Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 22, 1911.djvu/225

 King Midas and his Ass's Bars. 195

The Santal version is more imperfect. Here the Raja's son has ears like those of an ox. His father makes the barber take an oath of secrecy, but when he cannot disclose it his stomach swells to an enormous size, A Dom outcast asks him the cause of his malady. He blurts out the secret, on which his stomach regains its normal shape. The Dom cuts down a tree and makes a drum out of the wood, which when beaten says : " The son of the Raja has the ears of an ox." The Raja is wroth and swears that he will punish the treacherous barber. But the Dom explains that he was not to blame. The Dom receives a present, and the barber escapes punishment.^*^

In Mysore the story runs that Chengal, a Raja of Bet- tudpur in the tenth century, had his right ear like that of an ass. The barber whispers the secret to a sandal-tree under which the Raja used to sit when he was being shaved. One day, pleased with the performance of some tumblers, he gives the tree to them. They cut it down, and make a drum out of the wood, which utters the ominous words. Thus everyone learnt the secret.^^

A tale from Arakan, though not exactly akin to this type of story, may be quoted. The king Minzaw had a magic drum which made so loud a noise when it was beaten that it produced a panic throughout Burma. The king of Burma, in his alarm, sent an embassage to discover the secret. The ambassador learnt that the king of Arakan was so much feared that no one dared to look him in the face. So he directed his cook to boil some creepers in long pieces, and to bring them to the table when he next had the honour of dining with the king. While eating them he took the creepers by one end, and, raising them above his head, turned up his face so as to put the other end in his mouth. He thus succeeded in seeing the face of the king,

^"C. H. Bom pas, Folklore of the Santal Parganas, p. 17 1. ^^B. L. Rice, Mysore^, 1897, vol. ii., pp. 236 et seq. : ed. 1878, vol. ii., pp. 223 et seq.