In Folklore of the Santal Parganas (collected by Rev. Dr. Bodding), p. 53, a Prince paid a man his only three gold coins for three pieces of advice, and the man gave him a fourth free of charge. The first was not to sit without moving the stool or mat offered; the second, not to bathe where others bathed; the third, to act according to the opinion of the majority; and, lastly, to restrain his anger, hear an explanation, and weigh it well before acting. The first saved him from being dropped into a well; the second saved his purse when left behind on bathing; the third obtained for him a roll of coin out of the waist cloth of a corpse which he threw into a ravine; and on returning home at night, when he found a pair of slippers and a sword outside his wife’s door, inquiry showed that only her sister was with her.
[1] The milky sap which exudes from cuts in the bark or leaves. It is acrid, and blisters the skin if left on it. [↑]
No. 210
The Story of a Siwurāla[1]
In a certain country a Lord (monk) having been a monk is without clothes [to put on, in order] to abandon his monk’s robes (siwru). Asking at the hand of a novice for a cloth and a handkerchief, he abandoned his robes (thus becoming a layman again).
Having thus come away, when he was bathing in a river an elder sister and a younger sister were bathing lower down the river. Then, having seen that man who, having abandoned his robes and come [there], is bathing, the elder sister said, “That heap of wood which is coming is for me.”
Then the younger sister said, “The things that are in that heap of wood are for me.”
Then the elder sister went home for a cloth, to give to the man to wear. Afterwards the younger sister, having torn a piece from the cloth she was wearing, and having given it, goes away to her house with the man. Then the elder sister brings the cloth, too; having seen that these two are going the elder sister went back home. The younger sister and the Siwrāla went home [and he remained there as her husband]. The man, continuing to eat without doing work, is quite unemployed.