“Oh yes,” was the reply. “What I said was perfectly true, only I persuaded the King to postpone the disaster.”
“You need not try to put us off with any more lies. You must come down, for we mean to have your blood.”
“I cannot,” said the Mouse-Deer, “because the King has asked me to watch his gong,” pointing to the bee’s-nest.
“Is that the King’s gong?” said the Deer. “I should like to strike it to hear what it sounds like.”
“So you may,” said the Mouse-Deer, “only let me get down and go to some distance before you do so, as the noise would deafen me.”
So the Mouse-Deer sprang down and ran away. The Deer took a long stick and struck the bee’s-nest, and the bees flew out angrily and stung him to death.
The Pig, seeing what had happened, pursued the Mouse-Deer, determined to avenge the death of his friend. He found his enemy taking refuge on a tree round the trunk of which was a large python curled.
“Come down,” said the Pig, “and I will kill you.”
“I cannot come down to-day. I am set here to watch the King’s girdle. Look at it,” he said, pointing to the Python. “Is it not pretty? I have never seen such a handsome waist-belt before.”