How Mārayā was put in the Bottle
Reading edition
Mārayā having heard this word and being much pleased, thought, “I must get this woman’s son into a successful state.”
Having thought thus, after some time had gone, speaking to the son Mārayā said thus, that is to say, “Become a Vedarāla. I will give you one medicine only. Should I stay at the head side of any sick person, by giving the sick person the medicine the sick person will become well. Should I be at the feet side you cannot cure the sick person.” After that, this son having gone from place to place and having applied medical treatment, became a very celebrated doctor.
One day when this Vedarāla went to look at a sick person whom he very greatly liked, Mārayā was at the feet part of the sick person. At that time the Vedarāla having thought, “I must do a good work,” told them to completely turn round the bed and the sick person. Then the head side became the part where Mārayā stayed. Well then, when he had given him the Vedarāla’s medicine the sick person became well.
Mārayā having become angry with the Vedarāla concerning this matter, and having thought, “I must kill him,” Mārayā sat on a chair of the Vedarāla’s.
Well then, because Mārayā could not rise from the chair he told the Vedarāla to release him from it.
Then the Vedarāla said to Mārayā, “If, prior to killing me, you will give me time for three years I will release you,” he said.
After Mārayā climbed up the coconut tree, having uttered the Vedarāla’s spell the Vedarāla thought, “May Mārayā be unable to descend from the tree.”
Well then, Mārayā, ascertaining that he could not descend from the tree, told the Vedarāla to release him. At that time the Vedarāla, asking [and obtaining] from Mārayā [a promise] that he should not kill him until still three years had gone, having released Mārayā sent him away.
The three years having been ended, on the day when Mārayā comes to the Vedarāla’s house the Vedarāla entered a room, and shutting the door remained [there]. But Mārayā entered straightway (kelimma) inside the room.
Then the Vedarāla asked, “How did you come into a room the doors of which were closed?”
Thereupon Mārayā said, “I came by the hole into which the key is put.”
The Vedarāla then said, it is said, “If I am to believe that matter, be pleased to creep inside this bottle,” he said.
Well then, after Mārayā crept into the bottle the Vedarāla tightened the lid (mūḍiya) of the bottle, and having beaten it down put it away.
From that day, when going to apply medical treatment on all days having gone taking the bottle in which he put Mārayā, he placed the bottle at the head side of the sick person; and having applied medical treatment cured the sick person. In this manner he got his livelihood.
Western Province.
In The Indian Antiquary, vol. i, p. 345, in a Bengal story by Mr. G. H. Damant, a shepherd discriminates a demon from a man whose form he has taken,—living with his wife during the man’s absence,—by boring through a reed, and saying that the true person must be the one who could pass through it. As the demon was passing through it he stopped both ends of the reed with mud, and killed him.
In the South Indian Tales of Mariyada Rāman (P. Ramachandra Rao), p. 43, a husband was returning home on an unlucky day (the ninth of the lunar fortnight), with his wife, who had been visiting her parents. When he left her on the path for a few moments, “Navami Purusha,” the deity who presided over the ninth day, made his appearance in the form of the husband and went away with the wife. The husband followed, and took the matter before Mariyada Rāman. The judge got a very narrow-necked jug prepared, and declared that he would give her to the claimant who could enter and leave the jug without damaging it or himself. When the deity did it the judge made obeisance to him, and was informed that the man’s form had been taken by him to punish him for travelling on an unlucky day against the Purōhita’s advice.
In Folk-Tales of Bengal (Day), p. 182, when a Brāhmaṇa returned home after some years’ absence he was turned away by a person of his own appearance, and the King could not decide the matter. A boy elected as King by others in their play offered to settle it, and producing a narrow-mouthed phial stated that the one who entered it should have judgment in his favour. When the ghost transformed himself into “a small creature like an insect” and crept inside, the boy corked it up and ordered the Brāhmaṇa to throw it into the sea and repossess his home. The first part resembles a story in the Kathākoça (Tawney), p. 41, the interloper being a deity in it.
In the well-known tale in the Arabian Nights (Lady Burton’s ed., vol. i, p. 33), the receptacle in which the Jinni was imprisoned was “a cucumber-shaped jar of yellow copper” or brass, closed by a leaden cap stamped with the seal-ring of Solomon. In vol. iii, p. 54, and vol. iv, p. 32, other Ifrits were enclosed in similar jars made of brass, sealed with lead.