A middle-aged man had two wives — one older, one younger — and they were rivals, deeply jealous of one another.
When he spent time with his younger wife, she would pluck the gray hairs from his head; she wanted to spite the older wife, making him look young, not old.
When he spent time with his older wife, she would pluck the dark hairs from his head; resentful of the younger wife, she wanted him to look older, not younger.
Thanks to the efforts of his two wives, the man soon had no hairs on his head: he was now bald!
Inspired by: "Between Two Wives" in Folktales from India by A. K. Ramanujan, 1991.
Notes: You can read about the Tamil people of southern India at Wikipedia. This is also found in the fables of Aesop about a man and his two mistresses; here's Caldecott's illustration for the Aesop's fable:
No comments:
Post a Comment