that he had been suddenly taken very ill.  And when the tigers came up they were sorry for him and forgave him for catching no game.  The next day it was arranged that the tigress should be in wait and the jackal and the two young tigers should beat:  the tigress soon killed a fine deer.  When the others came up the tigers wanted to eat it at once, but the jackal would not let them and said that they must go to a little distance while he did puja to make the food wholesome.  The tigers obeyed and under pretence of doing puja the jackal ate up all the tit bits and then allowed the tigers to come and eat the rest.  This happened daily and the jackal lived in comfort all his days.

(6)—­The Wild Buffaloes.

There was once a man so poor that he had no land, no plough and no plough cattle:  all that he had was a pair of fine goats.  This man determined to plough with the goats, so he made a little plough and yoked the goats to it, and with it he ploughed a piece of barren upland.  Having ploughed he had no seed paddy to sow; he went to try and borrow some paddy from the neighbours, but they would lend him nothing.  Then he went and begged some paddy chaff, and a neighbour readily gave him some.  The man took the chaff and sowed it as if it had been seed.  Wonderful to relate from this chaff grew up the finest crop of paddy that ever was seen.  Day by day the man went and watched with joy his paddy grow and ripen.  One morning when he went to see it he was horrified to find that in the night wild buffaloes had come and eaten and destroyed the whole crop.  Having now no other resource the man determined to follow the wild buffaloes into the jungle:  he readily tracked them and came to a large open space where every night the wild buffaloes used to sleep.  As it was very dirty he made a broom of twigs and brushed the place clean.  At nightfall he heard the buffaloes coming back and he went and hid in a hollow tree.  When the buffaloes saw how clean their sleeping place had been made they were very pleased and wondered who had done it.  The next morning the buffaloes all went away into the jungle to graze, and the man came out of his hollow tree and again swept up the place:  the buffaloes on their return saw that the place had again been swept and decided to leave one of their number to watch and see who did this.  They left a buffalo who was lame to watch:  when the day got hot however the lame buffalo went to sleep, and the man then came out of his tree and swept up the place and hid himself again without being discovered.  So the next day the buffaloes left a blind one behind.