The Black Storks' Girl

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本に付いていた註

North-western Province.



In a variant of this story, related by a Duraya in the North-western
Province, the persons who abandoned the child were a Gamarala and
his wife, the Gama-mahage.

On the Storks' finding it, they cried, "Ada! I have met with a
gem!" Their home was in a rock-cave. When the Parrot warned the girl
that the Rakshasa was coming, "having gone running, and having sprung
into the cave, she shut the door. The Rakshasa says, 'Having brought
bracelets for the arms, jackets for the body, cloths for the waist,
O daughter, open the door, my daughter.'

"Then the Parrot said, 'It is false that there are bracelets for the
arms, jackets for the body, cloths for the waist. Open not the door,
my elder sister.'

"Then the Rakshasa tried to kill the Parrot. Having flown away it
settled on a tree. The Rakshasa having smashed the Parrot's cage,
again says, 'Having brought bracelets for the arms,'" etc.

The Cat warned the girl and was killed, then the Dog, next the
Ash-plantain tree, and lastly the Katuru-Murunga tree. I now translate
again.

"After that, he struck a finger-nail into the lintel, and having
struck another finger-nail into the threshold, the Rakshasa went away.

"After that, the male Black Stork and female Black Stork came. Having
come, they say, 'Having brought bracelets for the arms, jackets for
the body, cloths for the waist, open the door, my daughter.'

"Then the Parrot says, 'It is true that there are bracelets for the
arms, jackets for the body, cloths for the waist, elder sister. Open
the door, my elder sister.'

"As she was coming out opening the door, her foot was pricked by a
finger-nail, and the crown of her head by a finger-nail. Then becoming
unconscious she fell down, the finger-nails having entered her. Both
Storks together drew out the finger-nails."

She recovered, and they gave her the things they had brought, but
sent her away. The rest of the story is an evident modern addition
of no interest. She went to a large chena, and was taken home by a
widow who was there.



In another variant of the Western Province the two birds which
reared the child were Crows. After the child was born, the mother,
a Gamarala's wife (Gama-Mahage or Gama-Mahayiya) said, "Are we to take
the child, or are we to take the bag of Kaekiri?" Her husband replied,
"Should we take the child it will be [necessary] to give it to eat
and to wear; should we take the bag of Kaekiri we shall be able to
eat it for one meal." "So the Gama-Mahage, having put the child
among the Kaekiri creepers, taking the bag went home." The Crows
carried away the infant, and called it Emal Bisawa, Queen of the
Flowers. When the girl had grown up, the birds went to bring pearls
for her to wear, after giving her the usual injunctions regarding the
food of the Dog, the Cat and the Parrot. She reduced the Dog's food,
and it put out the fire. The Parrot found smoke rising from the house
of a Rakshasi, and guided her to the place. The Rakshasi was absent;
her two daughters gave the girl two amunas (nearly twelve bushels)
of paddy to pound. "She thought, 'Having been pounded, go into the
house,' and it became pounded of its own accord." Then they gave
her seven perforated pots to be filled with water and brought. She
filled them and handed them over. They gave her a piece of coconut
husk with a hole in it, and a perforated coconut shell, and filled
the former with sesame seeds, and the latter with ashes on which was
placed burning charcoal. She hurried home with these, being warned
by the Parrot that the Rakshasi was coming.

When the Rakshasi asked her daughters who had been to the house,
they replied that the female Crow's girl had taken some fire, and
that there would be sesame and ashes along the path by which she
had gone. The Rakshasi ran along it, found the door shut, and said,
"Mother has come. Father has come. We are bringing pearls of the sea;
we are bringing also wire for stringing the pearls. Open the door,
O daughter." The Katuru-Murunga tree warned her that it was false;
when it was burnt, its ashes repeated the warning, then the Dog, the
Cat, and the Parrot. Then the Rakshasi, "having broken her finger
nails, and having fixed one above and one below in the door-frame,
went away. After that, her mother and father came, and said, 'Mother
has come. Father has come. We are bringing pearls of the sea; we
are bringing also wire for stringing the pearls. Open the door,
my daughter.' The Parrot said the same. As she opened the door,
a finger-nail having entered the crown of her head she died. When
they asked the Parrot, 'What has happened?' 'Because of the Rakshasi
elder sister died,' he said."



In a fourth variant of the North-western Province the aspect of
the story is partly changed, and I give a translation of the latter
portion, because it contains an account of a runaway match, such as
still sometimes occurs.

In this story, a Gamarala's wife went with another woman to the chena
while the Gamarala was asleep, and after eating as much fruit as
possible they filled a bag also. As they were proceeding home rapidly
with it, the Gamarala's wife gave birth to a child at a hollow in which
pigs wallowed. She asked the other woman to carry it home for her,
but this person refused, and took the bag of Kaekiri fruit instead,
so the child was abandoned.

Then the two Storks came, and carried the child to their cave, and
reared it. After the girl grew up, they went off to seek bracelets and
necklaces for her, instructing the girl to "give an equal quantity of
food to the Cock, the Dog, the Cat, the Parrot, the Crow, the Rat,
and the other creatures," and warning her that if she gave less to
the Rat it would extinguish the fire. After some days she reduced
the Rat's food, so it put out the fire.

The Parrot found a house--not a Rakshasa's--from which smoke was
rising, and guided the girl to it. The woman who was at it gave her
some fire without delaying her, and she returned home with it. I now
translate the concluding part.

"After the son of the woman who had the fire came home, the woman says
to her son, 'To-day a good-looking Princess came to the house.' Then
the son asks, 'Mother, by which stile did the Princess go?' His mother
says, 'Here, by this stile,' and showed him it.

"Then the man having set off, and having gone near the cave, and seen
the Princess, when he said, 'Let us go to our house,' the Princess
said, 'Because my parents are not here [to give their consent]
I cannot go.' This man says, 'No matter for that,' and seizing the
hand of the Princess, they came to his house.

"Afterwards the two Black Storks which went seeking bracelets and
rings, having come near the cave, when they looked the Princess was not
there. The Black Storks ask the Dog, the Cat, the Crow, the Parrot,
the Rat, and the Cock, 'Where is the Princess?' They all say, 'A man
came, and while the Princess was saying she could not go he seized her
hand and took her away.' When the Storks asked, 'By which stile did he
take her?' saying, 'There, by that stile,' the animals showed them it.

"Then the two Black Storks having gone flying, when they looked the
Princess was staying at the house. Afterwards the two Storks gave
the Princess the bracelets, rings, and coral necklaces which they had
brought; and having handed her over to the man, the two Black Storks
went to their dwelling."



In Old Deccan Days, Ganges Valley (Frere), p. 87 ff., there is a
variant according to which the child was carried off to their nest
by two eagles, from the side of the mother. After the eagles went to
bring a ring for her, the cat stole some food, and on being punished
by the girl put out the fire.

The girl went to a Rakshasa's house for a light, and was detained by
his mother, pounding rice and doing other housework. She left at last
with instructions to scatter corn along the path.

The Rakshasa followed the track and climbed to the nest, but the outer
door was bolted, and he could not enter, so he left his nail in a crack
of the door. When the girl opened the outer door--there were seven
in all--the nail wounded her hand, and being poisonous apparently
killed her. The eagles returned, and seeing this flew away. When a
King arrived and drew out the nail, she recovered, and he married her.