The Leopard and the Mouse-deer

スリランカ(Sri Lanka) ／本文の言語英語／原話の言語 si ／出典の刊年 1910 ／ 556 語

出典と権利

出典の本	Village Folk-Tales of Ceylon, Volume 1
提供	Project Gutenberg ／ https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/56614
採集・編者	Henry Parker
翻訳	Henry Parker
刊年の根拠	扉に『LONDON LUZAC & CO … 1910』
権利状態	Public Domain (United States)(US)／確認日 2026-09-14
地図上の位置	緯度 7.9 / 経度 80.7(精度 `culture_region`)。話の舞台でも採集地でもなく、この本が扱う文化圏のおおよその中心である。

本文

Project Gutenberg の本文から、PG のヘッダ・フッタ・商標文言を除いたもの。段落は原文のままである。

In a jungle wilderness in the midst of the forest there is a rock cave. In the cave a Leopard dwells. One day when the Leopard had gone for food a lame female Mouse-deer (Miminni) crept into the cave, and gave birth to two young ones.

Afterwards the Mouse-deer having seen that the Leopard, having got wet at the time of a very great rainfall, was coming to the cave, began to beat the young ones, so the young ones began to squall. Then the Mouse-deer came out, saying, "There is fresh Leopard's flesh, there is dried Leopard's flesh; what else shall I give you? Having eaten these, still you are crying in order to eat fresh Leopard's flesh!"

As the Mouse-deer was saying it, the Leopard heard it, and thought, "They are going to eat me," and having become afraid, sprang off and ran away, thinking, "I will go to my Preceptor, and tell him."

Having gone to him, the Jackal said, "What is it, Sir? You are running as though afraid. Why?" he asked.

The Leopard then replied, "Preceptor, the danger that has happened to me is thus: A Mouse-deer having crept into the cave that I live in, and having borne young ones there, as I was returning came shouting and springing to eat me. Through fear of it I came running away," he said to the Jackal.

The Jackal then said, "What of that! Don't be afraid. I will come with you and go there. As soon as I go I will bite her and cast her out."

As they went near the cave, the Leopard having lagged a very little behind, said, "Friend, I cannot go, I cannot go."

Then the Jackal said, "If you are afraid to that extent, be so good as to go after tying a creeper to my neck, and tying the other end to your waist, Sir," he said to the Leopard.

So bringing a creeper, and tying one end to the Jackal's neck, and tying the other end to the Leopard's waist, they set off to go to the cave.

As they were going there, the Mouse-deer, having seen that the Jackal was bringing the Leopard, began to beat the young ones. When the young ones were squalling, the Mouse-deer having come out, says, "Don't cry; the Jackal is bringing another Leopard for you." Then she says to the Jackal, "Jackal-artificer, after I told you to bring seven yoke of Leopards, what has the Jackal-artificer come for, tying a creeper to only this one lean Leopard?"

After she had asked this, the Leopard thought, "They have joined with the Jackal, and are going to kill me," and began to run off. Then the creeper having become tightened round the Jackal's neck, the Leopard ran away, taking him along, causing the Jackal-artificer to strike and strike against that tree, this tree, that stone, this stone.

The Leopard having gone a great distance in the jungle, after he looked [found that] the creeper had become thoroughly tightened on the Jackal-artificer's neck. Having seen that he was grinning and showing his teeth, the Leopard says, "The laugh is at the Jackal-artificer. I was frightened, and there is no blood on my body," he said.

When he looked again, the Jackal was dead, grinning with his teeth and mouth.

本に付いていた註

North-western Province.



This story is given in The Orientalist, vol. iv, p. 79
(D. A. Jayawardana), but the animals that went to the cave are wrongly
termed tiger and fox, which are not found in Ceylon.

It is also related in vol. iv, p. 121 (S. J. Goonetilleke), the
animals being a hind and a tiger.

In vol. i, p. 261, there is a Santal story (J. L. Phillips), in which
a goat with a long beard, which had taken refuge in a tiger's cave
frightened it when asked, "Who are you with long beard and crooked
horns in my house?" by saying, "I am your father." A monkey returned
with it, their tails being tied together. When they came to the cave,
the monkey asked the same question, and received the same answer,
which frightened both animals so much that they fled, the monkey's tail
being pulled off. When the tiger stopped, and began to lick himself, he
found the monkey's tail so sweet that he went back and ate the monkey.

In the Panchatantra (Dubois), a bearded goat frightened a lion that
he found in a cave in which he took refuge, by saying, "I am the Lord
He-goat. I am a devotee of Siva, and I have promised to devour in his
honour 101 tigers, 25 elephants, and 10 lions." He had eaten the rest,
and was now in search of the lions. A jackal persuaded the lion to
return, but the goat frightened them again.

In Old Deccan Days (Frere), p. 303, a pandit frightened a demon in
this manner, by scolding a wrestler who brought for dinner an apparent
goat which the pandit recognised as a demon.

In Wide-Awake Stories (Steel and Temple), p. 132 ff.--Tales of the
Punjab, p. 123 ff.--a farmer's wife frightened a tiger that was going
to eat a cow. A jackal persuaded it to return, their tails being tied
together. On the tiger's running off again, the jackal was jolted
to death.

In The Indian Antiquary, vol. iv, p. 257, there is a Santal story by
Rev. E. T. Cole, of a tiger which was frightened by two brothers. The
three sat round a fire and asked riddles. The tiger's was, "One I
will eat for breakfast, and another like it for supper." The men
expressed their inability to guess the answer, and their riddle was,
"One will twist the tail, the other will wring the ear." When the
tiger was escaping, they held the tail till it came off.

In Tota Kahani (Small), p. 98, a lynx took possession of a tiger's
cave, and behaved like the mouse-deer when the tiger came up. When
the tiger returned with a monkey, the lynx frightened it like the
mouse-deer, by telling its young ones that a monkey friend had sworn to
bring a tiger that day. On hearing this, the tiger killed the monkey,
and fled.

緊張のうつりかわり

本文を 12 等分し、張りつめた語(死・血・恐れ・剣…)から和らいだ語(祝い・眠り・婚礼…)を引いて、話の中で 0〜1 に均したもの。自前の辞書である。翻訳を経た本文を測っているので、これは原話ではなくこの訳の性質である。

縦は緊張度(この話の中での相対値。話をまたいで比べられる量ではない)、横は本文の進行。上端の小さな字は、その区画で不釣り合いに多く出た出来事語である。

出来事の並び(数え上げ)

区画ごとに、コーパス全体の出現率に対して不釣り合いに多く出た引き金語を採っている。生の回数で採ると、`father`/`mother` を持つ Family がほぼ全区画で勝つ(実測)。

Birth→Escape→Birth→Escape→Death

似ている民話

多言語 Embedding のコサイン近傍。類似度は歴史的な起源や伝播を証明する値ではない。同じ本の話は文体を共有するぶん必ず似るので、そう分かるよう印を付けてある。

#	題名	文化圏	類似度	出典
1	The Lizard and the Leopard	スリランカ	0.928	同じ本
2	The Jackal and the Turtle	スリランカ	0.927	同じ本
3	The Match-making Jackal	ベンガル	0.927	別の本
4	The Undying Head	北米先住民	0.927	別の本
5	Mother's Darling Jack	ルーマニア	0.926	別の本
6	The Lion and the Jackal	スリランカ	0.926	同じ本
7	The Story of the Leopard, the Tortoise, and the Bush Rat	ナイジェリア南部	0.925	別の本
8	Tellerchen	ルーマニア	0.924	別の本
9	Jack and His Golden Snuff-box	イングランド	0.923	別の本
10	Even a Grass Plant Can Become Someone If It Tries	ベーリング海峡(アラスカ)	0.922	別の本
11	The Man who wished to be Perfect	ベンガル	0.921	別の本
12	Saved by his Tail	南アフリカ	0.920	別の本

この話を並べて読む →