The tiger was still very sleepy and between his long and luxurious yawns he said, “I can eat many things. . . .”
“Things like what?” interrupted the frog, trying not to sound to eager.
“When I am really hungry, I eat cattle, yaks, horses, and other big animals. Usually I am happy with a deer or pig or some other smaller animals. But when I am really hungry and cannot get anything else I have to eat very small animals like rabbits, squirrels and even frogs.”
At this the frog had to hold his teeth from chattering and steady his shaking hands. Without much interest the tiger then asked, “What do you eat?”
The frog of course had been waiting for this question and immediately said, “Oh, I am a small animal so I usually eat the other smaller animals. But when I am really hungry I also like to eat something big like deer, cattle, and even tigers.” At the mention of tigers, the tiger pricked up his ears with interest and asked, “Did you say tigers? You are joking, of course.” The tiger then began to laugh.
The frog was pleased with the way the conversation was turning out and confidently went on, “In fact I had just eaten one before you came by. Look into my mouth.”
The tiger suddenly sprang up and moved a few paces away and looked at the frog apprehensively.
“Have a good look,” insisted the frog, displaying his mouth with tiger fur sticking out of it and his rectum which was also full of tiger fur. The tiger took one quick look and with a mighty leap jumped onto the land and disappeared into the forest.
As the tiger was leaping and springing through the forest a fox saw him and asked him what had happened. The tiger quickly told him. The fox laughed and said, “You have been tricked by a frog. Frogs don’t eat anything bigger than a fly. Come, let’s go back and see the frog.”
“No, no,” begged the tiger, backing away.
Pulling down a creeper from a nearby tree the fox said, “Look, if you are so afraid I’ll tie this end of the creeper around my neck and you tie the other end around yours and we will go together.”
Soon they were near the pond. The frog was still on the rock. As soon as he saw them coming he greeted them cheerfully, “Good, brother fox, I was just beginning to get hungry. I see that you have brought me a very special lunch.” When the tiger heard this he sprang into the air and leapt like lightning through the forest. The fox, of course, could not keep up with the speed of the tiger and he was soon strangled to death. The tiger looked back at the fox, who had died with his mouth open and his teeth showing as if in a grin. “Stop grinning, you fool. You nearly succeeded in getting me eaten by the tiger-eating frog.” The tiger was so afraid of the frog that he went to live in another forest as far away as possible from the frog.
The Shepherd
He was the Lu Throwa or the Ferocious Lu.
Dangbo..o..o Dingbo..o..o.. a young shepherd could be seen grazing his flock of sheep on the banks of a clear blue lake every day. He loved to sit and gaze at the lake to see the fish swishing about in the water, the animals that came to drink from it, or simply to watch the waves and the ripples that danced and played in an endless game. Everybody in the village whispered that nothing good would come of a boy who did nothing but laze around watching ripples on a lake.
One day while he was sitting on the banks of the lake he saw a white rat fighting a black rat. Fascinated he watched them for a long time. He could see that the black rat was much stronger and was about to kill the white rat. Being a compassionate man he picked up the white rat to save it from its enemy who was attacking it viciously. He held the gasping and beaten rat in his hand and blew on it gently. Then he dipped his finger into the lake and let the water from his finger drip into the mouth of the rat in an effort to revive it. Suddenly the water in the lake began to swirl and bubble in the most unusual way, and then it opened up and a woman came out of the lake. The beautiful and gracious woman smiled and said that she was a messenger from the underground world. She had been sent to get back the son of the subterranean king, who had carelessly ventured into the middle world disguised as a rat. She added that the subterranean king was pleased with the shepherd for saving his son and wanted to reward him. She then asked him to close his eyes and get on her shoulders. As they were going down through the water she said, “The king will offer you everything but you must insist on taking only the dog behind the door. Everything from here is illusory once in your world. Only the dog is for real and will be of some use to you. Do not stay under the lake for more then three days or you will forget your human world.”
As soon as the shepherd opened his eyes he found himself in a beautiful palace. The pillars were made of coral and the walls and the floors were made of turquoise and they shone like mirrors. There was feasting and music everywhere. Amidst the crowds of half-serpent half-human beings sat the Luyi gyalpo. He was the Lu Throwa or the Ferocious Lu. His angry and fierce face was encircled by a ring of serpents that seemed to lash out and dart their forked tongues threateningly. The enormous serpentine lower body thrashed and whipped about ominously. At the end of three days the shepherd asked the king to let him go. The king offered him bags of turquoise, but the shepherd refused. The king offered him gold and silver but he still refused. When the king asked, “What do you want that you refuse everything I offer?” the shepherd replied, “I would like to have only the dog behind your door!”
The king’s face darkened and he said that he would not like to give away the dog. But the shepherd insisted that he wanted nothing else except the dog. Finally the king agreed saying, “Ya, Ya, if that’s the only thing you want, take it. Be good to it and keep it clean.”
The shepherd once again closed his eyes, this time with the dog tucked under his arm and he found himself on the banks of the lake. His sheep were still grazing around the lake. As it was close to sunset he rounded them up and took them home. As the dog sat in the corner of the kitchen looking at him with its head cocked to one side he began to wonder what it was that might be special about the dog because it did not look very different from any of the ordinary dogs. Perhaps the messenger had deceived him.
The following morning he took his sheep to graze on the meadows near the lake as usual. He kept the dog at home. When he brought the sheep home in the evening, he was pleasantly surprised to find that his house was swept and clean and there was fire in the stove and delicious food waiting for him. He wondered who had come to his house and done this for him. For several days this was repeated. Now he was really curious to see who was doing this for him. So he decided to hide and see. He pretended to go with his sheep as usual but he came back and hid behind the door. There was nobody in the house except his dog. As he watched, the dog took off the dog skin and a beautiful girl came out of it. The girl bathed in the stream and made offerings of milk towards the lake, chanting, “Offerings to my father, king of the subterranean world. King Tsuena Rinchen take my offering.” She then set about to cleaning and sweeping the house and cooking the food. The shepherd at once jumped out from his hiding place, snatched up the dog skin and threw it into the fire. The girl saw what had happened and she said, “I am a nonhuman being and the skin was my protection from attracting too much attention. I am the daughter of the Luyi gyalpo. Now that you have prematurely destroyed my disguise you will face some trials and tribulation before we can live a normal life.”
For many days the shepherd and his wife lived happily together. But one day the king of the region saw the girl. Instantly he saw that she was more beautiful than any of his five hundred wives and he wanted to marry her. So he called the shepherd and gave him an impossible task to perform, failing which the king would take his wife. The poor shepherd was extremely distraught because he was sure that he would not be able to do what he was asked to do. He went to his wife and told her.
“I will lose you to the king, because I will not be able to slash and burn all the trees on the mountainsides all by myself in one day,” and he began to cry.
The girl said, “Do not worry. Per
haps the king of the lake can help us. Early tomorrow morning you go to the lake and ask the king of the Lu to loan you the sword box.”
The next morning the shepherd went to the lake and shouted, “O, King Tsuena Rinchen, King of the Lu, please loan me your sword box for today.” Suddenly a wave welled up from the bottom of the lake and splashed on the shore. When the water receded a tiny box was left on the shore of the lake. The girl then told her husband to take the box to the mountainside and open it. As soon as he had opened the box hundreds of swords came out of the box and slashed all the trees on the mountainside in a very short time.
The king said, “But that is not all. Now you must prepare the land for buckwheat cultivation within one day.” This was an unachievable task that could never be done in a day’s time! For it involved digging the ground, making the mounds, burning the turf, and spreading the mounds again.
The shepherd was once again in agony and went home to his wife and said that the king had given him an even more difficult task than the last one. The girl once again assured him that the king of the Lu could help him and he should not worry. So, instructed by his wife, the shepherd went to the shore of the lake and asked the king of the Lu for a loan of his hoe box. When the box was put on the shore of the lake in front of him he took it to where the mountainsides had been cleared on the previous day and opened it. As soon as he opened the box thousands of hoes came out and began preparing the land at an unbelievable speed and by midday the field was ready for sowing the seeds. The shepherd went to the king who gave him hundreds of measures of buckwheat which he quickly broadcast over the land. The shepherd was now sure that the king would be satisfied and not ask him to perform any more impossible tasks. He was mistaken. This time the king mocked, “Anyone can broadcast seeds, but if you really are so clever I want you to pick up all the seeds and bring them back to me. Every single seed.”
At this the shepherd felt totally defeated because he thought now even the king of the Lu would not be able to help him. But his wife again assured him that her father could help him.
Full of anguish and apprehension the shepherd walked down to the lake and called, “King Tsuena Rinchen, King of the Lu, I have come to you once again to borrow the bird box.”
Once again a wave welled up and splashed on the shore. When the wave receded the familiar box was on the shore. The shepherd took up the box and at once went towards the field. He put down the box and opened it, and out came thousands of birds twittering and fluttering about and within a short time all the buckwheat seeds were back in the bags. The shepherd took the bags to the king who became vehement.
“So, you are really very clever and you have done all the inconceivable tasks I have asked you to do. Now there is nothing more I can ask, except to declare war on you. We will meet tomorrow and see who is better. The winner will take the woman.”
The shepherd’s wife told him to borrow the people box this time So he carried the people box and went in front of the king’s army. As soon as the army came forward he opened the box. Hundreds of tiny men armed with swords, spears, bows and arrows came out of the box, hollering, “Ga lo chap ni, ga sed ni (Who shall we strike, who shall we kill?).” At this the shepherd said, “Gyalpo seda, marmi go chap (Kill the king and strike his army).” The little men killed the king and struck the army. With the king killed and his army defeated in the battle the shepherd did not have to worry about losing his wonderful wife and they lived in happiness, prosperity, and peace.
The Mother and the Ghost
The ghost wailed in pain as his body scalded and charred in the hot butter.
Dangbo..o..o Dingbo..o..o.. there was a widow who lived with her only son. Soon after the son was born the father had died and she had brought up the child in the best way she knew how and taught him everything that she possibly could. Now he had grown into a strong young man and he looked after her very well but she was lonely and she often wished she could remarry.
The son was a hard-working conscientious young man who did all the work. One day while he was out in the forest collecting firewood he met a ghost. This hungry ghost with ash-gray skin and red gaping mouth looked at him through his dark eyes which had sunk into the depths of his sockets and hissed, “I am going to eat you.” The boy who was not only strong but remarkably brave as well said, “How can you kill me without a fight? Let’s have a fight tomorrow and if you win then you can kill me and eat me.”
The ghost had to agree, for even ghosts have little power if they cannot evoke any fear in their victims. Fear in victims empowers spirits and ghosts, who then are capable of harm and destruction.
The next day the boy went to the forest at sunrise. He took his bow and his quiver full of arrows. The ghost did not come at the appointed time. They should have met in front of the big black boulder in the forest when the first rays of the sun touched the tops of the cypress trees on the hill. So the boy decided to lie in wait for the ghost. He hid behind a thick bush and waited. The ghost eventually came from the other direction, hoping to ambush the boy but instead he had a surprise waiting for him. As the ghost wandered around looking for the boy the latter shot his arrow right through the ghost’s heart. He then chopped off the ghost’s head and took it home and hung it in the corner of the roof as a warning for the other ghosts to keep away.
The boy warned his mother not to look at the head. But one day as the boy was out in the fields the mother happened to look up at the head. This was the chance that the ghost had been waiting for. Sobbing pathetically he begged her to listen to him. “Please listen to me. There has been a mistake. Your son mistook me for a ghost and killed me. Look at me, I am not a ghost. Please take me down and I will tell you something.”
The mother was bewildered to see a head that could talk, but being rather foolish she took down the head and asked, “What do you have to tell me?” The ghost at once found out how foolish this woman was and decided that he could use her. “I am a very rich man. If you listen to me and do as I tell you my body will grow back in time and then I will marry you. Once you are my wife you will never have to do any work and you can have anything you want and you will never be lonely again. But first we must get rid of your son as he is very dangerous.” This simple woman became quite excited at the prospect of marriage, for she had by now become preoccupied with the idea of remarriage! Easily convinced, she was ready to conspire with the ghost to get rid of her own son. “What must I do?” she asked, almost too eagerly.
The ghost then instructed her to take his head to the cave in the forest and feed him every day so that his body could grow back. The ghost said, “Now you must pretend to be sick and tell your son that only the milk of a lioness will cure you.” The ghost was sure that the boy would be mauled and killed if he tried to get milk from a lioness, for wild animals with young are extremely protective and fiercely aggressive.
After she fed and put the head in the cave the mother took to her bed and began to moan and groan loudly until her son came to her side. Full of concern he asked her how he could help her. Just as the ghost had told her, she asked him to get her the milk of a lioness.
In sincere eagerness to help his ailing mother the son sought out a lioness with cubs. He lured one of the cubs and killed and skinned it. He put on the skin over himself and suckled with the other cubs and filled a small container which he held, concealed under the skin. He took the milk to the mother but she still did not recover. She continued to moan and groan, saying, “This illness is more serious than I had thought. The medicine was not right.”
Now the ghost was fearful, for this boy was surely an extraordinary man. So he spoke to the woman and he asked her to send the son to the land of the demons where he would definitely be killed. So one day the mother called her son to her side and said, “Aye, my son, you have been good to me, but only one thing will make me better. I need the all-curing medicine. This medicine is only found in the fruit that grows in the land of the demons.”
The son replied, “I will
do anything if there is a way to cure you.” He then set off for the land of the demons.
The boy ventured into the unknown for many days. He climbed nine mountains and crossed nine valleys, numerous gorges and ravines before he reached the land of the demons. He went into the house of the demons and hid in the attic of the house. He watched the demons and he saw that they ate the fruit from a particular tree every day. The fruit tree was in the middle of the lake but they did not go to pluck the fruit themselves. They sent their maid, who was a beautiful human girl. The girl was in a state of perpetual slumber for the demons whipped her every morning with a golden whip and put her to sleep. So this beautiful girl lay sleeping peacefully for the whole day. When they came home in the evening and wanted more fruit they whipped her with the silver whip and this roused her out of her deep slumber and she did their bidding. She would then sit in a big golden frying pan which flew across the lake. She then plucked some of the fruit and flew back in the frying pan, bringing with her the sustenance for her obnoxious masters.
The boy waited until the demons had all left the house to go to their various works of destruction. He then came out of his hiding place. He took up the silver whip and whipped the girl. She woke up from her deep deep slumber. She was amazed to see a human being and asked, “Who are you and where are you from?”
The boy told her who he was and asked her to help him. The girl readily agreed for she had been waiting for an opportunity to escape from her monstrous masters. “But we must hurry because the demons will come home soon,” she cautioned.
Then the two of them sat in the golden pan and crossed the lake. The tree was guarded by snakes, and when they sensed the presence of an intruder in the pan they began to attack them. With gaping mouths exposing their lethal fangs, these monsters raised up their heads and darted at them aggressively. But the boy was a skillful archer and he began to down them one by one. In the meantime the girl plucked the ripe juicy fruits from the tree, hoping that at least one of them would be the health-restoring fruit. As the last snake writhed in pain and died there was a sinister rumble as the demons realized what had happened. But it was too late, for the golden pan was already high up in the air flying with the speed of the wind.
Folktales of Bhutan Page 5
