Story 121 - How The Rice And Curry Became Raw

AT a certain time there were a woman and her husband, two persons. During the time while they were [there], one day the husband said to the woman,

“I am going to-day to the watch-hut. Having gone there, I shall not come back to-morrow morning; I shall be delayed, ploughing the field below that field. Because of it, you must bring me cooked rice to-morrow morning.”

Then the woman during the whole night^[1] having abundantly given food and the like to her paramours, without sleeping, it became light. After that, the woman went to sleep.

[After] going to sleep, being without the means of bringing cooked rice [through want of time to cook it], she washed rice, putting it in a cooking-pot, and cut up dried fish and brinjal,^[2] putting them raw into a large cooking-pot, and took them to the rice field [uncooked].

After she went, that man said,

“Bola! Strumpet! Didst thou stay with thy paramours until so much time has gone ?”

and scolded her [for being late].

Thereupon, this woman, saying,

“Apoyi! Because you said such a vile word to me may the cooked rice and curry which I brought for you become raw,”

put them down on the ground.

When the man looked, the woman’s speech was true; the cooked rice and curry had become raw. After that, the man, having said to the woman that she was a good woman, thoroughly respected her.

North-central Province.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Rae tisse, during the thirty [paeyas, each being twenty-four minutes] of night.

[2]:

Egg-plant, or aubergine (Solarium sp.).