6

The tiger   answered,   “Your   son has been    boasting.   If  he  is  the stronger,

let him kill    me; if  I   am  the stronger,   I   will    kill    him.    Tell    him my

command!”

“The    Brave   Gilyak  and the Grateful    Tiger,”

COLLECTED   BY  L.  Y.  STERNBERG,  c.  1900^1

IT HAD BEEN ANDREI ONOFRECUK, A SHORT MAN WITH

NICOTINE-varnished fingernails and a stove-in nose, who had first
discovered Markov on Thursday, one day prior to Inspection Tiger’s
arrival. Onofrecuk was a regular at the cabin, and the two men had agreed
to meet there to do some ice fishing. But Onofrecuk had gotten drunk and
was late—by about a day. After hitching a ride to the turnoff, he had gone
the last half mile on foot, arriving close to noon. The first thing he
noticed was blood by the entrance road. “I didn’t quite understand at first
what was what,” he recalled. “Maybe Markov shot some animal and
didn’t clean up after himself. I was surprised. Usually, he is really careful
about that kind of thing. The hunt is not legal after all, and you know
there might be rangers coming. So then I started walking, thinking: what
the hell is going on? Then I saw his hat. It was as if I’d been clubbed over
the head. I stopped thinking clearly. I had a bad feeling, but I still
couldn’t understand what was happening. Then I saw the tiger tracks.
“So, I’m thinking: maybe he’s just hurt. Maybe I could help him. I
walked some more, past pieces of his clothes. I saw the dog’s paw
sticking out of the snow. I went a bit further, but the tiger didn’t let me
any closer. I couldn’t see Markiz—neither him nor her. [In Russian,
tigers are often referred to in the feminine, like ships.] But I heard her
growling. I couldn’t figure out which direction it was coming from, but I