^128 STRANGE STORIES FROM
with such energy that the perspiration poured down his face ; and when he had cut about a bundle he went away without saying a word. The master caned him again, and then Ch'eng told him how the matter stood, at which the former became, full of admiration for his pupil's kind behaviour, and no longer prevented him from going. His brother, however, frequently urged him not to come, though without the slightest success ; and one day, when they went with a number of others to cut wood, a tiger
- rushed down from the hills upon them. The wood-cutters
hid themselves, in the greatest consternation ; and the tiger, seizing Ch'eng, ran off with him in his mouth. Ch'eng's weight caused the tiger to move slowly ; and Na, rushing after them, hacked away at the tiger's flanks with his axe. The pain only made the tiger hurry off, and in a few minutes they were out of sight. Overwhelmed with grief, Na went back to his comrades, who tried to soothe him ; but he said, " My brother was no ordinary brother, and, besides, he died for me ; why, then, should I Hve ? " Here, seizing his hatchet, he made a great chop at his own neck, upon which his companions prevented him from doing himself any more mischief. The wound, however, was over an inch deep, and blood was flowing so copiously that Na became faint, and seemed at the point of death. They then tore up their clothes, and, after having bandaged his neck, proceeded to carry him home. His stepmother cried bitterly, and cursed him, saying, " You have killed my son, and now you go and cut your neck in this make- beheve kind of way." " Don't be angry, mother," repUed Na ; "I will not live now that my brother is dead." He then threw himself on the bed ; but the pain of his wound was so great he could not sleep, and day and night he sat leaning against the wall in tears. His father, fearing that he too would die, went every now and then and gave him a little nourishment ; but his wife cursed him so for doing it, that at length Na refused all food, and in three days he died.
Now in the village where these events took place there was a magician who was employed in certain devil-work among mortals,* and Na's ghost, happening to fall in
• Ordinary devils being unable to stand for any length of time the light and life of the upper world, the souls of certain persons
