Kotharian Lightning

From Gondi Folklore

An old man and his wife had seven daughters. Whenever the old man and woman cooked anything nice for supper, the girls used to eat it all and the parents got nothing. One day the old man and his wife decided that they would get up in the middle of the night and make a feast just for themselves. But one of the girls overheard them talking and quietly told the others.

The old man and woman got up at midnight and the old man whispered to his wife, “Old woman, where is the dauri basket?” One of the girls, who was only pretending to be asleep, said loudly, “Here is the dauri,” and got up. The old man said, “Don’t make such a noise, child. Lie down and go to sleep and don’t wake the others.” The girl lay down and presently the old man whispered to his wife, “Where is the grindstone?” This time another of the girls jumped up and said, “Here is the grindstone.” The old man said, “Don’t make such a noise, child. Lie down and go to sleep and don’t wake the others.” In this way each of the girls got up and offered to find something or other for her parents.

The next morning the old man and woman, hungry and sleepy, decided that the only thing to do was to send their daughters out into the jungle. They sent the girls to get wood. The girls went off and presently found themselves in the house of a fox. The fox had gone to graze its cows and milk was cooking in a pot over the fire. The girls took the milk, made it into khir and ate it with great enjoyment. In the evening the fox came home with it scows and the girls seeing it coming hid behind the grain-bin. The fox tied up its cows and came to sit by the hearth. As it sat down some of the hot khir stuck to its backside. It jumped up crying, “The mouth has eaten chaff and straw, the arse has eaten khir. Now I’m going to burn you!” It got a pot of ghee, put it on the fire to boil, and walked round and round shouting, “The mouth has eaten chaff and straw, the arse has eaten khir!” When the ghee was boiling it dipped its tail and arse into it, and then went round again. But one of the girls jumped out of her hiding-place and pushed the fox right into the pot of boiling ghee and it was burnt to death.

After that, foxes – who previously lived like human beings in houses – gave up their houses and lived in holes in the ground.

Source:

Chapter 11, Myths of Middle India, Verrier Elwin, 1949