________________
JUNE, 1898.)
FOLKLORE IN SOUTHERN INDIA; No. 45.
:
167
water to help him to chew it. With all the difficulty of a heavy burden on his head Kekava managed to chew the bit of cake and thus swallowed his first nourishment for ten months. As soon as the first mouthful was gulped down, what was his wonder to feel a similar bit of cake still in his mouth. He showed it to his wife and she at once became alarmed. She gave him, however, another spoonful of water. Soon the second bit also was chewed and swallowed down. But again a similar bit appeared. His suspicions were now confirmed. Without end bit after bit of the same size as the first appeared in his mouth. He became exhausted after swallowing a dozen and fell down dead on the ground with the bag still sticking to his head, like a tree cat at the root.
The sorrow of the poor wife can be better imagined than described. The hundred bags of rice already lowered down from KSśava's head were lying in piles. She had given him only & bit of a single cake, and that had multiplied itself into a dozen and killed her lord. There he was lying a corpse with the horrible bag still sticking to his head.
The villagers had of course assembled and seen everything that had transpired. TO A certain extent they understood it and looked upon the death of Keśava &s a great calamity, But the dead body had to be cremated. So they made arrangements and prepared & bier of green leaves, and set ou it the body which had the bag still sticking to its head. Four stont men bore it to the cremation ground. The faneral pile was ready and the burden was set down. But there was at once a similar burden on their shoulders. They threw it down and again & similar burden appeared. They were bewildered and soon there were one hundred dead bodies of Kéśava lying on the ground, and still there appeared to be no hope at all of the matter coming to an end. They cursed themselves for having thus got themselves involved in Kēšava's affairs. The whole village was horror-struck.
It was at this moment that a sandysin suddenly made his appearance on the cremation ground. He approached the astonished villagers, and enquired of them the cause of their misery, and they related the whole story.
" Very well, my friends! Can you point out the original body of Kosava which you brought here from his house?” said the mendicant.
The villagers tried their best, but could not sacceed, for one body was so like the other. They pleaded their inability. The mendicant then poured a pot fall of water on all the dead bodies, when they all disappeared, and the original Kesava rose up with the bag still on his head. The astonished villagers now regarded the mendicant as a God sent to help them, if not the very God himself, and followed him with keśava and his bag to Kāśava's house. There they found Kegava's wife just recovering from her swoon, and on hearing the story of her lord's return, she fell down on the feet of the mendicant and begged of him to grant her her lord without the bag on his head.
"I shall do more than that for you, madam !" said the sandysin. He threw a handful of water on Kesava's head, and the bag dropped down.
The mendicant next demanded the original bag that was brought from the Kollimalai mountains to be pointed out to him. Here, too, there was the same inability and failure. So the mendicant poured a vessel fall of water on all the bags, and they all disappeared, leaving only one behind, which was the original bag.
"Let this single bag be emptied in your granary, and the contents of your granary will Aever decrease. The quantity that you take out will at once be replenished then and there, and thus you will live above want."
Saying thus the sanyásin vanished, and the whole village understood that it was all the work of God. They praised Keśava for his devotion and good luck, and over aftor Konya lived a happy man with his wife and children, and beyond want.
