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You're built to win it. Welcome to snoozecast, the podcast designed to help you fall asleep. Find us at snoozecast.com and if you enjoy our show, please share us with a friend. This episode is brought to you by Alms. Tonight we'll read part one of the story, Tears of Gold found found in, Folk Tales of the Cossies, which was compiled by Mrs. Raffy and published in 1920. The original story and the book is titled, The Blessing of the Mendequant. We first read this back in 2020. The second half of this story will air next week. The Cassie people are an indigenous ethnic tribe from India. A unique feature of the Cassie people is that they follow the matrilineal system of descent and inheritance. A mendicant is a person who relies on alms to survive, sometimes referred to as a beggar. This person is often a monk or otherwise part of a religious order. Let's get cozy.

Close your eyes. Let's get cozy.

Close your eyes. Relax your body into the softness of your bed. Now, take a few deep breaths. Once they're lived a very poor family, consisting of a father, mother, and only son, and his wife. They were poorer than any of their neighbors, and were never free from want. They seldom got a full meal, and sometimes they had to go without food for a whole day, while their clothes barely covered their bodies. No matter how hard they worked or where they went to cultivate, their crops never succeeded like the crops of their fellow farmers in the same locality, but they were good people and never grumbled or blamed the gods. Neither did they ask alms of anyone, but continued to work season after season, contented with their poor fare and their half-empty cooking pots. One day an old beggar belonging to a foreign tribe wandered into their village, begging for food at every house and for a night shelter. But nobody pitied him or gave him food. Last of all, he came to the dwelling of the poor family, where, as usual, they had not enough food to satisfy their own need. Yet when they saw the old beggar standing outside in the cold, their hearts were filled with pity. They invited him to enter, and they shared their scanty meal with him. Come, they said, we have but little to give you, it is true. But it is not right to leave a fellow man outside to starve to death. So, he lodged with them that night. It happened that the daughter-in-law was absent that night, so that the stranger saw only the parents and their son. When he was preparing to depart the next morning, the beggar spoke many words of peace and good

will to the family and blessed them solemnly, expressing his sympathy with them in their Your poverty and probation.

You have good hearts."

He said, and if not hesitated to entertain a stranger, and have shared with the poor what you yourself stood in need of. If you wish, I will show you away by which you may grow rich and prosperous. They were very glad to hear this, for their long struggle with poverty was becoming harder and harder to bear, and they responded eagerly, Show us away. Upon this, the beggar opened a small sack which he carried, and took from it a small rabbit, which he handed tenderly to the housewife saying, This little animal was given to me years ago by a holy man who told me that if I killed it and cooked its meat for my food I should grow rich. But by keeping the animal alive for many days I became so fond of it that I could not kill it. Now, I am old and weak. The day of my death cannot be far off. That my death perhaps the rabbit may fall into the hands of unscrupulous persons. So I give it to you, or worthy. Do not keep it alive as I did. Otherwise, you will not be able to kill it, and so will never reap the fruits of the virtue it possesses. When wealth comes to you, but where of its many temptations, and continue to live virtuously as at present. He also warned them not to divulge the secret to anyone outside of the family, or to let any outsiders taste of the magic meat. When they were alone, the family began to discuss the wonder of his words, spoken by the mysterious stranger about the strange animal that had been left in their possession. They determined to act on the advice of their late guest and to kill the rabbit on that very day and that the mother should stay at home from her work in the fields to cook the meat against the return of the men in the evening. Left to herself, the housewife began to paint glowing pictures of the future, when the family would cease to be in want and would have no need to labor for their food, but would possess abundance of luxuries and be the envy of all their neighbors. she abandoned herself to these idle dreams, the evil spirit of greed

entered her heart unknown to her and changed her into a hard and pitiless woman,

destroying all the generous impulses which had sustained her in all their years of poverty and made her a contented and amiable neighbor. Sometime in the afternoon, the daughter-in-law returned home and, noticing a very savoury smell coming from the cooking pot. She asked her mother-in-law pleasantly what good luck had befallen them that she had such a good dinner in preparation to her surprise. Instead of a kind and gentle answer, such as she had always received from her mother-in-law, she was answered by a torrent of abuse and told that she was not to consider herself a member of the family, or to expect a share of the dinner, which a holy man had provided for them. This unmerited unkindness hurt and vexed the younger woman, but as it is not right to contradict a mother-in-law, she refrained from making any reply and sat meekly by the fire and in silence watched the process of cooking going on. She was very hungry, having come from a long journey and knowing that there was no other food in the house except that which her mother-in-law was cooking. She determined to try and obtain a little of it, unobserved. When the elder woman left the house for a moment, she snatched a handful of meat from the pan and ate it quickly, but her mother-in-law caught her chewing and charged her with having eaten the meat. As she did not deny it, her mother-in-law began to beat her unmercifully and turned her out of doors in anger. The ill-treated woman crawled along the path by which her husband was expected to arrive and sat on the ground, weeping to wait his coming home. he arrived, he marveled to see his wife crying on the roadside, and asked her the reason for it. She was too upset to answer him for a long time. But when it last, she was able to make herself articulate. She told him all that his mother had done to her. He became very angry and said, If my mother thinks more of gaining wealth than of respecting my wife, I will leave my mother's house forever. and he strode away, taking only a brass picture for his journey. The husband and wife wandered about in the jungle for many days, living on any wild herbs or roots that they could pick up on their way, but all those days they did not see a village or a sign of a human habitation. One day they happened to come to a very dry and barren hill where they could no water, and they began to suffer from thirst. In this arid place a sun was born to them, and the young mother seemed likely to die for want of water. The husband roamed in every direction, but saw no water anywhere, until he climbed to the top of a tall tree in order to survey the country and to his joy saw in the distance a pool of clear water. He hasten down and fetched his pitcher and proceeded in the direction of the pool. The jungle was so dense that he was afraid of losing his way, so in order to improvise some sort of landmark. he tore his loincloth into narrow strips, which he hung on the bushes as he went. After a long time, he reached the pool where he quenched his thirst and was refreshed. Then he filled his pitcher to return to his languishing wife, but was tempted to take a plunge in the cool water of the pool, for he was hot and dusty from his toilsome walk. his picture on the ground and laying his clothes beside it. He plunged

into the water, intending to stay only a few minutes. Now, it happened that a great dragon called you Yachtakor lived in the pool, and he rose to the surface upon seeing the man, dragged him down to the bottom, and devoured him. the anxious wife, parched with thirst, waited expectantly for the return of her husband, but seeing no sign of him, she determined to go in search of him, so, folding her babe in the cloth, which she tied on her back.

She began to trace the path along which she had seen her husband going, and by the help of the strips of cloth on the bushes, she came at last to the spot where her husband's picture and his clothes had been left.

At signs of these, she was filled with misgivings and failing to see her husband anywhere. She began to call out his name, searching for him in all directions. There were no more strips of cloth, so she knew that he had not gone further. When you yacht a core, heard the woman calling, he came up to the surface of the pool, and, seeing she was a woman and a lone, he drew near, intending to force her into the water, for the dragon who was the most powerful of all the dragons inside the pool lost his strength whenever he stood on dry land and could then do no harm to anyone. In her confusion and fear on account of her husband, the woman did not take much notice of you, Yacht Chakor, when he came, but shouted to him to ask if he had not seen a man passing that way, to which he replied that a man had come who had been taken to the palace of the king beneath the pool.

When she heard this, she knew that they had come to the pool of Yachta-Kor, and looking more closely at the being that had approached her. She saw that he was a dragon. She knew also that you, Yachta Kor, had no strength on dry land, and she lifted her arm with a threatening gesture upon which he dived into the pool. By these tokens, the woman understood that her husband had been killed by the dragon, taking up the pitcher and his clothes, she hurried from the fatal spot and beyond the precincts of the dragon's pool and, after coming to a safe and distant part of the jungle, she threw herself down on the ground in an abandonment of grief. She cried so loud and so bitterly that her babe awoke and cried in sympathy. To her astonishment, she saw that his tears turned into lumps of gold as they fell. She knew this to be a token that the blessing of the beggar, of which her husband had spoken, had rested upon her boy by virtue of the meat she had eaten. This knowledge cheered and comforted her greatly for she felt less defenseless and lonely in the

dreary forest. After refreshing herself with water from the pitcher, she set out in search of some human habitation. And after a long search, she came at last to a large village where the chief of that region lived, who, seeing that she possessed much gold, permitted her to dwell there. The boy was named you Bobbom Doe because of the meat which is Mother Hadiddin. The two lived very happily in this village, the mother leading an industrious life, for she did not wish to depend for their living on the gold gained at the expense of her son's tears. Neither did she desire to become known that she possessed the magic power to convert his tears into gold. So she instructed her boy never to weep in public and on every occasion when he might be driven to cry. She told him to go into some secret place where nobody could witness the golden tears. And so Anges was she not to give him any avoidable cause of grief that she concealed from him, the story of her past sufferings and his father's tragic fate, and hid from sight the brass picture and the clothes she had found by the dragon's pool. You Bobbom Doe grew up a fine and comely boy, in whom his mother's heart delighted. He was strong of body and quick of intellect, so none of the village lads could compete with him, either at work or at play. Among his companions was the heir apparent of the state, a young lad about his own age, who, by reason of the many accomplishments of you Bobbom Doh, showed him great friendliness and favor, so that the widow's son was frequently invited to the chief's house and was privileged to attend many of the great state functions and courts. Thus, he unconsciously became familiar with state questions and gleaned much knowledge and wisdom so that he grew up entitled and discreet beyond many of his comrades. One day during the Hindu gambling festival of Duwali, his friend, the heir apparent, teased him to join in the game. He had no desire to indulge in any games of luck, and he was ignorant of the rules of all such games. But he did not like to offend his friend by refusing, so he went with him to the gambling field and joined in the play. At first the heir apparent, who was initiating him into the game, played for very small stakes. But to their mutual surprise, you bobbledo the novice one at every turn. The heir apparent was annoyed at the continual success of his friend. For he himself had been looked upon as the champion player at previous festivals, so thinking to taunt the spirit of you, Bobbom Doe. He challenged him to risk higher stakes, which contrary to his expectations were accepted. And again, you Bobham Doe won. They played on until it last, the heir apparent had staked and lost all his possessions. He grew so reckless that in the end he staked his own right of succession to the throne and lost. There was great excitement and commotion when it became known that the heir apparent had gambled away his birthright. People left their own games and from all parts of the field they flocked to where the two young men stood. When the heir apparent saw that the people were unanimous in blaming him for so recklessly throwing away what they considered his divine endowment. He tried to retrieve his character by abusing his opponent, taunting him with being ignorant of his father's name and calling him the unlawful son of Yuyokchakur, saying that it was by the dragon's aid, he had won all the bets of the day. This was a cruel and terrible charge from which you Bobbimdo recoiled. But as his mother had never revealed

to him her story, he was helpless in face of the taunt, to which he had no answer to He stood mute and stunned before the crowd, who, when they saw his dismay, at once concluded that the heir apparent charges were well-founded. They dragged you Bobbom Doe before the court and accused him of witchcraft before the chief and his ministers. You Bobbom Doe being naturally courageous and resourceful soon recovered himself and having absolute confidence in the justice of his cause, he appealed to the court for time to procure proofs, saying that he would give himself up to die at their hands if he failed to substantiate his claim to honor and respectability, and stating that this charge was fabricated by his opponent, who hoped to recover what he had lost in fair game.

The court were complexed by these conflicting charges,

but they were impressed by the temperate

and respectful demeanor of the young stranger,

in comparison with the flustered and rash conduct of the descendant of their own royal house. So they granted a number of days during which you, Bobbom Doe, must procure proofs of his innocence or die. You Bobbum Doe left the palace of the court.

Burning with... his innocence or die. You, Bobbum Doe, left the palace of the court, burning with shame and humiliation for the stigma that had been cast upon him and upon his mother and came sadly to his house. When his mother saw his livid face, she knew that some great calamity had fallen him and pressed him to tell her about it. But the only reply he would give to all her questions was, give me a mat on my mother, give me a mat to lie upon. Whereupon she spread a mat for him on the floor on which he threw himself down in an abandonment of grief. He wept like one that could never be consoled, and as he wept, his tears turned into gold, until the mat on which he lay was covered with lumps of gold, such as could not be counted for their number. Although the mother saw this inexhaustible wealth at her feet, she could feel no pleasure in it, owing to her anxiety for her son, who seemed likely to die of grief. at time, she succeeded in calming him, and gradually she drew forth from him the tale of the attack made upon their honor by the heir apparent. She began to upreade herself bitterly for withholding from him their history, and hastily she went to fetch her husband's clothes and the brass picture which she had concealed for so many years and bringing them to her son. She told him all that it happened to her and to his father from the day on which the

foreign beggar visited their hut to the time of their coming to their present abode.

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