Roḍiyā. North-western Province.
This tale is given in the Jātaka story No. 492 (vol. iv, p. 217). A Boar reared by a carpenter joined the wild ones, and taught them how to kill a Tiger that devoured them, by means of two pits. The tunnel connecting them is omitted. The Boar did not jump into the pit; ‘only the Tiger fell into one of the pits when he sprang at the Boar. After killing the Tiger they proceeded to kill a sham ascetic who was his abettor, in the same manner as in the Sinhalese story.
Although the Roḍiyās are not often present at the services at the Buddhist temples, they go to them occasionally, not, however, being permitted to enter the temple enclosure, but standing outside it. There they can hear the reading of the sacred books (baṇa), and perhaps in this manner they have learnt the story of the Boars. I have not met with it as a folk-tale elsewhere. The reference to the tunnel connecting the two pits shows that it has independent features. This tunnel alone explains the excavation of the two pits, one to jump into and the other to escape by.
[1] That is, unite them by a tunnel. [↑]
No. 72
The Grateful Jackal
In a certain village there was a boy who looked after cattle. One day, in the morning having taken the cattle [to graze], as they were going to water, that boy, when a python seizing a Jackal was going to eat it, went and beat the python, saying, “Anē! This python is going to eat the Jackal, isn’t it?”