that the lizard had bitten him, and said that if he told then he would
be carried off and eaten. So Ledha rejoined his companions and told
them nothing of what had passed between him and the leopard. But that
night when they had all gone to bed, Ledha's sister-in-law began to
worry him to tell her what the leopard had said to him, when it had
caught him. He told her that the leopard would eat him if he told,
but she coaxed him and said that no one could hear them inside the
house; so at last he told her that he had taken off a lizard which
was hanging on to its rump. Then they went to sleep; but the leopard
was hiding at the back of the house and heard all that they said;
and when they were all asleep, he crept in and carried off Ledha's bed
with Ledha in it on his head. When Ledha woke up towards morning, he
found himself being carried through dense jungle and he quietly pulled
himself up into one of the trees which overhung the path. Thus when
the leopard put down the bed and was going to eat Ledha, he found it
empty. So he went back on his track and by and bye came to the tree
in which Ledha was hiding. The leopard begged Ledha to come down,
as he had something to say to him, and promised not to eat him; but
directly Ledha reached the ground the leopard said "Now I am going to
eat you." Ledha was powerless, so he only asked to be allowed to have
one chew of tobacco before he died; the leopard assented and Ledha
felt in his cloth for his tobacco, but the tobacco did not come out
easily and as Ledha felt about for it the dry tobacco leaves crackled;
the leopard asked what the crackling sound was, and Ledha said "That
is the lizard which bit you yesterday;" then the leopard got into a
terrible fright and ran away as hard as he could, calling out "Don't
let it loose: Don't let it loose."

So Ledha was saved from the leopard, but he did not know his way out
of the jungle. He wandered about, till he came to the place where the