THE LION AND THE HARE 375 



The Lion and the Hare 



The lion and the hare Uved together in the same 

 part of the forest, and one day the Hon said, " Hare, 

 we are both very hungry, and our mothers will not 

 give us enough to eat ; let us go and kill them, and 

 then we can have as much as we desire." " Very 

 well," assented the hare, so they set out, each 

 carrying a spear. The lion arrived first at his 

 mother's home, and promptly killed her ; the hare, 

 however, before reaching the place where his 

 mother was concealed, stained the point of his spear 

 by thrusting it into the bark of a teak tree ; he then 

 went to his mother and said to her, " Mother, the 

 lion and I have agreed to kill each our maternal 

 parent, but I will not do it, though I was afraid to 

 refiise. Go and hide, therefore, in a cave that I 

 know of, in case the hon sees you and wants to kill 

 you too." So having hidden his mother, the hare 

 went back and rejoined his companion. " WeU, 

 hare, have you kUled her ? " " Yes," replied the 

 hare ; " look at my spear." So the lion looked at the 

 spear and was deceived by the juice of the teak 

 tree. " Well," said the lion, " what shall we do 

 now ? " " I do not know what you are thinking of 

 doing," said the hare, " but, personally, I am going 

 for a walk to the hills." " Very well," said the lion, 

 "we wUl go together." It was an embarrassing 

 proposal, but there was no help for it. In the 

 course of the way they got separated by a herd of 

 elephants, and the hare scampered off to his 

 mother's cave, where he had an excellent meal. 



