Folktales from Bengal

by Soham Saha

  The Fox and the Crocodile’s Children

  After getting repeatedly fooled by the fox, the crocodile thought, “The fox is very learned. That’s why he always beats me. I am going to send my seven kids to him, so they aren’t as stupid as I am. Once they are learned and smart, then I’ll show him. I will beat him in his own game.” Being thus pleased with his own reasoning, the crocodile took his seven children, and went to the fox.

  The fox was sitting in his cave, having a crab for lunch. It was all shells and had little flesh, and it was summer, so fish were hard to come by. The fox was very bored, and very hungry, when the crocodile came knocking at his door.

  “Mr. Fox, wise old Mr. Fox. Are you home?” the crocodile said.

  “And what brings you here, my friend?” the fox asked.

  “I brought my seven sons to you. Teach them what you know, so that they become as cunning and wise as you are when they grow up.”

  The fox’s mouth watered seeing the fat little crocodiles. He licked his lips, and said, “Of course, of course, what are friends for? In seven days, I will make these seven baby crocs as learned as the wisest of scholars.” Hearing this, the crocodile left, feeling very pleased with himself.

  The fox took one of the little crocodiles in a corner, and said, “Repeat after me –

  A for apple, B for bell,

  And C for a crocodile that tastes so well.”

  Then he snapped his neck off and ate him.

  The next day, the crocodile came to visit his sons. The fox tied the little crocodile’s mouths shut, so that they could not speak. Then he showed the six of them one by one, showing the last crocodile twice. The foolish crocodile did not catch the trick, and thought he had seen all his seven children.

  “But fox, why are their mouths tied?”

  “It’s so that they talk less and listen more. It’s all part of the course.”

  The crocodile left for home.

  The fox then picked the next one up and said,

  “Repeat after me – A for apple, B for bell,

  And C for crocodile that tastes so well.”

  And saying this, he gulped him down.

  The crocodile came the next day to check up on his sons. The fox showed them again; taking one out of the hole, and putting it back in before taking the other out. He showed the first four of them only once, and the fifth he showed three times. And the crocodile was none the wiser, and left happily for home again.

  Every day, the fox ate one of the little crocodiles, and fooled the crocodile the same way, until finally, only one was left.

  The wife of the fox told him, “What happens after tomorrow, when he finds out?”

  “Tomorrow is a long way ahead, my dear.” The fox replied.

  The next day, the fox showed the last crocodile seven times. But on the seventh time, the little croc snapped free of the rope that was tying his mouth, and yelled, “He ate everyone daddy. He ate them all.”

  At this, the fox and his wife ran for it. The crocodile was dazed, so he went into the cave and looked about, only to find the bones of his six sons. He was furious. He got out and chased after the fox.

  The fox and his wife stopped at the bank of a river.

  “There’s a forest on the other side. We can live there without getting caught.” they dived in.

  But the crocodile was close at their tails. He jumped into the water, and was much faster at swimming than the fox. Just as the fox was about to jump out of the water, the crocodile grabbed his hind leg.

  “Oh, no. I knew this was a bad idea,” cried the wife.

  “Relax, dear. The fool only bit onto my walking stick,” the fox assured her.

  Thinking he had really bit the fox’s walking stick, the crocodile quickly let go to get hold of his leg, and just as he let go, the fox kicked on his head and jumped out of the water.

  Days passed, and the crocodile kept on trying to catch the fox, but the fox was clever, and stayed clear of the river. The crocodile thought for a long time, and came out with a plan.

  He came out of the water, then turned over and lay on his back, pretending to be dead. The fox was out looking for food, and his wife spotted the crocodile.

  “It’s dead. Let’s go eat it.” She said.

  The fox wasn’t too sure. So he craned his neck from a safe distance, and said aloud, “I don’t think it’s dead, dear. Everyone knows when a crocodile dies its tail wags from side to side.”

  The crocodile began to wag his tail about, and the fox said, “Yeah he’s dead all right. Brain-dead.” And they trotted far away from the place. Fooled again, the crocodile gritted his teeth, “I’ll show you fox, you just wait and see.”

  There was a pond inside the forest where the fox came to drink water. The crocodile found this out, and hid in the water there. The next morning, when the fox went to the pond, he noticed that there weren’t any fish swimming about. He knew the crocodile must be around. He said aloud, “The water seems too clear today. I like it a little muddy. I better go somewhere else and take a drink. Immediately, the crocodile began to roll over and make the water muddy. The fax laughed at the crocodile again, and left.

  There was another spot in the forest where the fox went to eat crabs. The crocodile went there ahead of time to ambush him again. But the fox was too clever, and so he knew that the crocodile would be waiting for him there. He went close to the water, and said, “I don’t see anything that looks like a crab here. I better go home.” the crocodile stuck the tip of his tail out of the water and moved it about, trying to bait the fox. “Fooled you again, crocodile,” The fox yelled, and ran away.

  And thus, after repeatedly being foiled by the fox, the crocodile finally realized that it was pointless to go after such a cunning enemy. He went back home defeated and ashamed, and did not get out for a long time.

  The Fox Witness

  Once, a merchant was travelling on his horse. After travelling for a day, he got tired, and he tied the horse to a tree, and fell asleep.

  At night, he heard a strange noise and woke up, only to find that a thief was escaping with his horse.

  He exclaimed, “Hold on, brother. Where are you running off to, with my horse?”

  The thief replied angrily, “What horse? What are you talking about?”

  The merchant was astonished at this, and said, “Are you crazy? You are walking away with my horse, and you are asking me what horse?”

  The thief said, raising his voice, “Hey. This is my horse. Don’t you dare say that it’s yours.”

  “I brought the horse straight from my home. How can it be yours?” The merchant argued.

  “This is the cub of my tree I am taking with me. The tree you were sleeping under just gave birth to it. Hence it’s mine. Mind what you say, stranger, or you will be in trouble.”

  The merchant dragged the thief to the king’s court, and complained. “Your majesty, I had tied up my horse to a tree and fell asleep. And that thief was taking it away, saying it is his.”

  “He is a liar, your majesty.” The thief exclaimed. “There is no way this is his horse. My tree gave birth to it, and I saw it with my own eyes. I just tied up my tree-cub and was going to the market, when this man came to quarrel, saying that it is his horse.”

  The king scolded the merchant, “This is very unfair. His tree had a cub, and you are trying to say it is your horse. What an evil man you are. Now flee!” He let the thief keep the horse.

  Heartbroken, the merchant started to walk back home. On his way, he ran into a fox.

  “Why the long face, my man?” The fox asked.

  “What an idiot our king is,” he said. Then he told the fox his story.

  “I think I might have a solution for you,” the fox said. “Go tell the king that you have a witness, but he will only show if he has no dog about in his home.

  The merchant went to the king and said, “I have a witness, my king. But he is terribly afraid of dogs. He would come, if you get rid of your dogs.”


  After the dogs were rid of, the fox appeared. He walked slowly and in a drowsy way, with his eyes closed. When he reached the yard, he leaned on a wall, and yawned. Then he half opened his eyes.

  The king laughed at the fox’s appearance. “Oh wise fox, why are you so sleepy today?”

  He blinked at the king sleepily, and said, “Oh it’s nothing. I was awake all night yesterday, eating fishes. That’s why I can’t stay up today.”

  “And where did you get so many fishes?” The king asked.

  “The river was on fire last night. All the fishes ran ashore, and climbed up on trees. We chased them up and ate them. There were so many, that we couldn’t finish them up till it was noon.”

  Hearing this, the king laughed so hard, he rolled on the floor. When he stopped, he said, “What a foolish thing to say. How can a river catch fire, and whoever has heard of fish climbing trees?”

  The fox said, “Well if a tree can have a cub that is a horse, why would my story seem weird to you?”

  “The fox is right,” said the king. “Somebody, quick! Tie the thief up, and bring him here immediately.”

  Ten of the guards immediately caught the thief and brought him back to court.

  “Hit him fifty times with a shoe, and a hard one at that!” the kind ordered.

  After twenty five strokes of the shoe, the thief yelled, “Please, stop. I am returning his horse. Please no more.” But who would listen to him? After the fifty strokes, the king said, “Bring the horse now, or fifty more strokes it is.”

  The thief quickly brought back the horse. But his punishment was far from over. He had his head and eyebrows shaved, sour milk poured over him, and exiled from the country.

  The merchant praised the fox many times, and returned happily to his home.

  The Fox in the Elephant

  The Head elephant of the king was the largest, most beautiful creature in the kingdom. The king loved him most among all the beasts in his stable, and rode him to his daily affairs. So when this elephant died, the king was in a lot of pain.

  The king grieved for a day and a half, and then told his men to throw the corpse away. Five hundred men tied a rope around the body and dragged it to a field, where they left the elephant to rot.

  A fox lived in the forest by the field. He hadn’t had a decent meal for a long while, and was very pleased to see the dead elephant. He started to chew through the belly of the large beast, and eat and eat and eat, until he tunnelled himself deep into its body. Days passed, and he continued to eat the elephant from inside out.

  Meanwhile, the heat and the sun had been drying the elephant out, and the hole the fox had burrowed in through, had shrunk. After days of eating, the fox had become very fat. Once he stopped, he realized that he was stuck inside. He was very full, and so, couldn’t burrow his way out. So he sat there thinking, figuring out a way to get him out of this situation.

  Three farmers were passing by the corpse. The fox peeked through the tiny hole, and saw them. This gave him an idea.

  “Hey, brothers. Can you give the king a message? Tell him that if he smears fifty pitchers of ghee on my belly, I will live again.”

  “Look what the elephant is saying. Let’s go tell the king,” said the farmers.

  “O King, your dead elephant says that if you smear fifty pitchers of ghee on its belly, it will live again.”

  The king was overjoyed listening to this. “What are fifty pitchers of ghee to me if my elephant lives again? Get a thousand pitchers, and smear it all over the elephant until it lives.”

  So, a thousand milk-men delivered a thousand pitchers of ghee to the field, and two thousand men smeared it on to the elephant’s body, for seven days and nights.

  After the seventh night, the fox noticed that the elephant had softened up, and the hole in its stomach was big enough for him to crawl out of. So he called everyone and said, “Now I am going to stand up. But I feel a little nauseous, so you better steer clear of the way, or I might fall on top of you.”

  Nobody wanted to be smashed by a falling elephant. Everyone pushed each other to scramble away from the elephant. This created great chaos, and nobody was around to see if the elephant did stand up or not. Everyone had run as far from the place as possible.

  The fox realized that now was the time to run. He shot out of the hole, and ran and ran and ran, never once looking back.

  In the morning, the king returned to see the elephant, still as dead as ever, and a thousand empty pitchers gawking at the sky.

  The Fox Pups that ate Tigers

  Once, a fox and a vixen got married, and had three beautiful puppies. But they had a problem. They did not have a home to keep the children in. they looked around in the forest, and found a cave. But the cave was covered in tiger footprints. The vixen said,

  “Honey, I think this is a tiger’s den.”

  “It’s our den now, dear,” the fox replied.

  “But what will happen when the tiger gets home?”

  “We’ll see when that happens. It could be days before he returns.”

  Later that day, when the tiger returned home, they found themselves in quite a pickle. The tiger knew something was wrong when he reached the cave. He waited outside, thinking about what to do.

  “What are we going to do now?” said the vixen. “He’ll eat us all.”

  “Don’t panic. I have an idea,” said the fox.

  “It was your idea to live in this hole in the first place. Days till he returns, huh?”

  “Listen to me. Pinch the children in their belly. And when I ask why they are crying, say they want to eat a tiger.”

  The vixen started to pinch the puppies, and she pinched them real hard. The puppies cried out loud, and soon, there was a deafening uproar inside the cave.

  The fox said, in a loud and hoarse voice, “Hey, why are the kids shouting so much?”

  The vixen replied, in a hoarser voice, “They want to eat a tiger.”

  Hearing this, the tiger froze. He was beginning to get a little scared now. He began to think. What are the creatures that are living in my cave? They sound scary, and they eat tigers. The kids eat tigers! They must be monsters. Yes, that must be it. Should I run? No. I’ll wait and try to get a glimpse of what they look like. He crawled closer and closer to the cave.

  Seeing that, the fox shouted, “Again? Didn’t I feed them a couple of tigers just the other night? They’re being too greedy. The forests will soon run out of tigers at this rate.”

  The vixen pinched the puppies some more, and they cried louder than ever. “What can they do, dear? They’re but kids. They need their food to grow. Quickly, bring a tiger here, or they will never stop.”

  The fox continued in his monstrous voice, “Of all the animals in the world they had to take a liking to tigers. Where in the world will I get a tiger now? Wait. Honey! I think I see one coming. Oh, lucky day! Quick, honey. Bring me my Jhopang, and I’ll make a Bhotang out of it. Easier to digest that way.”

  The tiger did not know what a Jhopang was. Neither did he know whether Bhotang is a kind of food or seasoning. But he did not wait to find out. He jumped over a few hedges and shrubs, darted through some trees, then ran like he had never run before. Seeing the tiger disappear far into the woods, the fox said, “See honey, there was nothing to worry about.” The vixen said nothing, but gave a sigh of relief.

  The tiger was running like there was no tomorrow. A monkey saw this from the top of a tree, and was very surprised. He had never seen a tiger running with its tail between its legs.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked. “Where’s the fire?”

  The tiger stopped to catch its breath, and replied, “I… almost…got…eaten…there. Almost…made…a…Bhotang…out of me.”

  “What is the world would eat you? I think there has been some major hackle spackle somewhere.”

  “Don’t act too brave.” The tiger replied angrily. “Anyone can sit on the top of a tree and say brave words. You had to be there to know how scary tho
se monsters are.”

  “I am sure someone has made a fool out of you. If I were there, I would have seen through their trickery right away,” the monkey said wisely.

  The tiger was very angry now. “Nobody calls me a fool. I dare you to go to my cave and peek inside.”

  “Only if you carry me there on your back,” said the monkey.

  The tiger took the monkey on his back and walked towards the cave.

  The fox and the vixen had put the children to sleep, and were getting ready to go to bed themselves, when they saw the tiger coming back with a monkey sitting on his back.