Indian Antiquary Vol 50

SR No.: 032542
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1985
Total Pages: 468
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 19 MB

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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[ SEPTEMBER, 1921
They only helped themselves twice to the liver of the fish, for the fish vomited them up and spat them out on a great rock in the midst of the ocean. The fish then swam away.
After a considerable time, the two women spied a shark coming towards the rock; and they were afraid when they saw him come.
"Don't you be afraid, you two," said the shark, "for I have been backwards and forwards looking for you in the midst of the ocean for many a long day. “Come! get up on my back, and I will carry you away."
The women got up on the back of the shark, but they could not keep a firm geat and were continually gliding off; for the fish's back was slippery. So the shark told them to rub his back
So they rubbed his back, and after that they got up on his back again, and found they had a steady seat. They were carried away by the shark and landed at the very place where they had been making tripe. They went home, and the fish returned to its own place.
XIII.-THE MAN WHO BECAME A PYTHON. Long long ago, there were once some people who had gone away to their gardens in the jungle, to get the requisite fruit and vegetables for the annual kunset-rö festival.29
The men were on their way back from the jungle "hinterland," when they stopped to cut some nuts for themselves to drink, 30 for they were thirsty.
As usual, one man climbed a palm-tree to cut the nuts for the party; and they soon all had as many as they wanted.
His friends drank the nuts, and then got tired of waiting for him, for he remained a very long time up in the tree. So they called out to him: "Come down at once, we want to be going."
But the man who had cut down the nuts for them replied, “You go home now; but I am not going to the village until the day after tomorrow."
Then the man cut open the spathe of a cocoanut flower and ate the flower, for he wanted to have plenty of fat around his intestines. 31
Somehow or other, by swallowing the cocoanut flower, he managed to increase the fat round his intestines, and so became a python.
On the next day but one he came to the village, just when the women were in the midst getting out the fibrous matter from the pandanus (or bread-fruit) paste, and he sported indelicately with the women with his tail.
The women were all terrified, thinking it was a "devil" (or evil-spirit), and jumped down from the house where they were and went straight down the throat of the python.
» About the beginning of the rains the whole village joins in this quasi-Harvest Festival, or Feast of Pomona, as an acknowledgment of favours received from the unseen powers. The following day they must rost, and above all things, not go far from their houses.
% The water in Car Nicobar is too brackish for drinking purposes and the drink of the island is cocoanut milk which is always available. The people are all therefore experts from childhood in climbing . Coconut tree without undue fatigue.-R.C.T.)
1 The saliva with which the python covers its victim, is supposed to bo fat from around its intestine.