And in that manner he took all the fish, one by one, and ate them, till he came back and found no more! But there was still a crab left behind there; and the crane thought he would eat him too, and called out-- “I say, good crab, I’ve taken all the fish away, and put them into a fine large pond. Come along. I’ll take you too!” “But how will you take hold of me to carry me along?” “I’ll bite hold of you with my beak.” “You’ll let me fall if you carry me like that. I won’t go with you!” “Don’t be afraid! I’ll hold you quite tight all the way.” Then said the crab to himself, “If this fellow once got hold of fish, he would never let them go in a pond! Now if he should really put me into the pond, it would be capital; but if he doesn’t--then I’ll cut his throat, and kill him!” So he said to him-- “Look here, friend, you won’t be able to hold me tight enough; but we crabs have a famous grip. If you let me catch hold of you round the neck with my claws, I shall be glad to go with you.” And the other did not see that he was trying to outwit him, and agreed. So the crab caught hold of his neck with his claws as securely as with a pair of blacksmith’s pincers, and called out, “Off with you, now!” And the crane took him and showed him the pond, and then turned off towards the Varaṇa-tree. “Uncle!” cried the crab, “the pond lies that way, but you are taking me this way!” “Oh, that’s it, is it!” answered the crane. “Your dear little uncle, your very sweet nephew, you call me! You mean me to understand, I suppose, that I am your slave, who has to lift you up and carry you about with him! Now cast your eye upon the heap of fish-bones lying at the root of yonder Varaṇa-tree. Just as I have eaten those fish, every one of them, just so I will devour you as well!” “Ah! those fishes got eaten through their own stupidity,” answered the crab; “but I’m not going to let you eat _me_. On the contrary, it is _you_ that I am going to destroy. For you in your folly have not seen that I was outwitting you. If we die, we die both together; for I will cut off this head of yours, and cast it to the ground!” And so saying, he gave the crane’s neck a grip with his claws, as with a vice. Then gasping, and with tears trickling from his eyes, and trembling with the fear of death, the crane beseeched him, saying, “O my Lord! Indeed I did not intend to eat you. Grant me my life!” “Well, well! step down into the pond, and put me in there.” And he turned round and stepped down into the pond, and placed the crab on the mud at its edge. But the crab cut through its neck as clean as one would cut a lotus-stalk with a hunting-knife, and then only entered the water! “When the Genius who lived in the Varaṇa-tree saw this strange affair, he made the wood resound with his plaudits, uttering in a pleasant voice the verse--