Читать книгу Favorite Children's Stories from China & Tibet - Lotta Carswell-Hume - Страница 10

The Tiger in Court

Southwest China

Once upon a time there lived an old woman more than seventy years old, who had an only son. One day he went up to the hills and was eaten by a tiger. His mother was so overwhelmed with grief that she couldn't bear to live without him. She ran and told her story to the magistrate of the district, 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. She took no notice of what he said. Then the magistrate, in compassion for her great age, promised her that he would have the tiger arrested. Even then she would not go until the warrant had actually been issued; so the magistrate, at a loss of what to do, asked his attendants which of them would undertake the job of capturing the tiger and arresting him.

One attendant, Li Neng, who happened to be gloriously drunk, stepped forward and said that he would; so the warrant was immediately issued and the old woman went away to her home.

When Li Neng got sober, he was sorry for what he had promised; but since he thought the whole thing was probably a mere trick of his master's to get rid of the old woman, he did not trouble himself much about it. He went to the court and handed in the warrant as if the arrest had been made.

"Not so," cried the magistrate, "you said you could arrest the tiger, and now I shall not let you off."

Li Neng was at his wits' end, and begged that he might be allowed to ask the help of the hunters of the district. This was granted; so collecting together these men, he spent days and nights 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 for not bringing in the tiger.

At length, in despair, he went to the Cheng-huang temple in the eastern suburb; he fell on his knees, and prayed for help. While he was kneeling in the temple 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, as he sat near the doorway.

Li Neng then cried out to the tiger: "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, he threw it over the animal's neck. To his great surprise, the tiger, instead of pouncing on him, drooped his ears, allowed himself to be bound, and meekly followed Li Neng to the magistrate's office. The magistrate was alarmed to see a tiger standing before him, but he asked him: "Did you eat the old woman's son?" The tiger replied by nodding its head.

"That murderers should suffer death has always been the law," announced the magistrate. "Besides, this old woman had but one son, and by killing him you took from her the sole support of her declining years. If however you will, from now on, 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. The old woman was very angry, thinking that the tiger ought to have paid with its life for killing her son.

Next morning, to her great surprise, when she opened the door of her cottage, there lay a dead deer. The old woman, by selling the flesh and skin, was able to purchase food. From that day on there was always something waiting for her. 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 when her own son was alive. She became very fond of the tiger, and she felt secure when he slept on the veranda. He often stayed near the house for a whole day at a time, and gave no cause of fear either to man or beast.

In a few years the old woman died. While the friends were assembled in the great hall of her new house, the tiger walked in and roared its lamentations, then walked quietly away. The next day while her relatives were standing round the grave, out rushed the tiger again, but this time the mourners, who did not know him, ran away in fear. But the tiger merely went up to the burial mound, and, after roaring like a clap of thunder, disappeared into the forest and was never seen again.

Then the people of that place built a shrine in honor of the Faithful Tiger, and it remains there to this day.