Again, these two persons planted onions. This time, those things that were above the ground were for the Gamarāla, they said. Those that were below the ground were for the Washerman, they said. When the crop was ready, the Gamarāla having cut off the onion stumps, heaps them up together; the Washerman dug up and got the onions.
After that, those two persons got a buffalo bull. The front part of that bull was for the Washerman, they said; the after part for the Gamarāla, they said.
Next, the two persons got a buffalo cow. The front part was for the Gamarāla; the after part for the Washerman, they said. Thereupon the calves which the buffalo cow bore belonged to the Washerman, he said. When the Gamarāla asked for calves because the front part did not give birth to calves, “There is nothing for you,” he said.
After that, the Gamarāla, in order to build a house, cut Waewarana, Kaeṭakāla, Mīlla, Kolon trees (good timber trees commonly used in building houses). The Washerman, also, saying, “I also must build a house,” cut Paepol, Eramudu, Murungā trees (all of which are soft woods, quite useless for any kind of work).
When the Gamarāla’s wife was coming near his house, the Washerman, taking the Naekat Pota (an astrological book which deals with prognostications), read aloud from it [these sham prognostications regarding the results to the occupiers if these woods be used in house building]: “For a house of Waewarana, diarrhoea; for a house of Kaeṭakāla, quarrel; for a house of Mīlla, hanging; for a house of Eramudu, purity; for a house of Paepol, land.”
Then the Gamarāla’s wife having heard this, goes and says to the Gamarāla, “You have done a foolish thing again. We shall have only sickness and trouble if we build the house with those trees. In the Naekat Pota it is so written. If we use the trees that the Washerman has cut we shall be fortunate.” So the Gamarāla went to the Washerman, and persuaded him to exchange trees with him. Then the Washerman built himself a good house with the Gamarāla’s trees. The trees which the Gamarāla got were of no use to him.
Durayā. North-western Province.
The incident at the trial in the first part of this story occurs in a slightly different form in a folk-tale that I heard in Cairo. As I am not aware that it has been published I give it here, condensing the first portion (see No. 60).
The planting incidents are related by Rabelais, in Pantagruel, chapters 45 and 46. For the benefit of readers in Ceylon, I give the account:—