208	THE NON-LUSHEI  CLANS	chap.
Thado. Benglama had visited a village and got himself much
disliked, and everyone was trying to catch him :—" Once they
made a ladder and cut the lower side partly through and made
a great quagmire underneath. Benglama climbed up it, it broke,
and he fell down into the mud. Then a tiger came up. c My friend,
if you help me out you may eat me/ said Benglama. Then the
tiger pulled him out. Then the tiger—' I will eat you up,' he
said. Benglama—{I will just go and wash myself clean/ he
said. ' Presently I will eat you up/ he said again. Benglama—
(I will go and ease myself/ he said, c otherwise you will dislike
my dung/ he said. Where he went to ease himself he cut a
cane. The tiger—' Why do you do that ?' he asked. Then
Benglama—* It is going to blow and rain like anything, therefore
I am going to tie myself to the stump of a tree/ he said. Then
the tiger—c If that is so, tie me up first/ he said. He tied him
up. Then he (Benglama) also put a mallet, that all who passed
by might beat the tiger. Benglama went away. Then the wild-
cat came along. The tiger—' My friend, you and I are just alike;
we two are friends, we are brothers—undo me/ he said. He
undid him. Then the wild-cat left him, going into a pangolin's
hole. Then just as he was going in, the tiger caught him by the
foot. ' What you have got hold of, that is not me, it is a tree
root/ he said. The tiger let him go, but remained watching
for him, but the wild-cat always slipped out at the other side,
and was always eating fowls by Benglama's house. The tiger—
c My friend, what is it you are eating ?' he said. Then the
wild-cat—' Oh, I am only just eating the bones of my hand/
he said. The tiger was always eating his paw, and it hurt
very, very much indeed. Presently the wild-cat went to the
tiger and said to him, ' If you were to take a torch and go
near to Benglama's house you would be able to catch some
fowls/ he said. So the tiger went up, but Benglama saw him,
and heated some water. When it was very hot indeed, he poured
it into a tui-um (bamboo tube for holding water) and threw
it over the tiger. The tiger said, < My friend! My friend!
I am dying, I am all burnt up/ he said. The wild-cat—
' There is a waterfall some way down stream; if you roll
down that you will be well/ he said. He rolled down and so
he died."