had not been seen; so the tigress returned
disappointed. The prince stayed with the old people and worked on
their land. One day as he was ploughing, the tigress came and killed
one of the bullocks that were drawing the plough. The prince at once
ran to the house to fetch his bow and arrow that he might kill the
tigress. When he returned, he found that several tigers were sucking
the blood of the bullock and with them a wild boar. He shot an arrow
which wounded the boar. The boar maddened by the pain turned on the
tigers and killed them all; including the tigress which had killed
the Raja's sons.

The prince then being no longer in danger from the tigress returned
to his father's palace.

(22)--The Cunning Potter.

Once upon a time there lived at the gate of a Raja's palace a Potter
who had a pretty wife. The Raja fell in love with the Potter's wife
and schemed to get rid of the husband. He could not bring himself to
commit a cold blooded murder, but he tried to accomplish his object
indirectly by setting the Potter impossible tasks which he was to
accomplish on pain of death. The Raja accordingly sent for the Potter
and ordered him to bring him the heads of twenty-four jackals.

The Potter went away to the jungle and began to dig a large hole
in the side of a hill. A jackal presently came by and stopped to
ask why he was digging the hole. The Potter said that it was going
to rain fire from heaven, and that every one who had not such a
shelter would be burnt. At this the jackal became very frightened;
the Potter thereupon said that he was so sorry for them that he
would allow the jackal and his friends to share the hole which he was
digging. The jackal gratefully ran away and returned with a number
of other jackals. They all went into the hole and the Potter closed
the entrance. After a time the Potter looked out and said that the
fire was over; he then stationed himself at the mouth of the hole and
as the jackals came out he cut off their heads with a knife; in this
away he beheaded twenty-three jackals; but the last jackal saw what
was happening and dodged the knife and escaped. The Potter took the
twenty-three heads to the Raja; but the Raja pretended to be angry
and said that if the Potter did not at once procure a twenty-fourth
head, he would be beheaded himself. The Potter took a pot of _gur_
and went to a pool of water which lay in the direction in which the
twenty-fourth jackal had fled. Smearing his