Tibetan Folk Tales, A. L. Shelton [early reader books txt] 📗

give to the poor. You mustn’t say bad things, as that’s just as silly as a billy-goat trying to butt down a stone wall with his horns.”

So they tried to comfort her as she went away weeping, and told her to be happy and contented.

Now the greater part of the caravan had gone on before and only she and a few of the maid servants were left behind. Those in advance went on and on and when night came, they stopped in a fine valley and prepared to camp for the night.

By and by when she came up to them she said, “This won’t do. This is a bad place, for if it should rain everything, including ourselves, would be washed away.”

She went on a little bit farther, found another spot and sent back word to them to come up there where she had stopped. As the loads were already off the yak and all was prepared for the night they were very angry because all the loads had to be tied on again, the ponies gathered in from where they were grazing, and only to go such a little distance!

They said to one another, “This woman is unspeakable. She comes from a very common home, but now she is the wife of this prince she thinks she can make us do as she likes.” So grumbling a great deal, they unloaded and made camp again for the night. But sure enough that night a big rain came and washed everything out of the valley where they had first stopped. When they saw that they said, “If we had been there everything would have been lost and we would have been dead. She is a prophetess and knows all things. We owe our lives to her.”

So they journeyed on and came to her husband’s home, where they feasted again for three days. Now it was time for the servants her father had sent with her to return. She gave them all gifts, told them good-by and sent them back to her father’s house.

Now some of her husband’s servants had heard her mother tell her she was to keep as clean as if she were looking in a mirror all the time. So they went to the prince and asked him what it meant, that they didn’t understand that saying at all. When she got up in the morning, she swept the house and combed her hair and saw that everybody had food before she would eat anything. One day her husband said to her, “What did your mother mean by that saying?”

She answered, “My mother’s meaning was this: that I wasn’t to be greedy and eat good things all the time, but if I waited on others I’d be hungry and things would taste good to me. And looking in the looking glass meant I was to keep myself clean and the house clean so I’d never be ashamed of it.”

One day a big crane coming from near the sea was carrying a few heads of rice for his own food; as he flew over the palace, he dropped a few of the grains, which the servants gathered up and took to the mistress of the house. She said to them, “We must plant a few of these seeds and be careful with them, for they make fine medicine for fevers.”

They divided the grains among the different families, who took them home and planted them. After a while the king’s wife took sick with the fever and he called all his chief head-men of the surrounding villages and all the lamas, who told him that if she didn’t have some rice from near the sea she would die. Then he sent out to all the people he knew, asking if they had any rice, but none of them had a grain. Finally he sent to this woman, the wife of the prince, and asked if she had any rice, and she said, “Of course I have. Not only for her but for all the sick people in the country.”

So she sent some to the king’s wife, who got well, and she gave it also to all the other sick folks, and from this time on the people worshiped her and always went to her in times of trouble.

***

FORTY-SIX

The Story of Yugpacan, the Brahman. From Jaschke

In a narrow road it is difficult to stop and talk. Call upon the gods—on the plains is the time to sing and be happy.

Tibetan Proverb.

ONCE upon a time there was a farmer. One day one of his neighbors named Yugpacan borrowed his bull. He took the animal and in a few days returned it and left it loose in the owner’s yard while the owner was eating, and the bull ran away. When the owner had finished his meal he went to his neighbor and asked for the bull. Yugpacan replied, “I turned him into your yard.” The owner said, “You have lost my bull.” So they had a quarrel and both started for the official to have the matter settled.

As they went along they met a man whose horse had gotten loose and was running away, and he called to these two to head him off and catch him. Yugpacan picked up a stone and threw it at the horse and killed him. Then the owner said, “Now you have slain my horse, come with me to the official and he will settle the matter.” They all started on and came to a wall and Yugpacan jumped over the wall and fell on top of a gardener who was digging in his yard and killed him. His wife came running up and said, “You have murdered my husband and must make good.” Yugpacan answered, “I can’t pay you for your husband.” “Well,” she said, “come with me to the official and he will make you pay.”

They all started along again and came to the bank of a river where they saw a carpenter swimming across holding a small ax in his mouth. Yugpacan ran to the brink of the river and asked him a question, whereupon the swimmer opened his mouth to answer it and straightway dropped the ax into the water. The carpenter was angry and said, “You must pay me for my ax.” Yugpacan said, “I won’t pay you.” “All right then, come with me to the official and we will see about that.”

The whole crowd in due time came to the great man who was to decide their cases. He asked, “What is the matter that you have come to me?” The farmer and Yugpacan proceeded at once to tell their case; then the official said to Yugpacan, “You returned the bull, but the owner didn’t see it, and as you didn’t say anything I will cut off your tongue.” Then he said to the owner, “Because you didn’t see it, I will take out one of your eyes.” So he settled the first case, saying, “The man who has a tongue should be able to talk, and the man with eyes should be able to see.”

The man whose horse had been killed now stated his case. The official turned to Yugpacan and asked how he had killed the horse. “Well,” he answered, “he asked me to help catch his horse and I picked up a rock and threw it at the horse.” Then he asked the owner of the horse, “Why did you ask him to head off your horse? My decision is this, because you, Yugpacan, threw and killed the animal, I will cut off one of your hands.” Then to the owner of the horse, “Because you told him to help catch your horse I will cut off your tongue.” Thus ends the second case.

The woman now presented her case and said that Yugpacan had killed her husband. Yugpacan said he was just on top of the wall and fell off and did not see the gardener and landed on him. The official decided, “Well, you have killed this man, so to make it good you must be this woman’s husband.”

The carpenter now said, “Yugpacan, while I was in the water, asked me a question, and as I opened my mouth to answer my ax dropped and was lost in the water.” The official said, “Because you carried your ax in your mouth instead of your hand I will knock out two of your teeth, and Yugpacan, because he asked you a question while you were swimming, I will cut off another slice of his tongue.”

Each one then begged the official to forgive Yugpacan for all his wickedness, and forgive each of them and leave them each as they were in the first place, which he very obligingly did.

***

FORTY-SEVEN

The Story of Da Jang. From Amundsen

In life there are just two things—happiness and misery. One you say and the other you think.

Tibetan Proverb.

IN a large city in a distant land called Nyen Yo lived a man, Da Jang, who was a very skillful juggler. He had a friend named Pelzang, who had a wife and daughter. One day Da Jang said to Pelzang, “You should learn to be a juggler; it might be of use to you some time.” Pelzang answered, “What is the use of that, a horse would mean much more to me.” Da Jang, displeased with the reply, went away muttering that some day he would prove to his friend that juggling was useful.

A few days later, after Pelzang had eaten breakfast and was outside the cottage spinning yarn, while his wife was washing up the wooden bowls on the inside of the house, Da Jang arrived riding on a phantom horse.

“Friend Pelzang,” he said, “buy this horse.” Pelzang replied, “I have nothing to buy it with, I do not want it.”

But Da Jang said, “It is a fine horse with a fine trot, and if you will buy it I will let it go cheaply. Mount and try it,” he urged.

“Well,” Pelzang said, “if you will let it go cheap enough I will take it,” and he got on the horse, which set off in a wild gallop beyond control. By sunset he had arrived in an unknown place, and he looked all around and finally saw a house from which smoke was rising, and went to the door and knocked. An old lady came out. She might be a demon, thought the man, but there was no place else to go. He asked for lodging and bed from the old lady. “Come in,” she said. He entered and found she had three daughters. Having given him delicious food and drink, the old lady inquired, “Who brought you here?” He explained that his horse had run away and landed him in this strange place. She then proceeded to say, “Now, you have nowhere to go, and more-over, this is a small place without a ruler, so say no more, stay with me and be husband to one of the girls and landlord to this place. Even if you leave here you will not get anywhere.” He thought there was nothing else to do, as his horse had entirely disappeared, so he decided to remain, and took one of the daughters for his wife, and in a few years had two sons and one daughter.

One day, the mother having gone to get some wood, the children were playing by the river. It was evening and the moon shone into the water. One boy, trying to catch it, fell in and was carried off by the current. As the father tried to rescue him, the other boy fell into the river in his excitement, and both slipped away and were gone. While thus fruitlessly occupied a tiger came and carried