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The tiger held so fast to the buffalo that when the latter came out of the water, his throat and neck were all white, and buffaloes all have that mark on their necks and throats till this very day.

The tiger was so cold after his bath that he shook and shivered as though he had fever, and seeing a little house made of dried grass a short distance off he went to it and found that a hare was living there.

“Good friend,” said the tiger, “I am so cold I am afraid I shall die. Will you take compassion on me and allow me to rest in your house and get warm before I return home?”

“Come in, our lord,” said the hare. “If our lord deigns to honor my poor house with his presence, he will confer a favor that his slave will never forget.”

The tiger was only too glad to go into the hare’s house, and the latter immediately made room for him by sitting on the roof. Soon the tiger heard click! click! click! and he called out: “O friend hare, what are you doing up there on the roof of your house?”

Now the hare was really at that moment striking fire with her flint and steel, but she deceived the tiger and said, “It is very cold up here, and our lord’s slave was shivering,” but the next moment the spark struck the dried grass on the roof and the house was soon in flames.

The tiger dashed out just in time and turned in a rage on his late host, but the hare was 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.”