The man, having looked at the letter, said, “ ‘The person who brings this letter has caused a loss to me of three or four thousand pounds.’ Because of it, it is said [that he is] to kill him.”
Thereupon Sokkā, having thrown the letter away, went to a house, and asking for pen and ink and having come back, told that man and caused him to write the [following] letter:—“The person who brings this letter has been of great assistance to me. Because of it, having given to him your daughter [in marriage], give him a half share of your landed property.” Having taken it and gone, he gave it.
Thereupon the Heṭṭirāla’s brother-in-law having looked at the letter and having been pleased, married to him and gave him his eldest daughter;[3] and having given him a half share of his money, and told him to go again to the place where this Heṭṭiyā is, sent him away.
Well then, the Prince whom the Heṭṭiyā caught, taking his Heṭṭi wife, went away to the district where the Minister-Prince is.
In the Aventures du Gourou Paramarta (Dubois), p. 312, while the Guru and his foolish disciples were on a journey, the Guru being on horseback, the branch of a tree caught his turban, and it fell down. Thinking his disciples would pick it up he said nothing at the time. As he had previously told them to do nothing without orders, however, they left it. When he afterwards asked for it and found it was not brought, he scolded them, and sent one to fetch it, at the same time giving them orders to pick up everything that fell from the horse. While the disciple was returning with the turban he accordingly collected and stored in it the horse’s droppings that he found on the road, and handed over the bundle to his master. The Guru made them wash the turban, and told them when they grumbled at being reprimanded for obeying his orders, “There are articles that are worthy of being picked up, and others that are unworthy of it.”
In Folk-Tales of Kashmir (Knowles), 2nd ed., p. 81, two brothers who had run away from home came to a place where the road bifurcated, and found there an inscription on a stone, which contained a warning that one of the roads should be avoided. The adventurous elder brother went on this road and was robbed by a witch; the younger one selected the other, and after being wrecked became a King.
In The Orientalist, vol. i, p. 131 ff., Mr. W. Goonetilleke gave “The Story of Hokkā,” in which the man who was sent in advance to announce the coming of the Gamarāla, told the daughter that he could take only paddy dust. He left in anger on the following morning, and sent Hokkā to let his wife know of his return. Hokkā advised her to meet her husband clothed in rags and sitting on an ēdanḍa, or foot-bridge. In the dusk, Hokkā, who was in front, kicked her off, calling her “Bitch,” and she fell into the stream and was drowned, the Gamarāla thinking it was a dog. The Gamarāla had previously mutilated Hokkā’s elder brother, as related in No. 195, and Hokkā was determined to have his revenge.
The portion omitted on p. 290 will be found at the end of the Additional Notes, by those who wish to see how the villager treats such matters.