Story 177 - The Female Lark

IN a certain country a female Lark^[1] having laid two eggs on the path on which they go and come at a rock, remained sitting on the two with affection.

One day, when a tusk elephant was going along the path the elephant placed its foot on the two eggs; so the two eggs were broken to pieces.

Owing to it the female Lark became at enmity with the tusk elephant, thinking that she must kill it; and one day having gone near the Frog the bird said,

“Friend, laying two eggs on the path on which all go and come at such and such a rock, I remained sitting on the two with affection. [Although] so many persons went by there, nothing happened to those two eggs. One day the tusk elephant having come, trampled on my two eggs, and having broken them to pieces went away. On account of it, of what assistance will you be to me ?”

Then the Frog says,

“Ane ! Friend, I will be of any assistance you tell me.”

After that, the female Lark, having said,

“It is good,”

and having gone from there, went near the Crow.

Having gone there, she says to the Crow,

“Ane ! Friend, having laid two eggs on the path on which all go and come at such and such a rock, I remained sitting on the two with affection. [Although] so many persons went along the path, nothing happened to my two eggs. One day the tusk elephant having come, trampled on the two eggs, and having broken them to pieces went away. On account of it, of what assistance will you be to me ?”

Then the Crow says,

“Ane ! Friend, I will be of any assistance you tell me.”

After that, the female Lark said,

“It is good.”

At that time, there not being water in the water-holes there was much drought. One day the tusk elephant, being without water, is walking about seeking it.

The bird having seen it, —in the garden where the tusk elephant was walking there was a very deep pool like a tunnel, —the bird having gone near the Frog, said,

“Friend, to-day the tusk elephant being without water is walking about seeking it. In the garden in which the tusk elephant is walking there is a pool like a tunnel. You go to the pool and cry out

. Then the tusk elephant having said,

‘There is water indeed,’

will come there.”

After that, the Frog came and cried out in the pool. Then the tusk elephant thought,

“At the place where that Frog is crying out there will indeed be water.”

Thinking “At places where there is nothing Frogs do not cry out,” it went there. When it was listening and looking, the tusk elephant fell into that pool which was like a tunnel. Well then, the tusk elephant cannot come ashore from there.

The Frog, having come ashore, says to the female Lark,

“Look there. Friend, I was of another assistance [to you]. Now then, you look [after it yourself].”

Having said it the Frog went to a tank.

After that, the female Lark having gone near the Crow, says to the Crow,

“Ane ! Friend, that tusk elephant which broke into bits my two eggs has fallen into the pool in such and such a garden. You go and pluck out its eyes, and pierce and pierce its face in two or three places with your bill, and come back.”

After that, the Crow having come, plucked out the tusk elephant’s two eyes and ate them; and having pierced and pierced the face in two or three places with its bill, came ashore, and said to the female Lark,

“Look there. Friend, I was of another assistance [to you]. Now then, you look [after it yourself].”

Having said it the Crow went away.

After that, the female Lark having gone near the Bee says to the Bee,

“Friend, the Frog was of assistance to me, the Crow also was of assistance to me; only you have not yet been. The tusk elephant that broke to pieces my two eggs has fallen into the pool at such and such a garden, and his eyes have been plucked out. You go and beat [and sting] his head.”

After that, the Bee having come and beaten the tusk elephant’s head, the tusk elephant died in that very pool. Afterwards the Bee also went away.

On account of it, they still say in the form of verse:—

Being a handful merely, the Bush Lark Hen
Got a tusker killed. Was it right, O Hen ?^[2]

North-western Province.

 

Note:

According to a variant from Uva, the nest of the bird, containing its two young ones, fell on the path on which the elephants passed. The bird begged them to be careful, and not to tread on them, but the king of the elephants deliberately trampled on the young birds. With the help of the crow, the blue-fly, and the frog, the elephant was killed, and the bird then strutted about on its dead body.

With regard to the elephant’s falling into the pool and being unable to get out, the very thing occurred during a severe drought in the North-western Province in 1877. At a small pool in the upper part of a low rock in the forest, a few miles from Maha-Uswaewa, my station at that time, a female elephant and her young one fell into the water, and were unable to escape because of the steep smooth sides. When I heard of it I sent an overseer with some men, to feed them and release them by throwing in a quantity of branches. This succeeded better than we anticipated; by mounting on the heap of branches they managed to escape during the night, so that we did not capture them as we intended. When the narrator of the folk-story described the pool as being “like a tunnel,” he doubtless meant a vertical tunnel or shaft, having steep sides up which the elephant could not ascend.

In The Jataka, No. 357 (vol. iii, p. 115), this folk-tale is given, with an evident addition at the beginning, so as to adapt it for service as illustrating the goodness of the Bodhisatta, and the wickedness of Devadatta, his rival. The Bodhisatta, as the leader of a vast herd of elephants, sheltered a quail’s young ones under his body until his herd had passed. Then came a “rogue ” elephant (Deva-datta) and wilfully trampled on them. The quail got a crow, a blue-fly, and a frog to mislead and destroy the animal. The crow pecked its eyes out, the fly laid its eggs in the sockets, and the frog induced the blinded animal to fall over a precipice below which it croaked. This story being illustrated in the carvings at Bharahat must be of earlier date than 250 b.c.

In Le Pantcha-Tantra of the Abbe Dubois, a South Indian version, the same story is given, the bird being a kind of large lark, according to the Abbe’s note. When the bird’s eggs were broken, the jackal summoned a crow, a gadfly, and a frog, and went with them in search of the elephant. The crow pecked its eyes, the gadfly entered one of its ears, the frog sprang into an adjoining well and croaked as loudly as possible. The elephant, rushing in search of water in which it might escape from its tormentors, jumped or fell into the well.

In the Tota Kahani (Small), p. 204, a pair of birds—“Sugar-eaters”—made a nest in a tree against which an elephant rubbed its back, the shaking thus caused making the eggs fall out of the nest. One of the birds, determined to be revenged, consulted a bird which had a long bill, a bee, and a frog, and obtained their assistance. The bee intoxicated the elephant by its “ravishing hum,” the bird pecked out its eyes, and the frog enticed it to a deep pit into which it fell.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Kaeta kirilli, probably a Bush Lark (Mirafra affinis). One or two other species have this name in Sinhalese, but not the Quail.

[2]:

Mitak witara aeti e kaeta kirilli
Ætek maerewwa. Harida kirilli ?