Judge Rabbit
Tiger was mad.
Judge Rabbit had tricked him once again.
Poor Tiger had hurt his tail because of that trick.
And so he raced fiercely after Rabbit, to teach him a lesson.
“ I'll get you, Rabbit,” he roared
as he ran through the forest.
Rabbit ran and ran and ran, as quickly as he could.
But he heard Tiger close behind.
“Tiger runs fast,”
thought Judge Rabbit.
“So I'll have to think even faster.”
Just then, Rabbit saw a bee's nest on a tree.
He climbed quickly up and sat next to it.
Carefully, he took a leaf, licked it, and used it to cover
the tiny doorhole.
Angry bees were suddenly trapped inside the nest.
They wanted to get out.
They buzzed and buzzed very, very loudly.
And the buzzing sounded like a special kind of drum.
Judge Rabbit pulled back his paw, then swung it almost to the nest.
He pretended to hit the nest, but of course he was most careful not to.
Back and forth his paw waved, as if beating a fine steady sound on a
drum. Tiger came up and stood under the tree.
“I've got you now, Rabbit,” he growled. “And I'm going to
eat you up.”
“Not now, Tiger,” cried Rabbit. “ Later you can eat me. Right now
I'm too busy.”
“Busy doing what?” asked Tiger as he watched Judge Rabbit,
who seemed to be hitting something.
“ I'm playing the drum for the gods above,” he replied.
“ They love this music so they'll give me grand gifts.”
Tiger listened. BZZZZ
BZZZZ BZZZZ.
It did sound quite nice, like a finely tuned drum.
He didn't think about bees.
He didn't recognize the bee's nest.
He just thought about all the gifts Judge Rabbit was getting.
So Tiger felt jealous.
“ Rabbit, I want to
play the drum and get gifts,” he said.
“Sorry, Tiger,” said Rabbit. “ It's my turn.”
“Please, Rabbit,” pleaded Tiger. “ Please let me play.”
“But if you come up here, you'll eat me,” Judge Rabbit replied.
“No, no, I promise
I won't,” said Tiger.
“Let me play and I'll be your friend forever.”
“Welllll,” said Rabbit.
“Pleeeeeease,” begged Tiger.
“Oh, all right,”
said Judge Rabbit. “I'll go find another drum.
You climb up here and watch me.
When I jump up and down three times, hit that drum as hard as you can.
You will surely get your reward!”
“ Akoon, akoon,” said Tiger, thanking Rabbit again and again.
Then Rabbit came down and started to run.
Tiger climbed up slowly and sat next to the drum.
He watched and waited for Judge Rabbit's signal.
At last he saw the three big jumps.
With a grin, he took his hand and gave the drum ONE HUGE HIT!
BZZZZZZZZ BZZZZZZZZZZZZZ BZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
The nest broke. Hundreds of furious bees raced out.
Tiger jumped down and tried to run, but the bees followed right behind.
Those angry bees chased him for a long, long time.
As for Rabbit, he was
far, far away and quite safe.
He wiggled his
ears, munched his favorite cucumbers,
and thought about poor Tiger,
tricked again.
(story plot collected from Cambodian women at Refugee Women’s Alliance, Seattle, printed in Treasury of Asian Stories by Cathy Spagnoli, and used with permission from Upstart Books)
