Once when the rabbit, that
is, the mayor, still had his antlers, he met a
deer.
The rabbit said to the deer:
"Brother, look at the cap (antlers) Our
Father gave me."
"Come here,
brother," said the deer. "Lend it to
me," said the deer to the rabbit.
"You're too small, it doesn't fit you, but
I'm big. Maybe your cap will fit me, I'm going to
try it on my head."
The rabbit handed his cap to
the deer and the deer put it on his head:.
"Look brother, how nice it looks on me. I'm
going to dance so you can see. Then I'm going for
a walk and afterwards I'll come back here to you
and I'll give you your cap back," said the
deer to the rabbit.
The deer went off and didn't
come back with the rabbit's cap.
The rabbit was waiting for
him, just waiting and crying because he didn't
have his cap any more. It occurred to him to get
up from where he was crying and go notify his
king. He came before the king:
"Father!" said the rabbit to the king.
"What have you come to
tell me, my son?" the king asked the
rabbit.
"My brother went off
with the cap you gave me, father. My brother, the
deer told me he was just going to try it on, and
I gave him the cap you had given me,
father."
"'Why did our father
give it to you?' the deer asked me. 'Our father
should have given it to me, because I'm big. Your
cap fits me well,' my brother said. I thought he
was my brother. So I gave it to him, but he just
went off with it any way. He left, and I just sat
waiting for him to come back with my cap. He
didn't come back and I got tired of waiting for
him so long. That's why I have come to ask you,
father, to give me another cap in place of the
one my brother took, and also make me taller
because my uncle deer said I was too
little."
"'That cap doesn't fit
you,' he told me, father. That's why I want to
grow as big as my uncle deer."
"All right, I'll make
your taller, my son. I'll make your body grow. If
you do what I say, I'll give you what you ask
for," said the king to the rabbit.
"What shall I do for
you, father?" asked the rabbit.
"Now I'm telling you
that if you want to be as big as your brother the
deer, I'm going to grant your wish," said
the king to the rabbit. "Now, go and bring
me fifteen loads of skins. If you bring them to
me I'll make your body grow and I'll give you
your cap back."
"All right," said
the rabbit, and went off to the fields, to the
mountains and to the sea. The rabbit bought
himself a guitar. When he came to a plain he sat
down to rest. He had been playing music with his
guitar for a while when an old snake came up to
him.
"What are you doing,
brother?" the snake asked brother
rabbit.
"I've come to play
music for you, uncle," said the rabbit to
the snake.
"Oh, your song is sad,
uncle," said the snake to Uncle
Rabbit.
"Yes," said the
rabbit to the snake.
"May I dance a
little?" the snake asked Uncle Rabbit.
The rabbit answered:
"Of course you may dance. That's why I came
to play a song for you. But I would just like to
ask you, uncle, where is your weak spot? Because
my marimba stick might reach your weak spot. Show
it to me, so I can see where it is," said
the rabbit to the snake.
"All right,
brother," said the snake. "Here's my
weak spot, right at the end of my
tail."
"All right, brother,
now that I've noticed where your weak spot is,
you can dance without worrying," Uncle
Rabbit told the snake. The rabbit needed to
collect skins, but the snake didn't suspect what
the rabbit was planning to do to him.
"Dance! Go ahead and
dance. Enjoy your dance," said the rabbit to
the snake, " because that's why I came to
play near your house. Dance, enjoy, and don't be
afraid. Here, come close to me."
When he saw him nearby, the
rabbit thought: "He's mine now. I know where
his weak spot is." The snake danced and came
near the rabbit.
"Bring your tail
near," said the rabbit to the snake. The
snake raised his tail near the rabbit. The rabbit
saw that the snake was near him and he killed
him. Then he skinned him and went off with his
skin.
The rabbit came to a
mountain and began to play his guitar once more.
Shortly after he had come to the mountain a big
old lion approached Uncle Rabbit. He was playing
his music when the lion arrived.
"Hey, uncle, why have
you come here to play?" the lion asked the
rabbit.
"I've just have come to
play, brother," the rabbit said. "Do
you like music?"
"Yes, I like
music." said the lion.
"Do you like to
dance?" the rabbit asked the lion.
"Yes, I like to,"
the lion answered. "If you'll play a song
for me, I'll be wanting to dance," said the
lion.
"I'm going to play some
music for you, because the reason I came to your
house was to play music. Dance, enjoy your dance.
Don't be afraid, Good, dance, only tell me where
your weak spot is. I'd just like to ask you where
your weak spot is. Dance, enjoy your dance,"
said the rabbit to the lion.
"All right, brother,
here's my weak spot, right here, on the back of
my neck."
"All right
brother," said the rabbit. "Dance
uncle, dance, dance, dance. Don't be afraid, come
closer, come here beside me. I know where your
weak spot is, so I won't hit you there. I know
where it is. Try to dance a little bent
over."
The lion became careless
while he was dancing, and the rabbit hit him on
the head. The lion died, the rabbit skinned him
and took away two more skins, two large
skins.
The rabbit walked, and
walked and walked. He took his skins to a place
on the beach, and played there once more. An
alligator heard the rabbit playing a song and
came up to him: "Is that you playing, Uncle
Rabbit?" the alligator asked.
"Yes, I'm the one who
is playing for you," said the rabbit,
"for I want you to dance. I thought maybe
uncle would like a song. So I came to play a song
for you."
"Oh, is it true what
you say? I like songs and I would like you to
play one for me," said the alligator.
"All right, I'll play you a song, but you
have to dance."
"Yes, I'll dance, for I
really like to," the alligator told Uncle
Rabbit.
"I'd like to ask you
where your weak spot is. Just tell me where your
weak spot is. Don't worry, just show me where it
is. If my marimba stick hits you, you could
die," said Uncle Rabbit to the
alligator.
"All right, brother, my
weak spot is here, right at the end of my
tail," said the alligator.
"All right, so dance.
Dance with all your might and stretch out your
tail." While he was dancing the alligator
became careless and the rabbit hit his weak spot.
The alligator died and the rabbit skinned him.
The rabbit left the beach
and came near a plantation where there was sugar
cane, where there were bananas, where there were
oranges, where there were sapotes. Near the
plantation there was a house with monkeys and
coatis, as well as two other households. He came
to one of the houses bringing bananas.
"Ah," the monkeys
said to him "do you have bananas,
uncle?"
"Here, have some."
said the rabbit to one of the monkeys.
"All right," said
the monkey. The monkey ate the bananas. Then the
rabbit said: "Here you're just starving, but
I have a plantation nearby where there are a lot
of good things to eat. There are bananas, there
is sugar cane, there are oranges, there are
sapotes," said the rabbit to the monkeys.
"All right, uncle, give
us some," said the monkeys to the
rabbit.
"There's a lot of food,
and it's just going to waste, because there's no
one to eat it," said the rabbit to the
monkeys. "Tomorrow we'll go to my
plantation, all of you and your families, and if
there are some others they can come with us too.
Aren't there some other friends of ours
here?" the rabbit asked the monkeys.
"Oh, if you please,
there's another family of our friends that are
hungry; they have no food," the monkeys told
the rabbit.
"Tomorrow you're all
going to go with me," the rabbit said to the
monkeys.
The next day all the monkeys
and all the coatis set off for the plantation and
arrived there. "Eat, brothers, enjoy the
food," said the rabbit to all of them.
"All right," they
said and they were happy. That day passed.
"Are you all
satisfied?" the rabbit asked them.
"Yes, we're fine,
brother."
"So let's go. Each one
of you can take something along," the rabbit
said to them.
"All right,
uncle," they said and set off. They came to
a plain.
"We're going to
rest," the rabbit said to them. They rested
on the plain. The monkeys were playing with the
coatis and didn't know that the rabbit was
plotting against their lives.
The rabbit said to them:
"Bring two nets, brothers."
"What are you saying
uncle, are we going to play?"
"I want you to make me
two nets," the rabbit said to them.
"Why?" they asked.
"I'm going to weigh
you, so we can see who weighs the most,"
said the rabbit.
"All right," they
said, and got into the nets. "All you
monkeys, get in there, and all you coatis get in
over there. Push your snouts out through the net
so you'll be able to breathe and won't
suffocate."
"All right," the
fools said.
The rabbit closed up the
nets and went to look for a club, saying:
"When I come back you'll get out of the
nets." But when the rabbit came back with
the club he was ferocious, and struck them on the
snout:
"Now uncles, you're
going to pay for the bananas you ate." He
killed the uncles in the two nets. All those that
were in the two nets died, and he skinned them
all. He used an armadillo as a pack animal, the
armadillo carrying the skins for him. He had
collected them as the king had ordered, so that
he would increase his height and give him back
his cap.
He returned and came before
the king with fifteen loads of skins. The king
didn't believe the rabbit was going to succeed,
and so he didn't realize he was bringing all
those skins. When he came before the king with
the skins, the rabbit said: "See, father, I
have brought the skins."
The king was astonished.
"Did you really go and get them?" he
asked. "I don't believe you."
"No father, they're
here."
"Let's see them,"
the king said.
"Here they are,
father." He took them out of his net one at
a time and the king saw him take out the
alligator's skin, the lion's skin, the big
snake's skin, the monkeys' skins and the coatis'
skins.
"Oh," said the
king," getting angry, "What do you want
in exchange for these skins?"
"I want you to make me
taller and give me my cap back."
"Oh," said the
king, "what a shameless rabbit you are. In
spite of everything you want to be big. You
actually killed your own brothers. You actually
killed them. You're so small. If you were larger,
if I made you bigger, you'd kill all your
brothers. Look here, you killed the lion, the
alligator, and the snake, even though you're real
little.
"Well, now, you're
going to have to forgive me, my son, but this is
the punishment I've decreed: Bring me your ears
so I can stretch them. You shameless thing, you
already killed your brothers who are bigger than
you. Now never come back here again. You're going
once and for all, I'm just going to make your
ears grow."