Turdi
The Gluttonous Wife and the Nine Thrushes
Once there was a man who brought home nine birds - thrushes - for his wife to cook. When the husband is away at work, the wife prepares and roasts the birds until they are sizzling over the fire. The husband has not yet returned, but the birds are ready to be eaten. The wife mentally divides them: four for her husband, four for her, and one left over. She decides to eat her four birds right away, as they are ready and piping hot. Then, thinking of her husband's generosity, she goes ahead and eats the fifth bird, saying to herself that her husband would certainly offer it to her. A while later, her husband is still not home. She looks at the four remaining birds, and tells herself that her husband would insist she have half - so eats two more. Then, feeling that the two remaining birds are paltry and sad on their own, she eats them as well, and sets a pot of fava beans on to boil. When her husband returns, she tells him that the greedy cat ate all nine thrushes, and gives the cat a beating; he believes her. She gives him a bowl of beans to eat, and claims that her sorrow at the loss of the fine dinner - not her full stomach - prevents her from joining him.
| Note |
|---|
|
Nishimura notes the following: Motif and Types: TMI K2137 = ATU 1741: The priest’s guest and the eaten chickens. ATU 1373: The weighed Cat. Analogues: For stories about blaming cats, etc., see: Aristophanes, The Festival of the Women; Jaḥiẓ, ‘The Tale of Abu ‘Uyaynah’, in The Book of Misers (pp.125-127); Nasreddin Hoca Monogatari, pp. 209-210, ‘Hoca once or twice…’; Rumi, The Mathnavi, vol. 5, lines 3409-3418, ‘The Story of the Flesh-eating Cat’; Kikijozu, ‘Hatsugatsuo (The First Bonito of the season)’; Rakugo ‘Neko no Sainan (The cat’s misfortune)’. For stories about blaming a guest: Fabliau MR 17, ‘Le Dit des Perdriz’; Hagen, Gesamtabenteuer, 30 ‘Der entlaufene Hasenbraten’; Pauli, Schimpf und Ernst, 364 ‘Die Kellerin het zwei gebrotne Hüner gessen’ = Grimmm’s Fairy Tales, KHM 77, ‘Das kluge Gretel’; Timoneda, The Book of After-Dinner Chit-chat and Relaxation for Travelers, 2.51 (according to Narratives from the Latin World, p. 115). Stories about giving an evasive answer: Decameron, 6.4; Timoneda, The Book of After-Dinner Chit-chat and Relaxation for Travelers, 2.45 (according to Narratives from the Latin World, p. 115). Stories in which the wife dodges her husband’s retribution by verbally substituting the neighbor’s wife or widow, and the next morning acts as if nothing had happened: see Hagen, Gesamtabenteuer, 31 ‘Der Reiher’ = Liebe, Lust und Leid, 15; Les Cent Nouvelle Nouvelle, 38. Bibliography: Hagen, Bd. III, pp. xv-xvii. Matsubara Hideichi, Western Rakugo, pp.50-56. |
| Critical Literature |
|---|
| No critical literature available |
| Turdi appears in the following versions and secondary versions |
|---|
| Turdi is narrated in the following occurrences | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
| Turdi appears in the following manuscripts |
|---|
| This inset story appears in no manuscripts of the database |