Story 133 - A Poor Man And A Woman

AT a certain city there were a poor woman and a man.

Because the two persons had not [anything] to eat and to wear, the woman having pounded and pounded [paddy] obtained a livelihood.

When not much time had gone in this manner, being unable to pound and eat, her strength and ability [to work] went. Thereupon she one day having beaten the man with the broom,^[1] and having said,

“Strumpet’s son, bring thou from somewhere or other things for food,”

seized him by the hair-knot, and cast him out of the door-way.

Then the man, through shame at what the woman had done, having gone along a road and sat down at a tree, when the time for eating rice came, wept.

Thereupon, the Devatawa who stayed in that tree came and asked at the hand of the man,

“Bola, what art thou crying for ?”

Then this man says,

“O Lord, my wife having become without strength or ability [to work], because we two were unable to obtain [anything] having beaten me with the broom, seized me by the hair-knot and put me outside. Having come [here] owing to it, because I cannot bear my hunger I wept.”

The Devatawa asked,

“What dost thou want ?”

The man said,

“I want goods.”

Thereupon the Devatawa, having given the man three pills, says,

“Taking these three pills, having thought of the thing thou wantest cast them down. The things thou wantest will be created.”

Then the man, taking the pills, for one said,

“May my house be created a palace, together with the possession of wealth,”

and threw away one pill. In that manner this occurred.

For the next one he said,

“On each side of the door-way of my house, may a horse of silver and a tusk elephant of gold be created,”

and threw away a pill. In that manner they were created.

For the other one he said,

“A road to my house having been created, let a carriage for me to go in, and many things come into existence,”

and threw away the other pill. In that very way they were created. After that, having come home he remained in happiness.

After that, a woman of another house came to this house for fire. Having come and seen these matters, she asked this woman,

“Sister-in-law, how did you obtain these things ?”

Thereupon this woman says,

“Having beaten my husband with the broom, I caught him by the hair-knot, and put him out at the door-way, to seek goods and come back. After that, he went, and having been near a tree came back [after] receiving them.”

Having said [this], she told the woman about these matters [and that her husband received the things he thought of].

Afterwards the woman, having gone home and beaten the woman’s husband with the broom, caught him by the hair-knot, and put him out at the door-way. The man having gone also, stayed near the tree, weeping and weeping.

At that time, by the Devatawa three pills were given (lit., gave) to [this] man also. The man, taking them, came home.

Thereupon the woman having warmed water, and made him bathe, and given him to eat, and given him betel to eat, asked the man,

“What have you brought ?”

The man showed her the three pills.

The woman, taking the three pills in her hand, and having looked at them,said,

“Are these ani that you have brought?”

and threw them away. Then in every place on the woman’s body ani were created.

Then for three years having striven, finding the three pills she said,

“Leaving the anus which was there, may the others be obliterated,”

and having picked up the three pills she threw them away. Thereupon she became as at first.

North-central Province.

 

Note:

The plight of the woman is nearly similar to that of Indra after he had been cursed by Gautama for visiting Ahalya, as related in the Katha Sarit Sagara, vol. i, p. 123.

In Folklore in Southern India (Natesha Sastri), p. 208, while an indigent Brahmana was asleep in a forest, the God Siva and his wife Parvati ate his cooked rice, leaving in its place five magic cups of gold out of each of which an Apsaras came and served him with delicious food. After he had returned home and given a feast to the villagers, a rich landholder went ofi to obtain similar prizes, the God and Goddess ate his rice, and left five cups for him. As soon as he returned home he summoned the whole village to a feast; but when the cups were opened out several barbers issued from each, and held and shaved all the guests clean.

In the Arabian Nights (Lady Burton’s ed., vol. iv, p. 114) a man heard in the Night of Power that three prayers would be granted to him. After consulting his wife, he prayed that his nose might be magnified, as a sign of his nobility, and it became so large that he could not move. He then prayed to be rid of it, ,and his nose disappeared altogether; his last prayer caused it to be restored to its first state.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

See foot-note, vol. i, p. 50. 234