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JANUARY, 1896.]
FOLKLORE IN SOUTHERN INDIA; No. 41.
25
Now this was all clever trickery in the old woman of the wood. The fact was that in the midst of the plots, the old woman had placed subterranean tunnels by means of which the water was guided underground to a long distance, and there need for irrigating several acres of land. This was so well managed that there was not the least room for any suspicion. The Tanjore Rogue with all his cleverness was not able to find the trick out, though he surmised that there was some trick at the bottom. The old woman came to him at mid-day, and took him very kindly inside the house for a light meal, and then requested him to proceed to his task. Even before a ghalikd was wanting to evening, and as if she took the greatest compassion on our hero, she visited him again, and spoke thus: -
“My son. Don't mind the trouble. You can do the rest to morrow, cease work and take rest."
He thanked her for her kindness, left the pikotta, and came to tha pyal ontside the house. Sitting there, he began to chew betel-leaves and areca-nut, and as he was engaged in this, the thought passed and repassed his mind :
“What a fool I have been ? If I had taken out the cow, I would have had a better time of it to-day than the tirenome duty of watering these plots. There comes my brother rogne with a joyful countenance. Perhaps he has had a very happy time of it. I shall give him & good description of my work and change my job to-morrow with him."
Just as he was thus speaking, the Trichinopoly Rogue approached the house with the cow with him.
"How did you fare to-day, my friend ?" asked the Tanjore Rogue.
“Oh, I have had a most happy day of it. What fine fruit trees there are on the banks of the tank there, and I had no difficulty at all of any kind. I unloosened the cow to graze and passed the day sleeping under the shade of trees, and eating fruit. What a fine beast this cow is, too. It grazes quietly like a child,"
Thus said the Trichinopoly Rogue, and the composed way in which he told his tale made the Tanjore Rogue believe what he said. Soon the other rogue began : -- -
Oh! You do not know what I had to do. It was all over in a quarter of a ghalika. Half a dozen potfuls of water to each plot was all that was wanted in the business. So I passed the day in sleep and chewing betel. Come on, sit down ; you had better have some."
The cow was tied up in its proper place, and the two rogues sat down on the pyal of the cottage in the twilight. The pain and hardness of the work of the day were so predominant in their minds, that each easily believed the work of the other to be easier than his own, and each suggested an exchange of work, which was readily accepted.
The morning dawned. According to the mutual agreement the Tanjore Rogue took out the cow to graze, and the Trichinopoly Rogue went to water the cabbages. Each soon discovered how he had been duped by the other. In the evening they again met.
"What, brother! was it proper on your part to have deceived me thus P asked the Tanjore Rogae, and the Trichinopoly Rogue replied ;"What, brother! was it proper on your part to have deceived me thus P"
Then the two rogues came, a second time, to an agreement that they should not direct their ingenuity to deceiving each other, but that they should always act in accord. They resolved to do so, and held a long talk as to how to deceive the old woman, and walk away with all her money. The old women overheard all this conversation.
"I am too clever for such tricks," thought she, and was careful in her own way.
Now the old woman, was herself an extremely clever rogue, and the very next morning, as if of her own accord, she called the rogaes to her side, opened her big box to them, shewed them all the gold, silver, and copper that she had there, and promised to bequeath the whole property to them, in case they pleased her by their work. The rogues, then, though their
