He beckoned, and a servant with a tiger’s head took me out of the building.  He guided me on the road through the vast desert, back to the world of people.  After a long time I suddenly recognized my own country, my own village, my own house, and there my body was, still surrounded by my sons and daughter.

Jan Knappert is a mythologist and writer specializing in African and Asian languages and oral literature.  He has written extensively on tales and storytelling from diverse cultures in Asia and Africa