said that every one who came to draw water gave him a handful of rice
and that was why he was so fat; and if they did not believe him they
could take his place and try for themselves.

So one jackal agreed to try and untied the first jackal and let himself
be tied in his place, but in the morning five women came down and
each gave him a blow with the stick till he jumped about for pain,
and seeing him jumping other women came and beat him till he died.




III. Ledha and the Leopard.

Once upon a time a boy named Ledha was tending cattle with other
boys at the foot of a hill, and these boys in fun used to call out
"Ho, leopard: Ho, leopard," and the echo used to answer from the hill
"Ho, leopard." Now there really was a leopard who lived in the hill
and one day he was playing hide and seek with a lizard which also
lived there. The lizard hid and the leopard looked every where for
it in vain. At last the leopard sat down to rest and it chanced that
he sat right on top of the lizard which was hiding in a hole. The
lizard thought that the leopard meant to hurt it and in revenge bit
him and fastened on to his rump so that he could not get it off,
so that day when the boys came calling out "Ho, leopard," he ran
towards them to get their help: but when they saw the leopard they
all fled for their lives. Ledha however could not run fast because
he was lame, and the leopard headed him off and begged him to remove
the lizard. This he did after the leopard had sworn not to eat him,
and before they parted the leopard made him promise to tell no one