From North Indian Notes and Queries. The story is from Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh; see the article bits of the original Hindi.
The original leaves out the dialogue with the ocean and the elephant and the creeper, so I have filled that in, based on the earlier pattern.
This is yet another example of ATU 2030. The Old Woman and her Pig.
Once upon a time a parrot and a maina were friends. At that time famine raged in the land. They went into a field to pick up food, and they found a grain of gram which they wanted to divide, but when they tried to break it with a stone it got stuck in a piece of wood, and do what they would they could not get it out.
So they went to the Raja and said —
“O Raja, the post has eaten our gram.”
The Raja told the carpenter to break the post and take out the gram; but the carpenter would not do it.
Then the birds went to the snake and said —
“O snake, O snake, the post has eaten the gram, and the carpenter will not split it, so we have come to you."
The snake did not heed them, so they went to the stick and said —
"The post has eaten up the gram. The carpenter will not split it. The Raja will not punish him. The snake will not bite him. We have come to you to kill the snake."
But the stick paid no heed to them.
Then they went to the fire and said —
“The post has eaten up the gram. The carpenter will not split it. The Raja will not punish him. The snake will not bite him. The stick will not kill him. Brother, burn the stick. We throw ourselves at your feet."
But the fire paid no heed to them, so they went to the ocean and said —
“The post has eaten up the gram. The carpenter will not split it. The Raja will not punish him. The snake will not bite him. The stick will not kill him. The fire will not burn it. We have come to you to quench the fire."
But the ocean paid no heed to them, so they went to the elephant and said —
“The post has eaten up the gram. The carpenter will not split it. The Raja will not punish him. The snake will not bite him. The stick will not kill him. The fire will not burn the stick. The ocean will not quench the fire. We have come to you to drink the ocean."
But the elephant paid no heed to them, so they went to the creeper and said —
“The post has eaten up the gram. The carpenter will not split it. The Raja will not punish him. The snake will not bite him. The stick will not kill him. The fire will not burn the stick. The ocean will not quench the fire. The elephant will not drink the ocean. We have come to you to bind the elephant."
At last the creeper took pity on the birds and the elephant feared the creeper. and the ocean feared the elephant, and the fire feared the ocean, and the stick feared the fire, and the snake feared the stick and the carpenter feared the snake, and split the post which gave up the gram to the birds who went away happy.
NOTES
A folktale told by Setha Manjhi of Mahuli, Dudhi, Mirzapur.
This is the usual cumulative cycle “ This is the house that Jack built, etc.” See Clouston, Popular Tales and Fictions, I: 289.
Another version was given in North Indian Notes and Queries II, para. 181.
No comments:
Post a Comment