Folktales from Bengal (7 page)

If only he would learn
not to be friends with the fox again.

Once upon a time in a
distant village in Bengal, lived a farmer named Buddhu. Nobody ever
knew why he was called Buddhu, which meant foolish, because he was
probably the cleverest farmer in the village.

Harvest time was near,
and the rice had ripened up, filling up the fields with a sea of
gold. As the farmers were reaping their harvest, crows flew in in
large numbers, and began to peck at the grains. Buddhu had built a
scarecrow to scare them off, but the crows had gotten used to it
after a while. So, all day and night, he had to sit near his crop
with a stick, running and chasing the crows off. Every day, by the
time it was midday, he got very tired and cranky indeed. And
because he had to stay and ward off the crows, he did not have time
to do anything else, like buying sacks to store the rice, or
beating the rice to separate the hay.

One afternoon, he was
thinking of a solution to the problem, when a swarm of crows landed
on the field in front of him. Angry and tired, he ran towards them,
waving his stick, and yelled, “If I get my hands on you just once,
I’ll give you a stick-packed-hammering.”

A tiger was hiding in the
field, waiting to catch a farmer unawares, when he listened to
these words. He had never heard of a stick-packed-beating, and
became very curious. The more he thought about it, the more he felt
that he needed to see it. He decided he would have to ask the
farmer what it was before he would eat him. He jumped right in
front of Buddhu, and said, “What is this stick-packed-beating? I
want to see it.”

Seeing the tiger, Buddhu
was frozen with fear. But the tiger was calm and polite, and kept
asking him, “Please show me this stick packed beating. I must see
it.”

Buddhu calmed down, and
began to think, and soon, had an idea. “All right, Tiger. I’ll show
it to you. But it takes a lot of preparation. And I am backed up in
a lot of work. But with your help, I can finish early, and then
show you.”

“
What do I
have to do?”

“
Chase the
crows off my field for a couple of weeks, while I get the rice
ready for selling. Then I’ll show you.”

The tiger agreed to the
deal. For the next two weeks, he stayed in the field, chasing off
the crows and pests, while the farmer cleared out his
harvest.

Once the rice was stacked
in the barn, and the hay was stacked, the tiger went to Buddhu
again.

“
It’s time,
farmer, show me the stick-packed-beating.”

“
Sure. But it
takes a lot of preparation. “

“
I’ll bring
everything to you. What do you need?”

“
I need a big
and strong sack, a long and strong string, and a very heavy
club.”

“
That’s all?
I’ll be back with them in an hour.” The tiger went to the market,
and gave a mighty roar. The shopkeepers ran for their life. The
tiger went to the flour shop, and picked up a few strong
sacks.

Next, he went to the
field. A lot of cows were tied up there. The moment they saw the
tiger, they tore up their strings and ran. The tiger picked up the
strings.

Lastly, he went to the
wrestling arena. A lot of strong wrestlers were practicing there,
and some of them were fighting with clubs. The moment they saw the
tigers, they yelled “Mommy!” and ran, leaving their clubs. The
tiger picked up a strong club.

Now he returned to
Buddhu, and said, “No more delay, farmer, show me the
stick-packed-beating, and then I’ll eat you.”

“
Fine,” said
Buddhu, “Get into this sack.”

Just as the tiger entered
the sack, Buddhu tied the sack up with the rope as tightly as he
could. Then he picked up the club, and slammed it on the
sack.

“
Help! What’s
happening?” yelled the tiger.

“
I am showing
you the stick-packed-beating,” said Buddhu, “Tell me to stop if
you’re scared.”

For a tiger, it was a
thing of great shame to admit to be afraid. He said, “No, I was
just a bit surprised. Do carry on.”

Buddhu started beating up
the tiger with all the strength he had. For the first few blows,
the tiger did not make a sound. But after ten hits, he began to
scream. After another twenty, he began to groan. After another
fifty, he began to squeal. And after fifty more, there was no
noise. Buddhu thought the tiger was dead now, so he took it out of
the sack, dragged it to the field, and left it there.

But the tiger had just
passed out from the pain. When he woke up later, he had aches all
over his body, and had sprouted a high fever. “I am going to take
revenge on you, farmer, if that is the last thing I do.” He
promised.

He hid himself near
Buddhu’s house for the next few days, wanting to ambush him when he
got out. But it was winter already, and Buddhu rarely left his hut.
So one night, the tiger went to the hut and knocked the door,
saying in a very soft voice, “My good man, can you give me some
fire, so I can smoke.”

Buddhu felt something was
funny about the voice, and peeked through a hole. When he saw the
tiger, he was pale with fear, but he did not give up yet. He said,
“It’s too cold, so I can’t open the door right now. Why don’t you
slip in your cane from under the door, so I pass on a bit of
charcoal for you? “

The tiger did not have a
cane, so he inserted his tail under the door. Immediately, Buddhu
cut it off with a knife. The tiger yelped in pain, and ran away
screaming.

But Buddhu knew that the
next night, all the tigers in the forest would come to take
revenge. He was not surprised at all the next night, when he saw
around twenty to thirty tigers walking up to his hut. Fearing for
his life, he climbed up a coconut tree in his backyard. One of the
tigers spotted him up there, and they surrounded him.

They clawed the bark of
the tree, and waited, and waited and waited. But it was nearly
morning, and Buddhu showed no sign of climbing down.

The cleverest of the
tigers now made a plan. The biggest tiger would stay on the bottom,
and the rest of them would climb on each other’s shoulders, making
a tower of tigers to get to Buddhu.

So it commenced. The
biggest of the tiger was the one that had its tail cut off. He
stayed at the bottom, and hoped there was enough left of Buddhu
when he was brought down, to chew through. Because his tail was cut
off, he was having great difficulty sitting. He saw a small hole in
the ground, and put the stump of his tail in, to sit
properly.

The tower of tigers was
getting high now, and Buddhu was getting ready to be eaten alive.
But he would not go without a fight. There were ripe coconuts on
the top of the tree, so he grabbed a big one, and thought he would
hit one of the tigers the moment they got close enough.

As it happened, the hole
the tiger had put its tail into belonged to a crab. The crab
smelled the blood on the tail, and crawled up to it. Just as the
tiger at the top reached its claw to get Buddhu, the crab pinched
the tail of the tiger at the bottom, right where it hurt the most.
The tiger at the bottom jumped up in pain, and Buddhu smashed the
skull of the top tiger with the coconut. The tower collapsed, and
it was raining tigers.

The tiger with the cut
tail yelped, “There’s a Buddhu on the tree, and there’s a Buddhu in
the hole.”

And Buddhu started to
throw down one coconut after another on them, yelling, “Die, you
stupid tigers. You don’t know who you’re messing with.”

And the tail-cut tiger
ran away as fast as he could, with the rest of the tigers following
suit. They never came to bother Buddhu again.

A Brahmin lived in a tiny
hut in a village. He was very poor, and had to beg from morning to
night to provide food for his family. He lived with his wife and
little daughter. With whatever he collected in a day, they could
barely eat one meal.

One day, the little girl
went to the neighbour’s house to play, and saw the children eating
payesh, a sweet dish made with rice and milk. She wanted some, but
they chased her out. She went home crying to her mother saying, “I
want to eat payesh, I want to eat payesh.”

This broke the woman’s
heart. They could barely eat three meals a day. How could she make
payesh for her daughter? She told her husband what had happened
when he got back. He smiled and said, “Okay, let me see what I can
do.”

He went to the leader of
the village, who was a kind man. The moment he heard of the
Brahmin’s troubles, he gave him a kilogram of rice, two litres of
milk, some sugar and ghee.

The Brahmin’s wife made
such a delicious payesh that evening that the sweet smell travelled
for miles. A crow sniffed it and thought, “I must eat whatever is
making this beautiful aroma.” he flew to the Brahmin’s rooftop, and
waited there, thinking, “I’ll get all the leftovers when they are
done.”

After a while, he heard a
noise in the kitchen. He thought, “They are making the payesh
now.”

There was another noise.
“They are serving the payesh now.”

Then there was another.
“They sat down to eat now.”

The Brahmin and his
daughter had indeed seated themselves to eat. But the payesh was so
good, that they nearly finished it themselves. The Brahman’s wife
was kind, so she gave some from her share to the neighbour’s kids,
who were lurking greedily around. And after she was done eating,
not a drop of the payesh was left.

When the crow saw that
nothing was left for him to eat, he was very angry. He thought,
“Cheat me off, did you? I am going to have my revenge very
soon.”

There was a large forest
near the Brahmin’s house. A tiger used to hunt there. The crow flew
to the tiger and said, “Hello there, o king of the forest. I have a
proposition for you. Such a handsome fellow as you should get a
worthy wife. The Brahmin in the neighbouring village has a
beautiful daughter. You should ask her hand in
marriage.”

The tiger thought that
the crow had a point. He was handsome and strong, so why shouldn’t
he get married to the Brahmin’s daughter?

“
But who is
going to set up the marriage?” he asked. “The moment they see me,
they will run for their lives. And they would be right to do so. I
am not sure if I could resist eating them.”

“
Don’t worry.
I will take care of everything. Just send over some food to
them.”

“
Of course. I
will kill a dog and leave the body at their doorstep.”

“
No, no. they
won’t eat a dog. But you can give me some of the lemons that grow
on the tree near your cave, and I will take them to their
hut.”

The crow took the lemons
to the Brahmin’s place. He came back to the tiger and said, “They
were very happy with your present. They said that they will surely
marry their daughter to you if you keep sending them these
lemons.”

Days passed by, and the
crow kept feeding the tiger more lies about how happy the Brahmin
was and how soon they were going to give him their
daughter.

One day, the tiger asked,
“My lemon tree has run out. When am I getting married?”

The crow said, “Any time
you want.”

The tiger said, “Fine, go
to them and tell them that if they don’t get me married to their
daughter by midnight tomorrow, I will eat them alive.”

This was what the crow
wanted. He went to the Brahmin’s place and told them, “If you don’t
marry your daughter to the tiger, he will come and eat you. You
have until tomorrow midnight.”

The Brahmin and his wife
started to cry. After a while, the Brahmin thought it best to go to
the head of the village. The head of the village listened to his
problem, and thought about it for a while. After some time of
thinking, he said, “Sure, let him come. We’ll give him the marriage
he deserves.”

He sent a messenger to
the tiger. “Come well dressed, our good sir. You will come to us,
seat on your special seat, enjoy the ceremony, and then get married
and return with the bride.”

Then he made his men dig
a deep well, and set up a hundred drums of oil boiling. A carpet
was laid on the well, and the villagers started to sing and dance,
playing their flutes and drums.

Hearing the ruckus, the
tiger thought, “There, the ceremonies have begun.”

He got suited up, put on
a turban, and ran to the Brahmin’s place. Everyone surrounded him,
shouting, “The groom is here, the groom is here,” and took him to
his special seat. The moment he stepped on the carpet, it folded,
and he fell down into the well.

The men poured the
hundred drums of boiling oil into the well, and threw fire into the
pit. The tiger burned to death, and the Brahmin sighed in
relief.

The crow was sitting on
the rooftop to see the fun. The boys of the neighbourhood threw
stones at him till one cracked his head open.

Once a tigress gave birth
to a couple of cubs. When they grew a little older, they became so
notorious, that their mother could not take it anymore, and died.
Before she died, she told the father of the cubs to look after
them.