Folktales from Bengal (3 page)

The sparrow’s wife made
some delicious cake, and she and the sparrow ate till they were
full. Then they realized that the tiger was about to come, and
there weren’t any cake left. The wife made a few more cakes with
the leftover ingredients, and a lot more with coal and husks and
mud. Then she left the lot on a plate in the front yard.

The tiger came over and
was delighted to see the plate of cakes. He put the first one into
his mouth, and said, “Excellent. Delicious. Marvellous. What a good
cake this is!”

Then he put the second
one into his mouth. “Uff. This is not that good.”

Then the next one. “Ugh.
This is bad. It’s just made with flour.”

The next one. “This just
has husk and ashes. Hey sparrow, what are you feeding me, my
friend?”

Meanwhile, the sparrow
covered his nose and mouth, and said, “Wife, I have to
sneeze.”

“
Shh. You
can’t sneeze. He’ll hear you.”

The sparrow cringed and
covered his nose and mouth. The wife tried to stop him, but it was
impossible.

The tiger put the last
one in, “What’s this? Cowdung? What a jerk the sparrow is! When I
see him next time I am going to chew him up.”

“
Huh-chooo!”
The sparrow sneezed, and the rope the pot was hanging on, broke.
The tiger jumped up, and the pot landed on his back in a loud
crash, shattering to many pieces.

The tiger did not know
whether the sky fell on his back, or whether he was struck by
lightning, but he did not wait to find out. He ran and ran, with
his tail between his legs, and did not stop till he reached his
cave.

Not nearby, but not too
far away, where the endless grassland ends in a deep forest, and
the forest covers the base of a mountain, and the mountain touches
the sky, there lived a family of goats: mom, dad, and the
kid.

The mountain had a lot of
caverns, and the family had chosen one of them as a shelter. All
day long the mother goat and the father goat went to graze in the
meadow, leaving the kid in the safety of the cave, because it was
too little to wander about alone. But it did not like to be
confined in the cave. It wanted to see the world outside, the world
he only heard stories of. But every time he asked his mom, she
warned him, “The outside is a dangerous place. If you go out there,
bears will chase you, the tigers will catch you, and the lions will
eat you, because you are so tiny.”

“
So will I
never get out?” he asked.

“
Yes you
will, but when you are a lot bigger.”

So he lay still in his
cave, afraid of the outside, and let a few days pass by. A few
weeks later, when he decided he was a bit bigger, he began to peek
outside whenever his mother was not home. And one day, he mustered
enough courage to get out of the cave.

Outside, a large bull was
munching on some grass. The kid had never seen such a large animal
before, but seeing its horns, he thought it was a goat, too. He
wondered what the goat ate to grow this big, so he asked
him.

“
What are you
eating?”

“
Grass.”

“
I eat grass
too, but I’m not that big,” he wondered.

“
Where does
the grass grow?” he asked the bull.

“
In the
meadow by the forest, over there,” came the reply.

“
Can you take
me with you?”

“
Sure.” The
bull got up and walked to the forest, and the kid followed
him.

The meadow indeed had a
lot of sweet grass growing there, and the kid ate till he could eat
no more. In fact, he was so full he could not move. When dusk came,
the bull said, “Let’s go home now, Kid.”

But the kid was too full
and too tired to go home. So he said, “You go home. I’ll rest here
and go back tomorrow.”

The bull went back alone.
Since it was nearing dusk, the kid wondered about until he found a
small cave at the base of a hillock, and went inside.

The cave belonged to a
fox. However, that day, the fox had gone to attend a feast at the
home of his uncle – the tiger. When he came back it was late at
night. When he peeked into his cave, he saw something sitting way
inside, but he could not make it out in the darkness, thanks to the
pitch black coat the kid had. Seeing it moving inside at ease, the
fox thought it must be some kind of monster. Terrified of the
response, he craned into the cave and asked, “Who’s there inside my
cave?”

The kid knew he was in
trouble now, and was scared. But his mother had taught him to be
clever, and so, he said in a loud voice,

“
Snakes get
tangled in my mile long beard,

Beasts call me many
names, a few you might have heard.

Lions call me uncle, I am
Narahari Das

Fifty tigers I kill in a
single slash.”

The fox could not fathom
how a mile long beard, let alone its owner, could fit into his
little cave. But somehow, it had, and it was strong enough to kill
not one, not two, but fifty full tigers in a single slash. Come to
think of it, the fox remembered, didn’t his mother tell him stories
of Narahari Das? Or something like that? But the one in his cave
was terrifying enough, and it did say it had a lot of other names.
The fox ran back, his tail between his legs, to the tiger he called
uncle.

The tiger was surprised
to see him back so soon. “Didn’t you have enough to eat at the
feast? I’m sorry, but there’s no leftover.” He was busy tidying up.
”And why do you look so ruffled?”

“
This is
terrible, uncle,” the fox panted. “There’s a terrible monster in my
cave. It calls itself Narahari Das. It says it can slay fifty
tigers in a single slash.”

The tiger was furious
hearing this. “The audacity! Fifty tigers he can kill, can he?
Let’s go and see if he can match my strength.” He roared out loud,
and then paused and asked. “What does he look like?”

“
It’s huge
and ugly. With a mile long beard, and snakes tangled between the
curls.” The fox shivered as he recalled the poem. Of course, he did
not mention he had not actually seen the monster.

“
A mile long
beard, eh?” The enthusiasm was now dying in the tiger’s voice. “The
name does sound familiar, though. Narahari Das.” He scratched his
head. “Never mind. I’ll go have a look at him.”
From far at first,
he
thought.

The fox whimpered. “I am
not going back in there. What if it gives chase? You are going to
scamper in the blink of an eye, and I will be left to be monster
fodder.”

“
Come on,
nephew. I will never leave you.” The tiger replied, afraid to go
alone.

“
Fine, then
tie up your tail with mine, so that you don’t leave me when it
comes chasing.”

The tiger tied the fox’s
tail with his own in a tight knot, and the fox reluctantly followed
him, assured that he will not leave him when the monster chased
them.

As they drew closer to
the cave, the kid saw them, and shouted out, his voice echoed and
magnified by the cave,

“
You stupid,
lying fox! I tell you to bring ten tigers for my snack, and you
bring but one?”

The tiger’s
heart stopped in fear, listening to the words.
The fox has tricked me into coming here
, he thought.
He’s in league with
the monster.

And he ran for his life,
leaping fifty yards at a time. The fox, tied to his tail, got
smashed on the ground, prickled by thorn bushes, and bashed in the
trees in the tigers wake. The more he yelled “Stop!” the faster the
tiger ran. And that was how the night passed by.

In the morning, the kid
returned home, and had it got a story to tell its mom and
dad.

After the ordeal with
Narahari Dash, the fox was very angry with the tiger. It took him
days to find a new cave, and it was not as spacious or hidden as
the last one. But it had a well nearby. And that gave the fox an
idea.

A couple of weavers lived
at the forest’s edge. They had weaved a mat and left it in the sun
to dry. The fox stole the mat and spread it over the well, covering
it up. Then he went to the tiger.

“
Uncle
Tiger,” he said, “I got a new home. Won’t you come and have a look
around?”

The tiger followed him to
the cave. The fox pointed him to the well, which was nicely covered
with the mat, and said, “Why don’t you sit on the table I made for
you, uncle, and I will arrange for some drinks.”

The tiger was very
pleased to hear this, and he jumped upon the mat. The mat
collapsed, and he fell immediately into the well. The fox craned
his neck to see him, and said, “Drink up all you want, uncle. Don’t
leave anything for me.”

But the well was not very
deep, and so, the tiger jumped out and roared at the fox. “I am
going to eat you alive for this!” But the fox was too swift for
him, and he scrambled himself into the thickets, so the tiger could
not find him.

After this, it was a very
bad time for the fox. He could not hunt, and he could not return to
his cave. Whenever the tiger spotted him, he roared and gave chase.
So after a few days, the fox became very frail and weak. He
thought, “At this rate, I am going to die anyways. So why don’t I
go to the tiger myself and try to appease him?”

The next morning, the
tiger saw the fox coming to his cave. Every few steps, the fox
stopped, bowed down, and saluted the tiger. “All hail the king of
the forest.” He yelled. “Indeed, there is no one as mighty as him.”
He bowed again, and continued, “And there is no one more full of
forgiveness that our king.”

The tiger was very
pleased to hear all these praises, and so, let the fox near without
breaking his neck.

“
So, Fox.
What brings you here?” he said, his voice soft.

The fox jumped to the
tiger’s feet at this, and said, “Oh uncle, I could not bear to see
you suffer so, trying every day to catch me. You seem so stressed
and tired. So I came down here myself. Just kill me now, from the
comfort of your home.” He gulped and closed his eyes.

The words left the tiger
speechless and confused. He was not used to getting his prey home
delivered. So he did not kill the fox, but scolded him, “You
scoundrel! Why did you make me fall inside the well?”

“
Don’t even
think of such evil, my dear uncle,” said the fox. “The land there
was too soft for your mighty feet. So it collapsed when you jumped
on it. And I was only running to get help, which, being this
powerful, you did not need. Tell me this, could someone so weak and
pathetic as me trick someone so mighty and clever as
you?”

The tiger closed its eyes
and smiled, “You are right, nephew. I must have had landed too
strongly for the ground to handle.”

So they were friends
again. But the fox never forgave the tiger for the helplessness and
the hunger he had caused him. He bid his time, and waited for
another opportunity for revenge.

One day, the fox was
walking by the river, and saw a crocodile resting on the river
bank. He ran to the tiger, and said, “Uncle, hey uncle. I bought a
boat. Come and take a ride.”

The tiger came to the
river, and saw the sleeping crocodile, and thought that it was
actually a boat. So he sat on top of it.

“
I’ll go
fetch an oar,” said the fox, and trotted off to a safe distance,
while the tiger made himself comfortable.

The crocodile did not
like at all having a tiger sitting on him, and so, in one large
snap, he caught the tiger by the neck, and dragged him into the
water, where he drowned. And finally, the fox returned home, happy
as ever.

Not a long time ago, in a
village not so far away, a young farmer lived in a small hut, with
his mother. One night, the mother was not feeling well, and called
up her son.

“
Listen, and
listen well, you fool of a boy. I am not feeling well today, so you
will have to get up real early tomorrow and cut the crop. Wake up
really early tomorrow, okay?”

“
Why do I
need to wake up so early, mother?”

“
So that the
sun is low when you are in the field,” the mother
replied.

“
What if it
goes high up in the sky?” he asked.

“
If you work
in the sun for too long, you’ll get a fever.”

“
What’s a
fever?” he asked.

“
It’s when
you fall sick and you heat up, like I am doing right now. Touch my
forehead.”

So he did, and it felt
really hot. “You’re burning up, mother.”

“
That is
because I worked all day in the sun. So don’t make the same
mistake.”

“
Okay,
mother.” Then he fell asleep.

When he woke up, it was
nearly noon. So he hurried off to the field with his sickle and
began to cut the rice plants as fast as he could. He sweated in the
heat and very soon, got tired. He fell asleep in the field again.
When he woke up, he saw that the sickle was very hot. Naturally, it
had to be, for it had been lying all afternoon in the sun. But the
foolish farmer thought that his sickle had caught a fever. He sat
down and started to cry.