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Story 122: Spider in King’s Ear Folktales
Spider in King’s Ear
Author: Anonymous
In the valley, there lived a mother and her son. Their entire livelihood depends on their son selling firewood. One day, the young man was tired from chopping wood and lay down on a stone to rest. He looked up and saw a fruit he had never seen before hanging on a tree. The young man picked it off and ate it. He felt that it was sweet and fragrant in his mouth, and he fell asleep after a while.
When he woke up, he seemed to hear two people talking in the tree. One has a sharp voice and the other has a dumb voice. The sharp voice said: “Zaka! Zaka! Brother, long time no see!” The hoarse voice said: “Our king has an earache, Gudong! Many lamas were invited to chant sutras, Gudong! A lot of ‘Domas’ were thrown on the roof, Gudong ! We hold banquets every day, Gudong!” The sharp voice said again: “Zaka! Zaka! Is the king’s illness cured? Zaka!” The hoarse voice said with a smile: “These lamas are all big ricers, Gudong ! It can only deceive the king, but it doesn’t know how to cure diseases.
Gudong! In fact, there is no disease in the king’s ears. It’s just a big spider that got into it. Gudong! Just put a big water tank next to the king and gently put it on the water tank. Tap the drum lightly, and when the spider hears the sound of the drum, it thinks it is the spring thunder, and it will crawl out; when it sees the copper vat, it thinks it has reached the water’s edge, and it will spin its web. At this time, as long as the spider silk is broken, the king’s ears will It doesn’t hurt anymore, Gudong! Gudong!”
The young man felt very strange. Why were these two people standing on the tree chatting? When I opened my eyes, I saw that there was no one on the tree, only a flower magpie and a black crow, and they were talking happily. The young man thought: “If I eat that fruit, will I be able to understand what the birds are saying? Anyway, I want to go to the city to see if what the crow says is true or false?”
The young man returned home and said to his mother, “Mom, I want to visit the city tomorrow.” Mom said, “Son, if you don’t chop wood for a day, we won’t have tsampa for a day. Why are you going to the city?” The young man said: “Mom, don’t be angry. You will know when I come back!”
The next day, he got up early, carried two tsampa balls and hurried to the city. On the way, I saw a man riding a mule in front of me, followed by a colt. The little pony ran to the border city: “Mom, grandma, wait for me!”
The mule and horse also said while running: “Little horse! Come quickly! There is an iron nail on the saddle. , It hurts grandma so much, I have to run home quickly.” The young man stopped the horseman and told him what he heard. The horseman didn’t believe it at first, so he got off the horse and opened the saddle, and sure enough there was an iron nail. The young man was also very happy because he could not only understand the words of the birds, but also the words of the animals.
After entering the city, the young man went straight to the king’s residence. When he saw that the palace door was tightly closed, he hammered it hard. After a long time, the iron door opened a finger-width gap, and the warrior shouted inside: “The king is seriously ill today, and no one will open the door.” The young man said: “Uncle, let me go and see the king’s illness! Even though I am young, I might be able to cure the king!”
The warrior took the young man to the king’s bedside. He looked at the king’s condition and found that it was indeed exactly the same as what the crow had said. He ordered his servants to set up the water jar and beat the leather drum. In less than a meal of tea, a big red spider crawled out of the king’s ear. The young man tore off the spider silk, put a little butter in the king’s ear, and stuffed it with a little wool.
The king immediately felt comfortable and all his ailments were gone. He said very happily: “Son, you were chopping firewood in the mountains. Why did you know that my ear hurts? Why did you know that there was a big spider in my ear? Where did you learn to attract spiders? Where’s the magic trick?”
The young man thought: If it was said by the crow, the king would not believe it. He said, “Two beautiful fairies told me this when I was cutting wood on the mountain.” The king was even more happy and gave him a lot of gold, silver, cloth, cattle and sheep.
The young man returned home and gave all the things the king had rewarded to his grandmother, and at the same time told the story of how he treated the king. Grandma complained: “My child, this is a good thing, why did you hide it from me?” The boy said: “Grandma, don’t you always say that you have to be reliable when doing things? Yesterday, I didn’t know whether the crow’s words would work. ?”
Narrated by: Yongzhu Dolma of the CPPCC in Shigatse
Recorded on July 10, 1979
Compiled in January 1981
