Folktales from Bengal (8 page)

A few days passed. The
tiger was having no luck at looking after the cubs, or take care of
the household chores. The cubs did not listen to him, and the tiger
did not see how he could manage taking care of his home, and
provide food on the table.

The other tigers heard of
his problem, and said, “Just get married again. Let your wife take
care of the kids.”

The tiger thought, “Yes.
I should get married again. But this time, I will marry a human
girl. I heard they can cook really well.”

He went to a village to
get a girl. There was a family there, mother, father, and their son
and daughter. The tiger caught the daughter, and brought her home.
He told his cubs, “This is your new mother.”

The cubs did not buy it.
They replied, “She does not have claws or teeth or stripes or even
whiskers. How can she be our mother? Kill her, so we can eat
her.”

The tiger roared,
“Enough! If you say something like this once more, I am going to
rip you apart.” the cubs stopped complaining, but they never liked
the girl. Every day, they told her, “Wait a little longer, when we
get stronger, we’ll break your neck first, and have you for
breakfast.”

The girl was sad and
scared beyond reckoning. When the tiger left to hunt, she rolled on
the ground and cried for her brother, and mother and father. When
the tiger returned, she stopped crying in fear. And thus the days
passed.

Meanwhile, back at her
home, her parents went nearly blind crying for their daughter. Her
brother cried for some time, but after a while, he stopped. “Crying
won’t help,” he told his parents. “I’ll go and bring her back, or
die trying.” And before his parents could stop him, he was gone in
the woods.

He walked in the woods
for days, scavenging wild berries and fruits for food, and sleeping
on treetops at night. Finally, he found the tiger’s house, and his
sister there.

The girl was very happy
to see her brother, but she hugged him and cried out, saying,
“Brother, why are you here? The moment the tiger sees you, he will
eat you up.”

The brother replied, “I
don’t care. I am not going home without you.”

So the girl dug a hole in
the kitchen, hid him there, and covered it with a rock.

The tiger came home with
the food, and sat with his children to eat. But the children did
not pay any attention to the food, and just kept saying,

“
Listen to
us, father dear,

Mother’s brother, he is
here,

Lurk under a rock he
does,

When you hunt, out he
comes,

Move the rock and you can
see him,

Meet him, greet him, and
then eat him.”

The girl heard the cubs,
and started sobbing loudly. The tiger did not understand what kind
of insult his cubs had done her, but he slapped the two
nonetheless, and they stopped singing. Before he left again, he
called the girl and said, “I want some fried cake today. Fry them
up, and fry them well.”

When the tiger left, the
brother came out from under the rock, and said, “Now is our chance.
Let’s get out of here.” But the cubs heard them, and jumped at
them. They clawed them and bit them, until finally, the brother
took out a kitchen knife, and cut both of them up.

They took some oil in a
pan, and boiled the oil. Then they hung the bodies over the oil.
Blood dripped from the bodies, and fell on the oil, making a
hissing sound. Then they ran for their lives.

The tiger was coming back
home, when he heard the hiss from the kitchen. “There, the cake is
being made.” He thought. “If it’s good, then it’s good. But if it’s
not, the three of us will tear her up and eat her.”

When he got inside the
kitchen, he realized what had been done. He roared aloud, and
looked around all over his home, and the forest, for the girl. But
by then, the brother and the sister had returned to their village.
The family packed up, and went far from the forest, where no tiger
could ever bother them anymore.

At first, there used to
be two cats in the village. One stole milk from the Goalas, or
cow-herders, and the other stole fish from the fishermen. The
Goalas were not too careful of their milk and ghee, because they
got it all over the year, and so, their cat led a very happy life.
He became fat and fluffy within a matter of weeks. The fishermen
however, were very protective about their fishes, and so, their cat
rarely managed to steal. All he got for dinner were leftovers and
bones, and a lot of pokes and kicks from the fishermen to go with
it. The fishermen’s cat hated the cow-herder’s cat.

One day, the fishermen’s
cat went up to the Goala’s cat, and said, “Hello, friend. Aren’t
you ever tired of drinking the milk and the ghee all day
long?”

The Goala’s cat was
napping on a tin-shed. He opened an eye lazily, to look at the thin
excuse of a cat, and said, “No.”

“
Ah come on,”
said the fishermen’s cat, “Milk and ghee, curd and cream. It’s
bound to get boring after a while. Why don’t you come over to my
place for dinner tonight? We are serving fish, all kinds of
it.”

The Goala’s cat did not
like to move about much, but he liked to eat. “What kind of fish
are they having?”

“
All kinds.
There are Hilshas, Pomfret, Koi, Magur, Tangra, Puti. Big ones and
small ones, and all you can eat and more.”

So the Goala’s cat agreed
to come.

That night, when he went
to the fishermen’s home, the fishermen were alarmed beyond
reckoning. “It’s the fat cat from the cow-herders,” they said,
“Kill it quickly, before he eats all our fishes.”

And so, an angry mob
surrounded the fat cat and beat it to death.

The fishermen’s cat now
went to the cow herders’ place, and got to eat all the milk and
curd he wanted. And soon enough, he became as big and fat as the
Goala’s cat had been. Seeing himself grow so big, he felt proud and
haughty, and soon, stopped hanging out with the other cats. But he
got bored of the mollycoddling after a while, and began to miss the
days he used to steal fishes from the fishermen. He decided that he
needed an adventure.

And so, he went to the
forest. There, he took out a pen and paper, and began to scribble
down unreadables, looking very grave and important.

After a while, he saw
three little tiger cubs playing around. He went ahead, and said,
“Hey. Why are you playing in the king’s forest? Did you pay your
tax?”

The tiger cubs had never
seen a creature like the cat, small and fat, that looked like a
tiger, but did not roar. They ran to their mother, and said,
“Mother, mother. There’s this thing that looks like a small tiger
that says it’s here to collect taxes.”

The tigress came to the
cat now, and said, “Who are you, son? And what do you want from
us?”

The cat replied, “I am
Dhat-teri, the Terrible. I work for the king, and I am collecting
his tax. Pay up quickly, or you’ll have to deal with
me.”

The tigress replied, “I
have never heard of this tax you are talking about. We are tigers.
We don’t pay taxes, and we hunt what walks in here.”

“
Isn’t your
husband home? Maybe he has to say something different on the
matter.”

“
He is gone
out hunting. But he will be back soon. Why don’t you take a seat
and wait? But I must warn you. He is a very bad temper.”

After a while Dhat-teri
the Terrible heard the tiger coming. He dropped his notepad and
pen, and jumped to the top of a tree.

When the tiger heard of
the cat, he was very angry indeed. “Where is he?” he roared. ”I’m
going to break his neck.”

He looked around his
home, and found the cat up on a tree. He tried to chase it, but as
he got higher, the cat climbed higher still, keeping to the thin
and weak branches, and crying, “Come on, little tiger? Where’s your
tax? Pay up, or pay the price.”

The tiger was blinded by
rage, and jumped up to slash Dhat-teri, but he missed and fell from
the tree. The impact broke his neck, and he died. Dhat-teri climbed
down from the tree, and made a few scratches on the tiger’s face
with his claw. Then he called up the tigress, and said, “Look what
I had to do to him. Do you have anything else to say, or should
another die?”

The tigress was very
scared now, and said, “Please, Mr. Dhat-teri, don’t kill us. We’ll
stay as your slaves.”

Dhat-teri said, “Very
well then. But don’t slack off, and see that I don’t get
hungry.”

After this, Dhat-teri
remained with the tigers. He had what the tiger hunted, and rode
the cubs everywhere.

A few weeks passed like
this. One day, the tiger came up to Dhat-teri, and said, “Mr
Dhat-teri, this side of the forest is running out of game. I am
worried we cannot feed you well at this rate. I think we should
cross the river. The forest on the other side is very big, and got
real big animals.”

“
Let’s cross
the river, then,” said Dhat-teri.

The tigress crossed the
river with her cubs, Dhat-teri swimming close behind them. But on
the other side, they noticed that Dhat-teri was missing. One of the
cubs spotted him in the middle of the river.

Dhat-teri was drowning.
He realized that he had no hope of swimming across, and he would
drown before the next wave hit him. But luckily for him, one of the
cubs swam to him and dragged him ashore.

The moment he felt solid
ground under his feet, he jumped up, and said, “You scoundrel! Look
what you did. I was counting how many fishes and crocodiles there
are in the river. I was this close to finish. Why did you drag me
up?”

The tigress quickly came
up to him and said, “I apologize for him, Mr Dhat-teri. Please
forgive him. He is just a cub. What does he know of your kingly
affairs?”

“
Humph.” Said
Dhat-teri, and walked to dry land. There, he climbed up a tall
tree, and looked around. He saw a large bull dead in a clearing. He
ran up there, and bit and scratched the corpse. Then he took the
tigress and the cubs there, and said. “This is our hunt for today.
I know you must be tired, so I got the food. But don’t get used to
it.”

The tigress and the cubs
thought, “How strong Mr Dhat-teri must be to hunt his large bull
all by himself.”

The next day, the tigress
walked up to Dhat-teri, and said, “Today, we begin the hunting.
What do you want to do? Chase the animals, or ambush
them?”

Dhat-teri thought, “What
animal in their right mind would be afraid of me?” he said, “You
idiots. Do you honestly think you can hunt down the animals I bring
about chasing? No. You chase the animals here, and I’ll ambush
them.”

The tigress agreed. “Of
course. How can we possibly hunt the horrible creatures Mr
Dhat-teri chases here?”

They went about in the
deep of the forest, and began to roar and thrash about, chasing
animals towards Dhat-teri.

Hearing the tumult inside
the forest, the roar, and the stampede, Dhat-teri hid under a
fallen tree trunk, and shivering in fear.

An elephant was running
his direction, and he stepped on the trunk Dhat-teri was hiding
under. Under the pressure, a branch of the tree stabbed Dhat-teri
and he lay there dying.

After spending some time
chasing the animals, the tigress thought, “By this time, Mr
Dhat-teri must have hunted a hundred of them.”

They returned to the cat,
only to find him dying.

“
Oh Mr
Dhat-teri,” they said. ”What happened to you?”

“
Don’t ask,”
replied Dhat-teri. “When I saw the puny creatures you sent this
way, I laughed so much that my belly burst. Ho ho ho
ho.”

And then he
died.

The ant and his wife were
madly in love.

One day, the ant said,
“Dear, if I die, will you take me to the Ganges and drift me
away?”

“
Of course
dear,” said the wife. “And if I die, will you do the same for
me?”

“
Of
course.”

Soon after this the ant’s
wife died. The ant cried for seven days and nights, then thought,
“Now I have to take her to Ganges.”

He carried his wife on
his back and travelled towards the Ganges. The path was long and
tiring. After walking for a day, the ant got tired and sat to
rest.

An elephant was tied to a
pole nearby. It was the king’s favourite elephant. It was breathing
heavily through his trunk, and the ant and his dead wife were
almost blown away.

“
Hey. Stop
breathing! Stop breathing!” the ant yelled. But the elephant never
listened, and in a ‘whoosh’ the ant’s wife was blown away to nobody
knows where.

“
You’ll pay
for that, you scoundrel,” cried the ant.

The elephant opened his
eyes to look at the ground. “Who is speaking?” he said. “I don’t
see anyone.” Then he stomped on the ground where the noise was
coming from. Luckily, there was a hole under the elephant’s foot,
and the ant hid inside the hole and survived.