The variant of the North-western Province is practically identical with the first part of the Vaeddā tale, but the drought is stated to have lasted for seven years. The Jackal was about to howl, and on turning his head upward for the purpose saw two Black Storks carrying the Turtle.
He asked, “Where are you taking a present?” (referring to the way in which a considerable load is sometimes carried slung on a stick, the ends of which rest upon the shoulders of two men, one in front and the other behind). The Turtle replied, “For your mother’s head.” When the Jackal tried to eat it he heard the Turtle laughing inside the shell, and said, “Friend, what are you laughing at?” The Turtle said, “I am laughing at your thinking you can eat me in that way. I have been dried up for seven years, and if you want to eat me you must first soak me in water.” The Jackal did this, and the Turtle escaped in the way related by the Vaeddās.
The rest of the story is, I think, found only among the Vaeddās. Although it is clear that it must have been invented by the settled inhabitants of villages, the marriage custom according to which the bride was to be taken to the bridegroom’s house to be married is not that of the modern Sinhalese, but is in accordance with the story related in the Mahāvansa, i, p. 33, regarding the marriage of a Vaedi Princess at the time of Wijaya’s landing in Ceylon. The Sinhalese custom is found in the story of the Glass Princess (No. 4), in which six Princes accompanied by their parents, went to their brides’ city to be married, returning home with their brides afterwards.
It is probable that the original story ended with the escape of the Turtle from the Jackal after it was placed in the water. It is a folk-tale, and not a story written to illustrate a maxim. It appears to have been invented to show the folk-lore superiority of the Turtle’s intelligence over that of the Jackal. The Turtle is always represented as a very clever animal, not only because of the ease with which he can protect himself by withdrawing his head and legs inside the shell—of which Mr. A. Clark, formerly of the Forest Department of Ceylon, and I once had an amusing illustration at a pool in the Kanakarayan-āṛu, when his bull-terrier made frantic attempts to kill one, like the Jackal—but possibly also because, as I was told of another amphibious animal in West Africa, “he lives both in the water and on the land, therefore he knows the things of both the land and the water.”
In The Orientalist, vol. i, p. 134, the story as far as the escape of the Turtle was given by Mr. H. A. Pieris, the animals concerned being wrongly termed Tortoise, Cranes, and Fox; the two latter animals are not found in Ceylon. To this the Editor added the story found in the Hitōpadesa, in which the animals were a Turtle and two Geese, which agreed to carry the Turtle to another lake in order that it might not be killed by some fishermen next day. Some herdsmen’s boys saw it, and remarked that if it fell they would cook and eat it. The Turtle replied, “You shall eat ashes,” fell down, and was killed by the men.
In the Kathā Sarit Sāgara (Tawney), vol. ii, p. 37, the birds were “Swans” (probably Hansas, which are always represented as geese in ancient carvings in Ceylon). Some men made remarks to each other on the strange object that was being carried, and the Turtle, on asking the birds what the chattering was about, fell and was killed by the men.
In Old Deccan Days (Frere), p. 310, a Jackal escaped from an Alligator [Crocodile] in the same manner as the Turtle.
In Wide-Awake Stories (Steel and Temple), p. 155—Tales of the Punjab, p. 147—an Iguana or Monitor Lizard outwitted a Jackal who had caught him by the tail as he was entering the hole in which he lived. Both pulled for a long time without any result. At last the Lizard said he gave in, and requested the Jackal to allow him to turn round and come out. When released he disappeared into the hole.