North-central Province.


[1] Rāe tissē, during the thirty [paeyas, each being twenty-four minutes] of night. [↑]

[2] Egg-plant, or aubergine (Solanum sp.). [↑]

No. 122

How a Woman ate Cooked Rice by Stealth

In a certain country there are a woman and a man, it is said. There is also a little one of the woman’s; the little one cannot talk well yet.

Having waited until the time when the man goes to the watch-hut [at night], this woman every day while he is in the chena having cooked raw-rice[1] eats small beans (māekaral) [with it] in the house. Every day having cooked fry of them (the beans), and given to the little one, they eat it every day at night [without his knowledge].

One day, at the time when the man comes, the little one says, “Father, having cooked maekittan fry, and having cooked raw-rice, let us eat her, eh?”