The Story of 'Dhon Cholecha'

Dhon Cholecha

Once upon a time, there lived a farmer who had a small daughter named Punkhu Maicha. As ill luck would have it, her mother died when she was crawling baby. Her father took a second woman as his wife. In due course, a daughter was born to him by his second wife. The step-mother used to give the best of sweet things to eat for her own daughter, and serve rough and coarse things such as bread made of husks and bran for Punkhu Maicha. They kept one big ewe in their home and, of course, the later was in the know of the state of things in their home.

It is happened that the elder sister Punkhu Maicha was always entrusted with the work of grazing the ewe in the fields. One day as the ewe was grazing in the field, she took pity upon the sad lot of the poor maiden, and disgorging herself of the boiled rice and pulse which she had taken early in the morning, fed her with the hot things. Just at that moment her sister arrived on the scene, and seeing her elder sister taking something, pestered her by asking her again and again. ‘What are you eating?’ Though her sister tried to hush her up by saying that she was taking only some Kasu (Black Roots) dug out from the meadow, she was not satisfied and pressed on the demand that hot meal she was having. As Punkhu Maicha found that she could no longer brush aside her questions, she gave her half the portion of the share on condition that she would, on no account, divulge the secret of meal to her own mother. As she readily agreed, she was given her due share. She hastily finished up the meal, but, being crafty and cunning, she hid some grains of rice and pulse of black gram inside the crevices of her nails without the notice of Punkhu Maicha.

As soon as she reached home she unfolded the secret to her parents, “Mother, mother, the ewe fed my elder sister with such nice things” and as ocular proofs, showed them the few grains of rice and black-gram which she had cleverly concealed in the crevices of her nails. The step-mother’s anger and jealousy was easily roused up. That very night she told her husband her intention of slaughtering the ewe on the next day. The ewe easily came to know of her impending death, and the next day she told her friend Punkhu Maicha that, because the latter was careless enough to divulge the secret to her step-sister, she was going to be slaughtered that very day. Punkhu Maicha was much grieved to hear of the sad news and wept bitterly as she would have no one left in the wide world to stand by her and console her in her stark misfortune.

On hearing her lament the ewe said to her by way of consolation, “Well, my dear sister let there be no more weepings and wailings. Listen to my last instructions. I am going to be slaughtered today. When they ask you to come upstairs to have the red vermilion mark on your forehead you should pretend indisposition due to aches and pains in your stomach and back. Next, they will ask you to come upstairs, to take some oblations of flowers for the goddess, but you should not move but put  forward the same reason. Lastly when they ask you to come upstairs for clearing my bones when they have finished their dinner you should get up and go without hesitation to clear up my bones. On the spot where you throw away my bones there will spring up a big and fine “Yomari tree” (Yomari is a kind of popular sweet, made of rice-powder kneaded and shaped into a cylinder with a pointed tapering end. It is stuffed inside with a paste of black treacle and powered sesamum and baked in steam).

Punkhu Maicha remembered her last minute instructions fully well. The ewe was slaughtered before a goddess and her meat was served at the feast. All the inmates had a hearty feast except Punkhu Maicha, who lay grief-stricken in her bed. Accordingly she was called first to have the vermilion mark (Tikka) on her forehead, and then to take some oblation of flowers but each time she refused to move out of her bed on account of pain and aches in her stomach and back. When she was called to clear off the remains of bones, she readily agreed as instructed by the ewe, and went upstairs to collect the remains of the bones. She gathered them all and buried them carefully at a place not far off from her own home.

Next day a fine Yomari tree was seen springing up to a majestic height bearing forth nice Yomari sweets. Punkhu Maicha thereupon climbed up the tree and was making herself merry with as many Yomari sweets as she liked. Just, at that moment, a couple of demons came to the foot of the Yomari tree and asked her to pluck off a few sweets and throw them upon the ground whereupon she threw down a few pieces of Yomari sweets. But the demons said that they had all fallen on the refuse-heaps and hence could not be touched by them. So they requested her to come down and give the sweets herself. But as she did so she was bodily carried off by those demons and taken to their abode. The demons asked her to stay indoors and prepare O-sweets (O-sweet is a kind of salted and fried pastry made of pulverized black gram) while they themselves went out for an ablution. During their absence as she was preparing the O-sweets some good intentioned mice came out of their holes and squeaked before her saying that they had got some urgent tidings for her if she deigned to give them some of the nice O-sweets.

At first, she tried to frighten away the squeaking visitors but as it was of no avail she threw them a piece of O-sweet which they histily carried to their hole but only to appear again with their usual voice and promise of an important message for her. It was not until she had given them some six or seven O-sweets that one of them revealed the mystery of the place saying, “My dear Maicha ! My dear Maicha ! Listen then. This is an abode of the demons. They have gone out, not for purpose of ablution but for sharpening their deadly knives to take away your precious little life. So, during their absence, explore all their treasure rooms and take away as much of the precious gems and stones as you can carry and make good your escape. But listen to one thing. Before you leave this house you should spit a drop of saliva on each step of staircase leading to the exit door and place a piece of charcoal on each drop of saliva. Then you should bolt the door from outside by putting in the latch.”

Punkhu Maicha was wise enough to act up to the instructions of the mouse. She explored all the rooms, one by one, and to her surprise found heaps of gems, precious stones, gold and silver. She hastily took as much of the valuables as she could carry and after spitting a drop of saliva on each step of the staircase and placing a piece of charcoal on each drop, made for her home as fast as her legs could carry her. By and by, the demons came back with deadly knives and finding the door bolted from inside gave a thundering knock shouting at the top of their voices, “Oh Punkhu Maicha , Oh Punkhu Maicha”. But each time they shouted out her name the drop of saliva and the piece of charcoal only responded, “Oh Yes! Oh Yes!” But nobody came to open the door. They flew into a demoniacal rage and breaking open the door looked hither and thither for the girl but she was nowhere to be seen. They were greatly mortified to find that their victim had escaped out of their clutches and so they raved and frowned and swore vengeance.

Meanwhile, our Punkhu Maicha laden with her new and unexpected find, eagerly knocked at the door of her house calling at the top of her voice her father, her step-mother and her step-sister, one by one but alas! nobody came to open the door for her. They all turned a deaf ear to her shouts and cries. Her father would say, “It is the turn of your step-mother to go and open the door.” On the other hand, her step-mother would retort saying, “Well, it is the turn of your step-sister to open the door,” while the step-sister would try to avoid the trouble by saying, “It is really the turn of your father to open the door for you.” In this way every one of the inmates would have taken care of the poor girl, had she not, just in the nick of time, ejaculated. “The load is too much for me. So please open the door at once.” At the mention of the world ‘load’ the step mother’s curiosity was awakened. She therefore came down hastily and opened the door and took her upstairs. Punkhu Maicha got a sheet of cloth speared before her and, to the utter amazement of her step-mother, poured out all the precious stones and gems upon the cloth. The step-mother who had never seen such riches in all her life was delighted beyond measure, and making a show of love and affection enquired of her where and how she had managed to come by such untold riches. She then narrated the whole story of her adventure with the demons beginning from the time that she climbed up the Yomari tree. Her step-mother who had already grown jealous of her success resolved to send her own daughter on a similar adventure.

            So the next day the step-mother who was determined to enact the drama over again with her own daughter as the prospective heroine sent her to the Yomari tree with instructions to climb up the tree and await the coming of the demons. Meanwhile the demons who were thirsting for vengeance and vainly waiting for an opportunity happened to go to the Yomari tree and seeing a girl sitting there (the step-sister this time) asked her as usual to drop down a few Yomari sweets. She too threw them down a few pieces but they complained that they dropped upon the rubbish heaps, and so beckoned her to come down the tree and hand over the sweets herself. As she came down for the purpose they at once flung her upon their shoulders, and carried her off to their own abode. She was also similarly instructed to prepare the O-sweets while they themselves pretended to go out for an ablution. Again, as before, the good mice came out with their squeaks and clamoured for a portion of the nice O-sweets. She tried to frighten them away but as they did not pay heed to her threats she mercilessly pierced them with a sharp noose used for roasting meat whereupon they all took to their heels in despair without communicating to her the life saving secrets as they had done before.

            By an by, the demons came back, and as night fell, they all retired to their beds with the poor girl sleeping in the middle, and meanwhile the demons prepared a good fire in a fire pot. First, the old male demon chopped off a piece of her tender flesh, roasted it in the fire, and devoured it greedily. The poor girl would cry out in pain and agony but the old female demon would make a show of love and would say by way of consolation, “Come to my side, darling, the wicked old fellow has just pinched you and nothing else.” So saying, she would hug close, and chop off a piece of her flesh and eat it up. When she would cry again in pain and agony the old male demon would say, “Come to my side, darling. The wicked old hag has just pinched you. Do not be afraid”, and would hug her close to repeat the painful process over again. Thus between the male and the female demons the foolish girl was reduced to a mere skeleton of white bones. The demons carried away the skeleton and hung it just outside from the eaves of the window of her parents’ house without the knowledge of the inmates.

            Next day the step-mother thinking that her daughter would come back with valuable diamonds, gold and silver, was combing and dressing her hair on the roof top or terrace. But a crow was ceaselessly crowing all the while at the top of its voice, “The mother is dressing her hair while the skeleton of her daughter is hanging from outside.” She could not understand what the crow actually meant but, anyway, she did not like hoarse cry and tried to drive away. As she looked down from the terrace to drive away the crow she saw to her great remorse and grief, the skeleton of her own daughter hanging from the eaves just outside the window of her room. She beat her forehead in bitter sorrow saying, “Alas, I am undone. Oh, my darling.”