In the courtyard of the palace everything had been made ready for the fight. Seats had been prepared behind a barrier for the King and his nobles, whilst the roofs and the windows were crowded with hundreds of people who had come to see the show. At one end of the enclosure the King’s great tusker stood ready, still chained by the leg; and the Boy, with the Mouse in his sleeve, took up his stand at the other end of the arena, face to face with the angry Elephant.
At a given signal the Elephant’s chain was loosed, and with a bellow of rage he rushed towards where the Boy was standing. As he came on, holding his trunk high in the air, the little Mouse jumped to the ground and ran to meet him. The Elephant caught sight of this small object, and stopped for a moment to see what it was, and the Mouse hopped on to his foot. The Elephant at once put down his trunk to feel what was there, and in a twinkling the Mouse jumped into the open end of the trunk, and scuttled up it as fast as she could till she reached the head. She soon found herself inside the Elephant’s brain, and there she ran round and round, smearing poison all over the brain of the great beast.
The Elephant, not knowing what had happened, rushed round the arena, bellowing with rage and pain, and smashing everything within reach of his trunk. But [[75]]presently, the poison taking effect, he fell to the ground stone dead, and the Boy, pulling the string which was attached to the Mouse’s tail, guided her out of the Elephant’s trunk till she reached the open air.
The King could no longer hesitate to fulfil his promise to the Boy, so he gave him his daughter in marriage, and presented him with half his kingdom. And on the King’s death the Boy succeeded to the kingdom, and he and his mother lived happily ever afterwards. [[76]]
STORY No. XIII.
THE JACKALS AND THE TIGER.
Once upon a time there was a family of Jackals, consisting of a Father, Mother, and five young ones. After living for some time very comfortably near a large village, they found that the dogs of the village were becoming so numerous and so troublesome that they considered it necessary to change their place of abode. So one fine evening they started off and travelled away across the country, keeping a sharp look-out for some desirable spot in which they might settle down.
After a while they came to the edge of a forest, and having travelled for some little distance into the thickest part of the wood, they arrived all of a sudden at a Tiger’s den. The young Jackals were a good deal frightened at the smell of the Tiger’s den, but Father Jackal reassured them, and said that he thoroughly understood Tigers, and knew how to deal with them. So he went forward alone, and, peeping in, he found that the Tiger was out, but that he had left a large quantity of deer’s flesh lying in one corner, which apparently he had not had time to consume. So he called Mrs. Jackal and the children, and told them to go inside and to have a good feed, and to make themselves quite comfortable. After making a [[77]]good meal himself off the deer’s flesh, he said to Mrs. Jackal:
“You and the children can now go to sleep; I shall go on to the roof of the den and keep a look-out for the Tiger. When I see him coming I shall rap on the roof, and you must at once wake up the children and make them begin to cry, and when I ask you what they are crying about, you must say that they are getting impatient for their supper.”