as 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."

[Illustration: "Again the cunning hare deceived the tiger." Page 63.]

The tiger butted 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 be