Village Folk-tales of Ceylon (Sri Lanka), vol. 1-3
by Henry Parker | 1910 | 406,533 words
This folk-tale entitled “the kadambawa men and the bush” is gathered from oral sources sources, tracing its origin to ancient Ceylon (Sri Lanka). These tales are often found to contain similarities from stories from Buddhism and Hinduism. This is the story nr. 43 from the collection “stories of the tom-tom beaters”.
Story 43 - The Kadambawa Men And The Bush
AS the Kadambawa men were going away with some drums one night, to attend a devil-dance, they met with a Wara [1] bush on the path, which looked like an elephant.
The men became afraid, thinking,
“Maybe an elephant has come onto the path.”
At the shaking of the leaves of the Wara bush they said,
“He is shaking his ears.”
Being afraid to go past the elephant, they beat the drums until it became light, to frighten the Wara bush. When they looked after it became light, it was not an elephant; it was a Wara tree. After that, they came back to their village. So they had neither the devil-dance nor went to sleep.
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
Calatropis gigantea.