The White Hare and the Crocodiles

Long, long ago, when every animal could talk, a little white hare lived in the province of Inaba in Japan. His home was on the island of Oki, and across the sea from it lay the mainland of Inaba.

The hare wanted more than anything to get across to Inaba. Day after day he sat on the shore gazing longingly over the water toward the mainland, and day after day he hoped to find some way over.

One day, as he stood on the beach looking out as usual, he saw a huge crocodile swimming close to the island.

“What luck!” thought the hare. “Now I can have my wish. I’ll ask the crocodile to carry me over the sea!”

But he was not at all sure the crocodile would agree. So instead of asking a favor, he decided to get what he wanted by a trick, and he called out loudly, “Oh, Mr. Crocodile, isn’t it a lovely day?”

The crocodile had come out on his own to enjoy the sunshine and was just starting to feel a little lonely when the hare’s cheerful greeting broke the silence. He swam closer to the shore, very glad to hear a friendly voice. “Who was that calling to me just now? Was it you, Mr. Hare? You must be very lonely all on your own!”

“Oh no, I’m not lonely at all,” said the hare. “It’s such a fine day that I came out to enjoy myself. Won’t you stay and play with me for a while?”

So the crocodile came up out of the sea and sat on the shore, and the two of them played together for some time. Then the hare said, “Mr. Crocodile, you live in the sea and I live on this island, and we don’t often meet, so I know very little about you. Tell me, do you think there are more of your kind than of mine?”

“Of course there are more crocodiles than hares,” said the crocodile. “Surely you can see that for yourself. You live on this little island, but I live in the sea, which stretches all over the world. If I called together every crocodile in the sea, you hares would be nothing compared to us!” He was a very conceited crocodile.

The hare, who was set on tricking him, said, “Do you think you could call up enough crocodiles to make a line all the way from this island across the sea to Inaba?”

The crocodile thought for a moment. “Of course I could.”

“Then do try,” said the artful hare, “and I will count them from here!”

The simple crocodile had no idea he was being tricked. “Wait a little while,” he said, “and I’ll go back into the sea and call my company together.”

He plunged into the waves and was gone for some time, while the hare waited patiently on the beach. At last he came back with a great crowd of crocodiles.

“Look, Mr. Hare!” he said. “It’s nothing for my friends to make a line from here to Inaba. There are enough of us to stretch as far as China or India. Have you ever seen so many crocodiles?”

Then all the crocodiles lined up in the water to make a bridge between the island of Oki and the mainland of Inaba. When the hare saw it he cried, “How splendid! I didn’t believe it could be done. Now let me count you all. To do it, though, I’ll need to walk across your backs to the other side, if you’ll allow me, so please don’t move, or I’ll fall in the sea and drown!”

So the hare hopped off the island onto the strange bridge and counted as he jumped from one crocodile’s back to the next: “Please keep perfectly still, or I won’t be able to count. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine—”

And in this way the crafty hare walked all the way across to the mainland of Inaba. But getting his wish was not enough for him. Instead of saying thank you, he jumped off the last crocodile’s back and jeered at them all: “Oh, you stupid crocodiles, I’m finished with you now!”

He was just about to dash away as fast as his legs could carry him, but he did not get off so easily. As soon as the crocodiles realized that the hare had tricked them to get across the sea, and was now laughing at them for being so stupid, they were furious and decided to pay him back. Some of them chased after the hare and caught him, and then they all crowded round the poor little creature and plucked out every bit of his fur. He cried and begged them to stop, but with every tuft they pulled out they said, “Serves you right!”

When the last of his fur was gone, they flung the poor hare onto the beach and swam off laughing at what they had done.

The hare was in a pitiful state. All his beautiful white fur was gone, and his bare little body was raw and trembling with pain. He could hardly move. All he could do was lie helpless on the beach and cry over his bad luck. The hare had deceived the crocodiles, but their revenge was cruel. Nobody who saw the suffering little creature could help feeling sorry for him.

Just then a group of men who looked like princes came by. Seeing the hare lying on the sand in tears, they stopped and asked what was wrong.

The hare lifted his head from between his paws. “I had a fight with some crocodiles and lost,” he said, “and they pulled out all my fur and left me here to suffer. That’s why I’m crying.”

Now one of these young men had a nasty, spiteful nature, but he pretended to be kind. “I’m very sorry for you,” he said. “I know a cure for your sore body, if you’ll only try it. Go and bathe in the sea and then sit in the wind. That will make your fur grow back, and you’ll be just as you were.”

Then the young men went on their way. The hare was delighted, thinking he had found a cure. He bathed in the sea and then sat where the wind could blow on him. But as the wind dried him, his skin grew tight and hard, and the salt made the pain so much worse that he rolled on the sand in agony, crying aloud.

Just then another young man came along, carrying a great bag on his back. He saw the hare and stopped to ask why he was crying so loudly. But the poor hare, who had just been fooled by someone who looked very like this man, did not answer and only went on crying.

This man, though, had a kind heart. He looked at the hare with great pity. “You poor little thing! Your fur has all been pulled out and your skin is quite bare. Who could have treated you so cruelly?”

The hare was so grateful for these kind words, and so encouraged by the man’s gentle manner, that he told him the whole story. He hid nothing: how he had tricked the crocodiles, how he had crossed on the bridge they made because they thought he wanted to count them, how he had jeered at them for their stupidity and how they had taken their revenge. Then he told how he had been deceived by a group of men who looked very like his new friend, and he finished his long, sad tale by begging the man for some medicine that would heal him and make his fur grow back.

When the hare had finished, the man was full of pity. “I am very sorry for all you have suffered,” he said, “but remember, it came about only because of the way you deceived the crocodiles.”

“I know,” said the sorrowful hare, “but I am sorry for it, and I have made up my mind never to deceive anyone again. So please show me how to heal my sore body and grow my fur back.”

“Then I’ll tell you of a good remedy,” said the man. “First go and bathe thoroughly in that pond over there and wash all the salt off your body. Then pick some of the kaba flowers growing at the water’s edge, spread them on the ground and roll on them. The pollen will make your fur grow, and in a little while you’ll be quite well.”

The hare was very glad to be told so kindly what to do. He crawled to the pond, bathed well, picked the kaba flowers by the water and rolled on them. To his amazement, even as he rolled, he saw his lovely white fur growing back. The pain stopped, and he felt exactly as he had before all his troubles.

Overjoyed at getting well so quickly, the hare hopped happily back to the young man who had helped him, knelt at his feet and said, “I can’t tell you how grateful I am for all you have done for me! I long to do something for you in return. Please tell me who you are.”

“I am not a prince, as you think,” said the man. “My name is Okuni-nushi-no-Mikoto. Those who passed by ahead of me are my brothers. They have heard of a beautiful princess called Yakami who lives here in Inaba, and they are on their way to find her and ask her to marry one of them. On this journey I am only their servant, so I walk behind them carrying this big bag on my back.”

The hare bowed humbly before Okuni-nushi, whom many people in that part of the country worshiped as a god. “Oh, I didn’t know you were Okuni-nushi-no-Mikoto! How kind you have been to me! I can hardly believe that the unkind fellow who sent me to bathe in the sea is your brother. I am quite sure the princess your brothers have gone to find will refuse every one of them and choose you instead, for your good heart. I am certain you will win her love without even trying, and she will ask to be your bride.”

Okuni-nushi-no-Mikoto paid no attention to the hare’s words. He said goodbye to the little animal and hurried on his way, and soon he caught up with his brothers just as they were going in at the princess’s gate.

It happened just as the hare had said. Nothing could persuade the princess to marry any of the brothers, but when she saw the kind brother’s face she walked straight up to him and said, “To you I give myself.” And so the two of them were married.

That is the end of the story. In some parts of Japan people worship Okuni-nushi-no-Mikoto as a god, and the hare has become famous as “the White Hare of Inaba.” But what happened to the crocodiles, nobody knows.

About this story

“The White Hare and the Crocodiles” is the seventeenth tale in Yei Theodora Ozaki’s Japanese Fairy Tales. It is set between the island of Oki and the mainland of Inaba, and Ozaki notes that the hare came to be known as “The White Hare of Inaba.”

The kind stranger turns out to be Okuni-nushi-no-Mikoto, whom Ozaki describes as a fairy worshiped in some parts of Japan as a god. The pollen remedy comes from her telling and works as a miraculous cure within the story; it is not animal-care advice. Her word ‘fairy’ is a feature of this English adaptation, not a precise description of every religious tradition associated with the figure.

Read the original: Japanese Fairy Tales (Project Gutenberg)

Reading guidance: older children with adult discussion. The hare’s fur is violently pulled out, and false advice deliberately increases his pain before a miraculous recovery.

Help without another humiliation

The hare begins by disguising a request for transport as a contest about numbers. After the crocodiles hurt him, the first group of brothers disguises cruelty as a remedy. The later encounter reverses that pattern: a stranger pauses, listens to the complete account and offers relief. Having done wrong does not make the hare’s suffering a reason to hurt him again.

The bag matters before the stranger’s name is revealed. He is doing his brothers’ carrying, yet he is the one who makes time for another vulnerable creature. The princess’s choice then overturns the apparent ranking of the brothers. The scene rewards the helper in this tale without making marriage something a kind person is owed.

Rewrite the hare’s first conversation as an honest request to cross the water. Then compare the two sets of advice he receives on shore: what can he know about each speaker’s intention before trying it?

Talk about it

• How did the hare trick the crocodiles into making a bridge?
• What was the difference between the first young man’s advice and Okuni-nushi’s advice?
• Why do you think the princess chose the brother carrying the bag?

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• The Happy Hunter and the Skillful Fisher — a crocodile carries a prince home across the sea
• The Quarrel of the Monkey and the Crab — a trickster animal who goes too far