Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 27, 1916.djvu/190

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Folklore of the Banyanja.

Hare, and said, "What is the matter?" The Hare said, "Don't you know, this is my swing?" The Wild Cat said, "I would like to swing too." The Hare said, "No, it is mine." The Wild Cat said, "All the same, I want to swing too." The Hare said, "Very well," and let the Wild Cat get into the snare and the Hare fastened it round its neck. Then the Hare runs away and the Elephant comes back and finds that it is not the Hare in the trap.


The Hare rides the Lion.

Once there was a Lion, who came to a town and said, "I want this man to be my brother and by and bye I will take him to my house." The Man said, "Very well," so every day the Lion came to visit him. By and bye the Hare came in and saw this, so he went away and put on nice clothes and came back, saying, "I want this man to be my brother." The Men said, "No, he is the Lion's brother." He said, "The Lion is of no importance; he is my horse." The Men laughed but the Hare repeated it. He went home and the Men told the Lion what the Hare had said. The Lion was very angry and said he would go and get the Hare and make him tell them that he had spoken falsely. He went to the Hare and told him what the Men had said. The Hare denied it and said if he were not feeling so ill he would go and tell the Men themselves that they had said what was not true. The Lion wanted him to come and say so; but the Hare said he was too ill to walk. The Lion said, "Very well, I will carry you." The Hare said, "Very well, because I want to tell them it is a lie." So the Lion took him on his back. By and bye the Hare says he is so weak that he will fall off unless the Lion will let him put a bridle in his mouth (a rope made of bark from a tree). The Lion submits and goes on with the rope in his mouth. By and bye the Hare says the flies bother him so that he cannot hold on and