Tipi And Tepa

: Part I.
: Folklore Of The Santal Parganas

Tipi and Tepa dwelt together and lived on baked cakes. One day they

met a bear in the jungle. "Now I will eat you" growled the bear. "Spare

us," said Tipi and Tepa "and to-morrow we will beg some food and bake

it into cakes and give it to you," So the bear let them go away to beg;

but when they came back they ate the food which they had procured and

then hid themselves inside a hollow gourd. The bear came and looked

ab
ut for them but could not find them and went away.



The next day Tipi and Tepa again went out begging and as luck would

have it again met the bear. "Now I will eat you" said the bear. "No"

said they "let us go and beg some food for you." So they went off

begging and came back and baked cakes and ate them and then hid

inside the gourd. The bear came and carried off the gourd on its

shoulder and began to pick plums and other fruit and put them into

the gourd. As fast as the fruit was put in Tipi and Tepa ate it

up. "It is a very funny thing that the gourd does not become full"

thought the bear. But Tepa ate so much that at last he burst, with

such a noise that the bear threw down the gourd and ran away.



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