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TALES OF THE PUNJAB

So he set off to ﬁnd his fortune, and on the way he saw a tigress, licking her paw, and moaning mournfully. He was just about to run away from the terrible creature, when she called to him faintly, saying. ‘ Good lad, if you will take out this thorn for me, I shall be for ever grateful.'

‘Not I!’ answered the lad. ‘why, if I begin to

pull it out, and it pains you, you will kill me with a pat of your paw.’

‘No, no!’ cried the tigress. ‘I will turn my face to this tree, and when the pain comes I will pat it.'

To this the soldier's son agreed; so he pulled out the thorn, and when the pain came the tigress gave the tree such a blow that the trunk split all to pieces. Then she turned towards the soldier's son, and said gratefully, ‘Take this box as a reward, my son, but do not open it until you have travelled nine miles.’

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