Story 6 - The Millet Trader

AT a certain city two men were cutting jungle, it is said. Having cut it for many days, one man said,

“Friend, I will go and bring millet ^[1] to sow in this chena clearing; you continue to cut the jungle.”

The other man said “Ha” (Yes), and that man went to seek millet.

Having gone to a village, he went along asking the way to a house where there was millet. After he had gone there it became night, so he remained in a shed at the house. A lucky hour had been fixed by astrology for cutting the hair [for the first time] of a child at the house, on the following day after that.

Having told at the hand of his wife to put rice in water [to clean it], and to cook cakes from it, the man of the house that evening went to the watch-hut in his chena. The woman having pounded the rice and cooked cakes, selected the best cakes and put them in the rice mortar in order to give them to another man. The millet trader in the shed remained there looking on.

Afterwards the man who went to the watch hut returned, and when he was eating the cakes said,

“Give a couple of cakes from them to that millet trader.”

Then the woman having selected burnt, very burnt ones, and given them to the millet trader, the trader saying,

“I cannot bite these,”

put the cakes on the others in the rice mortar, and pounded them. The woman scowled at the millet trader, but because her husband was present she was unable to say anything, so she remained silent. The millet trader, having pounded all the cakes and eaten, tied up the surplus ones and put them aside.

After that, the man went again to the watch hut. Then that woman quickly put a gill of rice in water, and having pounded it into flour and very hurriedly cooked cakes, placed them in the house, and lay down in it.

The millet trader awoke, and while he was there looking about, saw a man coming. Arising quickly, he came to the open space in front of the house and coughed.

Then the man, thinking

“Perhaps the man is at the house,”

went back again.

After that, the millet trader went inside the house. That woman taking those cakes gave them in the dark to the millet trader, and said,

“Ando ! When I was cooking cakes I put the best cakes in the rice mortar in order to give them to you. Then, after being in the watch hut he (the husband) came, and while eating the cakes said to me, ‘ Give a couple of cakes to that millet trader'; so I gave them.

After that, the millet trader, that Rodiya, having put the cakes in the rice mortar that was full of the best cakes, pounded them and ate. Then I again put a gill of rice into water, and pounded it into flour, saying that you will come; and only just now finished cooking.”

The millet trader said,

“Ha. It is good,”

and ate.

Afterwards the woman said,

“Now then, are we not cutting the child’s hair to-morrow ? Now, what will you give on account of it ?”

The millet trader said,

“What have I got to give ? When coming for millet I only brought four tuttu.” ^[2]

Then the woman, saying,

“Be off! Be off! Rodiya ! Are you the millet trader, Bola ?”

drove him away.

When he had gone back to the shed, she again put a gill of rice in water, and having pounded it and very rapidly cooked cakes and brought them into the house, lay down.

Afterwards, while the millet trader was there looking about, he again saw that man coming, so he arose quickly, and came to the open space in front of the house and coughed. That man again went away.

After that, the millet trader went into the house again. That woman rose quickly, and gave those cakes to him, and said to the man,

“Ando! When I was cooking cakes to give to you I put the best cakes in the rice mortar. Afterwards he came from the watch hut, and while eating the cakes said to me,

‘Give a couple of cakes to that millet trader.’

So I gave them. Afterwards that Rodiya, putting the cakes in the rice mortar which was full of the best cakes, pounded them and ate.

Then I again put a gill of rice in water, and cooked more cakes. Then, while I was looking out for you, some one like you came in the dark. I gave them to him.

While he was eating them I said,

‘Now then, are we not cutting the child’s hair to-morrow ? What will you give ?’

That Rodiya said,

‘Only the four tuttu that I brought for millet.’

Then I got to know who it was. I drove him away, and again put a gill of rice in water, and pounded it, and I have only just finished cooking more cakes.”

The millet trader, saying,

“Ha. It is good,”

a,te the cakes.    .

Then the woman said,

“Now then, are we not cutting the child’s hair to-morrow ? What will you give ?”

The millet trader said,

“If you should ask me even another time, still the same four tuttu.”

The woman saying,

“Be off! Be off ! Millet trader, Rodiya ! Hast come again, thou !”

drove him away. Then it became light.

Afterwards, the man who went to the watch hut came, and handed over the millet to the millet trader. On his giving it, the millet trader, tying it up in two bundles and placing them on his head, set off to go into the house.

That man saw it, and asked,

“Where are you going there ?”

The millet trader replied, " I don’t know. During the whole of last night they were going and coming along this very way, so I thought,' Maybe this is a high road.’ ”

The man said,

“Put down the packages of millet there,”

and having gone to the millet store-room, and handed over a greater quantity from the millet in it, beat that woman.

From there the millet trader went to another village, and sitting down at a house unfastened that package, of pounded cakes, and was eating them.

A woman who was Looking on said,

“Ade ! What are you eating ?”

The trader said,

“They are pounded cakes of our country.”

The woman saying,

“The colour of them is good indeed ; give me some to look at,”

begged and got some.

After eating them she said,

“Ade ! These millet cakes have a sweet taste ; they are indeed good.”

The trader replied,

“In our quarter the millet is of that very sort; let us go there together if you like.”

The woman said “Ha” and having taken out all the effects, in the house placed them in the jungle, ready for taking when she went.

Afterwards, taking those things, as they were getting very far away the man said,

“What have you forgotten ? Consider well.”

The woman replied,

“I have not forgotten anything. I only forgot my flowered hair comb. It is of the pattern of my flowered hair pin.”

The trader said,

“To be without a flowered hair comb is not proper in my country. I shall be here; you go and fetch it.

If I should not be here on your return, call me, saying,

‘Day-before-Yesterday ! Day-before-Yesterday!’

My name is Day-before-Yesterday (Pereda).”

Then the woman came running home. When she returned, taking the flowered hair comb, the man was not there. So saying,

“Day-before-Yesterday! Day-before-Yesterday!”

the woman called and called. The man was not there.

The woman returned home, weeping and weeping. While she-was there, her husband, having gone somewhere or other, came back, and asked,

“What are you crying for ?”

The woman said,

“He who was taking millet, Day-before-Yesterday, plundered the house.”

The man said,

“If he plundered the house day before yesterday, why didst thou not tell me yesterday ?”

The woman replied,

“Not day before yesterday. He who was taking millet, Day-before-Yesterday.”

Then the man said,

“Isn’t that just what I’m saying ? When he plundered the house day before yesterday, why didst thou not tell me yesterday ?”

Having said this, he beat the woman.

When the millet trader, taking the effects and the bundles of millet, went from there carrying his load, he came to another village. On going to a house, a woman was there weeping and weeping.

As the man was placing the effects and the millet bundles on the veranda of the house, he said,

“Appe! I have been to the other world and back,” ^[3]

and laying them on the veranda, said,

“What are you crying for, mother ?”

The woman said,

“My daughter died six days ago. When I think of her I am weeping.”

Then she asked the millet trader,

“Ane ! My Latti went to the other world ; did you meet her there ?”

The millet trader said,

“Don’t cry, mother. I did meet her there. She is now in the other world. I have taken in marriage that very Latti. I have come for Latti’s things that she puts on her arms and neck. She told me to come.”

The woman quickly arose, and having cooked abundantly for the trader, and given him to eat, he said,

“Mother, I must go immediately. Where is father-in-law ?”

“He went to plough ; wait till he comes,”

she said.

“I cannot,”

he said.

“It is our wedding feast to-morrow. I must be off now to go to the wedding.”

So she gave the trader the silver and golden things for placing on her daughter’s arms and neck, also. Then the trader taking the bundles of millet, the effects, and the things for the arms and neck, went away.

After that, when the woman’s husband who had gone to plough came, the woman was laughing. Seeing it, he asked,

“What are you laughing at ?”

The woman replied,

“Bolan, why shouldn’t I laugh ? Our son-in-law came.”

“What son-in-law ?” the man asked.

The woman said over and over again,

“Latti’s man came, Latti’s man came. Our son-in-law, to whom our daughter is given in the other world. It is true.”

The man asked,

“Bola, can any one in the other world come to this world ? Didst thou cook and also give him to eat ?”

The woman replied,

“What! Didn’t I cook and give him to eat ! After I had given him to eat he said that Latti had told him to take away the things for her arms and neck. So I gave him those also.”

Then the man said,

“Where is now, Bola, the horse that was here ?”

and asking

“Which way did he go ?”

and mounting on the horse’s back, went to seek that millet trader.

As the trader was going along in the rice field he looked back, and having seen a man coming on horseback, said,

“That one is coming to seize me.”

There was a Timbiri tree very near there into which he climbed. While he was there, that man making the horse bound along, having come up, tied the horse to the root of the Timbiri tree. After he had climbed up the tree to catch the trader, the trader, descending from the ends of the Timbiri branches and cutting the fastening, mounted the horse, after placing on it also the bundles of millet and the other goods, and went off on the horse.

Then that man descended slowly from the tree, and having called “Hu” to the millet trader [to arrest his attention], said,

“Tell Latti that your mother-in-law gave you a few things to put on her arms and neck, but your father-in-law gave you a horse.”

Having returned to the house, he said to the woman,

“It is true. He is really Latti’s man. I said ' Don’t go on foot,’ and having given him the horse I came back.”

The woman said,

“Isn’t it so indeed ! I told you so.”

Then the millet trader having gone to his village, and divided the goods with the chena cultivator, sowed the millet in the chena, and remained there.

North-western Province.

 

Note 1:

The story about Latti’s husband occurs in The Orientalist, vol. i, p. 62, the dead girl’s name being Kaluhami. Her father was a Gamarala, and the man who carried off the things for. her was a beggar.

This part of the story is also given, with slight variations, in Tales of the Sun, Southern India (Kingscote and Natesha Sastri), p. 135 ff.

In Folklore in Southern India (Natesha Sastri), p. 131 ff., the rogue did not pretend to be married to the woman’s daughter, but represented to her that her parents were living in the other world in a very miserable state, without proper clothing, and without the means of purchasing food. She handed over to him the clothing, jewels, and cash in the house, and he went off at once with them. The ending of the incident is the same as in Ceylon.

In The Indian Antiquary, vol. xviii, p. 120, there is a story from Southern India, by Pandita Natesha Sastri, in which a youth obtained work under an appa ^[4] (or “hopper”) woman, giving his name as “Last Year.” When he absconded with her cash-box she gave the alarm in the village by saying,

“Last Year (he) stole and took my box,”

and was thought to be out of her mind.

In The Orientalist, vol. ii, p. 182, the incident of the cakes pounded in the mortar is related. After eating part of the pounded cakes, the traveller was about to enter the corn-store in which the woman had concealed her lover. On the woman’s stopping him, the husband's suspicions being aroused he examined the com-store, and finding the man in it, beat him well, and his own wife also.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Amu (Paspalum scrobiculatum), the Tamil Varaku, a small grain cultivated in jungle clearings.

[2]:

Three halfpence.

[3]:

Elawa gihin melawa awa, “Having gone to that world I came to this world.” This is a common saying, meaning in village talk, “What a long and tiring journey I have had.” According to the Rev. C. Alwis it also means, “I almost died, and recovered.” (The Orientalist, vol. i, p. 62.)

[4]:

Light rice cakes.