The Spider Tale

Deboo

Who has made this world? Well Mahaprabhu; who else? Now who is Mahaprabhu? He is the greatest among the Gods. The Sun and the moon and the sea and the sky and the Earth and all its living things, all he made in a day or two. And finally, when all was made, he scooped up the leftover crumbs of earth and drops of water and dusts of stone and made the man out of all these. Everything he made right and then he washed his hands and went home.

But everything was not right really. After a while he remembered that unlike like the other creatures he had forgotten to give man his clothing of fur or feather. Now how would man face the rain and sun and cold winter winds?

Mahaprabhu went to his queen Pilardai and asked "Can you teach the man how to weave a cloth?"

"I do not know how to make a cloth. But my sister Charukilup knows. Go to her at Nandakuti Hills. She is a master of that art."

So Mahaprabhu climbed the steep hills and reached Charukilup's house to find her sleeping, snoring like the rolling thunders. So deep was her sleep that no amount of calling would wake her. Finally, Mahaprabhu, sprinkled some water on her face and then she woke up with an angry start. "Who's that?" she roared, "why did you wake me up?"
"Teach me the art of weaving", Mahaprabhu told.
"Oho, that’s not the art for me to teach, go to the Tingapan hills to the home of my daughter Pitmalidai Bhan, she will teach you."
So Mahaprabhu went to Pitmalidai's house and stood before her. She was busy combing her long hair with a bone brush.
"What do you want from me?" she growled.
"Teach me the art of weaving."
"Well that's easy. Here we go" said Pitmalidai, and she picked some loose hair from the comb, crushed them into a small ball, spat on it and threw it on the ground.
As soon as it touched the ground the hair ball grew eight hairy legs and started spewing threads from its belly and began weaving a b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l web. It was a spider! Pitmalidai gave it to Mahaprabhu and said, "Here, take this and give it to your men. It will teach them how to weave a cloth."
And thus the humans had learnt the art of weaving from the spider!! Not only that, the spider taught the fisherman how to weave the net. And then, armed with the help of the net, man, already the king of land, also became the master of the water world.

A Story from Orissa