[104] Or outcasts’; literally, “the extra-muralists’,” i.e., the houses of the lowest classes, not permitted to live within the city walls.
XXIII.
HOW THE THREE CLEVER MEN OUTWITTED THE DEMONS.
THERE was once upon a time a very rich man who had a very beautiful wife, and this man’s chief amusement used to be shooting with a bow and arrow, at which he was so clever that every morning he would shoot through one of the pearls in his wife’s nose-ring without hurting her at all.[106] One fine day, that was a holiday, the Pearl-shooter’s brother-in-law came to take his sister to their father and mother’s house to pay her own family a little visit; and when he saw her, he said, “Why do you look so pale and thin and miserable? is your husband unkind to you, or what is the matter?” “No,” she answered; “my husband is very kind to me, and I have plenty of money and jewels, and as nice a house as I could wish; my only grief is that every morning he amuses himself by shooting one of the pearls from my nose-ring, and that frightens me; for I think perhaps some day he may miss his aim and the arrow run into my face and kill me. So I am in constant terror of my life; yet I do not like to ask him not to do it, because it gives him so much pleasure; but if he left off of his own accord, I should be very glad.” “What does he say to you himself about it?” asked the brother. “Every day,” she replied, “when he has shot the pearl, he comes to me quite happy and proud, and says, ‘Was there ever a man as clever as I am?’ and I answer him, ‘No, I do not think there ever was any as clever as you.’” “Do not say so again,” said the brother; “but next time he asks you the question, answer, ‘Yes, there are many men in the world more clever than you.’” The Pearl-shooter’s wife promised to take her brother’s advice. So, next time her husband shot the pearl from her nose-ring, and said to her, “Was there ever a man as clever as I am?” she answered, “Yes, there are many men in the world more clever than you.”
Then he said, “If so be that there are, I will not rest until I have found them.” And he left her, and went a far journey into the jungle in order to find, if possible, a cleverer man than himself. On, on, on he journeyed a very long way, until at last he came to a large river, and on the river-bank sat a traveler eating his dinner. The Pearl-shooter sat down beside him and the two began conversing together. At last, the Pearl-shooter said to his friend, “What is the reason of your journey, and where are you going?” The stranger answered, “I am a Wrestler, and the strongest man in all this country; I can do many wonderful things in the way of wrestling and carrying heavy weights, and I began to think that in all this world there was no one so clever as I; but I have lately heard of a still more wonderful man who lives in a distant country, and who is so clever that every morning he shoots one of the pearls from his wife’s nose-ring without hurting her. So I go to find him, and learn if this is true.”
The Pearl-shooter answered, “Then you need travel no further, for I am that man of whom you heard.” “Why are you traveling about, then, and where are you going?” asked the Wrestler. “I,” replied the other, “am also traveling to see if in all the world I can find a cleverer man than myself; therefore, as we have both the same object in view, let us be as brothers and go about together; perhaps there is still in the world a better man than we.” The Wrestler agreed; so they both started on their way together. They had not gone very far before they came to a place where three roads met, and there sat another man, whom neither of them had ever seen before. He accosted the Wrestler and the Pearl-shooter and said to them, “Who are you, friends, and where are you going?” “We,” answered they, “are two clever men, who are traveling through the world to see if we can find a cleverer man than we; but who may you be, and where are you going?” “I,” replied the third man, “am a Pundit,[107] a man of memory, renowned for my good head, a great thinker; and verily I thought there was not in the world a more wonderful man than I; but having heard of two men in distant lands of very great cleverness, the one of whom is a Wrestler, and the other a shooter of pearls from his wife’s nose-ring, I go to find them and learn if the things I heard are true.” “They are true,” said the others; “for we, O Pundit, are the very two men of whom you speak.”
At this news the Pundit was overjoyed, and cried, “Then let us be as brothers; since your homes are far distant, return with me to my house, which is close by; there you can rest a while, and each of us put our various powers to the proof.” This proposal pleased the Wrestler and the Pearl-shooter, who accompanied the Pundit to his house.
Now, in the kitchen there was an enormous cauldron of iron, so heavy that five-and-twenty men could hardly move it; and in the dead of night the Wrestler, to prove his power, got up from the veranda where he was sleeping, and as quietly as possible lifted this great cauldron on his shoulders and carried it down to the river, where he waded with it into the deepest part of the water, and there buried it. After having accomplished this feat, he returned to the Pundit’s house as quietly as he had left it, and, rolling himself up in his blanket, fell fast asleep. But though he had come never so softly, the Pundit’s wife heard him, and waking her husband, she said, “I hear footsteps as of people creeping quietly about and not wishing to be heard, and but a little while ago I noticed the same thing; perhaps there are thieves in the house; let us go and see: it is strange they should choose such a bright moonlight night.” And they both got up quickly and walked round the house. They found nothing, however, out of order, nor any signs of anything having been touched or disarranged, until they came to the kitchen. And, indeed, at first they thought all was as they left it there, when, just as they were going away, the Pundit’s wife cried out to him, “Why, what has become of the great cauldron? I never thought of looking to see if that was safe; for it did not seem possible that it could have been moved.” And they both looked inside the house and outside, but the cauldron was nowhere to be seen. At last, however, they discovered deep footprints in the sand close to the kitchen door, as of some one who had been carrying a very heavy weight, and these they traced down to the river-side.