The Brave Potter
Listen to the story part-1 here
Marguerite
Siek has chosen a very well-known Indian folktale for retelling in English.
Children and adults alike are fond of folktales, which are often amusing and
sometimes instructive.
It was dark. Thick black clouds
covered the evening sky. The thunder roared and the strong wind shook the
branches and leaves of the trees in the forest. Pit. . . pat . . . pit, drops
of rain fell. Then the lightning flashed and split the black sky with its
blinding light. Soon it was raining heavily.
An old tiger ran through the rain
looking for shelter. He was wet and cold and his cave was far away. While
hurrying to his shelter he saw an old hut. With a sigh of relief the tiger
crawled under the thatched roof and lay down by the door. Except for the sound
of the rain all was quiet. Before he could nod off, however, he heard something
heavy being dragged inside the hut. This was followed by the voice of a woman.
'Oh, how terrible this leak is!' she
complained. 'How terrible! I would rather meet a tiger in the forest than have
this leak in my house!'
'A leak?' the tiger thought. 'What
is a leak? It must be very dangerous and strong or the woman would not be more
frightened of the leak than of me. Am I not rightly called the king of the
forest? Aren't they all afraid of me? I wonder what a leak looks like . . . ?
Soon afterwards the tired tiger fell
asleep. He was suddenly awakened by an angry voice shouting in his ear. He felt
heavy blows fall upon his head and shoulders. 'You horrible beast!' a voice
screamed angrily. 'How dare you run away? How dare you make me walk about in
the middle of the night trying to find you! Be careful, one of these days I'll
kill you! Now, go home!' The old tiger shivered. 'This must be the leak who has
come out of the hut. I'd better do as he says or he will kill me.'
So the tiger allowed himself to be
bound around the neck with a thick rope. The mysterious creature then climbed
onto the tiger's back and pulled at the rope. 'Come on, head for home!' shouted
the voice. The tiger felt a sharp kick on his side. The tiger was terrified and
he ran through the dark forest. The creature pulled hard on the rope to tell
him which way to go. At the same time it scolded, cursed and kicked the poor
tiger. Soon they stopped in front of a small hut on the edge of the thick
forest. The creature climbed down from the tiger's back and bound him with an
iron chain to a nearby tree. Then he went inside the hut. The tiger could not
free himself from the chain; so he had to spend a miserable night under the
tree. Who was this creature who was able to capture such a large and dangerous
tiger? Let's find out.
On the afternoon of that day, a
potter had arrived home after a hard day's work. He was tired and thirsty. He
had asked his wife for some palm-wine. The more he drank, the better he felt.
When he had drunk all the wine he no longer felt tired. When the storm began
the potter suddenly remembered that he had left his donkey tied under a tree.
He rushed out of his hut to take the animal into the stable. You can imagine
his anger when he discovered that the donkey was not there anymore -- the only
thing left was its chain!
'My stupid donkey must have run off
into the forest,' he grumbled. 'When I catch him I'll give him a good beating! The potter walked through the wet forest. When it became dark
he often stumbled over roots and fallen branches. With each step the potter
felt angrier and angrier with his donkey.
'When
I catch him, I'll tie him up under the tree all night,' he muttered to himself.
Hours later, the potter reached the old woman's hut. There he saw an animal sleeping
in front of the door.
'There he is!' he shouted. 'There he is, the stupid animal!'
The
drunken potter did not notice the difference between the donkey and a tiger. He
kicked and beat the sleeping tiger. He then jumped onto the frightened animal's
back, rode it home, and then tied it up with the iron chain.
Next
morning the villagers who passed the potter's house looked in amazement at the
tiger tied to the tree. Soon the news spread throughout the village that the
potter had caught a tiger and tied it to a tree in his yard. All the villagers
praised his courage. They also thanked him because the tiger had eaten many of
their goats and buffaloes. They had tried to catch him for many years but had
failed. Of course, the potter said that he had done nothing of the sort. He
said that he had only brought his donkey home. He did not understand how a
donkey could change into a tiger! When he saw the tiger, he fainted.
Nobody,
however, believed the potter's story. The villagers even praised him for being
modest. Soon the potter became famous. Everybody who met him called him the
brave potter. The simple potter himself never understood why.
A
few years later war broke out between the potter's country and a much stronger
neighbour. The king immediately gathered a large army. But he realized that it
was not strong enough to save his country from defeat. He needed a hero to lead
his army. Where could he find such a brave man? The king hurriedly called his
ministers together and asked their advice. One of the ministers remembered the
story of the brave potter.
'Your
Majesty,' the minister said, 'I know someone who can lead our army.' The king
immediately sent a messenger to the potter's house. When the potter realized
that he had been made General of the Army, he became frightened. The king had
ordered him to go to the palace the next day. How could he,
a poor ignorant potter, become the General of the Army? He had never carried a
sword, nor had he ever ridden a horse.
'Oh,
I shall die because of that stupid donkey,' groaned the potter to his wife. 'He
has only brought us trouble.'
The
next day he went with his wife to the capital. The king was pleased to see him
and ordered the potter to lead the army into battle the next day. The enemy
were not far from the gates of the city. A splendid house had been prepared for
the potter and his wife. The horse which would carry him into battle was ready
in the stable.
That
night the potter could not sleep. He was nervous and worried because he did not
know how to ride a horse.
'If
I fall off, everybody will laugh at me,' he thought. 'I will get up very early
tomorrow and practice riding the horse.' At dawn the potter woke up his wife
and they went to the stable. They saw the beautiful brown horse ready for its
new master. 'Oh, how tall he is!' sighed the potter. 'I shall never be able to
climb onto his back.' ‘Put this bench beside him’, said his
wife, ‘and use it as a step.’
Even
with the help of the bench the potter had much difficulty climbing onto the
horse's back. When he was finally seated, he found that the saddle was very
slippery. 'Please tie my feet to the stirrups, dear wife,' said the potter,
'otherwise I shall certainly fall off.' His wife found some rope and bound her
husband's feet tightly to the stirrups. She then passed the rope underneath the
horse and tied the two stirrups together. She also passed a length of rope
around the potter's waist and tied him to the saddle.
'Now
please tie my hands to his neck,' said the potter. Meanwhile the big brown
horse was impatiently pawing his hooves on the ground. When the potter's wife
tried to pass another rope around its neck, the horse suddenly jumped free. It
galloped out of the stable with the potter hanging like a sack of rice on its
back. Only the ropes kept him from crashing to the ground. The potter held
tightly to the horse's neck and prayed to all the gods to save his life. After
galloping through the quiet streets, the horse crashed through the city gates
and raced across the open fields. It leapt over fences and streams, and began
to head for the enemy's camp. When the potter realized where they were going,
he tried harder than ever to stop the horse. He pulled wildly on the reins but
it was no use; the horse galloped on.
When
they passed a young tree, the potter grabbed a branch. But the horse did not
stop. Instead the tree was pulled out of the ground. A sentry from the enemy
camp saw the potter galloping towards the camp with a tree in one hand and his
reins in the other. 'That must be the General who captured a tiger with his
bare hands,' he thought. 'Now he has uprooted a tree with only one hand! He is
not an ordinary man-he's a giant!' 'Run, run, save yourselves! The famous
Tiger-General is coming at the head of a large army to attack us. He has the strength
of a giant! He has uprooted a tree with one hand!'
The
frightened soldiers fled. Their king was left by himself in his tent. Hurriedly
he wrote a letter begging for peace and apologizing for attacking the country.
He left this letter in the tent. Then he jumped on his horse and followed his
soldiers. When the potter's brown horse reached the deserted camp it stopped.
With shaking hands the potter untied his feet and fell to the ground. When he
looked around he was surprised to find the camp empty. He looked in the king's
tent and found the letter. The puzzled potter walked back to the city with the
letter in his pocket. He went to his wife and gave her the letter.
'Dear
wife,' he said, 'never in my life will I ride a horse again. Please take this
letter to our king and tell him that the enemy has run away. I am going to
bed.' His wife ran towards the palace with the letter. When the king read the
letter, he was full of praise for his new General.
He asked the potter's wife where her husband was. 'My husband is tired, Your Majesty.
The servants have put him to bed,' answered the wife respectfully. 'Let him
rest today. Tell him to come tomorrow to receive his reward,' the king said.
