How Andare ate the Sinhalese kings sugar
Long long ago when the Sinhalese kings were ruling Sri Lanka there lived a famous court jester by the name of andare. by his many tricks and witty jests he amused the king and the queen at all times of the day he was threrfore allowed much liberty at the court.
one morning when he went to the palace he saw some sugar spread on a mat put out to dry in an inner courtyard. he pretended not to know what it was and asked the king what happend to be there at the time "what is this stuff your majesty that is on the mat?" "it is a kind of white sand andare" replied the king. "do you like to eat it?" "oh, no my lord; not so soon," said andare, and immediatly thought of a cunning plan to eat the sugar.
When he returned home that evening he told his wife and son of the sugar in the palace and his plan to eat it up. the following morning he gave some instruction to his son and set off to the palace. the king happened to be once again in the same courtyart. the sugar had been again put out to dry. they appeared on the scene with signs of great distress.
"what's the matter, my son?" asked the jesters
."Oh, father dear, father dear, our mother dear hasjust died," sobbed the lad. "and she called out to you several times before she died. oh father, what shall we do?" andare thereupon fell on his knees and, wringing his arms like a mad man, began to weep in a torrent, yelling out, "what is the use of too want to die!?" with that he rolled about on the mat gulping down handfuls of the "white sand!" little andare too followed the father's example and soon the sugar on the mat was almost over.
The king was both astonished and amused at the scene. he knew that andare had once again played him a handsome trick. "take home" he said to his jester, "what is left on the sand. place a little of it in your dead wife's mouth, and see what comes of it. perhaps she may come back to life andare !"
how this story have begun?
ReplyDelete