| Zap-bai! |
| Finished! |
Group of Kachári Men (Kamrup District).
From a Photograph by Mrs. H. A. Colquhoun.
FREE TRANSLATION.
The Monkey and the Hare.
A monkey and a hare were great friends. They ever lived together, ate together, and went about together. One day meeting a man from Darrang going to a feast with a load of bananas and other delicacies, they said to one another, “We must get what that man is carrying by some trick or other.” Whereupon the monkey bade the hare stay on the road, while he himself hid in the forest. Presently the man, seeing the hare, put down his load and ran after it. On which the monkey, coming out from the jungle, carried off the bananas and other things. And for fear the hare should come and ask his share, the monkey hastily gobbled up the bananas and betel-nuts and kept the skins only for his friend.
The man, not being able to catch the hare, went home, and then the hare, shouting aloud, searched for the monkey, and, when he found him, demanded his share of the spoil, and only got the skins. So, being vexed, he determined to have his revenge. And first he went and hid under some acrid kachu plants. And when the monkey came and asked what he was doing, he replied, “My friend, I have the honour to be in charge of the king’s sugar-canes.” So the monkey said, “Ah, give me just a bit, do.” But the hare replied, “And what do you suppose the king will say?” But the monkey was importunate. So the hare gave him a stalk of kachu to chew, and when the acrid juice stung his tongue, the monkey began dancing about howling. But the hare coolly said, “It’s all your own fault! You would have a stick of the king’s sugar-cane, and what could I do?”