in the eastern suburb; he fell on his knees, and prayed for help. While he was kneeling in the temple a tiger walked in, and Li Neng, in a great fright, thought he was going to be eaten alive, but the tiger took no notice of anything, as he sat near the doorway.
Li Neng then cried out to the tiger: "O tiger, if thou didst slay that old woman's son, suffer me to bind thee with this cord." And, drawing a rope from his pocket, he threw it over the animal's neck. To his great surprise, the tiger, instead of pouncing on him, drooped his ears, allowed himself to be bound, and meekly followed Li Neng to the magistrate's office. The magistrate was alarmed to see a tiger standing before him, but he asked him: "Did you eat the old woman's son?" The tiger replied by nodding its head.
"That murderers should suffer death has always been the law," announced the magistrate. "Besides, this old woman had but one son, and by killing him you took from her the sole support of her declining years. If however you will, from now on, be as a son to her, your crime shall be pardoned."
The tiger again nodded assent and accordingly the magistrate gave orders that he should be released. The old woman was very angry, thinking that the tiger ought to have paid with its life for killing her son.
Next morning, to her great surprise, when she opened the door of her cottage, there lay a dead deer. The old woman, by selling the flesh and skin, was able to purchase food. From that day on there was always something waiting for her. Sometimes the tiger would even bring her money and valuables, so that she became quite rich, and was much better cared for than she had been even when her own son was alive. She became very fond of the tiger, and she felt secure when he slept on the veranda. He often stayed near the house for a whole day at a time, and gave no cause of fear either to man or beast.
In a few years the old woman died. While the friends were assembled in the great hall of her new house, the tiger walked in and roared its lamentations, then walked quietly away. The next day while her relatives were standing round the grave, out rushed the tiger again, but this time the mourners, who did not know him, ran away in fear. But the tiger merely went up to the burial mound, and, after roaring like a clap of thunder, disappeared into the forest and was never seen again.
Then the people of that place built a shrine in honor of the Faithful Tiger, and it remains there to this day.
The Story or the Fairy Boat
Central China
Once upon a time there was a little boy whose name was Ho Lai. But little Ho Lai did not have a mother; he had only a cruel stepmother who was very horrid to him. Every day she sent him out with a basket on his arm to gather up frogs.
One day Ho Lai went out to the fields as usual, but while he was hunting frogs to appease his cruel stepmother, he came across a bag filled with coins. Not knowing to whom the money belonged, the boy decided to sit down and guard the bag, in hopes that the owner would return to claim it.
Nearly all day he sat there and watched. At last a man appeared, hunting for his lost money. He was so pleased to discover that Ho Lai had kept it for him that he offered the boy half the bag's contents. But little Ho Lai said that he did not wish for a reward, as he had done no more than his duty.
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