The Hunchback Tale
H. (Henry) Parker translation
In a certain city, at one house there was a Hunchback. One day, at the time when this Hunchback went to the rice field, his wife, having cooked rice, called him, saying, “Hunchback! Hunchback!” Thereupon anger having come to him he went home and thrashed his wife; thereupon the woman died.
Ūva Province.
The story is a variant of No. 29, vol. i, “The Pied Robin.”
Notes in this chapter
Note 1 · A vegetable cultivated in village gardens and chenas, Nothosærua brachiate. ↑Note 2 · Ana-karaṇayen; the verb ana-karaṇawā is usually “to order.” ↑Note 3 · Apparently understood by him to be intended for Kudā chawa chawa. “Hunchback, [you are] vile, vile.” ↑Note 4 · Idena, which ordinarily would mean “ripens.” ↑Note 5 · He appears to have understood this to mean, “Hunchback, [you are] clownish, clownish,” goḍayā being “clown.” ↑Note 6 · Perhaps to be taken as one word, Kudarūn, = Kudō + arūn, “Hunchbacks [are] fellows.” ↑Note 7 · Busa means chaff, cow-dung; he thought the meaning was, “Hunchback, [you are] chaff, chaff.” ↑Note 8 · Having buried the woman, at the grave he planted tampalā.1 When the tampalā had become large a cow having approached there ate the tampalā wNote 9 · Having buried the cow, upon the grave he planted a foreign yam plant. [When it had grown], cutting up the foreign yam plant [after digging iNote 10 · After a few days, at the time when he was sleeping, with the sound that goes Kuda rūn6 flies alighted on his body. Thereupon he having ariseNote 11 · After the fire became alight, having seen that it burns with the sound that goes “Kuda busu busu, Kuda busu busu,”7 he, also, sprang into th