Seven-tricks And Single-trick
: Part I.: Folklore Of The Santal Parganas
Seven-Tricks and Single-Trick were great friends, but some one
told Seven-Tricks that Single-Trick was the cleverer man of the
two. Seven-Tricks pondered over this but felt sure that his very name
showed that he was the cleverer; so one day he went to pay a visit
to Single-Trick, and put the matter to the test When Single-Trick saw
him coming, he called a pretty girl and hid her inside the house and
told his wife to pu
pressed to stay for the midday meal; he accepted and Single-Trick's
wife brought them water to wash their hands and when they sat down,
helped them to the rice.
As they ate, Single-Trick pretended to get very angry and began to
abuse his wife "You lazy slattern, why have you put no salt in the
rice? I will beat you for this, I will beat you into a girl again." So
saying he caught up a club and gave her a blow with it, and pushed her
into the house and pretended to continue the beating inside; and then
came out dragging with him the pretty girl whom he had hidden. When
Seven-Tricks saw this transformation he made up his mind to steal the
club, and try whether he could beat his own wife into a girl again. So
when he went home he secretly took away the club, and the next day when
his wife was giving him his dinner he pretended to get angry with her
for not putting salt in the rice, and snatching up the club gave her
a good pounding with it, and drove her into the house and then pulled
her forth again; but to his dismay she did not look a day younger than
before. Seven-Tricks was puzzled but could only opine that he had not
beaten the woman hard enough, so he beat her till her bones cracked;
but still there was no result and he had to give up in despair.
After a time Seven-Tricks paid another visit to Single-Trick, and
Single-Trick invited him to come hunting in the forest; before they
started Single-Trick told his wife to go and buy a hare and keep
it in the house. The two friends set off, and after a time they
put up a hare; Single-Trick had brought with him his dog, which
was a shocking coward and no good at hunting; when they saw the hare
Single-Trick loosed the dog calling "After it, after it, drive it right
home." And the coward of a dog, directly it was free, put its tail
between its legs and ran straight home. "Come along home now; that
is a splendid sporting dog, it is sure to have taken the hare home;"
so saying Single-Trick set off back, and when they arrived he asked
his wife whether the dog had brought home a hare. "Yes", said she,
"I have put it in that room" and promptly produced the hare that she
had bought. Seven-Tricks at once resolved to possess himself of a dog
that brought the game home by itself, and the next night he came and
stole it, and in the morning took it out hunting. He soon started a
hare and loosed the dog after it; the dog ran straight away in the
direction of the house, and Seven-Tricks followed at his leisure,
and asked his wife where the dog had put the hare. "Hare," said she
"there is no hare, the dog came running back alone." "Perhaps I was
too slow and gave him time to eat the hare," thought Seven-Tricks;
so he took it out again and when he loosed it after a hare, he ran
after it as fast as he could to see what it did. Everyone laughed to
see the hunter chasing his dog, instead of his game. When he got to the
house of course there was no hare, and so he gave up trying to hunt.
Another day he paid a visit to Single-Trick and Single-Trick asked him
to come out fishing. Before they started Single-Trick told his wife to
buy some live codgo fish and keep them ready in the house. When they
came to a pool, Single-Trick at once let down his line and soon got
a bite from a codgo fish; as he pulled it out he threw it, rod and
all, behind him in the direction of his home and said to Seven-Tricks
"Come along home, I expect that all the fish in the pool will have
reached home by now," Directly they got to the house Single-Trick
asked his wife whether the fish had come. "Yes", said she, "I have
put them all in this basket" and brought out a basket of live codgo
fish. Seven-Tricks at once made up his mind to steal the wonderful
fishingrod, so he came back that evening and managed to abstract it,
and next morning went fishing with it. Directly he had caught a codgo
fish, he threw it over his shoulder and went off home and asked whether
the fish had arrived, but he only got laughed at for his folly. Then
he was convinced that Single-Trick was more than a match for him,
and he would have nothing more to do with him.
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