Story 157 - The Frog In The Queen’s Nose

IN a certain country there are a woman and a man, it is said. The woman has also a paramour. One day the man went to a rice field to plough. At that time, this woman having quickly cooked milk-rice, made it ready to give to her paramour to eat.

While that man (her husband) was ploughing, the yoke broke; after that, the man came home. Having seen that the man was coming, she quickly put the pot of milk-rice under the bed in the maduwa (open shed). That man as soon as he came sat upon the bed; then the man was burnt [by the hot rice under him]. Thereupon the man looked under the bed. When he was looking he saw the pot of milk-rice. Afterwards, having taken the milk-rice the man ate it.

At that time, when the Queen of the King of the country was smelling a flower, a little young frog that was in the flower had gone into her nose, seven days before. Up to that very time, six men came, saying that they can take out the frog; they came at the rate of a man a day. Having come there, when he is unable to take it out they cut the man’s neck. At that rate they beheaded the six men who came.

That day the King caused the proclamation tom-toms to be beaten:—

“To the person who should take out the young frog that is in the Queen’s nose, I will give a district from the kingdom, and goods [amounting] to a tusk elephant’s load.”

Then this woman having heard it, went running, and said,

“My husband can,”

and stopped the proclamation tom-toms.^[1] She stopped them because the man of the house ate the milk-rice without her succeeding in giving it to the paramour, with the motive that having killed this man she should take the paramour to live [there].

Having stopped the proclamation tom-toms, and come near her husband, she said,

“I stopped the proclamation tom-toms now. You go, and having taken out that young frog which is in the Queen’s nose, come back.”

Then this man through fear of death lamented, and said,

“Now six men have been beheaded, men who thoroughly know medical treatment. I not knowing anything of this, when I have gone there they will seize me at once and behead me. What is this you did ?”

Thereupon, through anger about the milk-rice she said,

“There is no staying talking and talking in that way. Go quickly.”

As she was saying the words, the messenger whom the King sent arrived there to take the man to the palace.

Well then, having [thus] quickly driven away the man, the woman speedily cooked milk-rice again, and having sent to the paramour to come, and given him to eat, made the man stop at that very house.

Then the woman says to the paramour,

“Thus, in that manner the gallows-bird^[2] of our house by this time will be killed. Now then, you remain [here] without fear.”

The paramour having said,

“It is good,”

stayed there.

Well then, when the messenger brought that man to the palace, he said to the King:

“Maharaja, Your Majesty, this man can take out the frog.”

While he was there, having become ready for death, the King, having been sitting at the place where the Queen is, says to this man,

“Ha, it is good. Now then, don’t stop [there] looking. If thou canst, apply medical treatment for this and take thou out the young frog. If thou canst not, be ready for death.”

Thereupon that man, having become more afraid also than he was, began to relate the things that happened to the man:—

“When to plough I went away,         snapped the wooden yoke in twain;
When the yoke in pieces broke,       slowly home I come again;
When I to the house returned,          I upon the bed remain;
When upon the bed I lay,                 felt my rear a burning pain;
When my hinder part I burned,        ’neath the bed I search amain;
Wben beneath the bed I look,          hidden milk-rice there had lain.
As I ate that rice, I ween                  these afflictions on me rain.
Having this affliction seen,              jump out, O Froggy-pawn!”^[3]

Having said [this] he ended. The Queen, from the time when he began to tell this story being without a place for passing down the breath, when this story was becoming ended, because that breath had been shut back gave a snort^[4] (huh gala), and when she was sending the breath from her nose, the young frog quite of itself fell to the ground.

Well then, having given this man a district from the kingdom, and goods [amounting] to a tusk elephant’s load, they made him stay at the palace itself. That woman became bound to that paramour.

North-western Province.

 

Note:

In the Arabian Nights (Lady Burton’s ed., vol. iii, p. 360), an Arab doctor was taken before a King, who ordered him to cure his sick daughter. He was told by the attendants that all who failed were put to death. He discovered that her malady was a religious one, and cured her.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

In The Kathakoça (Tawney), p. 29, when a king sent a crier with a drum to invite assistance in a certain affair of difficulty, a man stopped the proclamation by touching the drum.

[2]:

Kadappuliya, apparently derived from the Tamil words kadam, grave-yard, and pil.ei, to escape. The Tamil word would be kadappideiyar, he (hon) who escaped from the grave-yard. Compare vedippulaya (for vedippilieiyar), one who escaped from shooting (The Veddas, by Dr. and Mrs. C. G. Seligmann, p. 196).

[3]:

Handa giya kala                 wiya-gaha^a kaedune,
Wiya-gaha kaedu kala        gedarata emine,^b
Gedarata a kala                 aenda uda si tine,
Ænda uda siti kala             konda-pita daewe,
Konda-pita dae kala          aenda yata balane,
Mnda yata baelu kala        kiri-bata tibune.
Kiri-bata kalayi                 me duka waedune.
Me duka balala                  paenapan Gembiritta !

a. Lit., Yoke-tree, like our “axle-tree.”    

b. ? Hemin en[n]e.

[4]:

In trying to laugh at the man’s doggerel, according to the narrator.