The Hare Who Was a King's Advisor

A great Zulu king needed a new chief advisor. He set a challenge for all the animals: "Go to the forbidden pool on the mountain and bring me back a calabash of its water." All the strong animals tried. The Leopard tried to sneak past the guardian spirits but was frightened away. The Buffalo tried to charge through but was turned back by a wall of fire. Then, uNogwaja the Hare went. He did not try to enter the pool's grove. He sat at the bottom of the mountain and began to weep pitifully. He cried so loudly that the guardian spirit of the pool came down to see what was wrong. "Why do you make such a noise?" the spirit asked. "I am weeping," said the Hare, "because my children have no water to drink, and the great King has sent me for the water from your sacred pool, but I am too small and weak to reach it." The spirit, taking pity on the Hare's apparent sorrow and his loyalty to the king, filled the calabash for him. The Hare returned to the king with the water. The king, seeing that the Hare had succeeded where strength and stealth had failed, made him his chief advisor. He had proven that diplomacy and a clever appeal to pity can overcome any obstacle.