Why, why do you go away?
Pretty white one, can't you stay?
Tell me why your little feet,
Are made so dry and very fleet?
Tshwee! tshwee! tshwee! tshwee! said the poor little Hare, and she ran back again to the lodge to ask again. “Ho! Nosis!” said the grandmother, who was old and tired, “do not mind him, nor listen to him, nor answer him, but run on.”
The Hare obeyed, and ran as fast as she could. When she came to the spot where the Lynx had been, she looked round, but there was no one there, and she ran on. But the Lynx had found out all about the little Hare, and knew she was going across to the neck of land; and he had nothing to do but reach it first, and waylay her; which he did: and when the innocent creature came to the place, and had got almost home, the Lynx sprang out of the thicket and eat her up.
The original chant, omitting the narrative part as given above, runs in this fashion, word for word.
| Lynx. | Tah kau | (where ah!) |
| Tah hau | (where ah!) | |
| Wa bose | (little white one) | |
| Wa bose | (little white one) | |
| Ke te e zha | (are you going?) | |
| Hare. | Na kwa oushing | (to the point of land) |
| Ain dah nuk e aum baun | (in my native country) | |
| In de e zha | (I go.) | |
| Lynx. | Au neen | (what!) |
| Au neen | (what!) | |
| A nau be kaus o yun aig | (causes it,) | |
| Kish ke mun ing | (why like stripes of leather,) | |
| Ish o tow ug a una, | (are your ears?) | |
| Hare. | Nish ish sha ug | (my uncles,) |
| O sha wun e nong | (when from the south) | |
| Ke e zha waud | (they came,) | |
| Ningeeaizh e goob un eeg | (they did fix me so.) | |
| Lynx. | Tah kau | (where ah!) |
| Tah kau | (where ah!) | |
| Wa bose | (little white one,) | |
| Wa bose | (little white one,) | |
| Ke de e zha | (are you going?) | |
| Au neen | (why?) | |
| Na naub o kos o yun | (look they so,) | |
| Kish ke mun a, | (like dry bits of leather,) | |
| I izh e zida una, | (your feet ha!) |