Chinese Storytelling

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In this moment the tiger stepped, swaying and swinging, out of the tiger's den. The tiger swayed along with steps exactly like an official. It walked all the way to the road west of the ridge, and then to the fringe of a grove, it hid in the thicket of dry grass. It set down its two forepaws, and curled up its two hind legs, let its lower jaw drop down on its forepaws and began to stare at the moon in the sky with those tiger’s eyes. That beast had a strong desire to swallow up the moon! And so the tiger was lying right here and staring at the moon. Who would have thought that this tiger had actually had nothing to eat for three days? How come? Couldn't it eat people? There were none! It had eaten them up! When travellers came to this place, it used to eat them. But lately a proclamation from the local authorities had been put up: People were only allowed to cross the ridge every day during the three watches from 10 to 4 o'clock. The travellers should form groups and the local headman should beat a gong, everybody should carry cudgels, so that they could safely be escorted over the ridge. They did not come one and one or two and two, no, they formed groups of two to three hundred. So even if this was such a beast as you could see - an enormous beast, and very intelligent, too - when it saw such a crowd of people, it didn't dare to come forward. It could not eat people. What about winged game and four-footed beasts? Couldn't it eat them? There were none of them, either. They had all been eaten up by it. For example, the tiger may sit on top of the ridge, look into the sky and catches sight of a sparrow. The sparrow comes flying by. A tiger cannot fly! In the first place, if the tiger had a pair of wings, that would be disaster! Even more ferocious! However, it only has to lift its head and give a roar:

"Ma-a-a-a......!"

From its mouth streams a foul smell. It opens its mouth wide and gives a roar, letting out breath which carries the smell up into the air. The sparrow flying in the sky has to rely on its two wings. Pressing them against the wind, it is able to fly along, but when it smells that stench, it suddenly folds up its wings and falls to the ground: "Plop!" The tiger steps forward and has it for breakfast. Another example is the rabbit. Can it not run away? Those four legs of the rabbit sure run fast! The moment it sees a tiger, off it goes, running straight into its hole. The tiger's head is so very big, and how big is a rabbit's hole? When the tiger spots a rabbit, it probably sets out chasing after it? No, it doesn't. The tiger lies prone on the ground and:

"Wu-u-u-u......ma-a-a-a......", it roars.

"Ma-a-a-a......"

A gust of wind carries along the stench from its mouth. Over there the rabbit is running at full speed, but when its smells that stench, it begins to shiver. And as soon as it sits there shivering, the tiger - in no haste and no hurry - walks over to it, and - "flop" - has it for lunch. The monkey, however, it can climb very high, isn't that so? As soon as a monkey sees the tiger, it clings to the top of a tall tree. The two hind legs sit on a forking branch, and the two forepaws clutch some twigs. Then it looks down towards the tiger, blinking with those monkey eyes: "Wa-da-wa-da". It says to itself: 'Elder Brother, I don't care if you are fierce! Can you climb, perhaps? Can you come up here? What can you do to me?' But the tiger is even more ingenious. The tiger will sit down in front of that old tree and stare at the monkey:

"Ma-a-a-a...!" it roars.

As soon as the monkey sees it roaring, my goodness, it begins to shiver in its heart. But when you shiver, the tiger goes on roaring:

"Ma-a-a-a...!"

And the more fiercely the tiger roars, the more fiercely the monkey shivers. And thus shivering and shivering, shivering and shivering, its hands loosen their grip. And when the forepaws have lost their grip, the hind legs also slacken and it falls down: "Plop!" Then the tiger steps forward and - "flop" - has it for tea. In the evening the tiger goes down to the river to drink. The water flows in through the left side of the mouth and out through the right side. Not one single fish or shrimp will escape, and that will do for supper. Four meals a day! Winged game, four-footed beasts, fish and shrimps, everything had been eaten up by now. Oh, it could not get hold of any creature from around there. But what about stray animals? Couldn't it eat some stray animals passing through the area? No! After the tiger had settled here, all the winged game and four-footed beasts of the area had fled and gone to other places. For example, at the moment a crow was leaving the place, it might meet another crow and scream:

"Du-u-u-u-u-u......"

What did it scream?

"A tiger! Don't go to Jingyang Ridge! There is a tiger! There is someone having free meals!"

Everyone had heard the news, and therefore the tiger had nothing to eat. If it had nothing to eat, it must be fated to die from hunger! Three days had gone by! Don't take it too seriously! No problem! Assuming there were people around, then it ate people. If there were winged game and four-footed beasts, then it ate winged game and four-footed beasts. But now it couldn't get hold of any, it couldn't get hold of any. Day after day it would drink the dew to allay its hunger and pretend to be full up.

At this very moment the tiger was lying prone in the dry grass west of the ridge, and once again it emitted a tiger's roar ...

The west wind was very strong: "Wu-u-u-u-u...!" The wind blew from the west towards the east. Wu Song was sleeping on the stone half-ways up the eastern slope of the ridge. He was so soundly asleep. The stone was flat and smooth, the wind refreshing, and the wine had already evaporated almost totally. In this moment Wu Song woke up from his sleep. Oh, my! The wind blew so cold that the hairs of his body were standing on end! How cold it was! It was the weather of late autumn.

"Oh, my!"

Our hero opened his two eyes, leaned on his elbows, bent over and sat up. A gust of wind passed by, and on the tail of the wind Wu Song became inadvertently aware of something, he sniffed again, hm, there was a foul smell. Hem, hem! That was probably the tiger out hunting. Wu Song had 'wine in his belly - and something on his mind!' He thought about what had happened earlier in Jingyang town and that someone had told him there was a tiger on Jingyang Ridge. How could he know that at this very moment the tiger was coming out hunting? That was because when he had been at home, he had made friends with some hunters, and those hunters had told him:

"Whenever we go to the deep mountains and the wild moors, and a strong wind blows up, and if the tail of the wind carries along a foul smell, then that means a wild beast is out hunting."

It could only be the tiger opening its mouth wide resulting in that bad smell. So when Wu Song inhaled the smell he must have had tremendous resistance or otherwise he would never have been able to stand it! Yes, the tiger was out hunting! Wu Song didn't bother about his bundle, but pushed himself up with his hands and on to his feet. He got to his feet and he leapt and bounced: Pooh-pooh-pooh-pooh.... On and on he went, until he reached the top of the ridge. When he was on the top of the ridge, he took the position of 'the golden pheasant standing on one leg'. He stood on his left leg and kept his right leg hanging in the air. His left hand was clenched into a fist, akimbo on his hip. He lifted his right hand to shade his eyes from the moon in the sky, and stared in all four directions.

He was looking for the tiger. He was looking for the tiger and he had not yet found it. But the tiger had caught sight of him! The tiger was at the fringe of the grove nearby. It was lying in ambush in a thicket of dry grass. Since it was late autumn, the grass had turned yellow. The fur on the tiger's body was also yellow, and therefore, for quite some time, Wu Song was unable to recognize it. At this moment the tiger spotted Wu Song: 'Oh, goodness me!' That big beast was clever. The tiger felt too happy for words! Oh, my! It was so glad! How did it look when it was so glad? It would stretch out and bury its forepaws in its fur and flesh and scratch itself on the breast, so glad was it! 'Woe! For three days I have eaten no man. But the man who comes there, is a big one! Ah! Today I'll have an ample meal!' Then the tiger conveniently propped itself up on its four paws, stretched its forepaws forwards, stepped back on to its hind legs, arched its back like this, put down its tiger's head and lifted its tail upright - what for? It gave a stretch! A tiger, you see, is almost like a cat. A cat looks like a tiger, a cat looks like a tiger, you see. For instance, if you take a cat, and if it is winter time and it is sleeping in the firewood basket and it is purring in its sleep, and then you come along and as usual pat it gently, and at that moment it jumps down. And when it has jumped down, it stretches its forepaws outwards, it puts its head downwards, it raises its tail right up in the air, and then it arches its back, and in this way it stretches itself just like us human beings. The tiger in such a moment - that is called 'tiger's stretch'. After the 'tiger's stretch', it lifted its forepaws and stepped on to its hind legs and:

"Wu-u-u-u......!"

Plop! It leapt on to the road and landed on its four paws. When it had landed it lifted its tiger head upwards and stared at Wu Song. It swayed its head and swung its tail, bared its teeth and flaunted its claws, and then it broke into a tiger's roar.

How could one imagine that just as Wu Song was standing on the very top of the ridge, and exactly when he was about to look around, just preparing to look for the tiger, then suddenly - plop! Something nearby leapt out. It leapt on to the road and landed there. In the light of the moon he now saw this tiger:

"Ugh!"

Why did he say 'ugh!'? Hem, Wu Song had another look: 'Damn it! Such a tiger!' No wonder, it had killed quite a few travellers. My God! This tiger must be one of the largest. It was as big as a bull and when it opened its mouth wide, it looked like a pail of blood. Its teeth were as sharp as swords and its tail was like a steel whip. Under the eyes of Wu Song the tiger looked up at him. At this moment Wu Song felt a little well, he became a little afraid. In fact I have a few verse-lines to praise the tiger: