[2] Maṭa yanḍa nāe, lit., “There is not [an opportunity] for me to go.” [↑]
[3] The meaning is, “If you did not notice and punish him for so long, was it likely that I should?” [↑]
No. 125
How a Woman became a Lapwing[1]
At a certain village there were an elder sister and a younger brother, it is said. He gave the elder sister[2] in dīga [marriage] to a [man of another] country. For the younger brother they brought a wife to the house.
When no long time had gone after the elder sister was given in dīga, the elder sister’s husband died; and being without [anything] to eat or drink, the elder sister came to the younger brother’s house in order to beg for something.
At that time, the man said, “Aḍē! Give our elder sister amply to eat and drink, and having tied up and given a bag of paddy amounting to a load, send her on her journey;” and in order to look at his wife’s trustworthiness or untrustworthiness he stayed in a tree behind the house, looking out, near the path on which the elder sister goes.
Thereupon, the man’s wife, having given the man’s elder sister a piece of stale cake to eat, put in a [mat] box a little worthless paddy chaff that had been blown away when she fanned paddy, and gave her it.
After that, when this elder sister, being grieved, was going on the path, she went saying and saying, “Anē! If my younger brother were there she would not do thus. Sister-in-law gave me only paddy chaff and a few stale cakes; but [even] should my sister-in-law do magic against me, may a shower of flowers rain at my younger brother’s doorway.” Then, weeping and weeping she came home.