Story 180 - The Foolish Bird

^[1]

IN a certain country a hen bird laid eggs on a rock; when she was there a considerable time young ones were hatched from the eggs. While the young ones are on the rock, the bird having come [after] seeking food, gives it to the young ones.

One day, when the bird was going seeking and seeking food, there was a Mi tree^[2] in the jungle. The Mi flowers of that Mi tree had fallen on the ground. The bird, gathering the flowers, and having come and spread them out on the rock on which were the young ones, said to the young ones,

“Children, until the time when I come [after] seeking food for you, look after these.”

Afterwards the young ones, having said “Ha,” stayed looking in the very direction of the Mi flowers. The bird went to seek food.

The sun’s heat having fallen on them, [through their] drying and drying up the Mi flowers became extremely less; when one looked the Mi flowers were not even to be seen.

The bird seeking food and having come, when she looked there were no Mi flowers. Having said,

“The young birds ate them, indeed,”

she asked the young ones about it. The young birds said,

“We did not eat them.”

The bird having become angry and said,

“If ye did not eat them, who ate them ?”

struck all the young birds on the rock and killed them.

Then the white lotus throne of Shakra, the Divine King, having become hot, he rained a rain. When it was thus raining it soaked those Mi flowers that had dried up, and [as they expanded again] the rock was filled with them in the same manner as before.

The bird having been looking on, said,

“Ane ! My foolishness in killing my children !”

and called her children. She called them in the manner of verse:—

They dried and dried until they shrank; my children on the rock I’ve slain.

KingSakra’s eyes divine beheld; he rainshd down a flowery rain. Then in the very form they had, a rock was filled with flowers again; But crying, " Son ! My callow ones !” your mother called to you in vain.

That indeed. Now also, those birds saying “Kuturun, Son, Son l”¹ call them.

North-western Province.

 

Note:

The text of the verse is:—

Weli weli adu-wena turu, daruwan gale gaesuwa.
Saek rajune diwas bala, mal waessak waessa.
Etakota mal tibunu lesama galen ekak piruna.
“Pubborun, pute,” kiya, amma anda-gaesuwa.

In a variant by a Tom-tom Beater the verse is:—

Blossoms of jungle tree I saw and brought, and on the rock I strew.

They dried and dried until they shrank; my children then I beat and slew.

Now, crying, " Kuturu, Son, ku I” your mother vainly calls to you.

Kaele gase pub daekala, gale genat waenuwa.
Weli weli adu-wena turu, aaruwan gasala maeruwa.
“Kuturu, pute, ku,”^[3] kiya, amma a[n]da-gasati.

In Cinq Cents Contes et Apologues (Chavannes), vol. ii, p. 228, two pigeons collected ripe fruits and filled their nest with them. During drought which followed they shrank considerably; the male pigeon charged the female with eating them alone, and although she denied it he said, " If it were not that you have eaten them alone how could they have decreased ?” and pecked her to death. When rain which fell afterwards caused the fruits to enlarge to their former size, the bird'saw it, and felt remorse, and " then began to call his female with plaintive cries.”

In the Arabian Nights (Lady Burton’s ed., vol. iv, p. 117) there is a similar story. A pair of pigeons collected a store of wheat and barley during winter, but when summer came it was shrivelled with the heat, and shrank. The male pigeon charged the hen with eating it; when she denied it he beat and pecked her till he killed her. In the next cold season the grain swelled out again as at first; and the male pigeon, seeing that the hen was innocent, mourned over her, refused food, and died of grief. Sir R. Burton refers also to a variant in the Book of Sindibad, and Kalilah and Damnah.

In the last line of the text of the verse on the preceding page, if Kutum be corrected to Kutum, and if the bird’s cry is to be interpreted, the meaning might be,

“[my] falsehood is great, O Son, [and my] guilt.”

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Another title is, “The Story of the Female Turtle Dove.”

[2]:

Bassia longifolia.

[3]:

An imitation of the notes of the Turtle Dove (Turtur suratensis).