Story 77 - The Gamarala’s Daughter

IN a certain country there were a Gamarala and a daughter of the Gamarala’s, it is said. Well then, for the Gamarala they brought a Gama-mahage.^[1] The Gama-mahage's daughter and that Gamarala’s daughter stayed in one place. The Gamarala and the Gama-mahage cook and eat separately; the Gamarala’s daughter and the Gama-mahage’s daughter cook and eat separately.

A King comes every day to the house in which are the two girls. Afterwards, the Gama-mahage’s daughter, having quarrelled with the Gamarala’s daughter, went to the Gama-mahage and told tales:

“A King comes every day to the house we are in.”

Then the woman said,

“Daughter, you go to that house to-day [and watch if he comes].”

Having said “Ha” (Yes), that girl went.

Afterwards the girl came to the house in which was the Mahage. After having come, she said,

“Mother, to-day also the King came.”

Then that girl’s mother, having cut her finger-nails^[2] and given them into the hand of the girl, said,

“Daughter, take these and place them upon the beam of the threshold.”

The girl, having taken them and placed them on the beam of the threshold, came to the Mahage’s house.

On the following day the girl did not go to the house of the Gamarala’s daughter. That day, also, came the King. After he came he placed his foot on the beam of the threshold; then the finger-nails pricked him. Immediately the King went to the city on the back of the tusk elephant.

On the following day, when that [Gamarala’s] girl was weeping and weeping under a tree because he did not come, while some crows were swallowing and swallowing the fruits of the trees a crow said,

“Ando ! What is that Gamarala’s daughter crying for ?”

The other crow said,

“What is it to thee ! Do thou in silence quickly swallow two or three fruits off that.”

Afterwards, it having become night, part of the crows went to the nests; two still remained over in the tree.

One of them said,

“Ane! What is that Gamarala’s daughter crying for?”

The other crow said,

“What is it to thee! Do thou in silence swallow the fruits off that. All the crows went away; mustn’t we also go ? It has become night.”

Then the Gamarala’s daughter laments,

“A light was falling and falling [into my life]; it is not there now.”

The crow said,

“Being without a light, what art thou lamenting for ?”

The girl said,

“A King was coming and coming to our house. Our stepmother having placed some finger-nails on the threshold, they pricked the King’s foot, and having gone to the city he does not come now. On account of that I am lamenting.”

Then the crow said,

“What are you lamenting for on that account! Having shot (with bow and arrow) a crow that is flying [in the air] above, and extracted its fat, should you take it to the city in which the King is, when you have rubbed it on the wound in the foot it will heal.”

Afterwards the girl, having shot a crow that was flying above, and extracted its fat, and tied up a packet of it, and dressed in men’s clothes, went to the city, taking the fat.

The girl, having gone to the city, and gone to the palace in which is the King, said,

“What will He give me to cure His foot ?”^[3]

The King replied,

“I will give a gold ring.”

Then the girl rubbed the oil [on the wound], and after she drew out the finger-nail the foot became well. After that the King gave the girl the gold ring. The girl, taking it, came home.

The King, taking a sword, on the following day came on the back of the tusk elephant to the house in which is the girl. The girl was asleep. Then the King descended from the tusk elephant, and taking the sword went to the place where the girl was. “Get up, thou,” he said. The girl arose. Then the King prepared to cut her neck.

The girl, having made obeisance, said,

“Don’t cut me with the sword; it was I who cured His foot.”

“How didst thou cure it ?”

he said.

“I went to the city in which He was, and having rubbed fat [on the wound] and drawn out the finger-nail, came back,”

the girl said.

Then the King said,

“How didst thou go to my palace ?”

The girl replied,

“I went in men’s clothes, and having rubbed oil on the foot and drawn out the finger-nail, I came back.”

“If thou drewest it out, where is now the gold ring I gave thee ?”

he said.

Then the girl, saying,

“Here is the gold ring He gave me,”

showed it to the King.

After that, placing the girl on the back of the tusk elephant, he went to the palace in the city.

North-western Province.

 

Note:

Regarding the poisonous nature of the finger-nails, see vol. i, pp. 124 and 128.

In Indian Fairy Tales (M. Stokes), p. 199, a Princess in the disguise of a Yogi cured a Prince who had married her, and who had been poisoned by means of powdered glass laid on his bed. She applied earth from the foot of a tree, mixed with cold water, and rubbed this over him for three days and nights. When the Prince wished to reward her, she asked for a ring and handkerchief that she gave him on their wedding day. She afterwards informed him that it was she who had cured him, but he would not believe her until she produced these articles.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

The title of a Gamarala’s wife.

[2]:

In Sinhalese this expression includes the toe-nails, the toes

[3]:

This query is addressed to the King himself, it being more respectful to use the third person than the second. In the story numbered 106 a Princess addresses a Prince in the third person, and there are several other examples. Compare the first couplet of the conversation of the King and goose in the Jataka story No. 502 (vol. iv, p. 266). In the Arabian Nights (Lady Burton’s ed., vol. iv, p. 121) a Wazir employs the third person while speaking to his sovereign.