The Story of Ayiwandā

In a certain city there are an elder brother and a younger sister, two persons, it is said. Of them, the elder brother is a very rich person; the younger sister has nothing (mokut na͞e). The younger sister is a widow woman; there is one boy. The boy himself lodges at his uncle’s watch-huts and the like; the youngster’s name is Ayiwandā.

The uncle having scraped a little rice from the bottom of the cooking-pot, and given him it, says, “Aḍē! Ayiwandā, be off to the watch-hut [at the cattle-fold].” The youngster came to the watch-hut.

The uncle having gone and looked, [saw that] one or two calves were dead in the cattle-fold. Then the uncle having come home scolds Ayiwandā, “Ayiwandā, at the time when thou wert going to the watch-hut thou drankest a little milk, and there being no milk for the calves they are dying.”

Afterwards Ayiwandā having gone that day to the watch-hut, and having said that he must catch the thieves, without sleeping stayed awake until the time when it became dawn.

Well then, Gōpalu Dēvatāwā having drunk milk and the like, when he looked for both the cord and the club in order to go, they were not [there]. Afterwards, Gōpalu Dēvatāwā having gone near the watch-hut asked for the cord and club. Ayiwandā taking the two descended from the watch-hut to the ground.

Then Gōpalu Dēvatāwā asked for the rope and cudgel, both, at the hand of Ayiwandā. Then Ayiwandā said, “I have heard scoldings for so much time, that as I drank the milk the calves are dying. To-day I stayed awake and caught the thief. Except that if you will give me an authority on that account I will give you the rope and cudgel, I will not otherwise give them.”

Then Gōpalu Dēvatāwā said to Ayiwandā, “Think in your mind, ‘If there be an authority which Gōpalu Dēvatāwā gave, may that hill and this hill, both, become united into one.’ ”

Afterwards Ayiwandā thought in that way. Then the two hills became united into one.

Then Gōpalu Dēvatāwā said to Ayiwandā, “Think in your mind, ‘If there be an authority which Gōpalu Dēvatāwā gave, these hills are again to become separated.’ ”

Afterwards Ayiwandā thought in that manner. The two hills again became separated.

Gōpalu Dēvatāwā said to Ayiwandā, “Think in your mind, ‘If there be an authority which Gōpalu Dēvatāwā gave, that tree and this tree are both to become one.’ ”

Afterwards Ayiwandā thought in that manner. The two trees became united into one.

Gōpalu Dēvatāwā said again to Ayiwandā, “Think in your mind, ‘If there be an authority which Gōpalu Dēvatāwā gave, the two trees are again to become separate.’ ”

Ayiwandā thought in that manner. Then the two trees became separate.

Now then, Gōpalu Dēvatāwā said, “The authority that Gōpalu Dēvatāwā gave [you] is true.” Having said that, and told him that having gone he was to keep it in mind, he assured him of the fact (satta dunnā). After that, to Gōpalu Dēvatāwā Ayiwandā gave both the cord and the cudgel. Well then, Gōpalu Dēvatāwā taking them went away.

Ayiwandā having been [there] until the time when it became light, came home and said at the hand of Ayiwandā’s mother, “Mother, ask for uncle’s girl and come back.”

Then Ayiwandā’s mother says, “Anē! Son, who will give [marriage] feasts to us? [We have] not a house to be in; we are in the hollow of a Tamarind. I will not. You go and ask, and come back,” she said.

Having come from an outside village, [people] asked for Ayiwandā’s uncle’s girl [in marriage]. Then he promised to give her there. He appointed it to be on such and such a day. The men went away.

Then Ayiwandā’s uncle gave betel to shooters who were in the neighbourhood, [so that they should shoot animals for the wedding-feast]. Ayiwandā thought in his mind, “Let those shooters not meet with anything, if there be an authority which Gōpalu Dēvatāwā gave.” Afterwards the shooters walked about at the time when they are saying that the [wedding] feast is to-morrow. They did not meet with even a thing.

After that, Ayiwandā went to his uncle’s house. When he said that the [wedding] feast would be to-morrow, to-day in the evening he asked, “Uncle, give me that bow and arrow.”

Afterwards Ayiwandā came home. Then his mother told Ayiwandā to eat the rice scraped from the cooking-pot which had been brought from his uncle’s house. Ayiwandā having eaten a little of the scraped rice, gave the other little to Ayiwandā’s mother, and thought in his mind, “Preparing the bow from the rice-pestle and preparing the arrow from love-grass, I having gone to the watch-hut and ascended into the watch-hut, if there be an authority which Gōpalu Dēvatāwā gave, may a Sambhar deer with horns come there and remain sleeping as I arise in the morning.” Having said [this] Ayiwandā went to sleep.

Having awoke in the morning, when he looked a Sambhar deer with horns having come was sleeping in the middle of the cattle-fold. Ayiwandā having descended from the watch-hut, taking the bow made from the rice pestle and the arrow made from love-grass, came near the Sambhar deer, and thought in his mind, “If there be an authority which Gōpalu Dēvatāwā gave, that which is shot at this Sambhar deer from this side is to be passed out from the other side.” Having thought it he shot. In that very manner the Sambhar deer died.

Ayiwandā having gone to his uncle’s house, said, “Uncle, there! I have shot down a Sambhar deer with horns at the cattle-fold; it is [there]. Go and cut it up, and come back.”

Then his uncle said, “Ansca dukkan̥! There is no hunting-meat of thine. I shall not make the feast desolate; somehow or other I shall indeed give it. Hast thou come to rebuke me?”

After that, Ayiwandā, calling men and having gone, having come back [after] cutting up the Sambhar deer, put down the meat at his uncle’s house.

Thereafter, just before the feasters came having cooked the meat and cooked rice, he placed for Ayiwandā a little of the rice scrapings and two bones from the meat; and having given them to Ayiwandā, he said, “Eat those, and go thou to the watch-hut.”

In that very way, at daybreak, when he was giving [her] the cloth to put on they remain in the very position in which the bridegroom held an end and the bride an end.

Then the girl’s father having gone and said, “What is this, Bola, that thou hast not yet taken that cloth?” that man also remained in the very position in which he got hold of an end. The bride, the bridegroom, the palm-sugar maker, the washerman, the girl’s father, in the position in which they took hold of the cloth, in that very manner had become [like] stone.

Having seen it, the girl’s mother went running in the village, and having summoned two men made them go on a journey for medicine. The two men having gone to the Vedarāla’s house are coming calling the Vedarāla, by the middle of a large grass field.

Then Ayiwandā came after being in the watch-hut, and while he is at the place where his aunt is, saw the Vedarāla and the two men going. Ayiwandā thought, “If there be an authority which Gōpalu Dēvatāwā gave, may the Vedarāla think of sitting down on the bullock’s skull which is in that grass field.”

Then the Vedarāla sat down on the bullock’s skull. From morning until the time when it became night he pressed on it. Those two men are calling and calling to the Vedarāla to come. The bullock’s skull will not get free. Thus, in that manner until it became night he pressed against it.

Afterwards Ayiwandā thought, “If there be an authority which Gōpalu Dēvatāwā gave, the bullock’s skull having become free, may the Vedarāla succeed in going back again.”

After that, the Vedarāla’s bullock’s skull having become free he went back home. Having said, “Never mind that medical treatment,” the two men who went to summon the Vedarāla to come, came to the bride’s house.

Then the bride’s mother asked, “Where is the Vedarāla?”

The two persons say, “Andō! How well the Vedarāla came! There was a bullock’s skull in that grass field. From morning the Vedarāla sat on it, and got up and tried to release the bullock’s skull [from himself]. He could not release it, being pressed [against it]. Hardly releasing himself now he went back home. He has not come; he said he wouldn’t.”

Afterwards near Ayiwandā came the bride’s mother. Having come there she said, “Father has consented in this way [you wish]. Now then, let the girl be for you. If you know [how], do something for this.” Having said [this], the woman came away.

Ayiwandā thought in his mind, “If there be an authority which Gōpalu Dēvatāwā gave, as soon as each one is released may each one go away.”

Thereupon the persons who were holding the cloth having been freed, went away. They did not go summoning the bride; they did not [even] eat the cooked rice. Having been holding the cloth from morning, in the evening they went to their villages. Afterwards the aunt and uncle having gone, came back [after] summoning Ayiwandā, and gave the bride to Ayiwandā.

Well then, they remained in that way, without the girl’s being good to Ayiwandā. When they had been in that very way for seven or eight days, a fine young man of the village having died, they buried him.

Ayiwandā having waited until the time when the girl was sleeping, opened the door and went out; and having brought the corpse, and cut and cut off a great deal of flesh, he put only the bones under the bed under which Ayiwandā sleeps; and he shut the door and went away.

On the morning of the following day, Ayiwandā’s mother stayed looking out [for him], having said, “Ayiwandā will come out.” He did not come out. The woman came into the house, and when she looked [for him] there is a heap of bones under the bed. After that, the woman says, “Anē! This one ate my son.” Having said this she wept; having wept she went away.

Then the men said, “Ansca, Bola! Whence is it for thee, for a man called up for hire?”

Ayiwandā said, “If it be your tavalama, throw up five hundred dried areka-nuts, and catch them without even one’s falling on the ground.” The men tried to catch them; all the dried areka-nuts fell on the ground.

Then Ayiwandā says, “Don’t cry. There is salt fish [here]; take [some] and cooking it eat. What are you plucking vegetables for [but to eat in curry]?” Having said [this], he gave rice and salt fish to Ayiwandā’s mother. Thus, in that way he gave them for seven or eight days.

After that, his aunt and uncle came near Ayiwandā for salt fish. Then Ayiwandā said, “I am not the Heṭṭirāla. It is I myself they call Ayiwandā. Take ye these things, so as to go.”

Tom-tom Beater. North-western Province.

In a Tamil story taken from the New Year Supplement to the Ceylon Observer, 1885, and reproduced in The Orientalist, vol. ii, p. 22, Katirkāman, a poet who had acquired magical powers, awoke one night to find that some burglars had broken into the house and were removing the goods in it. He scratched a spell on a piece of palm-leaf, placed it under his pillow, and went to sleep again. When he awoke he found all the robbers silent and motionless in the positions they occupied when the spell affected them, some with the goods on their heads or shoulders, others with their hands on keys or door handles. When he spoke to them they apologised humbly, stated that they had mistaken the place and person they were to encounter, and promised never to attempt to rob the house again. He made them put back the goods, gave them a bath and a good meal, and stated that in future they should always have the right to eat and drink there.