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SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS 



VOL. 123 



and opened the door, and the dead tigers 

 again rolled into the cave. The tiger ran to 

 ask the echo who said, "Because their minds 

 are not yet satisfied, they now want your big 

 cow." The tiger then took his cow to be 

 sacrificed to the dead. The tiger's home then 

 had nothing left, and the echo took the dead 

 tigers and sold them all. After he had sold 

 them he returned and deceived the tiger. He 

 said, "This time they are well satisfied and 

 have also again become alive. If you do not 

 believe it, you can come and see." When the 

 tiger heard that they were alive, he was very 

 happy and went with the echo to look. They 

 walked into a deep forest. There was a big 

 bees nest, and the bees were humming "ong, 

 ong, ong (oO)." The echo said to the tiger, 

 "Listen. They are alive again and thank me." 

 The tiger went down the cliff and rubbed 

 the bees nest with his hand and grasped the 

 bees nest with his paw. The bees all came 

 out and stung the tiger. The tiger then leaped 

 and wallowed around and rolled down the 

 cliff, falling into a big pool of water. The 

 tiger then died, and the echo gladly pulled out 

 the big tiger and took off his skin to wear. 



The Echo Tricked the Tiger (48) 



In very ancient times the most clever and 

 tricky of all was the echo. Every living crea- 

 ture was deceived by him. He himself 

 thought, "The most evil thing here is the 

 tiger, and, moreover, he bites the domestic 

 animals. It will be better to entice him here 

 and kill him." He then made up his mind 

 and went into the deep forest above a big 

 cliff, and took the large intestine of a cow 

 and hid it inside his trousers. Then he pulled 

 it out of his trousers and ate it as if it were 

 his own intestine. When the tiger saw this, 

 he wanted very much to eat some of the in- 

 testines of the echo. The tiger then said to 

 him, "What kind of intestines have you that 

 you can eat them every day? Please let me 

 eat a little of them." The echo replied, "If 

 I give you some to eat, in the future I will be 

 without it." The tiger said, "People say 'If 

 you lend it can be returned.' Could it be that 

 I would not repay you?" The echo said, 

 "Since you know the custom, I will lend you 

 a piece of an intestine to eat." Then the echo 

 took from inside his trousers a big piece of 

 an intestine for the tiger to eat. It was, of 

 course, very good. 



On the third day the echo went to press the 

 tiger for the return of the intestines. The 

 tiger asked, "Where are the intestines that I 

 may return them?" The echo said, "The in- 



testines are in one's abdomen. You must cer- 

 tainly take them out of your own abdomen. 

 Can it be that you did not see me take mine 

 out for you to eat?" The tiger said, "You 

 please take them out for me." The echo re- 

 plied, "Of course I am able to take them out, 

 but your anus is small and I must find 

 another way before I can take them out." The 

 tiger said, "How must it be done?" The echo 

 said, "You must dig a pit three feet deep and 

 put your head down into it (with hind 

 quarters only protruding) before I help you 

 pull it out so as to get the intestine to eat." 

 The tiger then went quickly and dug a hole. 

 When the hole was dug, he invited the echo 

 to come and help. 



The echo then went and sharpened a long 

 stick and poked it into the anus of the tiger, 

 which caused the tiger to suffer unbearable 

 pain. The tiger roared several times saying, 

 "He is killing me, he is killing me." The tiger 

 then cursed the echo saying, "You thing, let 

 me loose. I'll kill you before I am content." 



When the echo heard this bitter cry he was 

 afraid and released the tiger and ran away. 

 He ran to a stonemason and said to him, 

 "Teacher, there is trouble. The tiger has 

 come." The stonemason dared not look, but 

 ran away. The echo then picked up the 

 stonemason's hammer and began to chisel a 

 stone. At once the tiger arrived and seeing 

 that he was a stonemason he asked, "Teacher, 

 teacher, please tell me, did you see the echo or 

 not?" He replied, "He just ran past here." 

 And he asked, "Great tiger king, why are you 

 pursuing him?" The tiger then told him 

 about their exchanging and extricating the 

 intestines. The echo then had the tiger curl 

 his body, and he saw that his own stick was 

 still in the tiger's anus. Then he looked at 

 it for a moment and cried out loudly, "You 

 harmful tiger, shall I leave you alive and let 

 you injure other creatures? I am the echo." 

 With all his might he struck with the ham- 

 mer so that the tiger was as though he had 

 died and had come back to life. 



The echo then ran to a carpenter shop and 

 frightened the carpenter away. He picked up 

 the carpenter's hat and put it on, and pre- 

 tended to be a carpenter. The tiger ran up 

 to him. He deceived the tiger as before and 

 struck him again and fled. 



The echo ran to the top of a big cliff and 

 met an old man making a coffin. He fright- 

 ened the old man away and pretended to be 

 a filial son weeping and guarding the coffin. 

 When the tiger had arrived he asked, "Big 

 filial son, why are you weeping here?" He 

 replied, "Because my father died I got this 



