After that, in order to carry them to bury, men tied their hands and feet. The man, while they are tying his feet, having got hurt, said, “Uwah.”
Thereupon the woman said, “There are two for you.”
Scolding and scolding these two persons for their act, the men went away.
The first part of this story belongs to the North-western Province; the middle part is found in the Western Province also, to which, also, the latter part belongs.
In The Orientalist, vol. i, p. 237, Mr. H. White mentioned that a story about the frying of the family honour is contained in a work called Atīta-vākya-dīpaniya. In that instance apparently the pan which was placed on the fire was empty.
In the same Journal, vol. i, p. 136, a variant of the latter part of the tale is given by Miss S. J. Goonetilleke. Twenty-five idiots were employed by a Gamarāla, and it was their duty to provide plantain leaf plates for the other servants and themselves. One day they decided that they gave themselves unnecessary trouble in doing work which a single person could perform, so it was settled that all should sleep, and that the man who first opened his eyes or uttered a sound should cut all the leaves. When the leaves were not forthcoming at the meal-time the Gamarāla and his men went in search of the idiots, and being unable to arouse them, thought they were dead and dug a grave for them. One after another they were thrown into it in silence, but as they were being covered with earth a digging tool struck one on the leg, causing him to utter an involuntary groan. The others instantly arose and told him that henceforth he must provide all the leaf plates.
In the stories appended to the Pantcha-Tantra of the Abbé Dubois, a man at night disputed with his wife as to whether men or women are the greater chatterboxes, and each wagered a betel leaf that the other would speak first. As they did not appear next day, the door of their apartment was broken open, and the two were found sitting up but deprived of speech. It was concluded that they were suffering from some inimical magic, for which a Brāhmaṇa recommended the application of heated gold to their bodies. The man was burnt on his sole, above the knees, at both elbows, on the stomach, and on the crown of the head, and bore it in silence; but when the woman was burnt on the sole she cried, “Appā! That is enough,” and handed her husband the betel leaf.
In Folklore in Southern India (Pandit Naṭēśa Sāstrī), p. 277, (Tales of the Sun, p. 280), a beggar and his wife who had been at a feast at which they ate muffins (tōśei), cooked five muffins, and agreed that whoever opened an eye or spoke first should have only two of them. They then bolted the door and lay down. After three days the villagers entered by the roof and saw that the couple were apparently dead. They were carried to the cremation ground, placed on two pyres which were raised, and lights were applied. When the fire reached the man’s leg a voice came from his pyre, “I shall be satisfied with two muffins.” From the other pyre a voice replied, “I have gained the day; let me have the three.” When the villagers heard the story, it was decided that, having apparently died and been on the funeral pyre, they could not return to the village or it would perish, so a separate hut was built for them.