Ingenia 3 – The Trick: The Fish in the Field
This story appears within the frame of Ingenia 1 in the Reworking/Metaphrasis version of the Greek Syntipas. The lady asks the man who has collected the Wiles of Women whether he has ever heard of such a tale, and as he has not, she relates the following:
A misogynist man with a faithful and sensible wife spends all his time railing against the wickedness of women. His wife asks for moderation, asking him to criticize only those women whose actions deserve such condemnation, but the husband replies that all women are the same. She retorts that he should not say that, given that he has never met a bad woman in his life. He replies that if he were to meet a bad woman, he would cut off her nose. The wife decides that she must teach him a lesson.
One day, the husband instructs his wife to cook him some food for the midday meal, and to bring it to him when he out working in the fields. That morning, she goes out and buys some fish (mullet) from a roadside market, then returns home to cook - but does not cook the mullet. She instead prepares a meal of other dishes, and takes the food to her husband in the fields, secretly carrying the mullet as she does. On her way home, she scatters the fish across the ploughed fields. When her husband returns to the house later in the evening, he sees finds the fish all over the ground. He picks them up and takes them home. When he realises that his wife has not yet cooked supper, he gives her the fish, and orders her to cook them. The wife sets to cooking, but when the meal is ready, it is not fish. The husband demands to know what happened to the fish he brought home, but his wife pretends not to know what he is talking about. He explains that he means the fish he found lying in the field, and she gathers the all the neighbours together to witness his foolishness. He continues to insist that he found fish in the fields, but of course the neighbours think this sounds ridiculous. They believe his wife when she says he must be possessed by an evil spirit, so they tie him up so that he cannot harm anyone. He remains stubborn for three days, after which he gives in, begging for forgiveness. When his wife asks him about the fish, he pretends not to know what she is talking about. She then releases him from his bonds. She finally reveals her trick, explaining that he was right all along, but that she did this to teach him not to boast about being superior to women.
(While listening to the lady relate this story, the man had let his guard down, and drifted closer to the woman - she then shouts, and calls in the guards, as usually happens in the Ingenia narrative.)
From Nishimura's summary of the Reworking/Metaphrasis version of the Greek Syntipas.
[Added by Jane Bonsall]
Note
This story is obviously closely related to the other "Wiles of Women" stories, which are: Ingenia 1, The Trick: The Wiles of Women Collection, in which this story is embedded, which tells of a man who tries (and fails) to record examples of all of women's trickery; Ingenia 2, The Trick: Hidden Under the Throne, in which a queen challenges a merchant who aids adulterous women to demonstrate his capacity for deceit, then outdoes him; and Ingenia 4: The Fur Coat, in which a woman challenges her husband's misogynist scribe, who writes about women's wiles, into testing her capacity for creative adultery.
Nishimura notes the following:
Motif and Type: TMI J1151.1.2 = ATU 1381A Husband discredited by absurd truth. Cf. ATU1381B The Sausage Rain.
Reference stories, etc. Ser Giovanni Fiorentino, Il Pecorone, 1.2. Pentamerone, 1.4. Afanasjew, Russische Volksmärchen, 441-443 ‘Das unbeirrbare Eheweib’. Arabian Nights, Nights 393-394: ‘The Story of the Woman Who Deceived Her Husband’. Seventy Tales of a Parrot, Textus ornatior 30, Textus simplicior 21 = Schiefner, Tibetan Tales, 8 ‘Mahaushadha and Viśākhā’ = Nakhshabi, Tales of a Parrot, 19 ‘The Story of the Raja’s peacock’. Aki no Yoru no Tomo, 1.2 ‘Ushioki’.Critical Literature
Ingenia 3 appears in the following versions and secondary versions
| Has Language Of Version | Has Branch Of Tradition | Is Adapted From | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Post-Byzantine Version | Greek | Book of Sindbad |
Ingenia 3 is narrated in the following occurrences
| Narrator | Pages |
|---|---|
| Seventh Master | Post-Byzantine Version, Reworking |
Ingenia 3 appears in the following manuscripts
| Has Language | Has Siglum Of The Version Of The Seven Sages | Has Language Group Within Version |
|---|