Then the boy said, “I having asked at elder brother’s hand must come,” and came [back to earth]. Having gone to the elder brother’s city and said, “Elder brother, our mother having gone is in the Śakra residence; I also will go,” the elder brother replied, “If you can, go.” He having said it, he came away to go, [but] the boy not knowing the path simply stayed [at home].
Finished.
Tom-tom Beater. North-western Province.
I have inserted this pointless tale on account of the evidence it affords of a belief that infanticide was practised in former times; I may add that I have adhered as closely as possible to the text. It agrees with the story numbered 243 in this volume (a tale from Ratmalāna, about eight miles south of Colombo), that children who were not likely to prove useful were sometimes buried alive. For other instances of infanticide see the Index to vol. i.
I am unable to refer to Indian instances in which Śakra occupies the position of Yama as the God of Death; but in Ceylon he is sometimes represented as being a Dharma-raja, a god of righteousness or justice, and this is a function of Yama. See the verse at the end of the story numbered 179 in vol. ii; in No. 107, vol. ii, it is Śakra who kills the wicked Princess.
The reason for cutting a special well with the water of which the women wished to bathe, was that they would thus obtain undefiled water.
[1] Their idea apparently was that when at the point of death he would speak the truth, and they would thus learn if he were likely to be useful to them. [↑]