The Faithful Dog as Security for a Debt

AMONG THE folk-tales of India of the general type called by M. Bloomfield Hasty ingratitude, or, strike but hear, 1 one well-articulated sub-type of story, that of the brahman who slew the mongoose, thinking that it had slain his son, when in reality it had saved the son from a snake, is by now sufficiently well-known.2 Beside it there is, however, another sub-type, just as well articulated, but so far not recognized as a definite sub-type.3 The failure has been due undoubtedly to two causes, first, the story occurs only in oral versions (with one rather unimportant exception) and only in India; and, secondly, the dog of the story has been confused with the dog of most Western versions of the brahman and mongoose story, with a total neglect of the difference of sub-type involved.4 In addition to the ten versions already known, I am able to add another oral one from the results of my own field-work in South India. It may be profitable to make a study of the sub-type in all the versions that are now available. The stories all agree in that the faithful animal is a dog which was handed over by its owner to a new owner in security for a loan. The dog does for its new owner a great service, whose nature differs somewhat in the different versions, and is released to return to its original owner, the debt being considered cancelled by the great service done by the dog. In all versions but one a token of the cancellation was attached to the dog. The original owner, without enquiry or due consideration, thought the dog was unfaithful and killed it. There was great grief in consequence when the true facts were learned, in three of the versions the old owner killing himself in remorse. Differences of detail will be discussed below. The texts of the stories will be given at the end of this paper, with the necessary bibliographical details. The names by which the stories are to be identified are as follows: Cawnpore, Lucknow (two slightly different accounts, distinguished when necessary as I and II), Mirzapur, Central Provinces, Nasik, Kathiawar, Baluchistan, Hyderabad, Kashmir (in two slightly different versions, both published by Knowles), Tamil, Kota.' Other versions are referred to but have never been reported in full or are not available. Russell and ilira Lal, after reporting the Central Provinces version and attaching it to a temple in the Druig district, five miles from Balod, say: A similar story is told of the temple of Kukurra Math in Mandla. We shall have occasion later to refer to this. In a note to the Hyderabad version, the editor (apparently R. C. Temple) says: A similar story is told by the Marri Baloches, and the tomb of the dog is shown near their capital Kahan. We shall refer to this also later. Finally, in referring to the version Lucknow II, J. P. Lewis of Ceylon, in Indian Notes and Queries 4 (1886-7). 173, says: This story is to be found in the Katamanchari. It is No. 30, the Musalman and his Dog. I am indebted to Prof. W. Norman Brown of the University of Pennsylvania for bibliographical data from his files on Indian folktales and for aid in arranging inter-library loans of books, and to Dr. D. G. Mandelbaum of the University of Minnesota for criticism and information from his Kota ethnological data. I JAOS 36. 54-89, epecially 63-5. 2 See e. g. the article referred to in note 1, and the sample bibliography in Stith Thompson, Motif-index of Polk-literature, vol. 1, p. 331, no. B331. 2 (Folklore Fellows Communications 106 =Indiana University Studies 96-7). The latest addition to the bibliography is M. B. Emeneau, A Classical Indian Folk-tale as a Reported Modern Event: the Brahman and the Mongoose (Proc. American Philosophical Society 83. 503-13), in which I reported a version in the Kota language of South India. 'It should be Thompson B331. 3. Thompson did not comb the Indian material thoroughly for his Index, and the story happened to be absent in the collection that he used. ' Cf. for the confusion, the title under which the Nasik story was published-Gelert in the East, and that of the Lucknow story-Variant of Beddgelert. 5 These names are abbreviated in the table as follows, respectively: Cawn., Luck. I and II, Mirz., C. P., Nasik, Kath., Bal., Hyd., Kash. I and II, Tam., Kota

Biology · Brahman · Business · Debt · Genealogy · Mongoose · Political science · Zoology · Ecology · Finance · Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies · Gothic Literature and Media Analysis · History · Law · Shakespeare, Adaptation, and Literary Criticism

• The Brahmin and the Mongoose

  Open Access•Stuart Blackburn•Bulletin of the School of…•1996

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