Story 94 - Gampolaya And Raehigamaya

IN a certain country there are a Gampolaya and a Raehigamaya,^[1] it is said.

The person called Gampolaya, having put iriya^[2] iruits in two bags, and said they were areka-nuts, tied them as a pingo load (one bag hanging under each end of the stick). Having been in his own country, he is going away to another country.

The person called Raehigamaya tied up a pingo load of pepper (vine) leaves. The person called Raehigamaya, having said that the pingo load of pepper leaves was a pingo load of betel leaves,^[3] is also going away to another country.

At the time when he was going along there was a travellers’ shed; in that travellers’ shed he lodged. That person called Gampolaya, taking that pingo load of iriya fruits, came there. Well then, those two persons came in contact [there].

The areka-nut trader (Gampolaya) asked,

“What, friend, is your pingo load ?”

The betel trader (Raehigamaya) says,

“[Betel leaves]. In our country areka-nuts are scarce to an inordinate (no-saehena) extent.”

“Ane ! Friend, [I have brought areka-nuts]. In that very way, for our country there is difficulty over betel leaves,”

Gampolaya said.

Having said,

“If so, let us change our two pingo loads,”

the person possessing areka-nuts took the pingo load of betel leaves; the person who has the pingo load of betel leaves took the pingo load of areka-nuts.

Gampolaya [afterwards] says,

“I indeed met with a trading at a profit !”

When he asked,

“What was it ?”

“I obtained a pingo load of betel leaves” [he said]. Who asked it ? A man going on the road.

He took the pingo load of betel leaves to his country. Having gone there and having untied it, when he looked it was a pingo load of [worthless] pepper leaves. [The other man], taking the pingo load of areka-nuts, went to his village. Having gone [there] and unfastened it, when he looked they were [worthless] iriya fruits.

Well then, those two persons came together at the travellers’ shed on another day. They spoke:

“That day our trading did not go on properly. Now then, friend, we two being thieves at this city, [after] cooking rice and having eaten [together], at night let us go for robbery.”

Well then, except that those two say,

“Let us cook,”

not even one of them brings the materials.^[4] What is [the reason why] they do not bring them ? They were persons who on former occasions had gone to the shop and brought things, [and had been cheated by another person’s not bringing any], they said. In that manner it became night.

One person, having said he is going to bathe, [went away, and] having eaten cooked rice at the shop, came back. The other [thought],

“While he has gone to bathe, that one, going to the shop, will eat rice;”

so this one having gone to another place ate cooked rice [there].

A second time they came to the travellers’ shed. [Afterwards] they broke [into] the palace of the King of that city. Taking the box containing the gold things, and having gone [off with it], and during that very night having arrived at a rice field, they went to sleep at the bottom of a tree. Through dishonesty to one of them, the other, taking the box of things, bounded off. Having sprung off and gone, he crept into a mound of straw, and remained there.

That [other] one having arisen, when he looked there was neither the man nor the box of things. Thereafter he seeks and looks about. When he was seeking and looking, [he noticed that] there was a threshing-floor near [the place] where they were sleeping. Having taken a [wooden] cattle-bell, on the following day, in the evening, he shook and shook the cattle-bell, and began to gore the com stacks and mounds of straw that were at the threshing-floor.^[5] Then that man who had got hid there, having said [to himself],

“Perhaps it is a bull,”

spoke [to it, to drive it away]. Having spoken, when he looked it was the first thief.

[When] they two are talking [about it, he said],

“I didn’t bring this box of things through dishonesty to you, but to look at your cleverness.”

During all the time each one is thinking of quietly taking the box of goods, and bounding off [with it].

Well then, those two persons having come back, and having walked to the sands of the sea, it became night. Placing that box of things in the midst of the two, when they were lying down the person who stole it at first went to sleep.

Then the other man, taking the box, hid it at a recognisable place (ayiruwak) in the sea. Having hidden it and come back, and very quietly returned near the other one, he went to sleep. The person who hid the box of things and returned, went to sleep.

Then the other one, having arisen very quietly, when he looks for the box of things, the box of things is not there. When he sought and looked about for it, he did not meet with it. [But] when he tasted [with the tip of his tongue], and looked at the body (skin) of that person who is sleeping, until the time when he comes [upward] near the hip there is salt taste.

Now then, that one thought,

“He will have hidden it in the water, waist deep in the sea.”

Having gone on account of the thought, when he looked in the water to the extent of a round [of the top] of the cloth (pili-watak, waist-deep) a tree was near. [The other man] having placed it near the tree he met with it [there].

As soon as he met with it, taking the box of things and having come to his village, he says to his wife and children,

“Having sought me, should a man come here, say,

‘He died yesternight. There is delay in going to bury him, until the time when his relatives assemble.’”

Well then, they are lamenting falsely.

Well, Gampolaya [having come there] says,

“We, indeed, called Gampolaya and Raehigamaya, walked about and committed robbery at [each] city in turn. Now then, don’t you be grieved that he died; I am more troubled in my mind than you. The agreement of us two indeed is that should I die first, he having come,—that kind of creeper called Habalossa; it is an extremely bad sort of thorn,^[6]—having put [some] of the creepers on the neck there is a promise to go dragging me until the time when he goes to the edge of the grave. Should he die first the promise is [that I should act] in that very manner.”

Well then, having brought a Habalossa creeper, and put it round the neck of the person who was dead, when he prepared (lit., made) to drag him the person who was dead laughed.

Having laughed, he says,

“Friend, I did not bring the box of things on account of stealing it, [but] to look if you are a clever person.”

Well then, these two correctly divided in two the articles in the box of things. The two persons [afterwards] dwelt in happiness.

North-western Province.

 

Note:

In The Orientalist, vol. i, p. 234, Mr. C. J. R. Le Mesurier gave a story in which five beggars agreed that each should put a handful of rice into a pot of boiling water, to make their common meal. When the time came to eat the meal the pot was found to contain only water, each one having placed an empty hand inside it, as though depositing rice.

In Folk-Tales of Bengal (L. Behari Day), p. 165, when two thieves were digging, the younger one came on a jar full of gold muhrs (each worth about thirty shillings), and at once said it was only a large stone. While the younger man slept the elder thief returned to the spot, found there two jars of the coins, buried them in the mud of an adjoining tank, returned, and fell asleep near the other. When the younger thief awoke and found that the coins had been removed, he noticed mud on his comrade’s legs, made a search at the tank, got the two jars, and went off with them, loaded on a cow. At dawn the other man missed his partner and the money, and went in pursuit, and by the slipper trick^[7] got the cow and its load, and went home. When the younger man came up they divided the money except an odd coin, which was to be changed in the morning. In the morning the elder man who had charge of it pretended to be dead. His friend affected to pity the wife, made a straw rope, and dragged the body to the burning ground, but having no fire he climbed up a tree. The two afterwards frightened some robbers there, and got their booty.

In Indian Nights’ Entertainment (Swynnerton), p. 45, some of the Sinhalese incidents occur in an account of the doings of two merchants. One of them buried in the mud a brass plate which he stole from the other’s house. The owner found and removed it, and the thief searched in vain for it. They cheated other people, and acquired forty thousand rupees with which one of them made off; the other recovered it by the slipper trick, buried it, pretended to be dead, and at the cemetery the two men frightened some robbers, got their booty, and made an equal division of all.

In Folk-Tales of the Telugus (G. R. Subramiah Pantulu), p. 63, a man set out with a packet containing a quart of sand; a man of a different village was journeying with a packet containing a lump of cow-dung. They met in the evening, and halted at the same rest-house. Each wanted to get the other’s packet, thinking it contained food. The second man said he had a packet of food (apparently cooked) but was not hungry, and asked the other what he had brought. The first one replied that he had uncooked rice with him, and felt very hungry. They exchanged packets, went off at once to avoid recriminations, and discovered that they were mutually cheated.

In The Indian Antiquary, vol. xxv, p. 21, in a Tamil story by Natesha Sastri, a man of Tanjore who was carrying a large ball of clay entirely hidden under cooked rice grains which his wife had stuck on it. met with a man of Trichinopoly who had a brass pot full of sand covered with raw rice a quarter of an inch deep. Each wanted the other’s rice. The first man stated that not being Very well he was afraid to eat the cold rice he had brought, and would like to cook some raw rice. The second man made an exchange with him. After discovering that they were mutually cheated they became friendly, and had other experiences of each other’s roguery (see the variant given after No. 248).

In the Katha Sarit Sagara (Tawney), vol. ii, p. 109, a foolish man_; in order to avoid sharing with a friend some tasty food which his wife was cooking, pretended to be dead. The friend lamented loudly, neighbours came, they made a pyre at the burning ground, put the body on it and burnt it, the man having determined to die rather than give a share of the food.

In Folk-Tales of Kashmir (Knowles), 2nd ed., p. 299, when two thieves had stolen some treasure from a caravan, one of them by means of the slipper trick got the whole, hurried home, and the pretended death and adventure with the robbers followed.

In Folk-Tales from Tibet (O’Connor), p. 131, when two thieves by a fraud had secured a heavy bag of gold, one of them absconded with it. The other recovered the money by the boot-trick.

In Cinq Cents Contes et Apologues (Chavannes), vol. ii, p. 316, a Brahmana who had some peas which were so old that it was impossible to cook them, took them to the market, and exchanged them for an ass which would never move when a load was put on its back, each of the barterers thinking he had got the best of the bargain.

In the Sierra Leone stories, Cunnie Rabbit, etc. (Cronise and Ward), p. 300, there is a variant of the latter part of the Sinhalese tale in an account of two greedy men who lived in the east and west. The eastern man came to the western man’s house carrying a box, and would not leave, intending to share in the rice that had been cooked. The owner of the house at last lay down, and told his wife to say he had died. The visitor remained all night, supplied clothes for the corpse, made a coffin, dug the grave, and had nearly covered the body when it requested to be taken out. In the end, the visitor got a share of their food.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

The names indicate that they were men of villages called Gampola and Raehigama.

[2]:

A forest tree (Myristica iriya).

[3]:

Betel leaves are packed in a special manner for carrying, enclosed above and below by circular plaited frames which everyone recognises.

[4]:

Viyadama, expenses, but also employed with the meaning, “articles of food for which expenditure would be incurred”—that is, the results of it.

[5]:

A favourite amusement of the little black humped bulls if they can get at them.

[6]:

See the Jataka story, No. 486 (vol. iv, p. 184), for a parenthesis like this in the middle of a sentence. There are many instances in these Folk-tales.

[7]:

Two valuable slippers or shoes are laid on a road at some distance apart. An approaching traveller passes the first one, which would be useless alone, but on seeing the second leaves his load at it and returns for the first one. The thief, who is hidden near the second one, then goes off with the load.