The Story of the Bitch
Reading edition
In a certain country there are a woman and a man, it is said. The woman has a pregnancy longing to eat Kaṭuwala [yams]. There is a Bitch, also; she also has a pregnancy longing; that also is to eat Kaṭuwala [yams].
Afterwards the Bitch thought, “For their not giving the Kaṭuwala [yams] to me may the children born in my body be born in the woman’s body, and the children born in the woman’s body be born in my body.”
The Bitch went to the forest jungle (himāle); having gone, and entered a rock cave, she bore two Princesses. Having borne them the Bitch went to eat food. [The Princesses grew up there.]
Then a Vaeddā having come shooting, when he looked there are two Princesses. Having seen them, the Vaeddā, breaking and breaking branches [to mark the way to the cave], came to the city. Having come there he told at the hand of the King, “In the chena jungle, at such and such a place, in a rock cave there are two Princesses. It is to say this I have come here.”
Afterwards the King sent the King’s two Princes to go with the Vaeddā to summon the Princesses and come. While going there the Vaeddā said on the road, to the Princes, “When I have gone and am begging for a little fire at the hand of the two Princesses, they will open the door in order to give the fire. Then you two must spring into the house.”
Having gone near the rock cave, the Vaeddā asked for fire. Then the Princesses having opened the door a very little, when they were preparing to give the fire the two Princes sprang into the house. Then the two Princesses fainted, having become afraid. Afterwards, causing them to become conscious, summoning the two Princesses they went to the city [and married them].
The Bitch having come, when she looked the two Princesses were not [there]. After that, having gone along the path on which they had gone breaking branches she went to the city in which the Princesses are.
Having gone from there, when she went to the place where the younger Princess is, she bathed her in water scented with sandal wood and placed her upon the bed. Then the Bitch became a golden ash-pumpkin.
Then the Prince having come, asked at the hand of the Princess, “Whence the golden ash-pumpkin upon the bed?”
The Princess said, “Our mother brought and gave it.”
Then the Prince thought, “When she brought so much to the house, after we have gone to her house how much will she not give!”
Having said to the Princess, “Let us go,” they take a cart also. On the road on which they are going there is a spired ant-hill (kot hum̆baha).
Having gone near the ant-hill the Princess said, “Anē, Nāga King! Whence has our mother silver and golden things? Let a thunderbolt strike me!”
Then the Cobra [came out, and] not having raised his hood, said, “Look there. There are silver and golden things as much as you want [in the cave].”
After that, the Prince and the Princess having taken the cart, and gone near the rock cave, when they looked silver and golden things had been created. Afterwards, loading them in the cart they brought them away.
The elder Princess’s Prince having seen that they are bringing silver and golden things, [and having heard their account of their journey for them], said at the hand of the Princess, “Younger brother having gone in that way, brought from your village silver and golden goods. Let us also go to bring [some].”
When the elder Prince and Princess, having taken a cart, were going near the spired ant-hill that was on the road, the Princess said, “Anē, Nāga King! Whence has our mother silver and golden goods? Please give me a thunderbolt.”
Then the Cobra having come and having raised his hood, bit the crown of the Princess’s head, and went back into the ant-hill.
The Prince, taking the cart, came to the city. The Princess died there.
Tom-tom Beater. North-western Province.
In Tales of the Punjab (Mrs. F. A. Steel), p. 284, a poverty-stricken girl who was driven from home by her mother, married a Prince. When the mother came to her to claim a share of her good fortune, the girl prayed to the Sun for help; and on her husband’s entering the room her mother had become a golden stool, which the girl declared had come from her home. The Prince determined to visit it, and again the girl appealed to the Sun for assistance. When they reached the hut they found it transformed into a golden palace, full of golden articles. When the Prince looked back after a three days’ visit and saw only the hut, he charged his wife with being a witch, so she told him the whole story, and he became a Sun worshipper.
In Old Deccan Days (M. Frere), p. 18, a Raja’s wife bore two puppies, and their pet dog bore two girls which she deposited in a cave. A Raja and his brother while hunting discovered the girls, whom they carried away and married. When the bitch went in search of them, the elder one treated it kindly, but the other ordered her servants to throw stones at it and drive it away. One stone wounded it on the head, and it died at the elder daughter’s house. The Raja tripped over the basket under which the body was placed, and found under it the life-size figure of a dog made of precious stones set in gold, which his wife said was a present from her parents. As her husband determined to visit them she decided to commit suicide, and put her finger in the open mouth of a cobra that was on an ant-hill; by doing so she relieved it of a thorn which had stuck in the snake’s mouth. The grateful cobra agreed to assist her, and when she returned with her husband they found a great palace built of precious stones and gold, with a Raja and his wife inside to represent her parents. After a visit of six months, when they looked back on their way home they saw the whole place in flames which totally destroyed it. On seeing the valuable presents they took back, and hearing her sister’s story, the younger sister went in the same manner, put her finger in the cobra’s mouth, was bitten by it, and died.