Predictor

Once upon a time there lived a farmer named Foring in a village. His wife was very selfish. They had no children. It was the month of Magha and it was drizzling. Foring got up very early in the morning and said to his wife, The sky is overcast today. I feel like eating Pitha rice cake. Can you make it for me I dont want to eat rice.

The wife said, But where is the bara dhan a sticky kind of rice to make rice cakes There is no rice in the granary.

It seems I will never get rice cakes to eat now, said the husband.

The wife said, Go out and see if anyone has pounded bara dhan in their house Ask someone for some and bring it.

The husband thought for a while and then made a plan. He wrapped a rough woolen shawl around his body and went out. Seeing that Bara rice was being threshed at the neighbours house, Foring went to his house and started talking to the neighbour about this and that. He sat there for a long time and kept talking. In the meantime the rice had been separated from its stalks. The neighbour swept the rice and kept it aside. Then Foring lay down on the heap of rice saying that he was in severe pain. The grains of Bara rice were covered with very fine ears, due to which the rice grains stuck to the shawl, which had a rough surface. Before going home, Foring turned over on the heap of rice threefour times and went home pretending to be in unbearable pain.

He reached home and swept the shawl and a basket full of Bara rice came out of it. The wife boiled them, then dried them and removed the husk from the dried grains. Then she ground the sticky rice. After cooking food, in the evening after giving food to her husband, she sat down to make puri. As it was night, Foring went to sleep. The wife prepared twelve pithas and placed them on a bamboo tray. Then she ate most of them and put the rest in a bowl. Before going to sleep, she woke her husband and said, I have prepared the pithas, but I have one condition. Whoever wakes up first in the morning will eat onethird of the pithas and whoever wakes up later will get twothirds. Foring obeyed and went to sleep.

The next morning no one was ready to get up. The sun had risen. Still both were snoring, pretending to be asleep. Finally Foring felt that he could not sleep like this, ignoring the work he had to do in the field. He had to go to the field. Seeing him wake up before her, the wife said, You will get only onethird of the pithas.

Okay, you eat twothirds, the husband said. Foring went to the kitchen and was surprised to see that there were only a few pithas there. He asked his wife, Where are the rest of the pithas So few pithas cannot be made from so much paddy

Suddenly his eyes fell on a bamboo tray hanging from the wall and there were marks of pithas on it. He counted them and found that there were many. Without saying anything to his wife, he came out and sat down. His wife brought chopped betel nut, betel leaf and sal bark in a bronze plate. While taking them, Foring recited a proverb—

Forge your future with a plough

Drive away evil spirits with a stick

Someone has eaten too many pithas

Who knows who

His wife understood the meaning hidden in those words. She felt ashamed of herself and went away from there on the pretext of taking water from the river. She found many women at the river and told them about the pithas, so that the burden on their mind would be lightened. She ended the conversation by saying that her husband was indeed a prophet. This news gradually spread throughout the village.

A villagers black cow was lost. When he did not find it even after searching for five days, he went to Foring, who by now knew that people considered him a prophet. It was a matter of coincidence that that morning he had seen the cow grazing on long grass like reed in a field behind his field. So Foring said to the man, Go behind my field. You will find your cow there. The man found his cow as soon as he went there. After that, people started talking about him everywhere that he was a prophet.

This news also reached the king. It was a matter of coincidence that the king had lost a precious gold necklace, which was worth one hundred thousand coins. The king searched for it everywhere, but the necklace was not found anywhere. When the king came to know about Foring, he called him. He was very scared that if he could not find the necklace, the king might give him the death penalty. He did not understand what to do, so leaving his fate to God, he went and presented himself before the king. The king welcomed Foring and asked his servants to welcome him. Foring was served delicious food.

The king had two queens – one was named Madoi and the other was Hadoi. Hadoi stole the necklace and hid it somewhere. Knowing that a soothsayer had come, she was very scared that she might get caught. So she went and stood near the room where Foring was sitting and eating food

and started peeping through the hole in the wall. Foring was also very scared. When he saw the cooked rice and doi curd kept in front of him, he said loudly to himself, Oh Hudoi. Eat well today. Who knows what the king will do tomorrow

When Hudoi heard this, he thought, Oh, this soothsayer has come to know that I have committed the theft. She came to him and said, O soothsayer, do not tell this secret to anyone. I will give you whatever you want.

Foring immediately understood that Hadoi was the thief. He said to the queen, I will not tell this secret to anyone,

But you bring the necklace immediately and put it in the kings jewellery box. The queen did so.

The next day the king called her and asked her to tell him the name of the thief. The soothsayer bowed his head before the king and said, I dont think your necklace has been stolen. It is kept in your jewellery box.

The king immediately called for his box. When it was opened, the necklace was kept in it. Everyone was surprised to see this. The king made Foring his courtier and honoured him with land, money and other things.

One day the king held a phoring grasshopper in his hand and then asked the soothsayer, Tell me, what is in my fist

The soothsayer understood that now his reality will be revealed to the king, so in a sad voice he said, I counted one and found the necklace by looking at the other saying hudoi. Now Foring, your life has come to an end.

The king did not know its name. He thought that by Foring he meant the grasshopper. The king released the grasshopper and gifted his royal clothes to Foring.

One day the king, hiding the blue lotus root seluk, which is eaten, in his fist, asked it, Tell me, What have I hidden in my fist The bewildered Foring mumbled, Svoragode barepoti soluku, meaning every time I somehow escape.

The king heard this as a proverb, Burepati jiluk, meaning every time I dive I find a waterlily root.

The king once again gave the soothsayer gifts of gold and silver and appointed him the royal soothsayer.