Presently, a storm coming on, she took shelter in a hole in a rock where straw was littered down; so she laid herself to sleep amid the straw. But the hole was the den of a company of lions, tigers, and bears, and all manner of wild beasts; but they had a hare for watchman at the opening of the hole. At night, therefore, they all came home and laid down, but they perceived not the woman in the straw; only in the night, the woman happening to move, a straw tickled the nose of the hare. Then said the hare to a tiger who lay near him, “What was that?” But the tiger said, “We will examine into the matter when the morning light breaks.” When the morning light broke, therefore, they turned up all the straw and found the woman lying. When the tiger and the other beasts saw the woman lying in their straw, they were exceeding wroth, and would have torn her in pieces. But the hare said, “What good will it do you to tear the woman in pieces? Women are faithful and vigilant animals; give her now to me, and I will make her help me watch the cave.” So they gave her to the hare, and the hare bade her keep strict watch over the cave, and by no means let any one of any sort enter it; and he treated her well and gave her plenty of game to eat, which the wild beasts brought home to their lair.
Thus she lived in the den of the wild beasts and did the bidding of the hare. One day, however, it befell that, the memory of her husband coming over her, she said within herself, “Perhaps, now that the hinds are all dispersed, my old man may be suffering hunger; who knows!” So she took with her a good provision of game, of which the wild beasts brought in abundance, and went to the place where her husband lived. He sat as before, dividing his portions of ashes; so she threw the game she had brought down through the smoke-hole.
When she had thus provisioned him many days, he said within himself, “Who is there in heaven or earth who should thus provide for me, but only my loving wife?” So the next night he rose up and tracked her by the snow till he came to the den of the wild beasts.
When the wife saw him, she cried, “Wherefore camest thou hither? This is even a wild beasts’ lair. Behold, seeing thee they will tear thee in pieces!” But the man would not listen to her word, answering, “If they have not torn thee in pieces, neither will they tear me.” Then, when she found that he would not escape, she took him and hid him in the straw. At night, when the wild beasts came home, the hare said to the tiger, “Of a certainty I perceive the scent of some creature which was not here before;” and the tiger answered, “When morning breaks we will examine into the matter.” Accordingly, when morning broke they looked over the place, and there in the straw they found the woman’s husband. When they saw the man they were all exceedingly wroth, nor could the hare by any means restrain them that they should not tear them both in pieces. “For,” said they, “if of one comes two, of two will come four, and of four will come sixteen, and in the end we shall be outnumbered and destroyed, and our place taken from us.” So they tore them both in pieces, both the wife and her husband.
“That woman fell a sacrifice to her devotion to her husband, who deserved it not at her hand!” exclaimed the Khan.
And as he let these words escape him, the Siddhî-kür replied, “Forgetting his health, the Well-and-wise-walking Khan hath opened his lips.” And with the cry, “To escape out of this world is good!” he sped him through the air, swift out of sight.
