As they went along they kept close together with their arrows on the string, so that the tiger which came to stalk the younger brother got no opportunity to attack; at last it showed itself at the edge of the jungle; the cattle were thrown into a turmoil and the brothers saw that it was really following them; and the elder brother was convinced that there was some reason for his brother’s fears.  So they turned the cattle back and cautiously drove them home, keeping a good look out all the way; the tiger prowled round them hiding in the bushes, sometimes in front and sometimes behind, but found no opening to attack while they for their part did not dare to shoot at it.  The tiger followed them right up to the house; but the elder brother did not leave the other for a moment nor let him go outside the door and at night he slept on the same bed with him.

The next morning he begged his brother to tell him all that had happened and explain how he knew that a tiger would seek his life on the previous day.  “Come then” said the other, “to yonder open ground.  I cannot tell you in the house;” so they went out together and then the younger told all that had happened and how his sister-in-law had ordered the Bonga to have him killed by a tiger; “I did not tell you before till my story had been put to the proof for fear that you would not believe me and would tell your wife; but now you know all.  I cannot live with you any longer; from this very day I must go and find a home elsewhere.”  “Not so” said the other, “I will not keep such a woman with me any longer; she is dangerous; I will go home now and put her to death,” and so saying he went home and killed his wife with an axe.

CLXXXIII.  Ramjit Bonga.

Once upon a time a man went out to snare quail:  he set his snares by the side of a mountain stream and then sat down under a bush to watch them.  As he waited he saw a young woman come along with her water pot under her arm to draw water from the stream.  When she got to the ghat she put down her pot and made her way up the stream towards where the snares had been set; she did not notice the hunter but went to the stump of an ebony tree near him and looking round and seeing no one she suddenly became possessed and started dancing round the ebony tree and singing some song which he could not clearly catch; and as she danced she called out “The Pig’s fat is overflowing:  brother-in-law Ramjit come here to me.”  When she called out like this the quail catcher quietly crept nearer still to her.  Although the woman repeatedly summoned him in this way the Bonga would not come out because he was aware of the presence of the onlooker; the woman however got into a passion at his non-appearance and stripping off her clothes she danced naked round the tree calling out “The Pig’s fat is overflowing:  brother-in-law Ramjit come hither at once.”  At last out of the nala appeared the bonga,