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MAY, 1885.]
FOLKLORE IN SOUTHERN INDIA.
137
Following the road described by their sister in her letter by the crow, they walked on and on till they reached the tiger's house.
The sister, overjoyed to see her brothers again, ran out at once to welcome them. "My dearest brothers, I am so glad to see that you have come here to relieve me after all, but the time for the tiger's coming home is approaching, so hide yourselves in the loft, and wait till he is gone." So saying she helped her brothers to ascend into the loft. . By this time the tiger returned, and perceived the presence of human beings by the peculiar smell. He asked his wife whether any one had come to their house. She said, "No." But when the brothers, who with their trophies of the waythe ass, the ant, and so on-were sitting upon the loft, saw the tiger dallying with their sister they were greatly frightened ; so much so that the youngest through fear began to make water, and, as he had drank & great quantity of water from the pond, he flooded the whole room. The other two also followed his example, and thus there was a deluge in the tiger's honse.
"What is all this P" said the terrified tiger to his wife.
"Nothing," said she," but the urine of your brothers-in-law. They came here a watch ago, and as soon as you have finished your meals, they want to see you."
"Can my brothers-in-law make all this water P" thonght the tiger to himself.
He then asked them to speak to him, whereon the youngest brother put the ant which he had in his hand into the ear of the ass, and as soon as the latter was bitten, it began to bawl out most horribly.
“How is it that your brothers have such a hoarse voice P" said the tiger to his wife.
He next asked them to show their legs. Taking courage at the stupidity of the tiger on the two former occasions, the eldest brother now stretched out the palmyra tree.
"By my father, I have never seen such a leg," said the tiger, and asked his brothers-in-law to show their bellies. The second brother now showed the tub, at which the tiger shuddered, and saying, "such a lot of urine, such a harsh voice, ko stout a leg and such a belly, truly I
have never heard of such persons as these !" he ran away.
It was already dark, and the brothers, wishing to take advantage of the tiger's terror, prepared to return home with their sister at once. They ate up what little food she had, and ordered her to start. Fortunately for her her tiger-child was asleep. So she tore it into two pieces and suspended them over the hearth, and, thus getting rid of the child, she ran off with her brothers towards home.
Before leaving she bolted the front door from inside, and went out at the back of the house. As soon as the pieces of the cub, which were hung up over the hearth, began to roast they dripped, which made the fire hiss and sputter; and when the tiger returned at about midnight, he found the door shut and heard the hissing of the fire, which he mistook for the noise of cooking muffins."
"I see!" said he to himself," how very conning you are! you have bolted the door and are cooking muffins for your brothers! Let us see if we can't get your muffins." So saying he went round to the back door and entered his house, and was greatly perplexed to find his cub torn in two and being roasted, his house deserted by his Brahman wife, and his property plundered! For his wife, before leaving, had taken with her as much of the tiger's 'property as she could conveniently carry.
The tiger now discovered all the treachery of his wife, and his heart grieved for the loss of his son, that was now no more. He determined to be revenged on his wife, and to bring her back into the wood, and there tear her into many pieces in place of only two. But how to bring her back? He assumed his original shape of & young bridegroom, making, of course, due allowance for the number of years that had passed since his marriage, and next morning went to his father-in-law's house. His bro. thers-in-law and his wife saw from a distance the deceitful form he had assumed and devised means to kill him. Meanwhile the tiger Brahman approached his father-inlaw's house, and the old people weloomed him. The younger ones too ran here and there to bring provisions to feed him sumptuously, and
HA'watoh' is a ydma, or three hours.
• Tamil, tosai
