In Folk-Tales of Kashmir (Knowles), 2nd ed., p. 49, a Prince received from a Rākshasī, thanks to a changed letter, a jar of soap that when dropped became a mountain, a jar of needles that when dropped became a hill bristling with needles, and a jar of water which when poured out became a sea. He used these only for conquering other countries.
In Kaffir Folk-Lore (Theal), pp. 82, 87, the magic obstacles also occur. In the former instance, some fat which was given was to be put on a stone; the cannibal pursuers then fought for the stone. In the latter case, a girl carried an egg, a milk-sack, a pot, and a smooth stone; her father pursued her. When thrown down, the egg became a mist, the milk-sack a sheet of water, the pot became darkness, and the stone a rock over which the man could not climb.
Pages 73, 74, 304, 306, and Index. For tuttu read tuṭṭu.
Page 92. In Chinese Folk-Lore Tales (Rev. Dr. Macgowan), p. 25, a person called Kwang-jui purchased a fish and set it free in the river in which it was caught. It proved to be the River God in disguise, who afterwards saved Kwang-jui when he was stabbed and thrown into a river.
In Folklore of the Santal Parganas, p. 239, two Princes who had saved some young birds by killing the snake which annually ate those in the same nest, were given food by their parents, and informed that he who ate the first piece would marry a Raja’s daughter and he who ate the second piece would spit gold. These results followed.
Page 107. In the same vol., p. 189, a dwarf a span high let a buffalo hide fall among some thieves who were dividing their booty under the tree in which he was hidden; they ran off and he took home the gold they had left, and informed his uncles that he got it by selling his buffalo skin. They killed all their buffaloes and were laughed at when they took the hides to sell. They then burned his house down, after which followed the pretended sale of the ashes, etc., as in a Bengal variant. In Campbell’s Santal Folk Tales, p. 30, the story is similar, the persons cheated being the father-in-law (a King) and brothers-in-law, who were drowned when they were put in the river in bags, in order to find cattle such as the boy obtained from a cow-herd by changing places with him.
At p. 204 of Folklore of the Santal Parganas, a mungus-boy propped the dead body of his mother against a tree as a drove of pack-bullocks was approaching. When she was knocked down he charged the drovers with causing her death, and got their cattle and goods as compensation.
Page 112. For his vicious tricks the brothers of the same mungus-boy carried him off in a palankin to drown him. While they were searching for a deep pool, a shepherd came up with a flock of sheep. The boy cried out that he was being carried off to be married against his will, and would change places with anyone. The shepherd, thinking it a cheap marriage, took his place and was drowned, the boy driving off his sheep. After some days he reappeared, and said he got the sheep in the pool into which he was thrown, but in the deeper parts there were oxen and buffaloes. The brothers in order to get these took palankins, and were pushed into the water in them by the boy, and were drowned. At p. 242, there is the incident of the pretended rejuvenation of the wife by beating her. The man who saw it stole the club and afterwards beat his own wife severely without success.
In the Kolhān tales (Bompas) appended to the same vol., p. 455, a jackal got a drum made out of the skin of a goat of his which the other jackals killed and ate; he stated that he found it in the river, where there were many more. The other jackals jumped in to get them, and were drowned.
In the Arabian Nights (Lady Burton’s ed., vol. 4, p. 367) a woman was sentenced to be tied on a cross by her hair, with ten men as guards. While the guards slept, an ignorant Badawi, coming that way, spoke to himself of his intention to taste honey fritters, and believed the woman when she informed him that she was to be freed after eating ten pounds of the fritters, which she detested. He offered to eat them for her, took her place, and she rode off on his horse, dressed in his clothes.