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The tiger of Chao-Cheng
At Chao-cheng there lived an old woman more than seventy years of age, who
had an only son. One day he went up to the hills and was eaten by a tiger, at
which his mother was so overwhelmed with grief that she hardly wished to live.
With tears and lamentations she ran and told her story to the magistrate of
the place, who laughed and asked her how she thought the law could be brought to
bear on a tiger. But the old woman would not be comforted, and at length the
magistrate lost his temper and bade her begone. Of this, however, she took no
notice; and then the magistrate, in compassion for her great age and unwilling
to resort to extremities, promised her that he would have the tiger arrested.
Even then she would not go until the warrant had been actually issued; so the
magistrate, at a loss what to do, asked his attendants which of them would
undertake the job. Upon this one of them, Li Neng, who happened to be gloriously
drunk, stepped forward and said that he would; where- upon the warrant was
immediately issued and the old woman went away.
When our friend, Li Neng, got sober, he was sorry for what he had done; but
reflecting that the whole thing was a mere trick of his master's to get rid of
the old woman's importunities, did not trouble himself much about it, handing in
the warrant as if the arrest had been made. "Not so," cried the magistrate, "you
said you could do this, and now I shall not let you off." Li Neng was at his
wits' end, and begged that he might be allowed to impress the hunters of the
district. This was conceded; so collecting together these men, he proceeded to
spend day and night among the hills in the hope of catching a tiger, and thus
making a show of having fulfilled his duty.
A month passed away, during which he received several hundred blows with the
bamboo, and at length, in despair, he betook himself to the Cheng-huang temple
in the eastern suburb, where, falling on his knees, he prayed and wept by turns.
By-and-by a tiger walked in, and Li Neng, in a great fright, thought he was
going to be eaten alive. But the tiger took no notice of anything, remaining
seated in the doorway. Li Neng then addressed the animal as follows: "O tiger,
if thou didst slay that old woman's son, suffer me to bind thee with this cord;"
and, drawing a rope from his pocket, threw it over the animal's neck. The tiger
drooped its ears, and, allowing itself to be bound, followed Li Neng to the
magistrate's office. The latter than asked it, "Did you eat the old woman's
son?" to which the tiger replied by nodding his head; whereupon the magistrate
rejoined, "That murderers should suffer death has ever been the law. Besides,
this old woman had but one son, and by killing him you took from her the sole
support of her declining years. But if now you will be as a son to her, your
crime shall be pardoned." The tiger again nodded assent, and accordingly the
magistrate gave orders that he should be released, at which the old woman was
highly incensed, thinking that the tiger ought to have paid with its life for
the destruction of her son.
Next morning, however, when she opened the door of her cottage, there lay a
dead deer before it; and the old woman, by selling the flesh and skin, was able
to purchase food. From that day this became a common event, and sometimes the
tiger would even bring her money and valuables, so that she became quite rich,
and was much better cared for than she had been even by her own son.
Consequently, she became very well-disposed to the tiger, which often came and
slept in the verandah, remaining for a whole day at a time, and giving no cause
of fear either to man or beast. In a few years the old woman died, upon which
the tiger walked in and roared its lamentations in the hall. However, with all
the money she had saved, she was able to have a splendid funeral; and while her
relatives were standing round the grave, out rushed a tiger, and sent them all
running away in fear. But the tiger merely went up to the mound, and, after
roaring like a thunder-peal, disappeared again. Then the people of that place
built a shrine in honor of the Faithful Tiger, and it remains there to this day. |
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