ast the crocodile
appeared, bringing with him a large number of other crocodiles.

"Look, Mr. Hare!" said the crocodile, "it is nothing for my friends to
form a line between here and Inaba. There are enough crocodiles to
stretch from here even as far as China or India. Did you ever see so
many crocodiles?"

Then the whole company of crocodiles arranged themselves in the water
so as to form a bridge between the Island of Oki and the mainland of
Inaba. When the hare saw the bridge of crocodiles, he said:

"How splendid! I did not believe this was possible. Now let me count
you all! To do this, however, with your permission, I must walk over on
your backs to the other side, so please be so good as not to move, or
else I shall fall into the sea and be drowned!"

So the hare hopped off the island on to the strange bridge of
crocodiles, counting as he jumped from one crocodile's back to the
other:

"Please keep quite still, or I shall not be able to count. One, two,
three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine--"

Thus the cunning hare walked right across to the mainland of Inaba. Not
content with getting his wish, he began to jeer at the crocodiles
instead of thanking them, and said, as he leapt off the last one's back:

"Oh! you stupid crocodiles, now I have done with you!"

And he was just about to run away as fast as he could. But he did not
escape so easily, for so soon as the crocodiles understood that this
was a trick played upon them by the hare so as to enable him to cross
the sea, and that the hare was now laughing at them for their
stupidity, they became furiously angry and made up their minds to take
revenge. So some of them ran after the hare and caught him. Then they
all surrounded the poop little animal and pulled out all his fur. He
cried out loudly and entreated them to spare him, but with each tuft of
fur they pulled out they said:

"Serve you right!"

When the crocodiles had pulled out the last bit of fur, they threw the
poor hare on the beach, and all swam away laughing at what they had
done.

The hare was now in a pitiful plight, all his beautiful white fur had
been pulled out, and his bare little body was quivering with pain and
bleeding all over. He could hardly move, and all he could do was to lie
on the beach quite helpless and weep over the misfortune that had
befallen him. Notwithstanding that it was his own fault that had
brought all this misery and suffering upon the white hare of Inab