Reading Notes: Eastern Stories and Legends

The Hare that Ran Away

- Buddha was born again as a Lion because he needed to help his fellow animals
- There was a nervous little hare who was always dreadful something horrible was going to happen
- She said, "Suppose the Earth were to fall in, what would happen to me?" so often that she began to think it was really going to happen
- One day when she was thinking this, she heard a noise
- It was really a heavy fruit (coconut?) but she thought it was finally happening

- She ran away as fast as she could go until she ran into her older brother
- he asked her where she was going but she said she didn't have time to tell him anything because the world was falling in
- he was so astonished that he told his brother hare, "and he to his brother hare, and he to his brother hare" until there were a hundred thousand brother hares running away
- Then all the bigger animals started to get scared

- When the "wise" Lion heard about it, he knew something was wrong because it was not possible that the world was falling in
- He asked the elephant how he knew the Earth was falling in
- He said the Tiger told him
- Tiger heard it from Camel
- Camel heard it from Buffalo
-etc

- The hare said she saw it by the tree
- The lion showed her that it was just fruit
- They went back and told the other animals

Bibliography: "The Hare that Ran Away" Eastern Stories and Legends by Marie L. Shedlock

chicken little