Page:Folk-lore of the Telugus.djvu/82

 XXXV.

THE HARE AND THE ELEPHANTS. A famine, in days long gone by, once devastated the whole of the southern country, and there was not a drop of water visible in pond, lake, well or tank. The elephants, very much troubled by thirst, went in search of a place where they could satisfy it to their heart's content, and found a tank called Chandrapushkarani. As the tank was full to the brim, they rested there and quenched their thirst, and also found a habitation in the woods adjacent, till the whole country was again green with verdure. But the track of these elephants was full of hares, and they were smashed to pieces under their heavy footsteps. The hares, seeing the calamity that had befallen them, and how they were greatly reduced in numbers, met at a certain spot to devise means for sending the elephants away to a distant spot. One of them said:—Why fear the elephants? I have devised means to get rid of them."