Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 3, 1892.djvu/532

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
524
Balochi Tales.

I'll show her to you." The tiger said: "I'll go with you, but first tie a rope round my neck and then tie it round your neck." So the jackal fastened a rope to his own neck and to the tiger's, and they went to the millet-field. The horseman perceived that the jackal was leading the tiger back, so she called out to the jackal: "O you jackal! you promised the king when you went away that you would bring him fourteen tigers, but you have brought only one, and that one earless and tailless!" On this the tiger went off as hard as he could go, dragging the jackal after him. The jackal got his head broken and his legs broken, and perished. The tiger went off earless and tailless to his own place, and the man and his wife lived happily in their millet-field.


VI.

The Four Men who made the Figure of a Woman.

Four of a king's servants were on guard one night. The first watch was a carpenter's. The carpenter thought to himself: "The night is very long; let me do something to pass the time." So he began to carve a piece of wood, and fashioned it into a woman. He made the wood into a very beautiful shape. Then his watch came to an end. The next watch fell to a Darzi. The Darzi saw the figure of a woman already made, and said to himself: "Now I shall make some clothes and put them on her." So he sewed the clothes and clothed her. When the Darzi's watch ended, the next watch was a goldsmith's. The goldsmith made jewels and dressed her in them. The next watch was a Saiyid's. The Saiyid prayed to God to give her breath, and thereupon she began to breathe. Then day dawned, and these four men began to dispute, each one claiming the woman as his own. They went before the king to have their case decided, saying: "To which of us does the woman belong?" The king said: "She is not the