mething to amuse him, noticed a great pot full of
boiling water, so he strolled up to one of the hyaenas and said, 'Go and
get in.' The hyaena dared not disobey, and in a few minutes was scalded
to death. Then the little hare went the round of the village, saying to
every hyaena he met, 'Go and get into the boiling water,' so that in a
little while there was hardly a male left in the village.

One day all the hyaenas that remained alive went out very early into
the fields, leaving only one little daughter at home. The little hare,
thinking he was all alone, came into the enclosure, and, wishing to
feel what it was like to be a hare again, threw off Big Lion's skin, and
began to jump and dance, singing--

I am just the little hare, the little hare, the little hare; I am just
the little hare who killed the great hyaenas.

The little hyaena gazed at him in surprise, saying to herself, 'What!
was it really this tiny beast who put to death all our best people?'
when suddenly a gust of wind rustled the reeds that surrounded the
enclosure, and the little hare, in a fright, hastily sprang back into
Big Lion's skin.

When the hyaenas returned to their homes the little hyaena said to her
father: 'Father, our tribe has very nearly been swept away, and all this
has been the work of a tiny creature dressed in the lion's skin.'

But her father answered, 'Oh, my dear child, you don't know what you are
talking about.'

She replied, 'Yes, father, it is quite true. I saw it with my own eyes.'

The father did not know what to think, and told one of his friends, who
said, 'To-morrow we had better keep watch ourselves.'

And the next day they hid themselves and waited till the little hare
came out of the royal hut. He walked gaily towards the enclosure, threw
off, Big Lion's skin, and sang and danced as before--

I am just the little hare, the little hare, the little hare, I am just
the little hare, who killed the great hyaenas.

That night the two hyaenas told all the rest, saying, 'Do you know that
we have allowed ourselves to be trampled on by a wretched creature with
nothing of the lion about him but his skin?'

When supper was being cooked that evening, before they all went to bed,
the little hare, looking fierce and terrible in Big Lion's skin, said as
usual to one of the hyaenas 'Go and get into the boiling water.' But the
hyaena never stirred. There was silence for a moment; then a hyaena took
a stone, and flung it with