Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 22, 1911.djvu/257

 Collectanea. 223

here since yesterday ? " Then he said, — " Iss, when I left you (ray leaving with you), I was not feeling well " (my body was not well). Then she said, — " Oh indeed ! The news that the Mouse told me is true. Do not ever come again to my house. Blind man." As for the Mouse, she wanted him. Then the Rooster heard the news. So he came, and said, — " Oh, may God curse you, is there no one who will marry you except the Mouse, a thief who cannot go to the market ? " Then she said, — " Oh, really, is he a thief? " Then he said, — "Well, if you doubt it, when to-morrow comes tell him to accompany you to the market." So she said, — "Very well." So the Mouse came, and they were talking, and talking, and talking, when she said, — " Now I want you to escort me to the market." Then he said, — " Oh no, I, a Mouse, since my great-great-great-grandfather did not go to the market, shall I go?" Then she said, — " Oh, come. Mouse, you will not be seen." She brought a small basket and poured out the guinea-corn ^*' in it, and said, — " You may get in here. No one will see you." So she went, and when she had gone and reached the middle of the market, she opened (it). When she had opened it, the people of the market said, — " Oh, look at the Mouse, the thief. Kill him, kill him, kill him." And he only just escaped. Then she said, — " Oh, the report of the Rooster was true." Then he wanted her, he the Rooster. Then the Elephant heard .the news, and came and said, — " May God curse you. Will no one marry you except the Rooster" (your marriage only to a rooster)? He said, — " He is a waster who cannot do any work." He said, — "Well, if the Rooster comes, you tell him that." When the Rooster had come, the woman said, — " Now listen to what the Elephant said. He said you are a waster. You are not able to do any work." Then he said, — " So the Elephant spoke thus ? " He said, — " He is useless in spite of his size. Whatever work he can do, I can do." When the Elephant came, she said, — " Have you heard what the Rooster said ? The Rooster said you are useless in spite of your size. Whatever you can do he can do." Then the Elephant said, — " He is lying." Now there was a rubbish hole as wide as a large house. So the Elephant collected wood and grass

^°The Kwotashi is nof usually used for guinea-corn, but there seems to have been some in this one.