So he rode on through the jungle until sundown, and there beside a pool a tiger stood roaring.
"Are you hungry?" asked the Prince. "What is the matter?"
"I am not hungry, but I have a thorn in my foot which hurts me very much," replied the tiger.
Then the Prince jumped off his horse and looked at the tiger's foot. Then he pulled out the thorn and bound some healing leaves over the wound with a piece of cloth which he tore off his turban.
Just as he was ready to mount his horse again, a tigress came crashing through the jungle.
"How nice!" she cried. "Here is a man and we can eat him."
"No, indeed," replied her husband. "He has been very good to me. He has taken a thorn out of my foot and I am grateful to him. If he wants help at any time, we must give it to him."
"We would much better eat him," grumbled the tigress, but her husband growled so in reply that she bounded off into the deep jungle.
Then the Prince asked the tiger if he could tell him the shortest way to Princess Lalun's country, and the tiger told him it was across three ranges of hills and through seven jungles.