OXEN AS WITNESSES.[1]
In a certain hill district there lived a householder, to whom, after his marriage, a daughter was born. He was a tiller of the soil, and ploughed his corn-field himself.
The orphan son of a householder, who was bringing a load of wood from the forest, happened to draw near to that corn-field one day. And he threw down the wood he was carrying, rested awhile, and then said, “O uncle, why do you plough yourself? You must certainly have village affairs to look after. Why, then, do you work like a forester in the forest?”
“O nephew, I have neither sons nor brothers.”
“O uncle, give me the plough. Do you take rest, and I will plough for you.”
With these words he began to plough.
After a time the householder came bringing rice-soup, and invited him to eat. When the meal was finished the householder’s son said, “O uncle, I do not know your house. Go away now, and I will continue ploughing; but come to meet me in the evening.”
The householder went away, and the youth went on ploughing for a time. Then he turned out the two oxen to graze by the side of the corn-field. In the evening he took a load of grass, and set off to go to the village. The householder came to meet him, and brought him to his house. The youth took the oxen to their stall, shook down straw, and placed grass before them. The householder thought that the youth would be useful to him, and [[316]]that he would give him his daughter to wife. So he said to him, “O nephew, do everything satisfactorily, and I will give you my daughter to wife.”
He began to build a house there. One of his oxen ran into a rice-field, and he could not drive it out, so he reviled it, and then flung a log at it, whereby one of its horns was broken off. In consequence of this, the ox received the name of Hornbreak.
Another time, the ox ran again into the field, and he could not drive it back, so he reviled it, and then flung a sickle at it, whereby its tail was cut off; on account of which it received the name of Stumptail. These two names were afterwards contracted into that of Breakstump.