A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.
Overview
A lizard and a leopard cultivate separate plots after a quarrel, but the leopard steals the lizard’s melons and repeatedly demands exchanges whenever his own supply fails. Following a man’s advice, the lizard finally prepares for combat by repeatedly coating himself in mud and drying it. The leopard follows his mother’s advice to oil himself. In their fight the leopard scratches away only mud while the lizard wounds his back and drives him away. The lizard’s enlarged appearance is an external covering, not a permanent growth or transformation.
A boy later hears the humiliated leopard talking to himself. Fearing exposure, the leopard carries away the boy’s bed at night, but the boy escapes onto a branch. He then frightens the predator away by claiming to hold eggs of enormous lizards: those giant animals never actually appear. Parker identifies the small lizard as kaṭussā, a Calotes species locally called Bloodsucker, without describing it as blood-drinking. His North-western Province Durayā telling and the noted alternative in which the carried person is a Gamarāla remain distinct; his anecdote about his captive leopard is a personal observation, not proof of the fable’s events.
Origins & earliest records
Sri Lankan narratives collected and translated by H. Parker
Records & interpretation
Complete tale and all its printed variants/comparative notes read; relevant introduction passages on collection and translation directly read.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Village Folk-Tales of Ceylon, Volume I
No. 67, The Lizard and the Leopard, pp. 355–358 and comparative notes
Family & connections
A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.
Primary records and illustrations
Village Folk-Tales of Ceylon, Volume I
Volume I; No. 67. No. 67, The Lizard and the Leopard, pp. 355–358 and comparative notes
Complete tale with all printed comparisons and notes read. False coins and claimed giant lizards not actual creatures or magical events; mud coating not bodily growth. Historical narrator attribution retained without caste rankings.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Historical collected oral narrative translationParker, Village Folk-Tales of Ceylon I — No. 67, The Lizard and the Leopard, pp. 355–358 and comparative notesResearch access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.