WHY THE TIGER IS STRIPED
Brer Rabbit and Brer Tiger started to make crops together and went out to work in the field. They took their lunch with them and set it down in the long grass under a tree, and agreed to eat it together when it should be nine o'clock.
But Brer Rabbit had only worked a little while before he began to feel very hungry, and called out to the Tiger to come to lunch.
The Tiger, however, refused, and said he would wait until nine o'clock.
Brer Rabbit urged that the lunch would not keep and that when Brer Tiger went to look for it he would find the meat all skin, the bread all crust, and the coffee all grounds. Brer Tiger, however, kept on with his work, and pretty soon Brer Rabbit stole away into the long grass where the lunch was hidden and ate everything up, so that when they went at nine o'clock to eat the lunch together, everything was just as Brer Rabbit had said it would be; the meat was all skin, the bread all crust and the coffee all grounds.
Brer Tiger was much impressed with Brer Rabbit's wisdom.
They went back to work but pretty soon Brer Rabbit became very tired of his work, so he lay down and groaned, and made out that he was very sick.
Brer Tiger was sorry for him and offered to carry him home, but Brer Rabbit said he was too sick to go unless he had a good soft bed to lie on. So Brer Tiger made a good soft bed of hay laid on strips of bark, and he put Brer Rabbit on it and started to carry him home.
Brer Rabbit struck a match and lit the hay.
Brer Tiger asked what he was doing.
"Only gritting my tooths in agony," said Brer Rabbit.
Pretty soon the hay began to crackle and make a noise and Brer Tiger asked again, "What are you doing, Brer Rabbit?"
"Only gritting my tooths in agony," was the answer once more.
By this time the hay began to burn pretty well, and Brer Rabbit made a jump and put off through the bushes.
When Brer Tiger began to feel the fire, he lay down and rolled on the ground, but his back was burned in stripes and that is why the tiger is striped now.
Story Title: Why the Tiger is Striped
Book Title: Strange ways and sweet dreams: Afro-American folklore from the Hampton Institute
Author: Waters, Donald J.
Published: 1983
Rights: CC0 Public Domain
Online Source: Hathi Trust
Prior Source: Southern Workman 25, no. 4 (April 1896):82
Process: I removed the eye-dialect with some light editing also for paragraphing, capitalization, and punctuation.
