The Princess and The Tiger

Once; I think it was in India or perhaps Sumatra or some other exotic and far, distant land, a prince left his princess to go into the forest.

 

The princess was expecting a child, you see, and needed the petals of a certain white flower to cure her of her morning sickness.

 

And, after many days and nights of searching, the prince found the white flower growing amidst the ruins and rubble of an old, abandoned marble temple that was covered in clinging vines and other climbing plants and which the bright full moon shone upon.

 

But, just as he had leaned forward and picked the flower, a woman dressed all in white silk came out of the shadows and spoke to him.

 

“I am the Goddess of the White Temple”, she said, “And no man who enters my house may leave. You must stay here forever and be my prisoner”.

 

“How can I stay here?”, the man replied, “I have a wife and an unborn child. Please, be merciful and let me return to them”.

 

The strange goddess thought for a moment and then, smiling, she said, “Alright then. You may go home but if your wife does not accept you, you must return here and here, stay forever”.

 

Confident that his wife loved him and would always accept him, the man agreed and, taking the white flower, he went home through the forest.

 

As he was walking through the forest however, he noticed a strange flame orange fur growing upon the back of his hands and, touching his face, he noticed that it had long white whiskers growing out of it.

 

His ears felt different too, he thought, small and pointed and his nose seemed to have grown rather flatter.

 

Rushing over to a nearby lake that was lit up by the full moon, the man looked at his reflection and then, to his amazement, he saw that his face was turning into that of a royal Bengal tiger; his arms were growing shorter too and his fingernails becoming long claws then, examining his rear, he saw a long stripy orange tail dangling from it.

 

The man sobbed into his large tiger paws and tears ran over his whiskers but there was nothing he could do and, before long, he had turned completely into a tiger from head to toe.

 

But still he hoped, somehow, his wife would recognize him and, picking up the white flower in his tiger jaws he carried it home to his house.

 

His wife was lying on her bed when he came in to their home and, at first, she was terrified and leapt from the bed screaming but then she noticed the white flower clamped tightly in the tigers jaws.

 

“How strange”, she thought, “Why would a tiger bring me a flower?”,

 

Then she remembered that her husband had gone searching for just such a flower to cure her sickness.

 

“Could this tiger be my husband?”, she wondered, incredulously.

 

She decided to test the tiger.

 

“Tiger, if you are my husband”, she said, “Then run round three times”.

 

Suddenly, to her amazement, she saw the tiger obey her command, running round in a circle, just as she had asked it, three times.

 

But she was still not certain and so, pointing to a stool that sat nearby, she asked

 

“Tiger, if you are my husband, jump three times over that stool”.

 

Then, astoundingly, yet again, the tiger did as she asked him, jumping over the stool three times.

 

But, even so, looking at the tiger, it still seemed huge and ferocious and she was afraid for the baby inside her and so she asked the tiger to perform one more test,

 

“Tiger, if you are truly my husband”, she said, pointing to a basket that was sitting nearby, “Put your flower into that basket, pick it up by the handle and bring it to me”.

 

Then, joy leaping in her heart, she saw the tiger place the flower into the basket, pick the basket up by the handle and bring it to her, laying it down at her feet.

 

“You are my husband!”, she exclaimed, throwing her arms around the tiger and feeling it gently lick her face.

 

And, no sooner had it done this when, in a bright flash of orange flame and a roar of thunder, the tiger transformed back into the prince.

 

Gazing through the window of the man’s house, the goddess of the white temple was furious but there was nothing she could do, the man’s wife had accepted him and so now he did not have to go back to her or be her prisoner.

 

And, eight months later, the princess gave birth to two beautiful little children, a boy and a girl and, to celebrate their birth there were fireworks and festivities and the prince made a proclamation that henceforth tigers, throughout his princedom, were to be protected and that no one would be allowed to hunt them ever again.

 

“For now I have seen through a tigers eyes”, he said, “I think they are quite wonderful creatures”. 

 

http://www.wwf.org.uk/what_we_do/safeguarding_the_natural_world/wildlife...