Note 3 — FOLK-TALES AND SONGS

The wild boar and the tiger were sworn friends. One day when they met in the jungle the wild boar said to the tiger, “My friend, let us two fight and see which will get the better of the other and which will fear the other. What will you take to protect yourself?” Then the tiger said to the boar, “I will take cane and wind it round my body,” but the boar said, “I shall smear clay all over myself.” They arranged that the fight should take place six days later. Then the boar for six days did nothing but smear clay over himself, letting it dry after each coating, and the tiger did nothing but cut lengths of cane and wind them round his body. Then when the six days were up they fell to and fought. Now whenever the tiger flew at the wild boar and bit him, all he got was a mouthful of clay, but the boar, whenever he attacked and bit the tiger, bit through a piece of cane, till he had bitten them all through one by one and killed the tiger. But when the boar was going away after his victory a thin piece of bamboo ran into him. Then he said, “I have killed the tiger. What is this doing running into me?” and seized it in his mouth. But the thin bamboo cut his tongue off so that he died on the spot.3 Then another tiger came along and saw the body and ate it. That is why nowadays tigers eat wild boars. Yet it is said that because the tiger could not beat the wild boar at first, a tiger cannot catch one now unless he bides his time and stalks it for two or three months.