The tiger went on cutting thatch, and the hare ate up all his breakfast.

When the sun became hot, the tiger came in hungry, and found nothing but cowdung in what he took for his own parcel. "Didn't I tell you so?" said the hare.

Soon the hare pretended to have a severe attack of fever, and the tiger offered to carry him home.

"How can I ever stick on your smooth glossy back?" said the hare. "You must tie some bundles of thatch on your back to form a saddle for me."

The tiger firmly bound some bundles of dry thatch on his back, and the hare crawled upon them. On their way home the hare began striking his flint and steel together.

"What noise is that?" asked the tiger.

Only my teeth chattering in the ague,” replied the hare.

Soon the hare blew the sparks into a blaze, and jumped off, laughing at the fearful scorching borne by the unfortunate tiger, who bears the marks of his burns to-day in his stripes.

The tiger, of course, swore vengeance, and set off in pursuit of the hare.

The hare, seeing him coming, climbed up into

a bee-tree, and crawled up to the bees so stealthily as not to be noticed by them.

The tiger roared out, "Come down and I'll swallow you alive, you faithless friend."

"There are white, black, grey, and speckled

hares; I'm not the only hare,” replied he. that I am guilty before you eat me."

"Prove

The tiger could not do so, and, accepting the denial of the hare, asked him what he was doing there.

"I am watching my grandfather's fan," was the reply.

"What's your grandfather's fan good for?" asked the tiger.

"Oh, it cools you off without the trouble of fanning yourself. Can't you hear the rushing of the wind from it?" was the reply.

The tiger mistook the murmur of the bees for the breeze, and, smarting with his terrible burns, thought that a self-acting punkah would be very handy just then, and so asked to be allowed to watch "his grandfather's fan" for the hare for a few hours (bees build in a semicircular fan-like shape under a bough in Burmah).

The hare consented, and told the tiger that a gentle pat with his paw would increase the current

of air to any desired extent. The tiger crawled up, and lay at full length on the limb; but, feeling no cooling breeze, struck the bees with his paw. Of course, he was attacked by the whole swarm, and nearly killed by their stings. With redoubled rage the tiger started again in pursuit.

The hare awaited his arrival where two trees crossed their trunks and creaked with every gust of wind.

"Come here, you doubly faithless friend, and I'll swallow you alive," roared the tiger.

As before, the hare pleaded an alibi, and challenged the tiger to prove his identity with the hare that had wronged him. The tiger, with no proof at hand, accepted the hare's statement, and asked him what he was doing there.

Oh, I'm watching over my grandfather's harp," was the reply. "Can't you hear its song?"

"What's the good of your grandfather's harp?" asked the tiger.

"Oh, it lulls you to sleep in spite of all pain," answered the wily hare.

The tiger, smarting with his burns and the stings of the bees, longed to forget his pain in sleep, and so asked to be allowed to take the hare's place for a few hours. The hare consented, and told the

Of

tiger he had only to put his paw between the trees when the wind blew, and the most enchanting airs of music would soon waft him to dreamland. course, the tiger's paw was caught between the trees and fearfully crushed.

Thrice cheated, the tiger again limped off in pursuit. This time he found the hare had fallen into a pit dug to catch game. When called on to surrender himself for death, the hare denied his identity as before, and said

"How could I have cheated you so when I have been watching my grandfather's game-pit all the time? Here I have more game than I can eat.”

The tiger, smarting with burns and stings and crippled in one paw, could no longer run down game, and so asked permission to jump down into the pit, and eat the game that fell in.

The hare agreed, and, as soon as the tiger was safe in the pit, began tickling his burns with a

straw.

"Stop that, or I'll throw you out of the pit," said the tiger.

The hare kept on tickling, and at last the tiger threw him out of the pit altogether. The hare then ran to some Shans, who had dug the pit, and told them that so large a tiger had fallen into a pit that

they would need even all their women to drag it

out of the pit.

"Who'll watch our children?" said the Shans. "I," replied the hare.

While the villagers were gone, the hare killed all the children by sticking arrows into their eyes, and ran up into the roof of one of the houses. When the Shans returned, they were of course enraged at the death of their children, and pursued the hare, who hid in a shallow hole in the rocks. The Shans tried the hole with a long rattan to see how deep it was, but the wily hare coiled up the rattan as fast as it was thrust in. Rattan after rattan was joined on, till the Shans were discouraged at the idea of trying to dig the hare out of so deep a hole with their knives alone. They all went home for digging-tools, leaving a blear-eyed man to watch.

While they were away, the hare came near the mouth of the hole and asked the man why he did not cure his sore eyes, and told him he had medicines with him which would cure him instantly.

The watchman, by the hare's direction, put his eye down to the mouth of the hole, when the hare killed him instantly by thrusting an arrow into his eye. He then cooked part of the blear-eyed man's flesh, and hid behind a rock. The Shans returned,