This is TMI Z49.7. Bird who seeks carpenter to release young.
I have removed some of the linguistic notes (like the indications as to inclusive and exclusive pronouns) to make it easier to read, as well as changing some of the very literal translations to something more idiomatic in English. You can see Emeneau's literal translation online.
A Cumulative Story
About a thousand years ago, when our grandfathers went on going, like those who go to hunt daily, one day, our bird that tells omens, the karvaky, one day was crying in a tree.
The hunters said, "That is, as we see, the omen bird. We must not kill it. Let us ask it why it is crying! Come!" When they went there, they asked the karvaky, "Why are you crying?
It cried and said, "Fathers! Just when I had placed all my children in the hollow of this tree, just before I came getting food to fill our bellies, the tree grew together. Now how shall I see my children?"
They told it, "If we are to take your children from that tree and give them to you, only a man who does carpenter work, having cut with his chisel and having made your offspring to come outside, will give them to you. We for our part do not know how to do that."
It asked, "Then where shall I go, fathers?"
They told it, "There is in our village a man who does carpenter work. If you just go and bring him with you, your children will come to you."
That karvaky went to that carpenter and asked, "Father! My children are dying of hunger. Done an act of charity and open my nest. Grant it to me!"
He said, "A bird which is the son of a shaved-head has no work or the like. My troubles have to do with me. Your troubles have to do with you. Go and tell someone else to come!"
To that bird there came extreme sorrow. It asked, "To whom shall I go and ask so that it will be well? If I ask the carpenter's wife at least, I hope she will tell her husband to do it."
And it went and said to his wife, "Mother! Tell your husband to open the nest!"
To that she said, "You ugly-face! Do not talk with me here! Go away!"
What could the bird do, alas! It thought and looked and came near the milch cow and said, "Cow! I said to your owner to open my nest and grant it to me! He refused to open it and grant it to me. When I told his wife also, she refused. You at least, do me the favor!"
That cow said, "You make no sense."
So it went near the calf of that cow and asked, "Calf! Calf! When I said to your owner to open my nest and grant it to me, he refused to grant it to me. His wife also refused. Your mother also refused to help me. Therefore, you at least, help me!"
The calf said, "When all those refused to help, how shall I help?"
After that, that bird went lamenting through the jungle. There there was a big tiger. Having seen that karvaky, it asked, "Why are you lamenting?"
The karvaky said, "No one at all will help me. I am lamenting. How shall I live in this world?"
That tiger said, "I will teach and grant you a good trick. Without fail do like that!"
The karvaky asked, "How? Tell me, father!"
The tiger said, "Only the kirtib beetle is a kind of creature that is obedient to your words. Therefore, do as I say, and a man will come to open your nest and grant it to you."
The bird said, "How is that?"
The tiger said, "Catch a kirtib! Having caught it for your part, peck two pecks on its head. When you peck, it will cry and ask, 'What do you say that I should do, mother?' When it asks, say, 'Do as I say! Only if you do like that, I will not kill you and I will without fail release you. If not, I will without fail kill you!' At that time, when it says what it must do, you must say, 'You must go, and, when the calf drinks its mother's milk, you must go and must without fail pinch and bite the tail of that calf.' When the beetle says what next, you must say, 'When I have said to release it, you must release it.'"
The karvaky was glad and, when it went on searching for a kirtib, it saw how there was a big kirtib there, and it went and caught it and pecked two pecks on its head.
The beetle said, "Mother! Do not kill me! I will do as you say."
The bird came carrying that beetle to the house of that carpenter. Just at that time, the carpenter carried his milking pot and brought with him his wife to catch the calf, and let the cow out of the shed. When she caught the calf and let it go to the cow, the calf sucked milk. His wife stood there, saying, "Let us catch the calf!"
Her husband sat at the cow's udder. The calf was sucking. At that time, that karvaky said to the kirtib, "Go and without fail bite the calf's tail hard!"
The kirtib went and without fail bit the calf's tail hard. The calf without fail bit the cow's teat hard. The cow made one jump and with its horns hooked that man once. He took a stick that was near by and hit his wife two blows on the back. The calf ran bellowing in front and the cow ran behind, and these two ran to the edge of the forest.
So karvaky said to the beetle, "Release it!"
The beetle released it, and the calf's pain ceased.
The carpenter said, "Let us go and drive the cow!"
In that forest there was a tiger. That tiger however did not know that this cow and calf had come there.
This carpenter went and seized those hunters and said, "The tiger will bite and without fail kill my cow. The cow has gone just to the place where the tiger is. Therefore, let us kill the tiger and drive the cow! Come!"
Those hunters told him about the sorrow that the karvaky had just at that time previously. These are the hunters who had said, "If it were something that we could do, we would do it and grant it to you. Therefore, we are sorry for your children and for you." They had felt pity for the bird. If you ask why, it is because when these people go to hunt, this bird is telling omens whether game will be got and not be got, so the hunters had felt pity for this bird.
Therefore, those hunters said, "Carpenter! Several days ago when we said to open that bird's nest and grant it to it, did you grant it to it? Like what you said, it is for us to assent. Therefore, we will certainly not shoot the tiger. Only if you go first and open that bird's nest and return, then we will come bringing to you your cow and your calf and hand them over to you."
The carpenter called the karvaky and said, "Where is your nest? I want you to show me. Come!"
And the karvaky was glad and showed the tree with its nest. The carpenter, with care so that there should not be any harm to those young ones, struck with his hand to find the hollow and examined, and opened that nest and took those young birds out and let them go to the mother bird.
The karvaky said, "This nest for its part is not good, elder brother carpenter! Make it broad and make a good nest and give it to us so that my children and I and my husband, all of us, may go on prospering and eating!"
Just according to that, he made a good nest and picked good grass and arranged it there so that warmth should strike them, and he put the young ones inside that and called the karvaky and said, "You and your husband and your children, all of you, go on prospering and eating well!"
Having built that nest and granted it to it, after that, he went to those hunters.
Those hunters said, "As our proverb tells, it has become today like the proverbial saying: If you say, 'Peacock! peacock! Your feathers are beautiful. I want to play. Give me a feather!' does it give one to you? It does not give one. Therefore, you must catch it and put your foot on it and pluck a feather forcibly. Likewise, if that cow had not run away, would you have assented to our words? Therefore, from today on, realize certainly, however much each one of those who are men is able to do, that much he must do!"
Taking their bows and arrows, dogs, everything, they went to that jungle. When they went, a big tiger had stretched out its legs and lain down and was sleeping. The cow for its part was not there. Therefore, they said, "We must make the people's fear release them," and with the bows that they had they shot and killed that tiger.
As our proverb tells: If someone digs a pit, saying, "Let us kill a man," just he will fall into that pit. Likewise the tiger, which said, "I must catch and kill a cow and eat it," died at the hands of the hunters.
Therefore, another proverb of ours tells: If we think of one thing, god makes another thing. We must not at any time be with the desire, namely, "Let us destroy a man!"
After that, the hunters went to that carpenter and said, "We have killed the tiger. Do not fear! If your cow is in that neighborhood, you may come driving it. Go! The tiger is not there. Do not fear!" And they sent him off.
That carpenter, becoming courageous, wandered through all the forest and looked, and the calf and the cow, not having died, were well. Having come driving those to the house, when he looked at the calf, on the calf's tail a kirtib had bitten and made a skin wound. When he looked at the cow, the calf had bitten the cow's teat hard.
When he realized that, he said to his wife, "Wife! A kirtib for its part bit the calf. The calf for its part bit the cow's teat. The cow for its part hooked me. I for my part took a stick and beat you. All this is not our fault. I have found out, it is work that the karvaky did. Therefore, my wife, do not be angry with me! I will seize your feet in supplication."
When he looked at his wife's back, a swelling had risen in two or three places, alas! Therefore, because without reason he had beaten his wife who had been doing nothing at all, according to the custom of our caste, he seized his wife's feet in supplication and made a reconciliation with her.
Therefore, as our proverb tells: Whatever burden comes such as has not come before, having thought and having reflected, do the work! You must do the work and not shut both eyes.
NOTES
The karvaky ("black bird"), an unidentified species.
The kirtib is an unidentified species of beetle.
This is the practice of the Nilgiri dairymen. The calf is allowed to start the milk of its mother and - so the Todas at least say of their buffaloes - once the milk has thus been started, it flows easily; otherwise, the dairy animal can hardly be milked at all.
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