The Two Brothers
: Part I.: Folklore Of The Santal Parganas
There were once two brothers who were constantly quarrelling and
one afternoon after a heated quarrel the younger brother asked the
villagers to come and judge between them. The villagers agreed to meet
the next morning. At cockcrow the next day the elder brother went to
the other's house and woke him up and said "Brother, this is a bad
business; you have called in the villagers and they will certainly
fine us both for
the money and spend it on a pig; then we and our families could have
a feast." "I quite agree," said the younger brother, "but now I have
summoned the villagers, what can be done? If I merely tell them to
go away, they will never come again when I summon them."
The elder brother said, "I have a plan; when they come they will ask
how the quarrel began and what abusive words I used; and then you
must tell them that that is a point which they have to decide; and
then they will be able to do nothing and will go away." The younger
brother agreed to this and when the villagers came and asked what the
quarrel was about he said, "Don't you know what the quarrel was? That
was the very matter I wanted you to decide; if you don't know, how
can you judge about it?" And this answer he repeated to all their
questioning; then they got angry and said that he was mocking them;
and they declined to give any decision, but said that the brothers
must give them dinner as they had detained them so long; but the
brothers flatly declined to do so as no decision had been given,
and the villagers went away grumbling, while the brothers bought a
pig with the money they had saved and had a jolly feast and as they
ate the elder brother said: "See what a good plan mine was; but for
it we should now have been feasting others at our expense."
More
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