0184. The Elephant-Fighting Hare

From Indian Fables and Folklore by Shovona Devi, online at: Hathi Trust.

Notes. Devi refers to the elephant as having a "Juggernauth" weight; you can find out more about that Indian word here: juggernaut.

Summary: This is the story of a trickster rabbit who manages to terrorize a whole herd of elephants.

Read the story below:

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THE ELEPHANT-FIGHTING HARE

(MaxPixel)

Once upon a time a little hare saw a herd of elephants in a wood, and challenged their leader to a fight, but the latter went on breaking off branches and putting these into his capacious mouth, only now and then winking at the hare out of the corner of one eye.

The hare thought the elephant was unwilling to fight, so he called him a coward.

The elephant then lost his temper and went straight at the saucy little thing with trunk up, bellowing, but the hare, with the characteristic nimbleness of its race, kept dodging him about, slipping in and out, round and under him, among his legs.

Of a sudden the mighty animal flung himself down, as if to crush his puny enemy under his Juggernauth weight, but the hare slipped out by his tail, and, clambering on to his back, lay down there quietly.

The elephant, no more conscious of its presence than the wheel was of the fly sitting on it, still kept pressing himself to the ground, as if to crush to pulp the impudent hare supposed to be beneath him. The other elephants, seeing the hare lying on the back of their leader, fancied it must be keeping him down by superior physical force, so they became frightened and bolted.

The leader of the herd, finding himself thus deserted by his companions, and tormented by an army of ants that his gusty breathing had drawn into his nostrils, then rose and dashed away.

Thus were the elephants vanquished by the hare.