Then a woman says to her husband, “Bolan, [after] seeking something for curry come back.” At that time, while the man, taking also his gun, is going walking about, he met with that hawk which had swallowed the fish. He shot the hawk.
Having shot it and brought it home, he said to his wife that she was to pluck off the feathers and cook it.
Then the woman having plucked off the feathers, when she cut [it open] there was a fish [inside]. Then the woman says, “Aḍē! Bolan, for one curry there are two meats!”[1]
Taking the fish she cut [it open]; then there was a Gourd fruit. Thereupon the woman says, “Aḍē! Bolan, for one curry there are three meats!” When she looked the Gourd fruit was dried up.
After that, having cooked those meats (or curries) and eaten, on account of hearing a noise very slightly in that Gourd fruit, taking a bill-hook she struck the Gourd fruit.
Thereupon the whole of those men being in the Gourd fruit, said, “People, people!” and came outside. Having got down outside, when they looked it was another country. After that, having asked the ways, they went each one to his own country. And then only the men knew that light had fallen [and it was the next day].
Western Province.
In the Kathā Sarit Sāgara (Tawney), vol. ii, p. 599, a fish swallowed a ship, with its crew and passengers. When it was carried by a current and stranded on the shore of Suvarṇadwīpa, the people ran up and cut it open, and the persons who were inside it came out alive.
In Cinq Cents Contes et Apologues (Chavannes), vol. iii, pp. 229 and 244, two infants who were thrown or fell into the water of rivers were swallowed by fishes and rescued alive after seven days, in the first instance by the child’s father, and in the second by the King of the country in which the fish had been caught.