122 THE FOLK-TALES OF INDONESIA AND INDO-CHINA. 



eaten by the other. Tiger succeeded, but when he wanted to 

 claim the penalty, mouse-deer poured molasses down the ele- 

 phant's back, told him to trumpet as if in pain and standing on 

 his back made believe to gnaw him. The tiger fled in terror, till 

 the ape told him it was only a mouse-deer; but the mouse-deer 

 made tiger flee once more by crying " Why did you not bring two 

 tigers, ape, for my meal instead of one ? " Both in my collection 

 and in Klinkerfs Hikayat betel juice is used by the mouse-deer 

 to simulate blood. 



Another Malay mouse-deer tale finds its parallel in Mon (or 

 Taking) folk-lore, where, according to the translator a " squirrel iy 

 takes the place of the mouse-deer. Skeat calls the Malay tale, 

 " The tiger gets his deserts." There is the same tale, with the 

 variation that a fallen tree takes the place of the trap and buffaloes 

 the place of the man and crocodile the place of tiger, in my tales 

 in Journal No. 45 and in Dussek's " Hikayat Kanchil " in the 

 book Hikayat Pelandok. The Mon tale has even the same literary 

 device as the Malay story wherein a road, a tree, a sleeping-mat 

 and a dish-cover are severally consulted on the question of altruism 

 — vide p. 12 Malay Literature, Part II, and p. 2 Hikayat Pelan- 

 dok. The Mon tale has been recorded by Stewart on p. 49, Vol. 

 IV, Part I (April 1914) of the Journal of the Burma Research 

 Society : — 



" Long ago, a man went to the forest and found a tiger caught 



in a trap. ' Set me free ' the tiger called to him, c lord of 



benefits/ 



' If I set you free, am I safe from you ? "Will you eat me ? ' 

 ' I will not eat you. Do but set me free.' So the man went 



and released the tiger and the tiger said, ' I've long been without 



food and now I am going to eat you.' 



' It is not fit that you should eat the man who set you free. 

 But let us go and hear the judgment of the Dewatas of the tree 



in the middle of the clearing Dewatas, I set the tiger 



free. Is it fit or not that he should eat me ? ' 



And the Dewatas of the tree replied, ' Lo, men come and go 

 and rest under my shade. My branches they break and sit upon 

 them. Therefore,' said the Dewatas of the tree, i it is fit that the 

 tiger eat thee.' 



Then the tiger said, c Now I am going to eat you.' But the 



man said, ' Nay, we will go to the Dewatas of the Bridge 



' Oh Dewatas, the tiger was caught in a trap and I set him free. 

 Is it fit or not that he should eat me ? ' And the Dewatas of the 

 Bridge replied, ' Lo, men cross over upon me and some use me for 

 unworthy purposes. Therefore ' said the Dewatas of the Bridge, 

 ' it is fit that the tiger eat thee.' 



' Now ' said the tiger, ' I am going to eat you.' i Wait yet a 

 little ' said the man. ' When you have the third judgment in your 

 favour, eat me.' So they went and came to a squirrel, and the 



Jour. Straits Brands 



