Barber Him and The Tigers

Once there lived a barber called Him, who was very poor indeed. He had
a wife and twelve children, five boys and seven girls: now and then he
got a few pice. One day he went away from his home feeling very cross,
and left his wife and children to get on as best they could. "What can
I do?" said he. "I have not enough money to buy food for my family,
and they are crying for it." And so he walked on till he came to a
jungle. It was night when he got there. This jungle was called the
"tigers' jungle," because only tigers lived in it; no birds, no
insects, no other animals, and there were four hundred tigers in it
altogether. As soon as Barber Him reached the jungle he saw a great
tiger walking about. "What shall I do?" cried he. "This tiger is sure
to eat me." And he took his razor and his razor-strap, and began to
sharpen his razor. Then he went close up to the tiger, still
sharpening his razor. The tiger was much frightened. "What shall I
do?" said the tiger; "this man will certainly gash me." "I have come,"
said the barber, "to catch twenty tigers by order of Maharaja Kans.
You are one, and I want nineteen more." The tiger, greatly alarmed,
answered, "If you won't catch us, I will give you as much gold and as
many jewels as you can carry." For these tigers used to go out and
carry off the men and women from the villages, and some of these
people had rupees, and some had jewels, all of which the tigers used
to collect together. "Good," said Him, "then I won't catch you." The
tiger led him to the spot where all the tigers used to eat their
dinners, and the barber took as much gold and as many jewels as he
could carry, and set off home with them.

Then he built a house, and bought his children pretty clothes and good
food, and necklaces, and they all lived very happily for some time.
But at last he wanted more rupees, so he set off to the tigers'
jungle. There he met the tiger as he did before, and he told him the
Maharaja Kans had sent him to catch twenty tigers. The tiger was
terrified and said, "If you will only not catch us, I will give you
more gold and jewels." To this the barber agreed, and the tiger led
him to the old spot, and the barber took as many jewels and rupees as
he could carry. Then he returned home.

One day a very poor man, a fakir, said to him, "How did you manage to
become so rich? In old days you were so poor you could hardly support
your family."

"I will tell you," said Him. And he told him all about his visits to
the tigers' jungle. "But don't you go there for gold to-night,"
continued the barber. "Let me go and listen to the tigers talking. If
you like, you can come with me. Only you must not be frightened if the
tigers roar."

"I'll not be frightened," said the fakir.

So that evening at eight o'clock they went to the tigers' jungle.
There the barber and the fakir climbed into a tall thick tree, and its
leaves came all about them and sheltered them as if they were in a
house. The tigers used to hold their councils under this tree. Very
soon all the tigers in the jungle assembled together under it, and
their Raja--a great, huge beast, with only one eye--came too.
"Brothers," said the tiger who had given the barber the rupees and
jewels, "a man has come here twice to catch twenty of us for the
Maharaja Kans; now we are only four hundred in number, and if twenty
of us were taken away we should be only a small number, so I gave him
each time as many rupees and jewels as he could carry and he went away
again. What shall we do if he returns?" The tigers said they would
meet again on the morrow, and then they would settle the matter. Then
the tigers went off, and the barber and the fakir came down from the
tree. They took a quantity of rupees and jewels and returned to their
homes.

"To-morrow," said they, "we will come again and hear what the tigers
say."

The next day the barber went alone to the tigers' jungle, and there he
met his tiger again. "This time," said he, "I am come to cut off the
ears of all the four hundred tigers who live in this jungle; for
Maharaja Kans wants them to make into medicine."

The tiger was greatly frightened, much more so than at the other
times. "Don't cut off our ears; pray don't," said he, "for then we
could not hear, and it would hurt so horribly. Go and cut off all the
dogs' ears instead, and I will give you rupees and jewels as much as
two men can carry." "Good," said the barber, and he made two journeys
with the rupees and jewels from the jungle to the borders of his
village, and there he got a cooly to help him to carry them to his
house.

At night he and the fakir went again to the great tree under which the
tigers held their councils. Now the tiger who had given the barber so
many rupees and jewels had made ready a great quantity of meat, fowls,
chickens, geese, men the tigers had killed--everything he had been
able to get hold of--and he made them into a heap under the tree, for
he said that after the tigers had settled the matter they would dine.
Soon the tigers arrived with their Raja, and the barber's tiger said,
"Brothers, what are we to do? This man came again to-day to cut off
all our ears to make medicine for Maharaja Kans. I told him this
would be a bad business for us, and that he must go and cut off all
the dogs' ears instead; and I gave him as much money and jewels as two
men could carry. So he went home. Now what shall we do? We must leave
this jungle, and where shall we go?" The other tigers said, "We will
not leave the jungle. If this man comes again we will eat him up." So
they dined and went away, saying they would meet again to-morrow.

After the tigers had gone, the barber and fakir came down from the
tree and went off to their homes, without taking any rupees or jewels
with them. They agreed to return the next evening.

Next evening back they came and climbed into the great tree. The
tigers came too, and the barber's tiger told his story all over again.
The tiger Raja sat up and said, fiercely, "We will not leave this
jungle. Should the man come again, I will eat him myself." When the
fakir heard this he was so frightened that he tumbled down out of the
tree into the midst of the tigers. The barber instantly cried out with
a loud voice, "Now cut off their ears! cut off their ears!" and the
tigers, terrified, ran away as fast as they could. Then the barber
took the fakir home, but the poor man was so much hurt by his fall
that he died.

The barber lived happily ever after, but he took good care never to go
to the tigers' jungle again.