Atondido Stories
I must survive this calamity to find my death on some sea-coast."
So thought he, and this thought gave him strength of mind to
walk fast and try to find a drop of water somewhere to slake his
dry throat.
At last he succeeded; heaven threw in his way a ruined well.
He thought he could collect some water if he let down his
chombu with the string that he always carried noosed to the
neck of it. Accordingly he let it down; it went some way and
stopped, and the following words came from the well: "Oh, re-
lieve me! I am the king of tigers, dying here of hunger. For the
last three days I have had nothing. Fortune has sent you here. If
you assist me now you will find a sure help in me throughout
your life. Do not think that I am a beast of prey. When you have
become my deliverer I will never touch you. Pray, kindly lift me
up." Gangazara thought: "Shall I take him out or not? If I take
him out he may make me the first morsel of his hungry mouth.
No; that he will not do. For my father's prophecy never came un-
true. I must die on a sea coast, and not by a tiger." Thus thinking,
he asked the tiger-king to hold tight to the vessel, which he ac-
cordingly did, and he lifted him up slowly. The tiger reached the
top of the well and felt himself on safe ground. True to his word,
he did no harm to Gangazara. On the other hand, he walked
round his patron three times, and standing before him, humbly
spoke the following words: "My life-giver, my benefactor! I shall
never forget this day, when I regained my life through your kind
hands. In return for this kind assistance I pledge my oath to
stand by you in all calamities. Whenever you are in any difficul-
ty just think of me. I am there with you ready to oblige you by
all the means that I can. To tell you briefly how I came in here:
Three days ago I was roaming in yonder forest, when I saw a
goldsmith passing through it. I chased him. He, finding it
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