This made her afraid, so she pursued her journey in silence until she
saw another pond, when she asked the same question of her husband,
who replied in the same tone.
Now she was very hungry, and not liking her husband's tone, which
she found had greatly changed ever since they had entered the woods,
said to him,
"Show me your original shape."
No sooner were these words uttered than her husband's form changed
from that of a man. Four legs, striped skin, a long tail, and a
tiger's face came over him suddenly and, horror of horrors! a tiger
and not a man stood before her! Nor were her fears stilled when the
tiger in human voice began as follows:--
"Know henceforth that I, your husband, am a tiger--this very tiger
that now speaks to you. If you have any regard for your life you must
obey all my orders implicitly, for I can speak to you in human voice,
and understand what you say. In a couple of ghatikas we shall reach
my home, of which you will become the mistress. In the front of my
house you will see half-a-dozen tubs, each of which you must fill up
daily with some dish or other, cooked in your own way. I shall take
care to supply you with all the provisions you want." So saying the
tiger slowly conducted her to his house.
The misery of the girl may more be imagined than described, for if
she were to object she would be put to death. So, weeping all the
way, she reached her husband's house. Leaving her there he went out
and returned with several pumpkins and some flesh, of which she soon
prepared a curry and gave it to her husband. He went out again after
this and returned in the evening with several vegetables and some
more flesh, and gave her an order:--
"Every morning I shall go out in search of provisions and prey,
and bring something with me on my return; you must keep cooked for
me whatever I leave in the house."
So next morning as soon as the tiger had gone away she cooked
everything left in the house and filled all the tubs with food. At
the tenth ghatika the tiger returned and growled out,
"I smell a man! I smell a woman in my wood." And his wife for very
fear shut herself up in the house.
As soon as the tiger had satisfied his appetite he told her to open
the door, which she did, and they talked together for a time, after
which the tiger rested awhile, and then went out hunting again. Thus
passed many a day, till the tiger's Brahmin wife had a son, which
also turned out to be only a tiger.
One day, after the tiger had gone out to the woods, his wife was
crying all alone in the house, when a crow happened to peck at some
rice that was scattered near her, and seeing the girl crying, began
to shed tears.
"Can you assist me?" asked the girl.
"Yes," said the crow.
So she brought out a palmyra leaf and wrote on it with an iron nail
all her sufferings in the wood, and requested her brothers to come
and relieve her. This palmyra leaf she tied to the neck of the crow,
which, seeming to understand her thoughts, flew to her village and
sat down before one of her brothers. He untied the leaf and read the
contents of the letter and told them to his other brothers. All the
three then started for the wood, asking their mother to give them
something to eat on the way. She had not enough rice for the three,
so she made a big ball of clay and stuck it over with what rice she
had, so as to make it look like a ball of rice. This she gave to the
brothers to eat on their way, and started them off to the woods.
They had not proceeded long before they espied an ass. The youngest,
who was of a playful disposition, wished to take the ass with him. The
two elder brothers objected to this for a time, but in the end they
allowed him to have his own way. Further on they saw an ant, which
the middle brother took with him. Near the ant there was a big palmyra
tree lying on the ground, which the eldest took with him to keep off
the tiger.
The sun was now high in the horizon and the three brothers became very
hungry. So they sat down near a tank and opened the bundle containing
the ball of rice. To their utter disappointment they found it to be
all clay, but being extremely hungry they drank all the water in the
pond and continued their journey. On leaving the tank they found a big
iron tub belonging to the washerman of the adjacent village. This they
took also with them in addition to the ass, the ant, and the palmyra
tree. Following the road described by their sister in her letter sent
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 way--the 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 quake,
and they all fell on the floor.
"What is all this?" said the terrified tiger to his wife.
"Nothing," said she, "but your brothers-in-law. They came here a watch
[60] ago, and as soon as you have finished your meals they want to
see you."
"How can my brothers-in-law be such cowards," thought 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?" said the
tiger to his wife.
He next asked them to show him 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 harsh voice, so 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. [61]
"I see," said he to himself, "how very cunning 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 Brahmin 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 a 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
brothers-in-law and his wife saw from a distance the deceitful form
he had assumed, and devised means to kill him. Meanwhile the tiger
Brahmin approached his father-in-law's house, and the old people
welcomed him. The younger ones too ran here and there to bring
provisions to feed him sumptuously, and the tiger was highly pleased
at the hospitable way in which he was received.
There was a ruined well at the back of the house, and the eldest of
the brothers placed some thin sticks across its mouth, over which
he spread a fine mat. Now it is usual to ask guests to have an oil
bath before dinner, and so his three brothers-in-law requested the
tiger to take his seat on the fine mat for his bath. As soon as he
sat on it, the thin sticks being unable to bear his weight, gave way,
and down fell the cunning tiger with a heavy crash! The well was at
once filled in with stones and other rubbish, and thus the tiger was
effectually prevented from doing any more mischief.
But the Brahmin girl, in memory of her having married a tiger, raised
a pillar over the well and planted a tulasi [62] shrub on the top of
it. Morning and evening, for the rest of her life, she used to smear
the pillar with sacred cowdung, and water the tulasi shrub.
This story is told to explain the Tamil proverb, "Summa irukkiraya,
suruvattai kattattuma," which means--
"Be quiet, or I shall show you my original shape."