The Story of the Cake Tree

In a certain country there are a woman, and a youngster, and a girl, it is said. The woman is a Yaksanī.

One day the youngster said, “Mother, let us cook cakes.”

Then the Yaksanī said, “Son, for us to cook cakes, whence [can we get] the things for them?”

After that, this youngster having gone to the place where they were pounding flour, and having come back [after] placing a little flour under the corner of his finger nail, said, “Mother, mother, hold a pot,” he said.

The Yaksanī held a pot. Then he struck down the finger nail; then the pot having filled, overflowed.

Again, having gone to a place where they were expressing [oil from] coconuts, and having come [after] placing a little oil under the corner of his finger nail, “Mother, mother, hold a pot,” he said.

The Yaksanī held a pot. Then the youngster struck down the finger nail; then the pot having filled, overflowed.

After that, the youngster having gone to a place where they were warming [palm] syrup, and having come [after] placing a little syrup under the corner of his finger nail, “Mother, mother, hold a pot,” he said.

After that, the youngster said, “Mother, now then, cook cakes.” Having said it, the youngster went to school.

During the time while he was going and was there, the Yaksanī and the girl having cooked cakes, and the Yaksanī and the girl having eaten all the cakes, placed for the youngster a cake that fell on the ash-heap while they were cooking; and both of them remained without speaking.

Then the youngster having been at school, came home. Having come, he asked that Yaksanī, “Mother, where are the cakes?”

Then the Yaksanī said, “Anē! Son, the cooked cakes the flour people took away, the oil people took away, the syrup people took away. The cake which fell on the ash-heap while [we were] cooking is there. There; eat even that.”

After that, when the youngster looked on the ash-heap there was a cake on it. Having taken it, and planted it in the chena jungle, he said, “When I come to-morrow, may the Cake tree (kæwun gaha), having sprouted, be [here].” Having said it he came home.

Having gone on the following day, when he looked a Cake tree had sprouted. Afterwards the youngster said, “When I come to-morrow, may flowers having blossomed be [on it].” Having said it he came home.

Afterwards having gone, when he looked flowers had blossomed. After that, the youngster said, “When I come to-morrow, may cakes having fruited be [on it].” Having said it he came home.

Having gone on the following day, when he looked there were cakes. After that, the youngster having ascended the tree, ate the cakes.

Then the Yaksanī having gone [there], sitting at the bottom of the tree said, “Son, a cake for me also.” The woman having taken a sack also, put it [there].

Afterwards the youngster threw down a cake. Then the Yaksanī falsely said, “Anē! Son, it fell into the spittle heap.” The youngster again threw one down. Then the Yaksanī said, “Anē! Son, it fell into the mucus heap.” Afterwards the youngster again threw one down. Then also the Yaksanī said, “Anē! Son, it fell into the cow-dung heap.”

Having said, “Not so; holding them with your hand and mouth jump into the sack,” she held the sack, through wanting to eat the youngster. Then the youngster, holding them with the hand and mouth, jumped into the sack.

After that, the Yaksanī, tying the sack, came away. In a rice field certain men were ploughing. Having placed the sack very near there, the Yaksanī went seven gawwas (twenty-eight miles) away [for necessary reasons].

Thereupon that youngster says, “Anē! Unfasten this sack, some one who is in this rice field.” Then the men who were very near having heard it, unfastened the sack. After that, the youngster having come out, put a great many ploughed-up clods from a plot of the field into the sack, and again having tied the sack in the very way in which it was [before], and placed it there, the youngster again went to the Cake tree and ate.

Then the Yaksanī having come, and taken the sack, and gone home, and placed it [there], said to the girl, “Daughter, this one is in the sack. Unfasten this, and having cut up this one, and placed the bowl of [his] blood beneath the stile, place the flesh on the hearth [to cook].” Having said it the Yaksanī went away.

After that, the girl having unfastened the sack, when she looked the youngster was not in it; there were a great many ploughed-up clods. Afterwards the girl having thrown aside the ploughed-up clods, put the sack in the house.

The Yaksanī came back. Having come, when she looked beneath the stile there was no bowl of blood. Having gone near the hearth, when she looked there was no flesh. After that, she asked at the hand of the girl, “Daughter, why didn’t you cut up that one?”

The girl [said], “Mother, there was a sort of ploughed-up clods in the sack; having thrown them aside I put the sack in the house.”

Then the Yaksanī said, “If so, daughter, give me the sack;” and asking for the sack, and having gone near the Cake tree, when she looked the youngster was eating cakes in the tree.

Sitting down near the tree she said, “Son, a cake for me also.” Afterwards the youngster threw down a cake. Then the Yaksanī said, “Son, it fell here, into the spittle heap.” The youngster again threw one down. Then the Yaksanī [said], “Son, it fell into the mucus heap.” The youngster again threw one down. Then the Yaksanī said, “Anē, Son, it fell into the cow-dung heap. Not so, son. Holding them with the hand and mouth jump into the sack.” After that, the youngster, holding them with the hand and mouth, jumped into the sack.

Thereupon, the Yaksanī, in that very manner tying the sack and taking it, went away; and again having placed it in that rice field, went to the very quarter to which she went at first.

Then the youngster said, “Unfasten this sack, some one who is in this rice field.” Having heard it, those men unfastened the sack. Then the youngster having come out, caught a great number of rat snakes; and having put them in the sack, and tied it in that very way, and placed it there, the youngster again went to the Cake tree and ate cakes.

Then the Yaksanī having come, and taken the bag also, and gone home, told the girl, “Daughter, cut up this one, and having placed the bowl of [his] blood beneath the stile, put the flesh on the hearth.” Having said it she went away.

After that, the girl having unfastened the sack, when she looked there were a great many rat snakes [in it]. The girl having waited until the time when the rat snakes went off, put the sack in the house.

Then the Yaksanī having come, when she looked if the bowl of blood was beneath the stile, it was not [there]; when she looked if the flesh was on the hearth, that also was not [there]. After that she asked at the hand of the girl, “Daughter, didn’t you cut up that one?”

Then the girl says, “Mother, in it there were a great many rat snakes. Having waited there until the time when they went off, I put the sack in the house.”

After that, the Yaksanī [said], “If so, daughter, give me that sack;” and asking for the sack, and having gone near the Cake tree, when she looked this youngster was eating cakes.

Afterwards the Yaksanī, sitting down, said, “Son, a cake for me also.” The youngster threw down a cake. Then the Yaksanī said, “Anē! Son, it fell into the spittle heap.” Afterwards the youngster again threw one down. Then the Yaksanī said, “Anē! Son, it fell into the mucus heap.” The youngster again threw one down. Then the Yaksanī [said], “Anē! Son, it fell into the cow-dung heap. Not so, son. Holding them with the hand and mouth jump into the sack.” Afterwards the youngster, holding them with the hand and mouth, jumped into the sack.

After that, the Yaksanī tied the sack, and placing it on her head and having come quite home, and placed the sack in the veranda, said to the girl, “Daughter, to-day indeed that one is [here]. Cut up that one, and having placed the bowl of [his] blood beneath the stile, place the flesh on the hearth.” Having said it she went away.

Afterwards this girl having unfastened the sack, when she looked the youngster was [in it]. Having brought the bill-hook, when she was about (lit., making) to cut up the youngster, the youngster said, “Elder sister, don’t cut me up just now. Lie down here for me to comb your head.” After that, the girl lay down.

As he was combing and combing the head, this girl went to sleep. Afterwards, this youngster having cut the girl’s throat (lit., neck), placed the bowl of [her] blood beneath the stile, and having put the flesh on the hearth, the youngster, taking a rice mortar, and a pestle, and a millet [grinding] stone,—at the doorway there was a Palmira [palm] tree—ascended the Palmira tree.

While he was there the Yaksanī came, and having drunk the bowl of blood that was beneath the stile, and come near the hearth and taken the flesh that was on the hearth, began to eat.

While she was eating it, the youngster, being in the Palmira tree, says thus:—

“They themselves eat their own children.

The Palmira tree [is] at the doorway;

The Yaksanī having heard it and said, “Aḍē! Where is this one?” and having looked around, again eats that flesh.

Then that youngster again says,

“They themselves eat their own children.

The Palmira tree [is] at the doorway;

Jēn kiṭak kiṭa.”

Then the Yaksanī having come into the open ground in front of the house, when she looked up the tree the youngster was there. Afterwards the Yaksanī said, “Aḍē! Stop there. [I am going] to eat this one.”

As she was setting off to go up the tree that youngster let go the pestle. The Yaksanī, saying and saying, “Thou art unable to kill me,” goes upward.

After that, that youngster let go the rice mortar; then the Yaksanī fell to the ground. Then that youngster let go the millet stone; then the Yaksanī died. Only the youngster remained.

North-western Province.

In the Kolhān tales (Bompas) appended to Folklore of the Santal Parganas (Rev. Dr. Bodding), p. 464, occurs an Indian version of this peculiar story. A boy whose mother gave him two pieces of bread daily, one day left one on a rock and found next morning that a tree which bore bread as fruit had grown from it. When he was in the tree eating the fruit one day, a woman who was really a Rākshasī came up and asked for a loaf, and saying that if it fell on the ground it would become dirty, induced him to descend with it. She then put him in her bag and went off. While she was getting a drink at a pool some travellers let the boy out. He filled the bag with stones. On reaching her home the woman told her daughter she had brought a fine dinner, but the daughter found only stones in the bag. Next day the woman returned to the tree, secured the boy in the same way, brought him to her daughter, and went to collect firewood. In reply to the boy, the girl said he was to be killed by being pounded in a mortar; while she showed him how it was to be done he killed her with the pestle, put on her clothes, and cut her up. The ogress returned, cooked and ate her, and went to sleep, on which the boy struck her on the head with a large stone, killed her, and took all her property.

The Lad and the Rākshasī. (Variant a.)

In a certain country there are a female Crow and a male Crow. While they were thus, the female Crow having thought of eating cakes, went with the male Crow to break firewood. Having gone, [after] breaking firewood the male Crow took a bundle of firewood [and came away with it].

When the female Crow was there unable to lift up her bundle of firewood, she saw that a lad who looks after cattle was going by, and having called to him, when she said, “Son, lift up the bundle of firewood and go; I will give you cakes,” the lad lifted it up and gave her it, and went away.

After that, the lad having come to eat cakes, when he asked for cakes the female Crow gave him cakes.

The lad, having gone away taking the cakes, and ascended a tree, when he was eating them a Rākshasī came. When she looked up the tree, having seen a lad eating cakes, she said, “Anē! Son, throw down cakes for me also.” So the lad threw down a cake. Having said, “It is in the dung-heap,” she told him to throw down one more. Thereupon the lad threw down one more. “That also is in the dung-heap,” she said. After all were finished in that way, the Rākshasī says to the lad, “Now then, son, tying both legs and both hands jump into this bag,” she said. Then the lad jumped.

The Rākshasī having put the lad in the bag, and [after] tying it having gone home, gave it to the Rākshasī’s daughter, and said, “Fry this, and put it away until the time when I come.” Having said [this], the Rākshasī went away somewhere or other.

After that, the Rākshasī’s daughter opened the bag, and taking out the lad, told the lad to blow up the fire on the hearth. Thereupon the lad says, “I don’t know [how],” he said.

Then when the Rākshasī’s daughter descends to the hearth to show him, the lad pushed the Rākshasī’s daughter into the oil cooking-pot that was on the hearth.

After she was fried, having taken it off and put it away, taking the chillies [grinding] stone he climbed up the Palmira tree which was at the doorway.

Having said and said it, when she is eating, the lad sitting in the tree says,

“Of the heifer’s flesh The heifer herself [is] the eater. The Palmira tree at the doorway. Ḍān̥, ḍūn̥.” “Naembigē mālu Naembima kannā. Dorakaḍa tal gaha. Ḍān̥, ḍūn̥.”

While he is saying it, when the Rākshasī had looked up and seen that the lad is in the tree, as she is going to climb the tree the lad threw down the chillies [grinding] stone on the Rākshasī’s body. Thereupon the Rākshasī died.

After that, the lad having descended from the tree, put the Rākshasī into a well, and went away.

Bintaenna, Ūva Province.

The Cake Tree. (Variant b.)

In a certain country there was a house of a Gamarāla, it is said. At that house there were seven children. Out of the seven, the elder six persons having arisen on all days just at daybreak, go to do work in the rice field. The young person for the purpose of learning goes to school.

Having joined with yet [other] children (lamō), the party of children began to go near a house at which a certain Rākshasī dwells at that village. During the time when they are going thus, the Rākshasī who saw these children, from the day on which she saw the children made ready to seize and eat them.

Although she made ready in that manner, through fear because men dwelt in the neighbourhood she did not seize the children. But the Rākshasī being unable to remain without eating the children, thought, “Seizing the children by a certain device, I must employ my daughter, and [after] boiling I must eat them.” Having broken off all the leaves of a tree that was on the road on which the children go to school, and having wrapped strips of white cloth at all places on the tree, and hung cakes and plantains, etc., at all places on the tree, the Rākshasī got into the jungle and waited.

At the time when she is staying thus, the party of children who are going to school, when they approached the root of that tree having seen the tree on which the cakes and plantains had been hung, said, “Look here, Bola; a Cake Tree;” and the whole of them having ascended the tree, plucked the cakes and plantains to the extent to which they had been hung on the tree, and ate them.

That day, except that the Rākshasī had gone into the jungle, she did not come to the place where the children are eating the cakes and plantains. Why? It was through fear that many children having come to the place where she is, at the time when she is seizing them the children having become afraid, and run to that and this hand, when they have told the men they will kill her.

Having thought thus, that day after the whole of the children, plucking the cakes and plantains, went away, the Rākshasī having come from the jungle into the open, arrived at her house, and stayed [there]. On the following day also, as on the former day, at daybreak having gone taking cakes and plantains, and hung them on the tree, she got hid, and remained looking out.

That day, when she is thus, out of that troop of children going to school, the Gamarāla’s child having arisen more towards daybreak than on other days, and hurried, and eaten food, and drunk, and gone in front of the other boys, with the thought that he must pluck the cakes very quickly went that day quite alone. Having gone in that way, he ascended the Cake Tree and began to pluck them. At the time when he is thus plucking them, the Rākshasī having sprung out, quickly taking the bag also, and having come to the bottom of the tree, spoke to the Gamarāla’s boy, and says, “Aḍē! Son, pluck and give me one cake,” she said.

When the Rākshasī said thus, he plucked one and gave it. The Rākshasī having thrown on the ground that bit of cake says, “Anē! Son, the cake fell on the ground. Sand being rubbed on it, I cannot eat it. Give me still one,” she said.

At the time when she said thus, he plucked one more and gave it. Having dropped that also on the ground, she says, “Anē! Having struck my hand that also fell on the ground. I cannot catch the cakes that you are plucking and giving me. I will tell you a very easy work; you do it. Plucking as many cakes as you can, jump into my bag. Jumping in that way is easier than descending [by climbing down] the tree,” she said.

When the Rākshasī told him in that manner, this foolish child, thinking, “It is an easy work the Rākshasī is telling me,” and plucking as many as possible for both hands and waist-pocket, jumped into the Rākshasī’s bag.

The Rākshasī, tying the mouth of the bag and having gone taking him without being visible to the men, arrived at her house, and having spoken to the Rākshasī’s daughter, says, “Daughter, to-day I must eat a good flavour. In the bag that I brought, placing it on my shoulder, there is a tasty meat. Boil the meat for me and give me it.” Having given it to her daughter, the Rākshasī went about another thing that should be done.

When the Rākshasī’s daughter is unfastening the bag to prepare the meat, there is a boy [in it]. When the Rākshasī’s daughter having unfastened the bag is going to take the child out, having spoken he says, “Anē! Elder sister, there are lice on your head.”

Thereupon the Rākshasī’s daughter says, “Anē! Younger brother, if so, catch them.” Having said [this] she sat down.

When the Rākshasī came [after] bathing, at the time when she is coming she says, “Daughter, even to-day has tasty food been prepared? Don’t do that work for the men of the village to get news of it; if so, the men of the village will kill us.” Saying this, she came into the house.

Well then, except that having boiled the meat it is there to eat, the daughter is not to be seen. While calling her on that and this hand, at the time when she is seeking her that youth, sitting on the Palmira tree, says, “Their own flesh they themselves will eat. On the Palmira tree at the doorway; ṭān, ṭūn.” Saying [this] he began to beat a tom-tom (ram̆bāna).

Then the Rākshasī having looked up when coming running to seize this one, this one threw at the Rākshasī the rice mortar and pestle that he had taken to the top of the tree, and struck her. The Rākshasī died at the bottom of the tree.

This one having descended from the tree, and gone home, and given information to the other brothers of this circumstance, came with them, and took away the goods of the Rākshasī’s that there were. Having gone away they lived in happiness.

Western Province.

In Kaffir Folk-Lore (Theal), p. 120, a cannibal placed in a bag a girl whom he intended to eat. When he went for water her brother took her out and put a swarm of bees in her place. These stung the cannibal when he opened the bag, and he fell into a pool, where he became a block of wood.