The day arrived, and the King-crow flew off, and in each of the higher
reaches the Water-snail's friends replied to the challenge, while at
the river-mouth the Water-snail replied in person. So the King-crow
was defeated and has ever since remained the slave of the Water-snail.
The Elephant Has a Bet with the Tiger
In the beginning Gajah the Elephant and Rimau the Tiger were sworn
friends. But one day they came to a clearing and presently encountered
Lotong, the long-tailed Spectacle-monkey. And when he saw the Monkey,
the Elephant said, "Mr. Lotong yonder is far too noisy; let us try and
shake him off; if he falls to me I am to eat you; and if he falls to
you, you are to eat me--we will make a wager of it." The Tiger said,
"Agreed"; and the Elephant replied, "Agreed." "Very well!" said the
Tiger; "you shall try and menace him first." So the Elephant tried to
menace the Monkey. "AU! AU! AU!" he trumpeted, and each time he
trumpeted the Monkey was scared. But the Monkey went jumping head
foremost through the branches and never fell to the ground at all.
Presently, therefore, the Tiger asked the Elephant, "Well, Friend
Elephant, would you like to try your luck again?" But the Elephant
said, "No, thank you. It shall be your turn now; and if he falls to
you, you shall eat me--if you really can make him fall!" Then the
Tiger went and roared his longest and loudest, and shortened his body
as for a spring and growled and menaced the Monkey thrice. And the
Monkey leaped and fell at the Tiger's feet, for his feet and hands were
paralyzed and would not grip the branches any more. Then the Tiger
said: "Well, Friend Elephant, I suppose I may eat you now." But the
Elephant said: "You have, I admit, won the wager; but I beg you to
grant me just seven days' respite, to enable me to visit my wife and
children and to make my will." The Tiger granted the request, and the
Elephant went home, bellowing and sobbing every foot of the way.
Now the Elephant's wife heard the sound of her husband's voice, and
said to her children, "What can be the matter with your Father that he
keeps sobbing so?" And the children listened to make sure, and said,
"Yes, it really is Father's voice, the sobbing, and not that of anybody
else." Presently Father Elephant arrived, and Mother Elephant asked:
"What were you sobbing for, Father? What have you done to yourself?"
Father Elephant replied: "I made a wager with Friend Tiger about
shaking down a Monkey, and Friend Tiger beat me; I menaced the Monkey,
but he did not fall; if he had fallen to me, I was to have eaten Friend
Tiger, but if he fell to Friend Tiger, Friend Tiger was to eat me. I
was beaten, and now Friend Tiger says he is going to eat me. So I
begged leave to come home and see you, and he has given me just seven
days' respite."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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