Part 4 (2/2)

Will you take compa.s.sion on me and allow me to rest in your house and get warm before I return home?”

”Come in, our lord,” said the hare. ”If our lord deigns to honor my poor house with his presence, he will confer a favor that his slave will never forget.”

The tiger was only too glad to go into the hare's house, and the latter immediately made room for him by sitting on the roof. Soon the tiger heard click! click! click! and he called out: ”O friend hare, what are you doing up there on the roof of your house?”

Now the hare was really at that moment striking fire with her flint and steel, but she deceived the tiger and said, ”It is very cold up here, and our lord's slave was s.h.i.+vering,” but the next moment the spark struck the dried gra.s.s on the roof and the house was soon in flames.

The tiger dashed out just in time and turned in a rage on his late host, but the hare was far away, having jumped at the same moment that the spark set fire to the roof of the house.

The tiger gave chase, but after a while he saw the hare sitting down and watching something intently, so he asked, ”What are you looking at?”

”This is a fine seat belonging to the Ruler of the Hares,” returned she.

”I would like to sit on it,” said the tiger.

”Well,” said the hare, ”wait till I can go and ask our lord to give you permission.”

”All right, I will watch till you come back and will not kill you as I intended doing, if you get me permission to sit on it,” said the tiger.

Now this was not a chair at all, but some hard sharp stones that the hare had covered with mud and shaped with her paws to deceive the tiger.

The hare ran off a long distance and pretended to talk with some one and then called out: ”The lord of the chair says, our lord the tiger may sit, if he throws himself down upon it with all his might. This is our custom.”

The tiger flung himself upon what he thought was the chair with all his might, but the soft mud gave way and he fell upon the stones underneath and hurt his paws badly. He therefore sprang up and vowed vengeance on the hare that he could just see far off in the distance.

By and by as the hare was running along she saw a large wasps' nest hanging from the branch of a tree, so she sat down and watched it intently. When the tiger came up he was so curious to know what the hare was looking at so intently that he did not kill her, but instead asked her what she was looking at.

The hare showed the tiger the wasps' nest on the tree and said: ”That is the finest gong in all the hill and water country.”

”I would like to beat it,” said the tiger.

”Just wait a minute,” returned the hare, ”and I will go to the lord of the gong and ask permission for you to beat it.”

The hare ran till she was far away in the jungle, and then at the top of her voice called out: ”If you wish to beat the gong, the lord of the gong says you must strike it as hard as you can with your head. That is his custom.”

[Ill.u.s.tration: ”Again the cunning hare deceived the tiger.” Page 63.]

The tiger b.u.t.ted at the nest with all his might and made a big jagged rent in its side, and out flew the angry wasps in swarms, completely covering the poor tiger, who with a dreadful yell of pain tore away from his tormentors. His face was all swollen, and from that day till the present, the faces of tigers have all been wide and flat.

Again he chased the hare, and when the smart from the stings of the wasps had subsided a little, he found to his great joy that he was gaining on his enemy fast. The hare on her part saw that the tiger would soon catch her and looked around for some means of escape, and spied just before her a snake half in and half out of its hole.

The hare stopped as before and sat gazing at the snake so intently that the tiger instead of killing her as he had intended to do, asked her what it was in the hole.

”This,” returned the hare, ”is a wonderful flute that only kings and n.o.bles are allowed to play. Would our lord like to play?”

”Indeed I would,” said the tiger; ”but where is the lord of this wonderful flute? Whom shall I ask for permission?”

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