TALE.
Translated from the Chinese by M. Henri Mouhot.
CHINESE TALES.
In a Chinese village lived two cousins, both orphans: the eldest, who was called Moû, was cunning and egotistical; the other, on the contrary, was goodness and simplicity itself; he was called A-lo-Sine. The time for ploughing the fields arrived: A-lo-Sine possessed a buffalo, while Moû had only a dog. An idea struck him, and he went to his cousin and said, “I bring you my dog; give me your buffalo: my dog will plough your field, which is not very large, and you will see that you will have very fine rice.”
A-lo-Sine consented, and worked so well with the dog that his rice was first-rate, while the field ploughed by the buffalo produced hardly anything.
Moû, then, full of spite, went by night into his cousin’s field, and set fire to it: A-lo-Sine saw the flames, and, unable to repress his despair, uttered piercing cries, and rolled in the field.
Some apes, who were marauding in a neighbouring field, witnessed this spectacle, and said to each other, “That must be a god, since the fire does not hurt him.” They accordingly drew near him, took him by the feet and arms, and carried him to the top of a mountain, where they laid him down, plunged in a deep sleep. The monkeys then piled up rice and delicious fruits, and bowls of gold and silver of extraordinary beauty and value, and then left him to return to the fields.
At last he awoke, and thought no more of his misfortune, seeing around him so many treasures: he gathered them all up, and returned to his hut, full of joy.
Moû, seeing him so happy, followed him, and, at the sight of the gold, “Heavens!” cried he; “my cousin as rich as a prince: give me something.”
“No,” replied A-lo-Sine, “I will not; for you are wicked, and you set fire to my field.”
Moû then went to his own field, and set fire to that also, and imitated all that his cousin had done: he wept, cried, and, like him, threw himself into the flames. Five monkeys, one of them a young one, who were feasting close by, drew near him, curious to see what he was about. “He is a god,” said they, also; “the flames have spared him. Let us carry him away.” No sooner said than done. Each monkey seized one an arm, the other a leg, and they set off.
They reached a neighbouring wood; but there the little monkey began to cry out, “I want to help to carry him also.” “But there is nothing of him to hold by,” said the mother. The little monkey, however, continued to cry, and at last seized Moû’s long tress of hair, and put himself at the head of the procession.
But this hurt Moû, and he tried to disengage his hair. The young monkey began to cry again. “Ah, you are angry; stay there, then,” said all the others, and they threw him into a prickly bush.
Moû had great trouble in extricating himself from his disagreeable position; and it was nearly evening when he reached home, all covered with blood.
“Well, cousin, have you also some gold and silver?” said A-lo-Sine, on seeing him. “Ah! I am thoroughly punished for the harm I did you,” replied Moû. “I bring back nothing but needles: call the women to take them out of me.”