·
All the children in a village watched the crops
growing by a nearby river
·
A Hanuman monkey wanted to eat the crops, so he
devised a plan to be able to do so
o
The children often drove him off, which is why
he needed a plan
·
The monkey’s plan was to make a garland of
flowers and leave it behind after the children ran him off
o
The children fell for his plan and were happy
with the flowers he left behind
o
The two parties eventually became friends
·
One of the young girls was interested by the monkey
and made a one-sided promise to marry him
o
We have no idea how the monkey responded
·
Of course, the other children gossiped, and word
spread
·
Eventually, the girl’s parents heard, and the
father, with the help of some villagers, shot the monkey
o
They burned his corpse, which was commonly done
with human corpses
·
The girl showed up as they were burning the body
and simply stated that she just really wanted to see if they really did burn
him
·
The girl distracts them by saying “what’s
happening in the sky?”
o
Everyone looks up, and while they are looking
up, she grabs sand and throws it up to blind them
·
As everyone is rubbing sand out of their eyes,
the girl jumps into the fire and burns with the monkey
·
Everyone is sad, but they explain that she must
have had a monkey’s soul, which would explain her fascination with him
Hanuman Langur Monkey. Source: Wikimedia.
Bibliography: This story is called "The Monkey and the Girl" and can be found here. Story source: Folklore of the Santal Parganas by Cecil Henry Bompas (1909).
No comments:
Post a Comment