Story 158 - Concerning A Bear And The Queen

AT a certain city there were a sister and two brothers. These three one day went to eat Damba [fruits]. Having gone thus, the two brothers went up the Damba tree,^[1] the sister remained on the ground.

At that time a Bear having come, went off, taking the woman. Having thus gone, placing her in a rock cave he provided subsistence for her. Thereupon the two brothers, being unable to find her, went home.

During the time while the Princess was in the rock cave she was rearing a cock. On yet [another] day the two Princes in order to make search for the Princess went into the midst of the forest. Then having heard the crowing of the cock which the Princess was rearing, they went to that place. At that time the Bear was not there; on account of food it went into the midst of the forest.

Then [the brothers] having met with the sister, they spoke to her. The Princess said,

“The time when the Bear comes is near. Because of that return to the village, and come to-morrow morning to go with me.”

So both of them went to the village.

After that, the Bear having come, at the words which he had heard walked away growling and growling with anger. Thereafter the two brothers came, and returned with the Princess to the village. Two children had been born to the Bear; with those two also they went.

Thereupon the Bear having come to the rock cave, and perceived when he looked that the Princess and children were not [there], came [after them] of his own accord.

When he came, he saw by the light the Queen and two children. Those two sprang off and went away.

The Bear asked the Queen,

“What are you going for ?”

“A cleverer Bear than you told me to come. Because of that I am going,”

she said.

The Bear having said,

“Where is there a cleverer Bear than I ? Show me him,”

went [with her].

Then the Queen, having gone near a well, showed the reflection of the Bear that was at the bottom of the water. At that time the Bear which was on the ground sprang into the well in order to bite the Bear that was in the well. Having sprung in he died.

Then the two brothers, and the Princess, and the two children went home and stayed there.

North-central Province.

 

Note:

In Le Pantcha-Tantra of the Abbe Dubois, the animals had made an agreement with a savage lion that one of them should be given to it each day. When the jackal’s turn came he determined to find some way of destroying their enemy. Seeing his own reflection in a well, he went to the lion and informed him that another lion was concealed in a well, and waiting for an opportunity to kill him. When the lion demanded to be shown him, the jackal led him to the well, showed him his own reflection, and the lion sprang at it. The jackal then summoned the other animals, which rolled large stones into the well and killed the lion.

In the Hitopadesha there is a similar story, the two animals being a lion and a stag which said another lion had delayed it.

In Indian Fables (Ramaswami Raju), p. 82, the animals were a tiger and hare.

In Folk-lore of the Telugus (G. R. Subramiah Pantulu), p. 15, they were a lion and fox (jackal) which stated that another lion had carried ofi a fox that it was bringing as the lion’s food.

In Indian Nights’ Entertainment (Swynnerton), p. 4, they were a tiger and a hare which laid the blame on another tiger for his being late, saying it claimed the country.

In Old Deccan Days (M. Frere), p. 172, they were a lion and a jackal and his wife who stated that they had been delayed by another lion.

In The Enchanted Parrot (Rev. B. H. Wortham) this story is No. XXXI. The animals were a lion and a hare which said he had been kept a prisoner by a rival lion. This is the form of the tale in the Katha Sarit Sagara (Tawney), vol. ii, p. 32.

In Folk-Tales from Tibet (O’Connor), p. gi, they were also a lion and a hare which recommended the lion to eat a large and fierce animal that lived in a pond, in place of itself.

In Fables and Folk-Tales from an Eastern Forest (W. Skeat), p. 2 8, they were a tiger and a mouse-deer which said it had been stopped by an old tiger with a flying-squirrel sitting on its muzzle, and so had been unable to bring it an animal for food. The squirrel which accompanied the mouse-deer sat on the tiger’s muzzle and the deer on its hind-quarters when it went to drive the other away. The tiger then sprang at its reflection in the river, and was drowned.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Jambu, the Rose-apple, Jambosa vulgaris.