The Dragon King flew into a towering rage. He called his executioners and bid them beat the jelly-fish.
“Break every bone in his body,” he cried; “beat him to a jelly.”
Alas for the sad fate of the jelly-fish! Jelly he remains to this very day.
As for the young Dragon Queen, she was fain to laugh when she heard the story.
“If I can’t have a monkey’s liver I must needs do without it,” she said. “Give me my best brocade gown and I will get up, for I feel a good deal better.”
XXVII
URASHIMA
Urashima was a fisherman of the Inland Sea.
Every night he plied his trade. He caught fishes both great and small, being upon the sea through the long hours of darkness. Thus he made his living.
Upon a certain night the moon shone brightly, making plain the paths of the sea. And Urashima kneeled in his boat and dabbled his right hand in the green water. Low he leaned, till his hair lay spread upon the waves, and he paid no heed to his boat that listed or to his trailing fishing-net. He drifted in his boat till he came to a haunted place. And he was neither waking nor sleeping, for the moon made him mad.