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40. Tswana (Botswana) The Hare and the Lion
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212 40 The Hare and the Lion 144 Tswana (Botswana)145 The hare once said to the lion, “Come, let us make a fold for the beasts.” The lion agreed. The hare cried, “Fold, make yourself!” And the fold made itself. Then the hare said to the lion, “You lie down and pretend to be dead, and I will call all the beasts together. Then rise up and kill them.” The lion lay down as if he were dead, and the hare climbed the poles at the opening into the fold and cried, “Beeee! Come and see Malacwi dead!” Malacwi is the name by which the lion was known to the hare and the other beasts of the field. All the beasts of the field came and entered the fold. But the tortoise took a stalk of grass and poked it into the lion from behind, and the lion thereupon drew itself away from the stalk. Then the tortoise said to its young one, “Little tortoise, my child, let us get away from here, for there is no dead thing that can draw itself in on being touched.” And they went away. Then Malacwi arose and killed the beasts. The hare said, “Let us say, ‘House, build yourself.’” The lion replied, “Just speak. You’re the one who knows everything.” Then the rain came, and the lion said, “Let the house be roofed.” To this, the hare answered, “I know how to call the grass.” And the lion asked that the grass be called. The hare then said, “Grass, mow yourself.” And the grass was not only mown, it brought itself to the place where they were. Then the lion said, “Let the roof be thatched.” But the hare answered, “Ah, that is far beyond me.” The lion was astonished, and said, “What do you mean? Is it possible that one who knows how to make things make themselves does not know how to make a thatch put itself on?” Then the lion climbed on the roof while the hare remained below twisting sinews together. While he was doing this, he said to the lion, “Let sparks come through the rafters lest you perish with cold.” To this, the lion agreed. So the hare made a fire, and on the coals he grilled some fat meat. When the meat was cooked, he tied the sinew to the lion. Then he placed a piece of the fat meat on the end of a stick and said to the lion, “May I swallow this, my elder brother?” But the lion, in a fierce voice, cried out, “Put it down!” The hare pulled the sinew with which he had tied the lion, and the lion, feeling the pain, cried out, “Oshe! Oshe!” whereupon the hare broke off the branch from a piece of wood and said to it, “May this piece of wood kill my elder brother.” He went on doing this until the lion was dead. When he had killed the lion, the hare ate all the food, and after the lion’s skin had become dried up and all the flesh and bones had fallen out of it, he entered the skin in the evening and went to the house of the hyena. Speaking in a gruff voice, he said, “Push out your food, push out your food!” The hyena pushed it out, and the little hyenas spent the night hungry. This went on for some time, until the little ones became quite thin. Now one day, when the sun was well up and the mother hyena was away, the little ones saw the hare come out of the shriveled-up skin and dance and sing, “I am a great hare. I have conquered the hyena and the lion. I conquer the hyena.” When evening came, the little hyenas told their mother what they had seen and heard, and she said, “Well, we shall see.” Later, the hare in the lion’s skin came speaking as formerly, but the hyena took no notice, just remained at ease. But she took the stone on which her pot stood on the fire, and threw it at the skin, whereupon came a hollow sound from the skin. And the hare burst out and fled, leaving the skin behind. The hare fled in earnest and went to visit another hyena. He found the hyena’s wife weeding in the garden patch and said to her, “Mother, seeing you are alone, please let me nurse your...