Unnamed Shan artist: the cunning hare escapes the tiger in Griggs’s folktale
The hare looks back toward the pursuing tiger in the illustration accompanying How the Hare Deceived the Tiger. Her tricks use misleading explanations of ordinary objects rather than physical transformations; the stylized figure represents this tale’s speaking animal.
Overview
After a buffalo saves a tiger from a forest fire, a hare offers the chilled animal shelter but sets her own grass house alight. Pursued, she presents sharp stones covered with mud as a royal seat, a wasp nest as a gong and a snake as a flute. She pretends to obtain permission for the tiger to use each object, bringing it further injury. The supposed rulers of these objects never appear; they are part of her invented excuses.
When she falls into a human pitfall, she turns approaching storm clouds into a claim that the sky is falling. The frightened tiger jumps in for safety. She tickles him until he throws her out, then summons armed people who kill him in the trap. The hare has speech, planning and fire-making tools, but no stated power to change stones, insects, snakes or weather. The English retelling generally calls the hare female, with an isolated later masculine pronoun retained as textual inconsistency rather than a change of identity.
Origins & earliest records
Shan traditions of the hill and water country, Burma/Myanmar
Records & interpretation
Full relevant tale and introduction directly read; historical spellings preserved.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Shan Folk Lore Stories from the Hill and Water Country
Introduction dated Bhamo,1902; How the Hare Deceived the Tiger, pp. 58–66
- 02
Shan Folk Lore Stories, in The Red Miriok / Shan Folk Lore Stories (combined edition)
Bibliographic witness only: unpaginated title and copyright pages independently inspected in original scan; publication line says January1903, copyright1901and1902. This does not establish the date of the separately transcribed Gutenberg witness or of first publication.
Family & connections
A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.
Primary records and illustrations
William C. Griggs, Shan Folk Lore Stories from the Hill and Water Country
Shan traditions; introduction dated Bhamo1902. How the Hare Deceived the Tiger, pp. 58–66
Whole hare/tiger narrative read through the tiger’s death. Actual story effects, etiological assertions and hare’s false claims distinguished. Historical missionary mediation, unnamed individual narrator and dated-introduction/publication distinction retained. Original combined-volume title/copyright pages independently viewed: archive item redmiriokshanfol0000anna, cached griggs-redmiriok-6.jpg and-7.jpg in public/assets/credited/_audit; publishedJanuary1903. Separate bibliographic witness, not a claim that full original scan text was collated.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Historical folktale collectionGriggs, Shan Folk Lore Stories, How the Hare Deceived the Tiger, pp. 58–66Research access: 2026-10-05
- Primary bibliographic scanCombined volume title and copyright pages, published January1903Research access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
Historical illustrationUnnamed Shan artist: the cunning hare escapes the tiger in Griggs’s folktale
The hare looks back toward the pursuing tiger in the illustration accompanying How the Hare Deceived the Tiger. Her tricks use misleading explanations of ordinary objects rather than physical transformations; the stylized figure represents this tale’s speaking animal.