U Babam Doh, eager to see his mother healed, walked without halting
till he came to a dense and uninhabited part of the forest which
he thought might be the haunt of wild beasts, but he could see no
trail of tigers. He was about to return home after a fruitless hunt,
as he feared to be absent too long from his mother, when he heard
loud moans from behind a near thicket. He immediately directed his
steps towards the sound, prepared to render what assistance he could
to whoever was suffering. To his surprise he found some young tiger
cubs, one of whom had swallowed a bone, which had stuck in his throat,
and was choking him. U Babam Doh quickly made a pair of pincers from
a piece of bamboo, and soon had the bone removed. The cubs were very
thankful for the recovery of their brother, and showed their gratitude
by purring and licking U Babam Doh's hand, while the cub from whose
throat the bone was extracted crouched at his feet, declaring that
he would be his attendant for ever.
U Babam Doh took up his lota and his bow and prepared to depart, but
the cubs entreated him to stay until their mother returned, so as to
get her permission for the young tiger to follow him. So U Babam Doh
stayed with the cubs to await the return of the tigress.
Before long the muffled sound of her tread was heard approaching. As
she drew near, she sniffed the air suspiciously, and soon detected
the presence of a man in her lair. Putting herself in a fighting
attitude, she began to growl loudly, saying, "Human flesh, human
flesh"; but the cubs ran to meet her, and told her how a kind man had
saved their brother from death. Whereupon she stopped her growling,
and, like her cubs, she showed her gratitude to U Babam Doh by purring
and licking his hands.
The tigress asked him many questions, for it was a rare occurrence
for a man to wander so far into the jungle alone. On being told that
he had come in search of tigress' milk to save his mother's life, she
exclaimed eagerly that she knew of a way to give him what he wanted,
by which she could in some measure repay him for saving her cub, and
she bade him bring his lota and fill it with milk from her dugs. U
Babam Doh did as she told him, and obtained abundance of tigress'
milk, with which he hastened home to his mother, accompanied by the
tiger cub.