[3] A Vedā (low caste) or Vedarāla (good caste) is either a medical practitioner, or a soothsayer, or person who expels demons. [↑]
No. 121
How the Rice and Curry became Raw
At a certain time there were a woman and her husband, two persons. During the time while they were [there], one day the husband said to the woman, “I am going to-day to the watch-hut. Having gone there, I shall not come back to-morrow morning; I shall be delayed, ploughing the field below that field. Because of it, you must bring me cooked rice to-morrow morning.”
Then the woman during the whole night[1] having abundantly given food and the like to her paramours, without sleeping, it became light. After that, the woman went to sleep.
[After] going to sleep, being without the means of bringing cooked rice [through want of time to cook it], she washed rice, putting it in a cooking-pot, and cut up dried fish and brinjal,[2] putting them raw into a large cooking-pot, and took them to the rice field [uncooked].
After she went, that man said, “Bola! Strumpet! Didst thou stay with thy paramours until so much time has gone?” and scolded her [for being late].
Thereupon, this woman, saying, “Apoyi! Because you said such a vile word to me may the cooked rice and curry which I brought for you become raw,” put them down on the ground.
When the man looked, the woman’s speech was true; the cooked rice and curry had become raw. After that, the man, having said to the woman that she was a good woman, thoroughly respected her.