (edanda), and on seeing it the uncles spoke together,

“Let us hang Tamarind Tikka under this, and go away.”

So they put him in a sack, and having hung it under the foot-bridge, went off.

While he was under it, as a washerman bringing a bundle of clothes was going over the bridge, Tamarind Tikka said,

“Appe ! The lumbago is a leetle better since I have been hanging here.”

Then the washerman said,

“Tamarind Tikka, I also have lumbago ; hang me up a little.”

Tamarind Tikka said,

“If so, unfasten this sack.”

After the washerman unfastened it, Tamarind Tikka came out, and having put him in the sack, and again tied it in the same manner under the foot-bridge, took his bundle of clothes, came to the rice fields with it, and spread the clothes out to dry.

As the six uncles were returning, they cut the fastenings of the sack that hung under the bridge (thus letting it fall into the stream).

While coming along afterwards to the village, they saw Tamarind Tikka in the rice field spreading clothes out, and asked.

“Whence, Tamarind Tikka, these clothes ?”

Then he said,

“O! Will people who have to be under foot-bridges become in want of clothes ? ”

The six uncles said,

“Hang us there also,Tamarind Tikka,”

and they brought six sacks and gave them to him. So he put the six uncles into the six sacks, and hung them under the foot-bridge, and afterwards cut the fastenings of the sacks. Then the six uncles were carried away down the river, and died in the sea.

The six women (their wives) ran away; their six girls, saying,

“Our fathers are going for clothes to wear. Let us go also,”

also ran away.

So the six uncles, and the six women, and the six girls all died. Tamarind Tikka, and his wife, and uncle, and aunt, and mother, these five remained.

North-western Province.

 

Note:

In the Jataba story No. 432 (vol. iii, p. 304), a similar incident to the last one is related. A woman whom her son and his wife thought they had burnt while asleep, frightened a robber when he came to the cave in which she had taken refuge, and thus got his bundle containing jewels. When she returned home next day with the jewels, and was asked by her daughter-in-law where she got them, she informed her that all who were burnt on a wooden pile at that cemetery received a similar present. So she went there, and burnt herself.

In The Story of Madana Kama Raja (Natesha Sastri), p. 97 ft., a Prince was requested to deliver letters to the departed relatives of all at the palace of the King under whom he was employed, who twice before had endeavoured to kill him by giving him apparently impossible tasks. By the aid of the magical powers of his wives, he jumped into a pit of fire with the letters, and was saved by Agni, the Fire God, who sent him back next day out of the fire, with costly jewels and a splendid dress. All the persons who were hoping to kill him decided to follow his example, and were burnt up. The Prince then became the ruler of the kingdom.

In The Indian Antiquary, vol. iii, p. n, in a Bengal tale by G. H. Damant, six men burnt a farmer’s house. He loaded two bags of the ashes on a bullock, and on the way met some men driving bullocks laden with rupees, changed two of their bags for his own, met the six men who burnt his house, and told them he got the money by selling the ashes.

They burnt their houses and were beaten by people for trying to sell ashes. Then they went to the farmer’s house, tied him, put him in a sack, and threw him into a river. He was saved by a man who was riding past, on his onering to cut grass for his horse without pay. He rode off on the horse, overtook the six men, and informed them that he found the horse in the river, where there were many more. They persuaded him to throw them in, tied in sacks, and all were drowned.

In the same journal, vol. iv, p. 257, the incident is given as found among the Santals. A man who was in a sack, about to be drowned, induced another, a shepherd, to take his place. The man then took possession of the shepherd’s cows, and when those who thought they had killed him heard from him that there were many more in the river, they allowed themselves to be tied up and thrown in.

In vol. xviii, p. 120, in a South Indian story by Pandita Natesha Sastri, a man who had cheated some persons was carried off, tied up in a bag, to be burnt alive. While firewood was being fetched, he induced a cow-watcher to take his place, and he himself drove on the 1,001 cows of which the man had charge. When his enemies returned to his house after burning the watcher, they found him there to welcome them, the cows being all around. He informed them that on going to Kailasa, the residence of the God Siva, after being burnt, he met his father and grandfather, who stated that his allotted time on earth had not expired, and sent him back with the cows. The others decided to go also, and were tied up and burnt.

A variant of the last incident is also found in West Africa, and is given in Contes Soudanais (C. Monteil), p. 121. A sorceress captured a youth, whom she wished to destroy enclosed in three goat skins, and she set her daughter to watch the package while she dug a pit and filled it with wood, which she set on fire. The girl heard the boy apparently eating food inside, and questioned him about it.

He said,

“I have better than that; I have some dainties.”

As she wanted some she released him and was tied up in his place, while he escaped clothed in her dress. The sorceress returned, and threw the bundle into the fire. Although she heard a voice inside saying the boy had tied up the girl in it, she believed it was only a trick of his.

A similar incident is related in another story in the same volume, p. 164.

It also occurs in a folk-tale of the Southern Province which I contributed to The Orientalist (vol. ii, p. 53). As other incidents in that story resemble some in the tales given below, I give it in full here.

I may add that however improbable the marriage of seven brothers to seven sisters may appear, it has been nearly matched in recent years in England. The Daily Mail of January 20, 1908, contained the following words regarding an old lady who had just died:—

“She was one of seven members of her family who married seven sons and daughters of a neighbouring farmer.”

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Loku mama.

[2]:

Lit. necka.

[3]:

This is the dress of a villager when visiting friends. A white jacket is now often added.