In a certain village there lived an old Brahmin who had three sons and
a daughter. The girl being the youngest was brought up most tenderly
and became spoilt, and so whenever she saw a beautiful boy she would
say to her parents that she must be wedded to him. Her parents were,
therefore, much put about to devise excuses for taking her away from
her youthful lovers. Thus passed on some years, till the girl was
very nearly grown up, and then the parents, fearing that they would
be driven out of their caste if they failed to dispose of her hand
in marriage before she came to the years of maturity, began to be
eager about finding a bridegroom for her.
Now near their village there lived a fierce tiger, that had attained to
great proficiency in the art of magic, and had the power of assuming
different forms. Having a great taste for Brahmin's food, the tiger
used now and then to frequent temples and other places of public
refreshment in the shape of an old famished Brahmin in order to share
the food prepared for the Brahmins. The tiger also wanted, if possible,
a Brahmin wife to take to the woods, and there to make her cook his
meals after her fashion. One day, when he was partaking of his meals
in Brahmin shape at a satra [57], he heard the talk about the Brahmin
girl who was always falling in love with every beautiful Brahmin boy.
Said he to himself, "Praised be the face that I saw first this
morning. I shall assume the shape of a Brahmin boy, and appear as
beautiful can be, and win the heart of the girl."
Next morning he accordingly became in the form of a great Sastrin
(proficient in the Ramayana) and took his seat near the ghat of the
sacred river of the village. Scattering holy ashes profusely over
his body he opened the Ramayana and began to read.
"The voice of the new Sastrin is most enchanting. Let us go and hear
him," said some women among themselves, and sat down before him to
hear him expound the great book. The girl for whom the tiger had
assumed this shape came in due time to bathe at the river, and as
soon as she saw the new Sastrin fell in love with him, and bothered
her old mother to speak to her father about him, so as not to lose
her new lover. The old woman too was delighted at the bridegroom
whom fortune had thrown in her way, and ran home to her husband,
who, when he came and saw the Sastrin, raised up his hands in praise
of the great god Mahesvara. The Sastrin was now invited to take his
meals with them, and as he had come with the express intention of
marrying the daughter, he, of course, agreed.
A grand dinner followed in honour of the Sastrin, and his host began
to question him as to his parentage, &c., to which the cunning
tiger replied that he was born in a village beyond the adjacent
wood. The Brahmin had no time to wait for further enquiries, and as
the boy was very fair he married his daughter to him the very next
day. Feasts followed for a month, during which time the bridegroom
gave every satisfaction to his new relatives, who supposed him to be
human all the while. He also did full justice to the Brahmin dishes,
and swallowed everything that was placed before him.
After the first month was over the tiger-bridegroom bethought him of
his accustomed prey, and hankered after his abode in the woods. A
change of diet for a day or two is all very well, but to renounce
his own proper food for more than a month was hard. So one day he
said to his father-in-law, "I must go back soon to my old parents,
for they will be pining at my absence. But why should we have to
bear the double expense of my coming all the way here again to take
my wife to my village? So if you will kindly let me take the girl
with me I shall take her to her future home, and hand her over to
her mother-in-law, and see that she is well taken care of."
The old Brahmin agreed to this, and replied, "My dear son-in-law,
you are her husband, and she is yours, and we now send her with you,
though it is like sending her into the wilderness with her eyes tied
up. But as we take you to be everything to her, we trust you to treat
her kindly."
The mother of the bride shed tears at the idea of having to send her
away, but nevertheless the very next day was fixed for the journey. The
old woman spent the whole day in preparing cakes and sweetmeats for
her daughter, and when the time for the journey arrived, she took care
to place in her bundles and on her head one or two margosa [58] leaves
to keep off demons. The relatives of the bride requested her husband
to allow her to rest wherever she found shade, and to eat wherever she
found water, and to this he agreed, and so they began their journey.
The boy tiger and his human wife pursued their journey for two or
three ghatikas [59] in free and pleasant conversation, when the girl
happened to see a fine pond, round which the birds were warbling their
sweet notes. She requested her husband to follow her to the water's
edge and to partake of some of the cakes and sweetmeats with her.