Part 1 — Kurulu-gama Appu, the Sooth-sayer

Then he went and warmed these things [making bird-lime] and placed [limed] twigs, and catching birds and coming with them, he gave them daily, two by two at each house, and thus ate. The man’s name was Appu; his village was Kurulu-gama (Birds’ village).

While he was continuing to eat in this manner, the men of that village started to go to Puttalam, carrying produce for sale. That man also said, “I also must go.” Then the men of the village asked, “You have nothing; what will you take?” Thereupon this one tying up a pingo load of chaff and coconut husks, goes with the men.

Then the men who were going on that journey, having come down to the high road, set off to go. While they were going, the men having said [in fun] “Vedarāla” (Doctor) to that man, he kept the name.

Having gone very far, the Vedarāla, telling the men who went with him to wait on the road, placed his pingo (carrying-stick) on the road, and went into an open place in the jungle. While going along in it, when he looked about, a yoke of cattle were entangled in the bushes. Then this Vedarāla having gone near the yoke of cattle, looked at the letter marks branded on them, and having come back and taken up the pingo load, while they were going on it became night.

This party having halted on the road near a village, sent the Vedarāla to get a resting-place for the night. Having gone to a house in the village, when he asked for it the house men said, “What giving of resting-places is there for us! We are lamenting in sorrow for the difficulty we are in. Our yoke of cattle are missing.”

The Vedarāla said, “Now then, what have we to do with your losing a yoke of cattle? Give us a resting-place.”

“If you want one, look there! There is the shed, come and stay there,” they said.

Then the Vedarāla having come back, says to the people of the party, “There is a shed indeed. Stay if you like; go on, if you want to go,” he said. So this party having come to the shed sat down.

The people of the party said to the Vedarāla, “Vedarāla, why are you staying looking about? Night is coming on. We must seek a little firewood and water,” they spoke together.

The persons of the party said without a reason for it (nikamaṭa), “To a certain extent he can tell matters of sooth.”

“If so, don’t be delayed on account of anything you want. We will bring and give you rice, firewood, and water.” So they brought and gave them five quarts of rice, a dried fish, a head of ash-plantains.

This party, cooking amply, and having eaten, said at night to the person who owned the house, “Now then, bring a packet of betel leaves for him to tell you sooth.” So the house person having brought the betel, gave it to the Vedarāla.

Thereupon the assumed (lit. “face”) Vedarāla, having taken the betel, after having looked at it falsely becoming “possessed,” said, “It is a yoke of oxen of yours that have been lost, isn’t it?”

Then the house person said, “You have said the sooth very correctly. I asked it of the deities of many dēwālas (demon-temples), and of sooth-sayers. There wasn’t a person who told me even a sign of it.”

Thereafter the Vedarāla asked, “What will you give me for seeking and giving you the yoke of cattle?”

That person said, “Even if you can’t give the full yoke of cattle, I will give a half share of the value”; thus he promised.

That day also, having gone on until the time when it was becoming night, he got a resting-place in the very way in which, having spoken before, he got one. At the time when they were in the shed the persons of the party said, “Vedarāla, what are you staying looking about for? We must seek and get firewood and water.”

Then the house people say, “What are you saying ‘Vedarāla’ for? Does he know to say sooth and the like?”

After that, this party say, “He can also tell sooth. Last night he sought and gave a yoke of cattle.”

Then the house persons quickly having brought rice, fish, firewood, water, gave them to the men.

This party having amply cooked and eaten, while they were sleeping, the house person, having brought a packet of betel leaves, spoke to the Vedarāla: “How am I to ask sooth?”

Thereupon the Vedarāla says, “Where is it? Bring it quickly, and having brought it place it near that clump of plantains.”

Then this woman having brought the packet of warāgan, and placed it at the foot of the plantain clump and gone away, he went to sleep.

Afterwards the Vedarāla called the house person. “Now then, bring betel for me to say sooth.” The man having brought betel gave it to the Vedarāla.

Then the Vedarāla, having taken the betel and looked at it, said, “It is a packet of warāgan that has been lost, isn’t it.”

That man said, “It is that indeed. Should you seek and give what has been lost of mine, I will give you a half share.”

Then the Vedarāla having told him to get a light, becoming “possessed,” went and took and gave him the packet of warāgan that was at the foot of the plantain clump.

At that time this party said, “In our party indeed, there is a sooth-sayer. On the night of the day before yesterday he sought out and gave a yoke of cattle. Yesternight he sought out and gave a packet of warāgan.” Thereupon the persons took this Vedarāla near the King. Then the King asks, “Can he catch and give the thief who broke into the box at the foot of my bed?” The party said that he could.

Then the sooth-sayer, having become afraid, thought, “I will tie a cord to my neck and die.” So he said, “After tying white cloths in a house (as a decoration, on the walls and under the roof), and a piece of cord to the cross-beam, and placing a bed, chairs, and table in it, and setting on end a rice mortar, you must give me it in the evening.” The King having prepared them in that very way, gave him them.

As the Vedarāla was saying this word Kumandāēyi, a citizen, Kumandā, an old thief, was there [listening outside]. Having heard this, he thought, “He is calling out my name”; so becoming afraid he came near and spoke to the Vedarāla, and said, “It is I indeed whom you call Kumandā. It is I indeed who committed the theft. Don’t say anything about it to the King.”

Then the Vedarāla said, “If so, bring the things and put them in this house.”

Thereupon the old thief, having brought to the house all the things taken out of the box which was at the foot of the King’s bed, gave them to the sooth-sayer through the window.

Then the Vedarāla slept until light having come it became daylight.

Afterwards, the King having sent messengers in the morning, they awoke the Vedarāla. Then the Vedarāla, thinking it unseasonable, said, “Who is talking to me without allowing me to sleep?” and silently went to sleep again. So the messengers returned and told the King.

Afterwards the King came and spoke to him, and opened the door. The Vedarāla having come out, said, “O Lord, Your Majesty, I was unable to seize the thieves; the things indeed I met with.”

Then the King said, “The thief does not matter; after you have met with the things it is enough.”

Then the King, catching a great many fire-flies and putting them in a coconut shell, asked the Vedarāla, “What is there in this?”

The King said, “That is true. They are indeed fire-flies that are in my hand.”

After that, the King caught a bird, and clenching it in his fist, asked the sooth-sayer, “What is there in this fist?”

The King said, “Bola, it is indeed a bird that is in my hand”; and having called the Vedarāla, and given him many offices, and a house, told him to stay at that very city.

Afterwards the Vedarāla, thinking, “They will call me again to tell sooth,” having put away the things that were in the house, and having set fire to the house, said, “Kurulu-gama Appu’s sooth-saying is finished from to-day. The sooth books have been burnt.” Having made it public he stayed at that very city.

North-western Province.

The second discovery of the sooth-sayer is extracted from a variant by a washerman, the rest of the story having been written by a man of the cultivating caste.

In the Kathā Sarit Sāgara (Tawney), vol. i, p. 272, there is an account of a pretended sooth-sayer, a poverty-stricken Brāhmaṇa. He first hid a horse, and when application was made to him to discover it, he drew diagrams and described the place where it would be found. After that, when a thief stole gold and jewels from the King’s palace he was sent for and shut up in a room, where he began to blame his tongue, jivha, which had made a vain pretence at knowledge. The principal thief, a maid called Jivhā, overheard him, and told him where she had buried her share of the plunder. Afterwards the King tested him by placing a frog in a covered pitcher. He expected that he would be killed, and said, “This is a fine pitcher for you, Frog (his father’s pet name for himself), since suddenly it has become the swift destroyer of yourself in this place.” He was thought a great sage, and the King presented him with “villages with gold, umbrella, and vehicles of all kinds.”

There is another story of a pretended sooth-sayer in vol. ii, p. 140, of the same work, but it does not, like the last, resemble the Sinhalese tale.