Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 4 1886.djvu/177

 FOLK-TALES OF INDIA. 169

'twas like biting on bone. Next he tried the ears, 'twas like biting on the end of a winnowing-basket. He then fastened on the flanks, 'twas like gnawing into a granary. He tiied the feet, but 'twas like biting on a mortar. He then seized on the tail, but 'twas like biting on a pestle. " There is nothing at all fit to eat here," thought he. Getting no toothsome morsels anywhere, he at last set his teeth in the hindquarters. " 'Tis like biting on soft cake," thought he. " I'v^e got a proper sort of place now in this carcass for eating a dainty bit." From that time forth he ate his way into the belly of the elephant, devoured the kidneys, the heart and other parts, drank the blood when he was thirsty, and lay down stretched at full length on his belly at bed-time.

Then this thought struck him. *' This elephant's carcass, just like a home to me, on account of its pleasant quarters, will supply me with ample food whenever I am hungry, or wish to eat. What business have I now elsewhere ? " So he stayed where he was, living in the elephant's inside, and eating, too, its flesh.

After some time had passed, through exposure to the winds of the hot season, and also through the scorching rays of the sun, the carcass dried up and shrivelled, so that the passage by which the jackal had entered became closed. There was darkness within the belly of the elephant, and to the jackal it appeared like an abode in the Lokan- tara-hell.*

As soon as the outside of the body dried up, the flesh also shrivelled up, and the blood ceased to flow. The jackal finding no exit got alarmed : hither and thither he ran, tapping and groping about in search of a way out, but he found himself fixed within the carcass of the elephant, just like a mess of meal in a cooking-pot. After some days there came a downfall of rain, which gave the carcass a soaking, caused it to swell, and to regain its natural shape. Then there appeared an opening in the hindquarters, like a little star. When the jackal perceived the aperture, he thought, '' Now I am saved.'*

between three spheres (cakkavaZas). The Lokantarika hell is a place of punish- ment partly inhabited hj 2fetas, the spirits of the departed, extremely attenuated, and resembling a dry leaf.
 * The original is " like the Lokantarika-quarters." The Lokantara is the space