Long ago, animals had no tails. The horse couldn't chase away flies, the tailless squirrel struggled to jump from branch to branch, the fox was far less beautiful, and let's not even mention the lion!

The wise king of animals, the lion, decided to remedy this situation. He pondered for a long time on how to approach this and finally called upon the fox for advice.

"Not all animals can have the same tail," the fox reasoned.

"I know that too," replied the lion. "But how can we distribute tails among the animals without being unfair?"

The fox thought for a moment, then declared:

"It's simple. Those who arrive first will receive the most beautiful tails."

The lion nodded:

"That's an excellent idea. Run quickly into the forest and inform all the animals that they must present themselves at noon, by the stream, for the distribution of tails."

The fox relayed the message and ran quickly to the stream to arrive first. He was closely followed by the horse, squirrel, cat, and dog, who always arrive first when something is being distributed. Then came the other animals: the elephant, pig, and hare arrived last.

When all the animals were gathered in the clearing, the lion began distributing the tails. He served himself first: it was a superb tail, long and golden, ending in a plume. Then, the lion awarded very beautiful, bushy tails to the fox and squirrel. The horse opted for a magnificent mane tail. The dog and cat still received quite presentable tails, but the animals who arrived last found themselves quite deprived. The elephant got a thin cord with a few bristles at the end. He was so upset that he still carries his trunk low to this day. The pig's tail was as thin as an earthworm. He curled it to make it prettier. The poor hare was left without a tail. The dog and cat began to argue over which of them had the most beautiful tail. In the end, the dog caught the cat and bit off the end of its tail. The cat fled up a tree, and since that day, it prefers to run away from dogs. The hare picked up the end of the cat's tail and stuck it on his behind. This explains why hares' tails are so small.