"why should you, my children, thus trouble these poor subjects of ujjaini? reply to me, and henceforth desist from your ravages." thus said the soothsayer's son, and the following reply came from the king of the tigers: "why should this base king imprison your honour, believing the mere word of a goldsmith that your honour killed his father? all the hunters told him that his father was carried away by a tiger. i was the messenger of death sent to deal the blow on his neck.