The Tiger and The Crab (Grand Mother's tales)

The Tiger and The Crab

 Once upon a time, there was a tiger. He used to travel to various places. One day, while he was traveling he met a crab. The crab smiled at the tiger and asked him "Brother where are you going? By looking at the smiling face of the crab, he replied "I am traveling to another forest. By the way, where are you going? The crab replied "I am not going anywhere, I live nearby. I am lonely and have no one in my family." The tiger said "I am also in the same situation. I am a lonely, homeless animal, no one to worry for me." After talking to each other for a while, both of them were happy with each other and became best friends. They started to live nearby in that forest.

        The days were passing by. The tiger used to hunt a deer every day and both of them shared it with great delight. Seeing their relationship, other carnivorous animals did not do any harm to the crab. One day, the crab said to the tiger "Friend, I am feeling bored of eating flesh. Actually, I don't want to hide the truth from you. Since I am eating meat regularly, I am having stomach trouble. Sometimes we should also eat vegetables.Let'splantsomevegetables." The tiger agreed. The crab said "Friend, you go to the village and bring some grains from the village farm. And I will make this soil ready for planting."They started their job. The crab started to till the land and the tiger went around other's farms to steal the grains and plant in their land.

    In a few days, the field was full of grains. Being satisfied with the grains the crab said to the tiger "We will get rice, but if with rice there would be no vegetables then there would be no taste. Now, will we eat plain rice? That means we should plant vegetables, so go to the village and bring some vegetables. Don't forget to brings the brinjal plant. I will make the land ready for a vegetable field." After discussing the crab started his job. When the tiger was about to leave, the crab called and said to him "Friend, I forget to tell you to bring chili plant, without chili there would be no taste of the elephant apple's curry." By remembering the things, the tiger gave a long jump towards the village.

       In this way, both of them completed the farming. Slowly, Winter came close. The grains were ready for the process of winnowing. They decided to organize a feast. The crab told the tiger "Friend, I will take the front part." So, the crab took the upper part of the grains with seeds. After dividing the grains it came to the brinjal. The tiger asked the crab "Friend, will you take the seeds or the tree." The crab took the seeds so the tiger took the tree. After that, they finished harvesting; the tiger invited the crab for a feast. The tiger prepared grain's chopped stalks and brinjal's tree. He then offered the cooked food to the crab. The crab did not know how to eat all the stuff. He just touched a bit and went home. From that day onwards, whenever the crab went to the tiger's house he asked the tiger to give him rice with meat curry. One day, the tiger asked the crab "Friend, you have never invited me to your house for a meal. You should call me once for s a feast. I want to taste your cooking." The crab answered "Friend. how will I invite you to my house? I always think about inviting you but I live in a small house. Where will you sit? How will you eat? That is the reason why I have not invited you yet. However, if l think of all these reasons, it will take centuries to invite you. So l am inviting you to take breakfast at my house tomorrow. What can I tell you, my friend? The feast is only in name. Tomorrow you will set your foot at this poor's house." The tiger replied, "Sure, I will go to your house tomorrow."

         The next day, the crab prepared Manikmadhuririce, brinjal's Khar. The tiger came to the crab's place for the feast. The crab said to the tiger "Friend, you sit near my hole, I will bring rice and curry for you to eat. You have to eat outside my hole because the hole is too small for you." The crab started bringing rice and curry while the tiger enjoyed the food. The crab's cooking utensils were small and so the amount of food was also less. The tiger already finished the little rice that the crab cooked. So, the crab feared, he thought "from where will I get rice now, the Tiger's stomach is not full. He may forget our friendship and eat me up. I have to think of something to save myself" Thinking all this he said to the tiger "Friend, my waist is having pain because I am bringing rice for you many times. So l am now having difficulty standing up. Please put your tail inside the hole and I will tie food in your tail." The tiger did not realize the crab's cunningness and he put his tail inside the hole and the crab squeezed it with its claws. The tiger was trying to bring back his tail but the crab did not stop squeezing his tail. The tiger cried in pain but the crab did not his tail go.

         Coincidently, there was a farmer farming in the field, when he heard the tiger he was about to run away but he heard the tiger called. The tiger said "Oh brother! Please come here. I am going to die. The crab is killing me. Please save my tail." The farmer answered "I can't help you, you are a tiger, I can't trust you. If I save you, you will kill me."The tiger replied "Oh my Lord! Please come. I am speaking the truth. I promise you in the name of God, I will not eat you. Please help me take the tail out of this hole, my Lord. If you help me I promise you that I will bring you a deer every day."After hearing this, the farmer came near the tiger and used his hoe to release the tiger's tail from the crab and saved the tiger's life. While leaving, the tiger said"I will keep my promise and I will bring a deer every day. But don't speak of this to anyone and if you do I will kill you."

     The tiger started bringing a deer every day to the farmer. Many days went by. One day, the farmer fell ill and his mother called an old woman who practiced divination After calculating the fortune, the woman said that they should invite a number of acknowledged guests to have a feast with deer's meat. The mother told the son about the feast. The farmer asked the tiger to bring two deers for the feast. On the day of the feast, the tiger gave the farmer two deers.

     That day, all the guests came to their house for the feast There was a shortage of banana leaves. So one man went to cut banana leaves in the backyard of the house. He saw many skeletons and was shocked. He came back without cutting the leaves and said everybody We can't eat food in this man's house. We have no idea what he eats. How can he find so many skeletons? Please come and see. There are a lot of bones."Everybody went to the backyard and saw that there was a big heap of bones. Everybody asked the farmer Tell us where these bones came from? Or we will not eat at your house." The farmer replied These bones are of the animals that people eat in their daily life. I can't tell you everything from the beginning to the end; otherwise, the tiger will kill me. Please I beg you all to begin the feast. "No one listened to him and sand We will protect you with our weapons. You have to speak the truth or we will not eat At last the farmer told the truth. So everybody protected him on that day with the help of weapons. One day, the tiger was able to get hold of the farmer and took him away from everyone. When the farmer did not return till the sunset, the people went in search of him.

         On the other hand, the tiger took the farmer to a thick forest. Fortunately, the farmer was Feeling very hungry and his stomach started growling in hunger. The tiger asked him, "What is making sounds in your stomach?" The farmer thought of an idea and answered When I was young, my mother gave me one hundred and twenty crabs to eat. Sixty came out of my stomach before but the rest of the sixty crabs did not come out. Now, they want to come out. The tiger was scared when he heard the word "crab" and thought "One crab had already squeezed my tail and if sixty more crabs come out then what will happen to me? The tiger ran away in fear of the crabs leaving behind the farmer.

        The farmer was free. He slowly moved forward and reached a pond. He saw a place where buffaloes are herded together at night under a tree. He went there and drank the milk foam from the ground. Then he cleaned the place and climbed back to the tree. The buffaloes came in the evening and they were shocked to find their place so clean. They looked everywhere but did not see anything unusual. So they started their daily chatter and slept. The next day, when the buffaloes went for grazing. the farmer came down and drank milk foam, cleaned the place and then he climbed back to the tree. In the evening when the buffaloes came back they were again shocked to see their place so clean. They again looked everywhere and did not notice anything This time they took it seriously and decided that one of them will stay to find out the truth. The next day an old buffalo was left there. Before going to graze, the others told him "You look who comes and clean our place daily. We will bring enough food and water for you." In the afternoon, when the old buffalo fell asleep the farmer came down and did the same things and climbed back to the tree. In the evening when everybody came back and asked the old buffalo who always comes and cleans their place, he replied "I did not see anyone." So the next day they left a buffalo whose one eye was blind. The buffalo slept in such a position that its bad eye was towards the upper level. So he was not able to see anything. Taking advantage of this, the farmer came down and did the same things and climbed the tree. In the evening, when all the buffalos asked him, then he replied "I did not see anything." The other buffaloes realized their mistake and the next they asked the leader of the buffalos to stay. But the buffalo fell asleep in the afternoon. So the farmer came down and did his daily chores and was climbing back to the tree. Just then-the buffalo woke up and asked him "Are you a human or deity? Whoever you are please come down."The farmer replied "I am not a deity, I am only a human. I will not come down because if I come down, you will kill me with your horns."The buffalo replied, "Please come down, I will not kill you." But the farmer did not agree. The buffalo again promised not to kill him, so he came down. The farmer told the buffalo everything and the buffalo felt sorry. The buffalo said "From today you can live here without any fear. We make you our lord. We will provide you a buffalo to give you milk daily." In the evening, when all the buffalos came back, the leader explained to them everything and they were very happy to have a lord. After that, they killed the one-eyed buffalo and gave his horns to the farmer and said "One horn is the joy horn and the other is the angry horn. When we go to graze, you play the joy horn then we will understand that you are safe and we will graze happily. But when you are in danger, you play the angry horn so that we can come to protect you. You can clean our place like you always do.

         One day, the farmer sat on a branch of a tree and was combing his hair. Coincidently his longest hair fell in the water and a fish ate it. One day, a fisherman caught the same fish. The fish was very big so the fisherman gave the fish to the king. 

        The king had a daughter. When her friends were cutting the fish the princess was standing there. When she saw the hair, she took it and made the owner of the hair her husband. Then she went inside the Roh Ghar (in ancient times when people wanted something or they were sad, they show that their particular needs should be fulfilled or they will never come out of this room). When the king heard that his daughter was inside the Roh ghar, he asked his daughter why. His daughter replied that she will only marry the owner of the hair. If her wish is not fulfilled then she will not eat anything. When the king heard this he was in tension because he did not know whose hair it was and from where the fish ate it. If he were not able to find out the person then his daughter will die. He was sitting in a chair in deep thought.

         The princess had a crow as her pet. Seeing the king upset, he came near him and said "Myking, please don't worry. I will find out the owner of the hair. You only have to give me a ripe mango."Hearing the crow's words, the king gave him a mango and went to sleep. Taking the mango the crow went to the same forest where the farmer was sitting. The crow went near him and called 

        "Who plays Joy horn and Angry horn? Who wants to eat ripe mango?"

         Hearing the word "Ripe mango" the farmer felt greedy and answered. 

        "I play Joy horn and Angry horn. I wish to eat ripe mango."

         When the farmer was going to take the mango, the crow quickly took the angry horn and flew away. The farmer blew the happy horn but the buffaloes thought that he was safe and kept grazing happily.

         In the meantime, the crow flew to the king and gave him the angry horn, and said "The owner of the horn is the owner of the hair. If you give me two soldiers, I can bring the person here." So the king gave the crow his two soldiers. It was easy to catch the farmer because he did not have the angry horn with him. 

        The soldiers caught the farmer and brought him to the king. When the soldiers were bringing him to the king, he tore his clothes and left the track for the buffalos. In the evening, when the buffalos did not see the farmer, they followed the track and reached the king's palace. The king was frightened when he saw the buffalos. Seeing the king frightened, the farmer said that they were his buffalos. The buffalos started to dance seeing their lord. The king asked the farmer "If they are your buffaloes can you ride on them?" The farmer replied he can and proved it. Being satisfied with the courage of the farmer, the king allowed his daughter to marry the farmer. He became the son-in-law of the King and became the assistant of the king.

                                                                                                                       -Collected from,

Burhi Aair Sadhu(Grandmother's tales)

Lakshminath Bezbaroa(1864-1938)