got up and moistened some oil cake and plastered it
over the calf; he then untied his own bullock and
made it lick the oil cake off the calf, and as the
bullock was accustomed to eat oil cake it licked it
greedily; then the oilman raised a cry, “The
bullock that turns the oil mill has given birth to
a calf.” And all the villagers collected,
and saw the bullock licking the calf and they believed
the oilman. Sona did not wake up and knew nothing
of all this, the next morning he got up and went to
untie his calf and drive it away, but the oilman would
not let him and claimed the calf as his own. Then
Sona called the villagers to come and decide the matter:
but they said that they had seen him bring no calf
to the village and he had not called any of them to
witness it, but they
had seen the bullock licking
the calf; why should the bullock lick any but its
own calf? No one ever saw a bullock lick a strange
bullock or cow and so they awarded the calf to the
oilman. Then Sona said that he would call someone
to argue the matter and he went away meaning to get
some men from the next village: but he lost his
way in the jungle and as he went along a night-jar
flew up from under his feet; he called out to it to
stay as he was in great distress, and the bird alighted
and asked what was the matter, and Sona told it his
trouble. Then the night-jar said that it would
argue the matter for him but it must have a colleague
and it told Sona to go on and ask the first living
being he met to help; so he went on and met a jackal
and the jackal agreed to help the night-jar, and they
told him to call the villagers to the edge of the jungle
and not to let them bring any dogs with them.
So Sona brought all the villagers to the jungle and
the night-jar and jackal sat side by side on a stone.
Then Sona asked the villagers whether they would let
him take away the calf or no, and they persisted in
their previous opinion. At last one man said,
“What are your advocates doing? it seems to me
that they are asleep.” And at this the
two woke up with a start and looked about them, and
the night-jar said “I have been asleep and dreamed
a dream: will you men please hear it and explain
its meaning?”
And the jackal said, “I too have had a dream,
please explain it for me. If you can explain
the meaning you shall keep the calf and, if not, the
boy shall have it.” The villagers told them
to speak and the night-jar said, “I saw two
night-jar’s eggs and one egg was sitting on
the other; no mother bird was sitting on them, tell
me what this means.” And the jackal said,
“I saw that the sea was on fire and the fishes
were all being burnt up, and I was busy eating them
and that was why I did not wake up, what is the meaning
of this dream?” And the villagers said.
“The two dreams are both alike: neither
has any meaning; an egg cannot sit on an egg, and
the sea cannot catch fire.” The jackal
said, “Why cannot it be? If you won’t
believe that water can catch fire why do you say that
a bullock gave birth to a calf? Have you ever
seen such a thing? Speak,” And they admitted
that they had never seen a bullock have a calf, but
only cows. “Then,” said the jackal,
“explain why you have given the oilman a decree.”
And they admitted that they were wrong and awarded
the calf to Sona and fined the oilman five rupees
for having deceived them.