The old man had the whole goat except for the tail and all that the old woman had was the tail!
Dangbo..o..o thik naki wenda Dingbo..o..o thik naki wenda... there was an old man and an old woman. They did not have any children and as they were old and could not work any longer, they did not have much to eat. They had eaten everything they had in their possession and now all they had was a fairly large goat.
One day the old man had an idea and said, “We have this goat but it is of no use to us while it lives. It would be best to eat it.”
At this the old woman asked, “How shall we kill the goat? We have never killed a goat before.”
The old man told her that he had a very good plan and so he explained, “We will pull the goat apart. You hold him by the tail and I will hold onto the horns and we will pull with all our strength and keep for ourselves whatever we get.” The old woman thought that this was a good idea and enthusiastically agreed.
So the old man held the goat by the horns and the old woman held onto its tail and at the count of three they pulled and pulled and pulled. Suddenly they fell on their backs with the portion of the goat they had each managed to pull. The old man had the whole goat except for the tail and all that the old woman had was the tail!
Every day the old woman sat swallowing her spit as she watched the old man eat the goat meat in different ways. He had fried meat, minced meat, roasted meat, and stewed meat. One day the old man gave her some bones. She decided to make a soup with the bones so she began to chop them up. Every time she chopped the bone the goat’s tail mimicked the noise. So as her knife made the tok tok sound against the chopping board the goat’s tail also cried “tok tok” from the shelf on which it was kept. This annoyed the woman and she warned, “If you do not stop imitating me, I’ll roast you in the ashes and eat you too.” But the goat’s tail continued to mimic her. She was so enraged that she finally got up in a huff and took the tail to the fire. At this the goat’s tail began to plead, saying, “Please spare me my life and I will repay you.” Surprised the woman asked how a tail could possibly do anything. But the goat’s tail begged her and she agreed that she would spare him for three days, during which time he would have to prove himself.
The goat’s tail went to a flour mill where a girl had just finished milling her wheat. She gathered and scraped all the flour from the mill stone and filled her leather bag. Then she sat down and tried to carry the bag but she could not even make it budge because the goat’s tail was hiding under the bag and pulling it back with all the energy he possessed. The girl was quite surprised because she usually had no problem carrying home such a bag. She then took out some flour and put it into another bag and tried again without any success. This time she took off her toigo or jacket, and tied knots at the ends of the sleeves and filled them up with more flour from the bag. Even then she could not carry the bag. Quite distressed the girl went home to call somebody to help her to carry home the bag. As soon as the girl went the goat’s tail picked up the bag and ran home with it. The old woman was delighted and agreed to let him live for a few more days.
The next day the goat’s tail went into the king’s pastures and selected a big bull. He killed it and took it home to the old woman who was now very happy with her goat’s tail. The goat’s tail took the tail of the bull and stuck half of it into the marsh to make is appear as if the whole bull had sunk into the marsh with only a bit of the tail sticking out. Then he rushed to the king’s palace and reported that the king’s servants had allowed his best bull to sink into the marsh. The king sent all his servants to pull out the bull. While the men tried to pull the tail out of the marsh the goat’s tail pushed it deeper into the marsh and eventually the whole tail disappeared into the marsh. The king had lost his best bull!
Now the king wanted to test his servants to see if they were really as irresponsible as the goat’s tail had accused them of being. It happened that the king had a norbu, a very precious wish-fulfilling jewel in his treasury, and he was so confident of the security of his palace that he challenged, “Anybody who can steal the jewel will get not only half my kingdom but also my daughter as his bride.”
The goat’s tail decided to try to steal the jewel, so he made elaborate plans. He got several leather bags, some boulders, and prepared tsendili, a slippery substance made of the cooked roots of a plant that grows wild. When he was ready he announced that he would come to steal the jewel. The king naturally made sure that everything was done to foil the theft. Everybody was on the alert as they waited for the thief. The goat’s tail waited and waited until everybody else was so tired of waiting that they had became sleepy. Then he slipped into the stable. All the horses were saddled and ready. He led the horses to the sheep shed and guided the sheep into the stables. He fed the guard dogs with juicy pieces of meat so that they did not attack him, and then he made them change their places with the cattle. After this he poured water onto the bundles of wood splinters that had been prepared for torches. As he climbed the wooden stairs he smeared each step with tsendili. He next went to the royal attendants who were sitting in wait but were now dozing off. The goat’s tail quietly tied stones to the ends of the kabne or ceremonial shawls of these men and covered their heads with the leather bags. When he was absolutely sure that everything had been taken care of he slipped through the chink in the wall, seized the jewel, and left the same way. As he walked through the courtyard he shouted at the top of his voice, “O king, the thief has stolen the norbu.” Then what followed was utter confusion and chaos as the attendants tried to get the leather bags off their heads, all the time muttering, “These leather bags, these leather bags.” Finally, when they managed to pull the leather bags off their heads they flung their kabne over their shoulders trying to put them in place properly. But as they flung their kabne the boulders tied to the ends of them struck each other and there were terrible moans and groans in the dark. They ran down the steps but they slipped, as the stairs were smeared with slippery tsendili and there was a pile of men at the bottom of the stairs. The torches were wet and it was impossible to light them. So in total darkness, “Release the dogs!” ordered the king, but instead of the ferocious barks the mooing of the cattle could be heard. “Onto the horses and after the thief!” But instead of the ready-saddled horses the bleating sheep scattered in all directions adding to the commotion. By this time the goat’s tail was in the safety of the old woman’s house, proudly showing the norbu to the old woman...
The next day the goat’s tail went to claim his reward. The king could not refuse so the goat’s tail took half the kingdom and the princess. When he reached home he called to the old woman to open the door. But the old woman simply responded saying, “Come by your usual way through the hole in the latch.”
The goat’s tail said, “Even if the horse would fit the saddle would not fit and even if the saddle would fit the bride would not fit.” At this the old woman rushed to open the door.
Once a year all the people of the village stopped working, put on their best clothes, and went to the village festival. It was the most important event for the village. The goat’s tail insisted that the princess should go to the festival and that he would stay home to look after the house. In the evening when the princess came home the goat’s tail asked her who in her opinion was the most beautiful girl at the festival and who was the handsomest man. At this the princess coyly replied saying that she, herself was the most beautiful girl but she could not tell the name of the handsomest man because he did not stop to talk with anybody. He just sat astride his beautifully decked horse and rode through the crowd while the crowd looked at him in admiration and awe and wondered, “Who can this man be?”
The next day the princess again went to the festival and when she came home in the evening the goat’s tail again asked her the same question. She gave the same answer as on the previous day. The next morning when the goat’s tail asked her to go to the festival again, she became very suspicious so she pretended to go but actually hid near the house and watched what the goat’s tail was up to. At about midday the goat’s tail shed its skin and out came the handsome man she had seen on the two previous days. Without a word she jumped out from her hiding place and took up the skin of the goat’s tail. Before her husband could stop her, she threw it into the fire, saying that she would no longer be humiliated as the wife of a goat’s tail. The goat’s tail was completely devastated and he sadly explained, “Tonight I would have been free of my destiny as a goat’s tail and I would have told you everything. If you had only waited a little longer.” He then told her to collect all the ashes and sprinkle them in all the rooms of the house, then in the yard and finally in the meadows and on the hillsides. When she sprinkled the ashes in the rooms they filled up with wealth, and servants rushed around ready to take their orders. Horses and hens and roosters appeared as she sprinkled the ashes in the yard. The meadows filled up with cattle as she sprinkled the ashes there. Herds of yaks appeared on the hillsides as she sprinkled the last specks of ash. As the time had not been right everything had some small defect, so the clothes had torn seams or a missing collar. The utensils had slight dents, the animals had missing tails and ears and some of the roosters even had no combs! The man looked at his new possessions and thoughtfully stated, “We can never escape our destiny.”