Page 172 - 8th-language-english-2

voice. They were all frightened out of their wits. They turned about,
huddled up together and stayed where they were. The lion padded
in between their ranks and asked them : ‘Why are you all running
away?’ ‘The earth is falling to pieces,’ said they in chorus. ‘Who has
Not to be republished
seen it falling to pieces?’ ‘The elephants know about it,’ some said.

He asked the elephants, but they said: ‘we know nothing about it.
It is the tigers who know that’. ‘The rhinoceroses know,’ said the
©KTBS
tigers. ‘The gazelles do,’ shouted the rhinoceroses. ‘The buffaloes
say so,’ submitted the gazelles. The buffaloes said, ‘we were told
so by the antelopes’. The antelopes added, ‘No, no. Ask the boars’.
The boars pointed towards the deer. But the deer said : ‘We do not
know. Ask the hares.’ When the hares were asked, they all pointed

to one hare and said, ‘This one told us’.
4. Now the lion came close to the hare : ‘Oh, it’s you who has spread
this news. Well, is it true that the earth is falling to pieces?’ ‘My

lord, most certainly it’s true,’ said the hare. ‘Well, where were you
when you saw this?’ asked the lion. ‘Oh sir, among some palm trees
close to the Western Sea. There, while resting under a palm leaf at
the foot of a bel tree, I began to wonder where I would go if ever the
earth should fall to pieces, and lo! At that very moment, I heard the
crash of the earthquake and so I fled as fast as I could’.

5. The lion thought to himself: ‘No doubt a ripe bel fruit fell from above
on to the palm leaf and made the crash, so that this little fellow,
on hearing it, thought that the earth was cracking up and he fled.
I had better look into the matter myself’. He thereupon, took the hare
aside, and spoke to the vast herd of animals. ‘Listen to me, all. I’ll

go and find the truth about this earthquake. Till then, you stay here.
Don’t move about till I come back’. He said in a commanding tone.
All the animals nodded their heads as if to show their obedience.
Now, the lion asked the hare to sit on his back. The hare did so
and very soon they were at the foot of the palm trees. The hare
jumped off the lion’s back. ‘Go now,’ the lion said, ‘show me the

place you were talking about.’ ‘Oh, lord, I would not dare,’ said the

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