“Now, I will ask you a question,” he said to the pupils. “If the snipe flies in the air, can man catch him? And if the bivalve stays under the cave in the river, can man injure him?”
And the pupils all said, “No, teacher.”
“Well, it was sad that the snipe and the bivalve were caught yesterday. Can you tell me why?”
“We do not know,” said the scholars.
And the teacher said, “They are happy and powerful creatures when they do no harm to each other. The snipe flies in the air, the bivalve swims in his home, the sea, and each has happiness according to his kind.
“Now you see these two creatures fought together, the snipe and the bivalve, and they did not succeed by fighting. The hunter is the only one that succeeded.
“It is so with the three nations now at war. They [[123]]are like the hunter, the snipe, and the bivalve. They ought to live in peace. They are lost when they fight among themselves.”
Then Yung-Moi drew a picture of the warring countries for his pupils.
| ■ | ■ | ■ |
| (YOT) ONE | (YEE) TWO | (SARM) THREE[4] |
“One and Three represent two nations at war with each other. One asks Two’s permission to pass an army through his country that he may fight Three. While the army of One is away from home, the people get in a fight among themselves and civil war follows. Number Two takes advantage of the situation and in the absence of Number One’s army (who is trying to overpower Three), conquers Number One easily. Number Two then owns the nations One and Two, and with this added strength goes to the land of Number Three and conquers him, so that all three countries now belong to Number Two.” [[124]]