Story 35 - How A Jackal Settled A Lawsuit.

IN a village there is a rich foolish man. One son was born to the man. When they had been there in that way for a long time, as the rich man’s son was growing up, his father died. Then all this wealth came into the hands of his son. The son was a fool just like the father.

One day, having seen a wealthy man going in a carriage in which a horse was yoked, that rich man’s son thought he ought to go in that way in a carriage in which a horse was yoked.

This rich man having gone home spoke to a servant, and said,

“I will give thee thy expenses for going and coming. Go thou, and buy and bring me a horse,”

he said. Having said it, he gave him a hundred masuran, and having given them sent him away.

This servant having gone on and on, went to a great big country. Having gone there, he made inquiry throughout the country —

“Are there horses to sell in this country ?”

Then a man of that country said,

“The Gamarala of this country has many horses,”

he said. This servant who went to bring horses having given a masurama to the man whom he had met, said,

“Please show me the house of the Gamarala who has the horses,”

he said. So the man, calling the servant, having gone to the Gamarala’s house, sent him there.

The Gamarala asked these men,

“What have you come here for ?”

The servant who went to get horses said,

“I have come to take a horse for money,”

he said.

“For whom ?” he asked.

“For a rich man in a village,”

he said.

Having given fifty masuran he got a horse. After he got it he again gave a masurama to that man who went with him. Having given it, and the two persons having gone a considerable distance,^[1] this man left both the horse and the man to go [alone], and went home.

When the servant had taken the horse, and gone a considerable distance, after he looked [he found that] night was coming on.

On seeing it, taking the horse and saying,

“This night I cannot go,”

having sought and sought for a resting-place, he met with a place where there were chekkus (mills for expressing oil). There this man found a resting-place ; and having tied the horse to an oil-mill, this servant went to a village, and ate and drank, and having returned went to a shed at the side of the oil-mill, and lay down to sleep. Having become much fatigued because he had brought this horse very far, the servant went to sleep.

At dawn, the man who owned the oil-mill, having arisen and come near the oil-mill, when he looked saw that a horse was tied near the oil-mill.

So this man thought,

“Last night the oil-mill gave birth to a horse”;

and unloosing it from the place where it was tied, the owner of the oil-mill, having taken the horse home, tied it in the garden.

Then the servant having opened his eyes, after he looked, because the horse was not near the oil-mill went seeking it.

Having seen it tied in a garden close to a house, he spoke to the [people in the] house,

“Having tied this horse near the oil-mill, in the night I went to sleep. This one breaking loose in the night came here.”

Unfastening it, as he was making ready to go, the man who owned the house came running, [and saying],

“Where did my oil-mill give birth to this horse for thee last night ?”

he brought the horse back, and began to scold the servant. Then the servant thought,

“Now I shall not be allowed to go and give this horse to the rich man. Because of it, I must go for a lawsuit.”

As he was going seeking a trial he met with a place where lawsuits were heard.

The servant having gone [there] told the judge about the business :

“ When I was bringing yesterday the horse that I am taking for a rich man, it became night while I was on the road. As there was no way to go or come, I tied and placed the horse at this oil-mill, and went to sleep. Having arisen in the morning, after I looked, because the horse that I brought was not there I went looking and looking along its foot-prints.

Having seen that it was tied in the garden near the house of the oil-mill worker, thinking,

‘This one breaking loose has come here,’

I unfastened it. As I was making ready to bring it away, having scolded me and said that the oil-mill gave birth to the horse, he took it,” he said to the judge ; and stopped.

Then the judge says,

“If the oil-mill gave birth to the horse, the horse belongs to the man who owns the oil-mill,”

the judge said.

The servant having become grieved says, " What am I to do now ? Without the masuran which the rich man gave me, and without the horse that I got after giving fifty masuran, having gone to the village what shall I say to the rich man, so that I may escape ? ” he said with much grief.

Then a Jackal having come there along the same road, and having seen it, asks the servant,

“Because of what matter are you going sorrowing in this way ?”

The servant says to the Jackal,

“Jackal-artificer,^[2] is the trouble that happened to me right to thee, according to what was said ?”

As they were going along, the Jackal, having gone behind him, asks again,

“Tell me a little about it, and let us go. More difficult things than that have happened to us—folds [full] of scare-crows tangled together. As we cleared up those with extreme case there is no difficulty in clearing up this also.”

So the Jackal-artificer said to the servant.

Then the servant told the Jackal the way in which the rich man gave the servant one hundred masuran ; the way in which, having given fifty masuran, he got the horse ; the way in which, having brought the horse, he tied and placed it at the oil-mill; the way in which the oil-mill owner, unfastening the horse, went and tied it; the way in which, after he went to ask for it he would not give it, saying that the oil-mill gave birth to the horse, and came to scold him ; then also what the judge said. The servant told [these] to the Jackal-artincer, making all clear.

Then the Jackal-artificer says,

“Ane! That’s thick work. I’ll put that right for you. You must assist me also,”

he said.

“You yourself having gone near the judge again, and made obeisance, you must say,

‘The oil-mill did not give birth to the horse. The owner of the oil-mill, unfastening it from the place where I tied it, took it away. I have evidence .of it. Having heard the evidence please do what you want,'”

so the Jackal taught him.

So the servant having gone, made obeisance to the judge.

“What have you come again for ?”

the judge asked.

Then the servant says,

“The oil-mill did not give birth to the horse. Unfastening it from the place where I tied it, and having gone, he tied it up. I have evidence of it. Having heard the evidence do what you want, Sir,”

he said.

The judge says,

“It is good. Who is your witness ?”

“The Jackal-artincer,” he said. So the judge sent a message to the Jackal to come. That day the Jackal did not come. On the following day, also, he sent a message. He did not come. Next day he sent a message. That day the Jackal, having thoroughly prepared himself, came to the judgment court.

After the judge asked,

“Dost thou know about this lawsuit ?”

“Yes, Sir,” the Jackal-artificer said.

“Why didst thou not come yesterday,”

the judge asked the Jackal.

“Yesterday I did not come ; I saw the sky,”

he said. While saying it the Jackal was sleepy.

Again he asked,

“Why didst thou not come on the first day ?”

“On that day I saw the earth,”

he said. While saying it the Jackal was sleepy.

“Why hast thou come to-day ?”

he asked.

“To-day I saw the fire,”

he said.

“Having seen the sky why didst thou not come ?”

the judge asked.

Then the Jackal says,

“O Lord, the sky cannot be trusted. Sometimes it rains, sometimes it clears up. Because of that I did not come.”

Having said it he was sleepy.

“Having seen the earth why didst thou not come ?”

he asked.

“That also cannot be trusted,”

he said,

“In some places there are mounds, in some places it is flat; in some places there is water, in some places there is not water,”

he said. Having said it he was sleepy.

“What hast thou come to-day for ?”

the judge asked.

“To-day I saw the fire,”

he said.

“Because of that I came,”

he said. Then the Jackal says,

“After the fire has blazed up you do not look after your cold hut. I do not look after my palace also.” ^[3]

Having said it the Jackal was sleepy.

On account of that saying the judge having become angry,

“Being here what art thou sleeping for ?”

he asked.

“Ane ! O Lord who will become a thousand Buddhas [in future existences], I am very sleepy indeed,”

he said.

“Why, Bola ?” he asked.

“Last night I went to look at the fishes sporting on the land. Because of that I am sleepy,”

he said.

Then the judge having become angry with the Jackal, says very severely,

“Having beaten him, cast ye him out.”

This rascally Jackal having prayed with closed paws, saying,

“O Lord, who will become a thousand Buddhas,”

fell down and made obeisance.

“In what country, Bola, Jackal, do the fish who are in the water sport on the land ?” the judge asked the Jackal.

The Jackal said,

“I must receive permission [to ask also a question], O Lord. How does an oil-mill which expresses the kinds of oils give birth to horses ?”

Then the judge, having become ashamed and his anger having gone, told the rich man’s servant to take away the horse.

Village Vaedda of Bintaenna.

 

Note:

In Indian Fables, p. 45, Mr. P. V. Ramaswami Raju gives a South Indian variant of the latter part of this story. A thief stole a horse that was tethered to a tree, and then stated that he saw the tree eat the horse. The case was referred to a fox [jackal].

The fox said he felt dull.

“All last night the sea was on fire; I had to throw a great deal of hay into it to quench the flames, so come tomorrow and I shall hear your case.”

When he was asked how hay could quench flames, he replied,

“How could a tree eat up a horse ?”

In Indian Nights’ Entertainment, Panjab (Swynnerton), p. 142, there is a Story about a foal that was born in the night while a mare was left near an oil-press, and was claimed by the oil man. The King who tried the case decided that the

“mare could not possibly have had this foal, because, you see, it was found standing by the oil-press.”

A jackal assisted the owner to recover it, and fell down several times in the court, explaining that during the night the sea caught fire, and he was tired out by throwing water on it with a sieve, to extinguish it. When asked how this could be possible, the jackal retorted by inquiring if any one in the world ever heard of an oil-press’s bearing a foal.

In the interior of West Africa there is a variant, given in Contes Soudanais (C. Monteil), p. 23. A mare was buried near a house, and a pumpkin spread from the adjoining piece of land, until it extended round the stake 'to which she was formerly tied. When the owner of the pumpkin split open a fruit that grew near the stake, there were two foals inside it, which the owner of the mare claimed. The judgment was that as a dead mare could not bear foals nor a pumpkin contain horses, neither of the claimants had a right to the foals; but as one sowed the pumpkin, and the other had watered it, each should take one foal.

In another tale in the same volume, p. 141, a hyaena had a bull and a hare a cow, which bore a calf in the hare’s absence. This was claimed by the hyaena, as having been borne by the bull. The dispute was referred to a male rat, which sent its young ones to say that it could not leave its hole, as it was about to bear young ones. When the hyaena laughed at the idea, and inquired when such an occurrence had been known, the rat replied,

“Since it has been the bulls which bore calves.”

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Hungak dura, “a great deal far,” a common village expression.

[2]:

Nari-nayide; see also No. 56, and p. 28.

[3]:

The meaning is that no appearances can be trusted, not even those of the earth and sky; but that sometimes untrustworthy things, even such a dangerous thing as fire, are wrongly trusted. He was referring to the judge’s acceptance of the ridiculous statement regarding the birth of the horse.