Don Alfonso: "Eccovi il medico, signore belle."Ferrando and Guglielmo: "Despina in maschera, che triste pelle!"Lorenzo da Ponte, Così fan Tutte"They say that there was a time when El-ahrairah and his followers lost alltheir luck. Their enemies drove them out and they were forced to live down in themarshes of Kelfazin. Now, where the marshes of Kelfazin may be I do not know,but at the time when El-ahrairah and his followers were living there, of all thedreary places in the world they were the dreariest. There was no food but coarsegrass and even the grass was mixed with bitter rushes and docks. The ground wastoo wet for digging: the water stood in any hole that was made. But all the otheranimals had grown so suspicious of El-ahrairah and his tricks that they would notlet him out of that wretched country and every day Prince Rainbow used to comewalking through the marshes to make sure that El-ahrairah was still there. PrinceRainbow had the power of the sky and the power of the hills and Frith had toldhim to order the world as he thought best.
"One day, when Prince Rainbow was coming through the marshes, El-ahrairahwent up to him and said, 'Prince Rainbow, my people are cold and cannot getunderground because of the wet. Their food is so dull and poor that they will be illwhen the bad weather comes. Why do you keep us here against our will? We dono harm.'
"'El-ahrairah,' replied Prince Rainbow, 'all the animals know that you are athief and a trickster. Now your tricks have caught up with you and you have tolive here until you can persuade us that you will be an honest rabbit.'
"'Then we shall never get out,' said El-ahrairah, 'for I would be ashamed to tellmy people to stop living on their wits. Will you let us out if I can swim across alake full of pike?'
"'No,' said Prince Rainbow, 'for I have heard of that trick of yours, El-ahrairah,and I know how it is done.'
"'Will you let us go if I can steal the lettuces from King Darzin's garden?' askedEl-ahrairah.
"Now, King Darzin ruled over the biggest and richest of the animal cities in theworld at that time. His soldiers were very fierce and his lettuce garden wassurrounded by a deep ditch and guarded by a thousand sentries day and night. Itwas near his palace, on the edge of the city where all his followers lived. So whenEl-ahrairah talked of stealing King Darzin's lettuces, Prince Rainbow laughed andsaid,"'You can try, El-ahrairah, and if you succeed I will multiply your peopleeverywhere and no one will be able to keep them out of a vegetable garden fromnow till the end of the world. But what will really happen is that you will be killedby the soldiers and the world will be rid of a smooth, plausible rascal.'
"'Very well,' said El-ahrairah. 'We shall see.'
"Now, Yona the hedgehog was nearby, looking for slugs and snails in themarshes, and he heard what passed between Prince Rainbow and El-ahrairah. Heslipped away to the great palace of King Darzin and begged to be rewarded forwarning him against his enemies.
"'King Darzin,' he sniffled, 'that wicked thief El-ahrairah has said he will stealyour lettuces and he is coming to trick you and get into the garden.'
"King Darzin hurried down to the lettuce garden and sent for the captain of theguard.
"'You see these lettuces?' he said. 'Not one of them has been stolen since theseed was sown. Very soon now they will be ready and then I mean to hold a greatfeast for all my people. But I have heard that that scoundrel Eh-ahrairah means tocome and steal them if he can. You are to double the guards; and all the gardenersand weeders are to be examined every day. Not one leaf is to go out of the gardenuntil either I or my chief taster gives the order.'
"The captain of the guard did as he was told. That night El-ahrairah came outof the marshes of Kelfazin and went secretly up to the great ditch. With him washis trusty Captain of Owsla, Rabscuttle. They squatted in the bushes and watchedthe doubled guards patrolling up and down. When the morning came they saw allthe gardeners and weeders coming up to the wall and every one was looked at bythree guards. One was new and had come instead of his uncle who was ill, but theguards would not let him in because they did not know him by sight and theynearly threw him into the ditch before they would even let him go home. El-ahrairah and Rabscuttle came away in perplexity and that day, when PrinceRainbow came walking through the fields, he said, 'Well, well, Prince with theThousand Enemies, where are the lettuces?'
"'I am having them delivered,' answered El-ahrairah. 'There will be rather toomany to carry.' Then he and Rabscuttle went secretly down one of their few holeswhere there was no water, put a sentry outside and thought and talked for a dayand a night.
"On the top of the hill near King Darzin's palace there was a garden and herehis many children and his chief followers' children used to be taken to play bytheir mothers and nursemaids. There was no wall round the garden. It wasguarded only when the children were there; at night it was empty, because therewas nothing to steal and no one to be hunted. The next night Rabscuttle, who hadbeen told by El-ahrairah what he had to do, went to the garden and dug a scrape.
He hid in the scrape all night; and the next morning, when the children werebrought to play, he slipped out and joined them. There were so many childrenthat each one of the mothers and nursemaids thought that he must belong tosomebody else, but as he was about the same size as the children and not muchdifferent to look at, he was able to make friends with some of them. Rabscuttlewas full of tricks and games and quite soon he was running and playing just as ifhe had been one of the children himself. When the time came for the children togo home, Rabscuttle went, too. They came up to the gate of the city and theguards saw Rabscuttle with King Darzin's son. They stopped him and asked whichwas his mother, but the King's son said, 'You let him alone. He's my friend,' andRabscuttle went in with all the others.
"Now, as soon as Rabscuttle got inside the King's palace, he scurried off andwent into one of the dark burrows; and here he hid all day. But in the evening hecame out and made his way to the royal storerooms, where the food was being gotready for the King and his chief followers and wives. There were grasses andfruits and roots and even nuts and berries, for King Darzin's people wenteverywhere in those days, through the woods and fields. There were no soldiers inthe storerooms and Rabscuttle hid there in the dark. And he did all he could tomake the food bad, except what he ate himself.
"That evening King Darzin sent for the chief taster and asked him whether thelettuces were ready. The chief taster said that several of them were excellent andthat he had already had some brought into the stores.
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