The Gamarāla who went to the God-World

After two or three months passed away in this manner, one day the Gama-Mahagē (Gamarāla’s wife) having remembered the millet chena, spoke to her husband, “Have cattle eaten the millet chena?” and she sent him to look.

The Gamarāla, too, having gone hastily at the very time when he heard the word, saw at the time when he looked that rice mortars having gone had trampled the millet, and eaten it, and thrown it down. Having come home, perceiving at the time when he looked that his very own rice mortar had gone, making it fast he tied it to a tree.

On the following day also having gone, and again having seen, at the time when he looked, that the rice mortars had come and had eaten the millet, he walked everywhere in the village, and ordered [the owners] to tie up the rice mortars that were at the whole of the houses. The residents in the village being other fools did in the way he said.

On the third day, also, the Gamarāla having come, and having seen at the time when he looked that the rice mortars still had come, he thought, “It is our own rice mortar,” and having gone home he split the rice mortar with his axe, and burned it. The ashes he threw into the river.

Nevertheless, on the fourth day having come, and at the time when he looked having seen that rice mortars had come, not being able to bear his anger he came home, and while he is [there] he remains in the house, extremely annoyed.

“Why is it?” his wife asked.

Thereupon the Gamarāla replied thus, “The rice mortars having come to cause our millet eating to cease, I am not rich. Art thou clever enough to arrange a contrivance for it?” he asked. And the Gama-Mahagē, having considered a little time, ordered the Gamarāla to watch in the watch-hut at the chena.

The Gamarāla, accepting that word, on the following day went to the chena with a large axe, and during the night-time having been hidden, at the time when he was looking out saw that a tusk elephant, having come from the Divine World and trampled on the millet, and eaten it, and thrown it down, goes away. Having seen this wonderful tusk elephant, and thought that having hung even by his tail he must go to the Divine World, he went home and told the Gama-Mahagē to be ready, putting on clothes to-morrow for the purpose of going to the Divine World. At the time when the Gama-Mahagē also asked “In what manner is that [to be done]?” he made known to her all the news.

The Gamarāla’s wife hereupon wanted to know the means to get clothes washed when she went to the Divine World. At that time the Gamarāla said that they must perhaps take the washerman-uncle, [so he went to him and told him]. When the washerman-uncle set off to go he wanted his wife also to go, [and he brought her with him].

At last, these very four said persons having become ready and having been in the chena until the tusk elephant comes, after the tusk elephant came, at the very first the Gamarāla hung by the tail. The Gamarāla’s wife hung at his back corner (pitị mulla). After that, while the washerman-uncle and his wife were hung in turn behind the others, the tusk elephant, having eaten the millet, began to go to the Divine World.

After these four persons with extreme joy went a little distance, the washerman-uncle’s wife spoke to the Gamarāla, and asked thus, “For a certainty, Gamarāla, in that Divine World how great is the size of the quart measure which measures rice?” she asked.

Thereupon the Gamarāla, who was holding the tusk elephant’s tail the very first, said, “The quart measure will be this size.” Having put out his two hands he showed her the size.

At that time, these very four persons being extremely high in the sky, and from that far-off place having fallen to the earth, each one went into dust.

Western Province.

The Tusk Elephant of the Divine World (Variant).

In a certain country a man having worked a rice field, after the paddy became big a tusk elephant comes from the Divine World and eats the paddy.

Then from the Divine World they saw a tusk elephant, and with the tusk elephant also a man, come. Having seen them, when the men having become afraid are looking on, the tusk elephant eats the paddy. Then the men asked at the hand of the man who came with the tusk elephant, “You [come] whence?”

Then the man said, “We come from the Divine World; if you also like, come.”

After that, the men having said “Hā,” [added], “How shall we come now? At the speed at which you go we cannot come.”

After that, the men having said “Hā,” in that very way the tusk elephant got in front. The man having hung from the tusk elephant’s tail, when they were going away, the other men holding the waists, there was a coconut tree in the path.

Then the man who came from the Divine World said, “Andō! The largeness of these coconuts!”

Then these men asked, “In the Divine World are the coconuts very large?”

Then the man [in order] to say, “They will be this much [across],” released the hand which remained holding the tail of the tusk elephant. So the man fell to the ground, and all the other men fell to the ground.

Only the tusk elephant went to the Divine World.

Cultivating Caste, North-western Province.

In The Orientalist, vol. i, p. 234, Mr. C. J. R. Le Mesurier mentioned the man who tied up the rice mortars in the belief that the elephants’ foot-prints in a rice field were caused by them.

In the Kathā Sarit Sāgara (Tawney), vol. ii, p. 111, a man who got a tank made found that some animal tore up the surface of the embankment. When he remained on the watch for it he saw a bull descend from heaven, and gore it; and thinking he might go to heaven with it, he held the tail and was carried up to Kailāsa, the bull evidently being the riding animal of the God Śiva. After spending some time in happiness he descended in the same way, in order to see his friends. They asked him to take them with him on his return, and he consented. He seized the bull’s tail, the next man held his feet, the third his, and so on, in a chain. While they were on their way upward one of the men inquired how large were the sweetmeats he ate in heaven. The first man let go, joined his hands in a cup shape, and said, “So big.” Thereupon they all fell down and were killed. The story adds that “the people who saw it were much amused.”