Page:Santal Folk Tales.djvu/62

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A BELLE OF OLD FORT SUMNER

The tiger as he ran encountered a jackal who exclaimed, "Ho! Ho! uncle, where are you off to, at such a break-neck pace ?" The tiger replied, " I am going in this direction. A mite kept me awake all night, I am fleeing through fear of him." The jackal then said, "It is very strange, uncle, that you did not vanquish him. We eat such as he. Tell me where he is, and I shall soon snap him up." The tiger said, "He is over in the direction of those rice fields, asleep somewhere." The jackal then Went in search of him, and soon found him asleep in the shade of a ridge of a rice field. He then went all round him reconnoitring, and when he had completed the circuit exclaimed, "The tiger said he was a mite, but he turns out to be of immense size, I cannot eat him all myself. I will gather my friends together to assist me, and then we shall devour him in no time." So he sat down with his back towards the sleeping thief, so near that his tail touched his neck, and began to yell as only a hungry jackal can. The noise awoke the sleeper, and seeing the jackal sitting so near to him, he quietly caught him by the tail, and springing on to his feet swung him round and round above his head, and then flung him from him. The jackal was severely stunned, but picking himself up, fled as fast as his legs could carry him. After he had gone some little distance he met a bear, who said, "Where away in such hot haste." He made answer, "Uh! What can I tell you more than that that barren tiger grossly deceived me. He told me he was a mite, I went to see him and found he was a ghur pank,* and without doubt he ghur panked me." The bear then said, " Oh ! I'll eat him. Tell me where he is," The jackal said, "You will find him over in these rice fields." So the bear went to find him and eat him. When still some distance off he spied him laying asleep, and was greatly delighted, exclaiming, "My belly will be swollen with eating him before long." The thief

  • Ghur pank is a phrase used by ploughmen when turning their bullocks at the end of a furrow.
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