{"id":6379,"date":"2021-02-18T12:00:27","date_gmt":"2021-02-18T12:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/combonimission.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=6379"},"modified":"2021-02-11T11:48:39","modified_gmt":"2021-02-11T11:48:39","slug":"oral-literature-the-rabbit-and-the-tortoise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/2021\/02\/18\/oral-literature-the-rabbit-and-the-tortoise\/","title":{"rendered":"Oral literature: the Rabbit and the Tortoise"},"content":{"rendered":"

There was a frightful drought. The rivers after a while dried up and even the springs gave no water. The animals wandered around seeking water, but to no avail. Water was nowhere to be found. <\/em><\/p>\n

A great gathering of animals was held: Lion, Leopard, Hyena, Jackal, Elephant, all of them came together. What was to be done? That was the question. One had this plan, and another had that; but no plan seemed to work.<\/p>\n

Finally, one of them suggested, \u201cCome, let all of us go to the dry river bed and dance; in that way we can tread out the water.\u201d<\/p>\n

Everyone was satisfied and ready to begin instantly, excepting Rabbit, who said, \u201cI will not go and dance. All of you are mad to attempt to get water from the ground by dancing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The other animals danced and danced, and ultimately danced the water to the surface. How glad they were. Everyone drank as much as they could, but Rabbit did not dance with them. So, it was decided that Rabbit should have no water. He laughed at them, \u201cI will nevertheless drink some of your water.\u201d<\/p>\n

That evening he proceeded leisurely to the river bed where the dance had been, and drank as much as he wanted. The following morning the animals saw the footprints of Rabbit in the ground, and Rabbit shouted to them, \u201cAha! I did have some of the water, and it was most refreshing and tasted fine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Quickly all the animals were called together. What were they to do? How were they to get Rabbit in their hands? All had some means to propose; the one suggested this, and the other that.<\/p>\n

Finally, old Tortoise moved slowly forward, foot by foot, \u201cI will catch Rabbit.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cYou? How? What do you think of yourself?\u201d shouted the others in unison.<\/p>\n

\u201cRub my shell with pitch, and I will go to the edge of the water and lie down. I will then resemble a stone, so that when Rabbit steps on me his feet will stick fast.\u201d \u201cYes! Yes! That\u2019s good.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Tortoise\u2019s shell was covered with pitch, and foot by foot he moved away to the river. At the edge, close to the water, he lay down and drew his head into his shell.<\/p>\n

During the evening Rabbit came to get a drink. \u201cHa!\u201d he chuckled sarcastically, \u201cthey are, after all, quite decent. Here they have placed a stone, so now I need not unnecessarily wet my feet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rabbit trod with his left foot on the stone, and there it stuck. Tortoise then put his head out. \u201cHa! old Tortoise! It\u2019s you, is it, that\u2019s holding me. But here I still have another foot. I\u2019ll give you a good kick.\u201d Rabbit gave Tortoise what he said he would with his right fore foot, hard and straight; and there his foot remained.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still have a hind foot, and with it I\u2019ll kick you.\u201d Rabbit drove his hind foot down. This also rested on Tortoise where it struck.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut still another foot remains, and now I\u2019ll tread you.\u201d He stamped his foot down, but it stuck like the others.<\/p>\n

He used his head to hammer Tortoise, and his tail as a whip, but both met the same fate as his feet, so there he was tight and fast down to the pitch.<\/p>\n

Tortoise now slowly turned himself round and started for the other animals, with Rabbit on his back.<\/p>\n

\u201cHa! ha! ha! Rabbit! How does it look now? Insolence does not pay after all,\u201d shouted the animals. Now advice was sought. What should they do with Rabbit? He certainly must die. But how? One said, \u201cBehead him\u201d; another, \u201cSome severe penalty.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRabbit, how are we to kill you?\u201d \u201cIt does not affect me,\u201d Rabbit said. \u201cOnly a shameful death please do not pronounce.\u201d \u201cAnd what is that?\u201d they all shouted.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo take me by my tail and dash my head against a stone; that I pray and beseech you don\u2019t do.\u201d \u201cNo, but just so you\u2019ll die. That is decided.\u201d It was decided Rabbit should die by taking him by his tail and dashing his head to pieces against some stone. But who was to do it? Lion, because he was the most powerful one.<\/p>\n

Lion should do it. He stood up, walked to the front, and poor Rabbit was brought to him. Rabbit pleaded and beseeched that he couldn\u2019t die such a miserable death.<\/p>\n

Lion took Rabbit firmly by the tail and swung him around. The white skin slipped off from Rabbit, and there Lion stood with the white bit of skin and hair in his paw. Rabbit was free.<\/p>\n

(Folktale from South Africa) <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There was a frightful drought. The rivers after a while dried up and even the springs gave no water. The animals wandered around seeking water, but to no avail. Water was nowhere to be found. A great gathering of animals was held: Lion, Leopard, Hyena, Jackal, Elephant, all of them came together. What was to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6379\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}