[4] The whip-poor-will is a bird which is only heard at night. It receives its name from its note, which is thought to resemble those words.
THE HARE WHO THOUGHT THE WORLD HAD COME TO AN END
Translated by H. N. Francis
Once upon a time there was near the Western Ocean a grove of palm and vilva trees. A certain Hare lived here beneath a palm sapling, at the foot of a vilva tree. One day this Hare after feeding came and lay down beneath a young palm tree, and the thought struck him: “If this earth should be destroyed, what would become of me?”
At this very moment a ripe vilva fruit fell on a palm leaf. At the sound of it the Hare suddenly thought, “This solid earth is collapsing,” and starting up he fled without so much as looking behind him.
Another Hare saw him scampering off as if frightened to death, and asked the cause of his sudden flight. “Pray don’t ask me,” he said. The second Hare, followed, crying, “Pray, sir, what is it?” and kept running after him.
Then the Hare stopped a moment and, without looking back, he said, “The earth here is breaking up.” And at this the second Hare ran after the first. And then first one and then another Hare caught sight of him running and joined in the chase, till one hundred thousand Hares all took their flight together. They were seen by a Deer, a Boar, an Elk, a Buffalo, a Wild Ox, a Rhinoceros, a Tiger, a Lion and an Elephant. And when they asked what it meant and were told that the earth was breaking up, they too took to flight. By degrees this host of animals was a league long.
A wise Brahmin who saw this headlong flight of animals, and was told that the cause of it was that the earth was coming to an end, thought: “The earth is nowhere coming to an end. Surely it must be some sound which was misunderstood by them. If I don’t make a great effort they will all perish. I will save their lives.” With the speed of a lion he got before them to the foot of a mountain, and roared three times like a lion. They were terribly frightened and stopped in their flight, standing all huddled together. The Brahmin, in the guise of a Lion, went amongst them and asked why they were running away.