Then the hare went and took up his post under a hornet’s nest, and the monkey came along, shouting for his friend, and, finding him asked, “What may you be doing there?” And the hare replied, “I am guarding the king’s drum, so there!” “Ah,” said the monkey, “do let me beat the king’s drum!” “Oh, but I cannot,” said the hare, “the king will be angry.” But the monkey insisted, and said, “I will play on the drum very gently; you see!” So the hare consenting, the monkey clapped his two palms on the hornet’s nest and broke it, so that the hornets emerged, and stung him sore, so that he screamed with pain. But the hare only said, “You would have your way, and what was I to do?”
Next the hare went and sat down near a gowal snake. And the monkey came shouting, and asked, “What are you about now, my friend?” The hare replied, “I am now in charge of the king’s sceptre!” On which the monkey said, “Ah, let me just wield the king’s sceptre for a moment!” But the hare answered, “I cannot do that, for the king will be angry.” But the monkey being importunate, he consented. Whereupon, of course, the snake bit him, and he howled with pain.
Then the hare went and sat in a marshy place, and the monkey came shouting in search of him, and asked what he was doing. And the hare told him he was sitting on the king’s litter. “Ah,” prayed the monkey, “let me too sit on the king’s litter.” But the hare said angrily, “And what do you suppose the king will say? It strikes me you are a fool, my friend, and listen to no warning!” But the monkey, insisting, leaped into the marsh, sank up to his neck, and stuck there miserably. On which the hare leaped out and cried, “Now, my kind friend, you who eat bananas and give me the skins, you can just stay where you are! My compliments! I am off!” So saying, he left him to his fate.
Presently a rhinoceros came that way, and the monkey begged him to extricate him. But the rhinoceros remarked that he was hungry and thirsty and on his way home to dinner, and went his way. And a buffalo also passed by and refused to help. Finally a tiger came, extremely ravenous. And the monkey entreated him respectfully to pull him out; but the tiger said he did not see how it would profit him to come to his rescue. But when he had gone some two paces, the monkey called after him, “Look here, if you will drag me out of the marsh, you can clean me of the mud, and eat me!” And since the tiger was extremely hungry, he consented and said, “It is not that I have any particular desire to eat you, but if I do a good deed, I shall get virtue. However, as you are good enough to insist, I am willing to make a meal of you.” So saying, he put his tail into the marsh, and the monkey, catching hold of it, was slowly dragged forth. On which the monkey said, “Now let me dry myself in the sun, and when the mud is dry you can scrape it off and eat me.” So he sat in the sun, and the tiger waited hungrily. But the monkey seized the opportunity when the tiger chanced to look another way, and clambered up a tree. At that the tiger was very angry, and waited two or three days at the foot of the tree. Finally he pretended to die of starvation and lay there with his mouth open and his great teeth showing. So the monkey climbed down, slowly and cautiously. And the tiger lay quite still, so that the flies came and buzzed in his mouth. And first the monkey carefully put his tail in the tiger’s mouth. But he never stirred. Then the monkey thrust his leg in the tiger’s mouth, and still he did not move. “Ah,” said the monkey, in great glee, “you would have gobbled up my tail, and scrunched up my limbs, would you?” And so saying, the silly creature thrust his head in the tiger’s mouth. And the jaws closed with a scrunch, and the monkey died, and that’s all!
III.—Sā-se phālāngī gotho-nī khorāng.
The story of the merchant lad.
| Sā-se |
| One |
| udu-i-au-nŭ |
| womb-in-even |
| bīfā |
| father |