The Lazy Son
This is a story of how success came to a lazy fellow. There was a mother once, who had a very lazy son. He hated work. He lay about all…
From: Unknown To: 1926 C.E.
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
From We Tibetans: An Intimate Picture, by a Woman of Tibet, of an Interesting and Distinctive People, by Rin-Chen Lha-Mo, 1926.
This is a story of how success came to a lazy fellow. There was a mother once, who had a very lazy son. He hated work. He lay about all day, idle. His mother used to urge him to get up and do some work, but he would not. Their friends also expostulated with him, saying his mother had a very hard time of it and why could not he help her, instead of sleeping all day like a pig. In due course he got ashamed. It hurt him to be likened to a pig. And so, one day he said to his mother that he would go hunting, and asked her to give him a horse, bow and arrows, sword and hunting dog. His mother was pleased and gave him all these and a foxskin hat as well, and he set forth.
He came upon a badger, and gave chase. The badger went to ground. There were two holes. He blocked one with his hat, and started to dig the badger out from the other. His sword, and bow and arrows, he attached to the horse’s saddle and tied the horse’s bridle-rein to the dog. Then he dug at the hole. Just when he was getting near to the badger the latter ran out of the other hole, carrying the hat away with him on his head. The dog seeing the badger gave chase, drawing the horse after him. So he lost everything; horse, dog, hat, sword, bow and arrows.
He went along weeping and came to the house of a chieftain, where, as it happened, marriage festivities, dancing and merry-making, were in progress. There, crying and moaning, he asked if they had seen a badger pass, wearing a foxskin hat, a dog leading a horse, a horse carrying bow and arrows and sword. The chief’s retainers said to each other: “where-ever was there a badger wearing a hat, a dog leading a horse, a horse carrying bow and arrows and sword? It is inauspicious that this fellow should intrude his grief upon our festivities.” So they fell upon him and threw him out.
And he went on his way again. Soon he came to another chieftain’s house; here funeral ceremonies were going on and sadness reigned. But he thought to himself that his weeping at the other house had brought a beating upon him, hence he deduced that he ought to be cheerful, So he put the same question as before, but this time gaily and laughing. The chief’s retainers were incensed at his ill-timed levity, and fell upon him and beat him.
He went away sadly, puzzled that he had been beaten for weeping and then beaten for laughing, And he was not only sad but also, by now, hungry. He came to a hayrick and lay down in it. Then a great yak came snorting around it and dug at him with its horns. Every now and then the horns would tear his clothes. The chiefs retainers, seeing the yak striking at the hay and strips of clothing on its horns, came to see what was happening. They found him there and told him to go away. He obstinately refused to go, saying he was too hungry to walk and intended to rest in the hayrick. The retainers reported the matter to the chief, who was annoyed at the presumption of the fellow and ordered him to be put into the pig-sty. There he was very uncomfortable. The large pig worried him, pressing its weight upon him, and prevented him sleeping.
The next day the chiefs wife washed her hair in the court-yard. She wore a turquoise amulet round her neck. She took it off to wash her hair and put in into the folds of her cloak whence it dropped to the ground unnoticed by her, and a cow later trod it into the earth and a servant girl swept it on to a dust heap. The lazy fellow in the pig-sty saw all this happen.
The lady had once lost her soul, or, as you would say, had lost consciousness; and she wore this amulet to prevent a recurrence of that. Having now lost it, she had a relapse. The chief caused prayers to be intoned by the lamas for her recovery. He, in the pig-sty, asked the maid what all the praying was about. She told him her mistress had lost her amulet and had fallen sick again. He told her to tell the chief that he was able to find the amulet. The chief was informed and sent for him, and asked him what articles he required with which to find the amulet. He, mindful of his discomforts, said that first of all he needed the head of the large pig. Then a few servant girls and a few cows. These were produced. The pig was killed and its head handed to him. Carrying the pig’s head he walked round looking at the cows and the maids. He looked at this cow and at that and then tapped one, saying, “This is the cow.” He looked at this woman and at that and tapped one, saying “ This is the serving-maid.” He looked at this rubbish heap and at that and said, “ This is the rubbish heap, dig in it and you will find the amulet.” They dug and found it. The amulet restored, the chief’s wife recovered, and the chief presented him with twelve mules and twelve horses and twelve cows.
Later on the son of a neighbouring chief fell seriously ill. Prayers were recited, but he remained ill. The chief heard that his neighbour had at his house a religious mendicant, as the lazy fellow was now termed, who was skilled in divination. So he sent men to invite him over. They told him their chiefs son was very ill and would he come? The mendicant was frightened. He thought, “How can I cure sickness? I found the amulet because I saw what happened to it with my eyes, but now I shall be found out.” However he went. He could not refuse to go. But he determined to run away that night.
Arrived, the chief asked him what things he needed with which to effect the cure. He said he required a pig’s head and a bag of tsamba. These were provided him. Then he said that no matter how much the dogs barked that night, no notice was to be taken of them, and no one was to go out and see what was happening. This was agreed to.
In the night he set off, The dogs barked furiously and made for him. He threw the pig’s head to them and they stopped to eat it. He got outside and sat down on a stone. Outside the gate there was a great rock from beneath which flowed water. He heard voices around it and saw' the sick son’s wife and a black and white cow in conversation. He heard them saying: “What’s to be done? There has come a holy mendicant who will divine it all and tell them.” He knew then that the woman and the cow and the rock were possessed of devils. He was rejoiced. He returned. Again the dogs went for him, but he gave them the tsamba, strewing it behind him, and they stopped to lick it up.
The next day the chief asked him if he had divined anything. He said he had, that he had discovered that the big rock outside the house, the dappled cow, and the son’s wife were possessed of devils. He said the rock must be knocked to pieces, the bigger pieces to be no larger than Ney grains, the smaller than turnip seeds. That a hundred men must go and kill the dappled cow and cut it up into pieces, the bigger to be no larger than Ney grains, the smaller than turnip seeds. Then the son would recover.
All this was done and the chiefs son recovered, and the chief presented the mendicant with twelve mules and twelve horses and twelve cows.
Later on another chief lost a bag of silver. Hunt for it how they would they could not find it. The chief heard of the mendicant and sent men to invite him to come. As before, he was scared. Success in the first case had come through his eyes seeing; in the second, through his ears hearing. But how discover a lost bag of silver? But he had to go. The chief asked him what he required with which to find the bag. He said he needed nothing but that he must be put in a room on the third floor, and all the dogs must be kept indoors that night, and no notice must be taken of anything that occurred, Of course, he intended to run away.
But while he was up in his room a servant came to see him and begged the holy mendicant not to say it was he who had stolen the bag. He had buried it in the ground outside the gate. But how restore the bag without exposing the servant? The mendicant said he could arrange it. He would have everybody go out the next day except this servant who should then fetch the bag of silver and put it under the floor-planks under the money-chest it was taken from.
The next day the chief asked the mendicant if he had divined anything. The mendicant said he had but not quite completely, that he must try again that night. In the meantime everybody must go out that day, leaving just one man behind and he pointed to the particular servant as the one to be left behind. They all went out, and the servant then took the bag of silver and put it under a plank under the money-chest. He put the plank back so well that there was no sign of its having been removed at all. The next day the chief put the same question to the mendicant who answered that he had divined that they should look under the planks under the money-chest. They did so and found the bag, and the chief gave him twelve mules and twelve horses and twelve cows.
Then the mendicant went gaily home with his mules and horses and cows which he handed over to his mother without going into his adventures in detail. She rejoiced, and told him he was a capable man. And the sun of happiness shone on the mountain top and the staff of misery was washed away in the river. Or as you would say, they lived happily ever afterwards.
Lha-Mo, Rin-Chen. We Tibetans: An Intimate Picture, by a Woman of Tibet, of an Interesting and Distinctive People. Seeley Service & Co. 1926.
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