50. Rabbit Engineers a Tug of War Between Two Tie-Snakes (Second Version)

50. RABBIT ENGINEERS A TUG OF WAR BETWEEN TWO TIE-SNAKES (70)

(SECOND VERSION)

Rabbit was in the bend of a creek and a Snake on either side of the bend, and the Rabbit used to drink water there. One time after he had been drinking water he said to one of the Snakes, "I can pull you out of the water." The other did not believe he could, so they agreed to seize a grapevine at either end and pull against each other. Then Rabbit went over to the other Snake, said the same thing to him, and made the same arrangement. He agreed with them to utter a whoop when he was ready to begin the contest. So he got the grapevine, gave one end to one Snake and then carried the other across to the other Snake. Then he whooped and the Snakes began pulling against each other, one being pulled out of the water for a minute and then the other. Finally they thought, "Rabbit can't be as strong as that," so they looked up, and saw Rabbit was fooling them, and afterwards they would not let him get water there.