When he asked, “Will you take this bull and give me the bill-hook,” the man said, “It is good,” and having given the bill-hook went away taking the bull.
Then the Gama-puta, having taken the bill-hook, and gone to the village, during the time while he was there thought he would go to cut jungle. Having thought so, he took a packet of cooked rice and a water-gourd, and the bill-hook, and having placed them upon a rock he remained looking on. Seeing that the bill-hook stayed [there] without cutting the jungle, and thinking that it was because he was looking at it, he came home.
Having come and eaten rice, and having gone back afterwards, when he looked, the bill-hook having been put in the sun had become extremely hot. So the Gama-puta thinks, “The bill-hook having got fever, is it on that account it did not eat the cooked rice and did not cut the jungle?”
He went quickly for medicine. Having gone he told the Vedā (village doctor). The Vedā having looked [at it] told him to bury it under the frame on which the water pots were set. Afterwards, having come home, he buried it under the water-pots’ frame. On the following day, after he had looked [he found that] having become thoroughly wetted by the water it was cold. Having seen that, he got into his mind [the notion], “Aḍā! The medical treatment is very good.”
When a little time had gone, one day the Gamarāla’s wife had a severe illness, having got fever. The Gama-gāēni said, “Son, I have much fever. Having gone for medical advice and brought a little medicine, give me it,” she said.
He said, “It is good,” and speedily having cut a hole under the water-pots’ frame, and put the Gama-gāēni in the hole, he covered her with earth.
Afterwards when he looked, the fever having thoroughly gone down she had become cold like a plantain tree; and saying, “Aḍā! Mother’s fever is completely well,” he went away.
Durayā. North-western Province.
In Indian Fables (Ramaswami Raju), p. 71, a variant of the last incident is given. A man with severe fever having cooled a red-hot poker in cold water, thought he could cool himself in the same way, so he sat in a tub of cold water, with a fatal result.