Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 3, 1892.djvu/531

"Life to my lord!" The wife said: "The king is out tiger-hunting. Have seen any tiger's tracks about here two or three days old?" Then the husbandman said to the tiger: "Now, what shall I do? shall I tell or not?" The tiger said: "For God's sake hide me. Who is it that is making inquiries from you?" He said: "It is the king's wazir." The tiger said: "Now hide me." The man said: "Lie down, and I'll throw a blanket over you." The tiger lay down, and the husbandman spread a blanket over him. Then he replied to the horseman: "I have not seen any tiger's tracks." The horseman said: "What is that black thing lying there under the blanket?" He replied: "It is a log of Kahír-wood which I am burning for charcoal to light my hookah with." The horseman said: "Break off a bit and give it to me to take to the king to light his hookah with." Then the husbandman said to the tiger: "Now what shall I do?" "Cut off my ear at once," said the tiger. So he cut off the tiger's ear, and presented it to his wife, who said: "Cut me off a bigger bit." Then the tiger said: "Now cut off my other ear." So he cut off the other ear and gave it her. The woman then gave him a kick, saying: "Why don't you cut more off that Kahír-log?" On this the tiger said: "Now cut off my tail." So he cut off the tail and gave it her. Then the woman said: "You are cutting too little, I am going to cut for myself I intend to cut off and take half of it." On that the tiger bolted. As he went he met a jackal, and the jackal said: "Your ears are cut off, and your tail is cut off, and you are streaming with blood as you go; what has happened to you?" The tiger answered: "The king's army fell upon me, and cut off my ears, and cut off my tail, and God only has saved my bare life!" But the jackal said: "You coward! 'tis a woman has frightened you; there is neither king nor army. Both your ears and your tail have been cut off by a woman!" The tiger replied: "Why, I saw the wazir of the army with my own eyes!" The jackal said: "That was a woman. Come, and