Page:Folk Tales from Tibet (1906).djvu/105

Rh good meal himself off the deer's flesh, he said to Mrs. Jackal: "You and the children can now go to sleep; I shall go on to the roof of the den and keep a look-out for the Tiger. When I see him coming I shall rap on the roof, and you must at once wake up the children and make them begin to cry, and when I ask you what they are crying about, you must say that they are getting impatient for their supper."

Accordingly Mr. Jackal went up on the roof, while his family settled down to sleep in the snuggest corner of the Tiger's den. Shortly after Father Jackal heard a slight crackling amongst the dry leaves of the forest; and in the dim morning light he discerned the form of a great Tiger approaching his den through the tree-stems.

According to the arrangement he had made, he rapped with a loose stone upon the roof of the den, and Mrs. Jackal immediately woke up the young Jackals and made them cry.

"What are those children crying about?" called out Father Jackal.

"They are very hungry, and getting impatient for their supper," was the reply.

"Tell them they won't have long to wait now," said Father Jackal; " the Tiger will probably be home very soon, and we shall all be eating hot Tiger's meat before long."

On hearing this the Tiger was very much alarmed, and thought to himself: "What kind of strange animal can this be which has