Page:Chinese Merry Tales (1909).djvu/62

Chinese Merry Tales to give him some difficult work to do. He said : " Your nickname is Great Pon. If by your boasting you can scare away a tiger, I will then regard you as my teacher." The Great Poa replied: "There is nothing difficult in that; if you do not believe it, we'll go immediately in search of a tiger." While they were saying this, they both entered a mountain fastness to find the tiger's lair. The Small Pon said : " This is the place where the tigers and leopards wander about. You wait here for the tiger, while I go up the hill and see what tactics you will use." The Great Pon, who was leaning against a tree, sat down. Suddenly a tiger came roaring and running toward him. The Great Pon hurriedly pulled from behind him a willow twig and held it in his hand, then commenced boasting thus : " I have just eaten a leopard and then a tiger, but the tiger's meat was tough, and it stuck in my teeth." While he was talking, he took the willow twig and pretended to pick his teeth. When the tiger observed this, he at once ran away and met a monkey. The tiger said : " There is a very fierce man who ate a leopard and a tiger. He is at the willow there picking his teeth. How dare I attack him. I was afraid that he would eat me." The monkey replied: "You have no courage; let me go with you to see what kind of a man he is really like." The tiger said : " I would not trust myself; you must go with me. You must be tied to my back." The monkey consented to this. The tiger had the monkey tied up and the monkey rode on his back. They reached the presence of the " Great Pon." When the " Great Pon " saw them, he commenced rating them in a loud voice : " You falsehood-spreading monkey. Yesterday I caught you and would have eaten you, but you sorrowfully begged me and promised to bring me two tigers and two leopards for my breakfast. Who would have thought late as it is you've presented me with only a thin wild cat as a substitute." When the tiger heard these words he said : " It is all up with