my litter I
have been looking about in the neighborhood. I find the people are
honest and simple in their way of life, and every one has sufficient
to wear and to eat. This is all just as you state. Yet, strange to
say, when the elders come together, they always sigh and complain. And
if they are asked why, they answer: 'There are three great evils in
our district!' I have come to ask you to do away with two of them, as
to the third, perhaps I had better remain silent. And this is the
reason I weep before your door."

"Well, what are these evils?" answered Dschou Tschu. "Speak freely,
and tell me openly all that you know!"

"The first evil," said the mandarin, "is the evil dragon at the long
bridge, who causes the water to rise so that man and beast are drowned
in the river. The second evil is the tiger with the white forehead,
who dwells in the hills. And the third evil, Dschou Tschu--is
yourself!"

Then the blush of shame mounted to the man's cheek, and he bowed and
said: "You have come here from afar to be the mandarin of this
district, and yet you feel such sympathy for the people? I was born in
this place and yet I have only made our elders grieve. What sort of a
creature must I be? I beg that you will return home again. I will see
to it that matters improve!"

Then he ran without stopping to the hills, and hunted the tiger out of
his cave. The latter leaped into the air so that the whole forest was
shaken as though by a storm. Then he came rushing up, roaring, and
stretching out his claws savagely to seize his enemy. Dschou Tschu
stepped back a pace, and the tiger lit on the ground directly in front
of him. Then he thrust the tiger's neck to the ground with his left
hand, and beat him without stopping with his right, until he lay dead
on the earth. Dschou Tschu loaded the tiger on his back and went home.

Then he went to the long bridge. He undressed, took his sword in his
hand, and thus dived into the water. No sooner had he disappeared,
than there was a boiling and hissing, and the waves began to foam and
billow. It sounded like the mad beating of thousands of hoofs. After a
time a stream of blood shot up from the depths, and the water of the
river turned red. Then Dschou Tschu, holding the dragon in his hand,
rose out of the waves.

He went to the mandarin and reported, with a bow: "I have cut off the
dragon's head, and have also done away with the tiger. Thus I have
happily accomplished your command.