THE TIGER KILLER Among the stories related by Hue people, one example is as follow: At the foot of the small hill near the entrance to Thuy Ba village, there is a small shrine dedicated to Mr. Hoi Ta Can, a famous woodcutter. One day, he was coming home after dark, carrying some timber on his broad shoulders. As he passed his hill, a tiger suddenly jumped out at him from a bush. He quicklythrew the timber down, avoiding the dangerous claws. The tiger and the man stood face to face; as there was no one to come to his aid, the man had no choice but to leap upon the animal and hug it in his mighty arms. All night they wrestled in the wild forest. At the dawn, both were dead on the ground, still locked together; the man's chest was torn by the tiger's claws, and the animal's genitals were in a mess. Over wide area, the plantsand rushes were broken and destroyed, so one could imagine how hard Hoi Ta Can had struggled. That tiger was as big as ox, and it was the enemy of the village. That is why, to commemorate hiscourage, the buried him there and built this shrine - as the shrine of the genie defender of the village.
