WHILE a deer was eating wild fruit, he heard an owl call "Haak, haak"
(a spear), and a cricket cry, "Wat" (surrounded), and, frightened, he
fled. In his flight he ran through the trees up into the mountains and
into streams. In one of the streams the deer stepped upon a small fish
and crushed it almost to death.Then the fish complained to the court,
and the deer, owl, cricket, and fish had a lawsuit. In the trial came
out this evidence:
As the deer fled, he ran into some dry grass, and the seed fell into
the eye of a wild chicken, and the pain of the seed in the eye of the
chicken caused it to fly up against a nest of redants. Alarmed, the
red antsflew out to do battle, and in their haste, bit a mongoose. The
mongoose ran into a vine of wild fruitand shook several pieces of it
on the head of a hermit who sat thinking under a tree. "Why did you, O
fruit, fall on my head?" cried the hermit. The fruit answered: "We did
not wish to fall; a mongoose ran against our vine and threw us down."
And the hermit asked, " O mongoose, why did you throw the fruit?" The
mongoose answered: "I did not wish to throw down the fruit, but the
redants bit me, and I ran against the vine." The hermit asked, " O
ants, why did you bite the mongoose?" The red ants replied: "The hen
flew against our nest and angered us." The hermit asked: " O hen, why
did you fly against the red ants' nest?" And the hen replied: "The
seed fell into my eyes and hurt me." Andthe hermit asked, " O seed,why
did you fall into the hen's eyes?" And the seed replied: "The deer
shook me down." The hermit saidunto the deer, "O deer, why did you
shake down the seed?" The deer answered: "I did not wish to do it, but
the owl called,frightening me, and I ran.""O owl," asked the
hermit,"why did you frighten the deer?" The owl replied: "I called,
but as I am accustomed to call---the cricket, too, called."
Having heard the evidence,the judge said, "The cricketmust replace the
crushed parts of the fish and make it well," as he, the cricket, had
called and frightened the deer. The cricket was smaller and weaker
than the owl or the deer, therefore had to bear the penalty.
The Man in the Moon
THERE was a blacksmith once who complained: "I am not well, and my
work is too warm. I want to be astone on the mountain. There it must
be cool, for the wind blows and the trees give a shade." A wise man
who had power over all things replied: "Go you, be a stone." And he
was a stone, high up on the mountain-side. It happened that a
stone-cutter came that way for a stone, and when he saw the one that
had been the blacksmith, he knew that it was what he sought, and he
began to cut it. Thestone cried out: "This hurts! I no longer want to
be a stone. A stone-cutter Iwant to be. That would be pleasant." The
wise man, humoring him, said, "Be a cutter." Thus he became a
stone-cutter, and as he went seeking suitable stone, he grew tired,
and his feet were sore. He whimpered, " I no longer want to cut stone.
I would be the sun; that would be pleasant." The wise man commanded, "
Be the sun."And he was the sun. But the sun was warmer than the
blacksmith, than a stone, than a stone-cutter, and he complained, "I
do not like this. I would be the moon. It looks cool." The wise man
spake yet again, "Be the moon." And he was the moon. "This is warmer
than being the sun," murmured he, "for the light from the sun shines
on me ever. I do notwant to be the moon. I would be a smith again.
That, verily, is the best life." But the wise man replied, " I am
weary of your changing. You wanted to be the moon; the moon you are,
and it you will remain."
And in yon high heaven lives he to this day.
The Legend of the Rice
IN the days when the earth was young and all things were better than
they now are, when men and women were strongerand of greater beauty,
andthe fruit of the trees was larger and sweeter than that which we
now eat, rice, the food of the people, was of larger grain. One grain
was all a man could eat; and in those early days, such, too,was the
merit of the people, they never had to toil gathering the rice, for,
when ripe, it fell from the stalks and rolled into the villages, even
unto the granaries. And upon a yearwhen the rice was larger and more
plentiful than ever before, a widow said to her daughter "Our
granaries are too small. We will pull them down and build larger."
When the old granaries were pulled down and the new one not yet ready
for use, the rice was ripe in the fields. Great haste was made, but
the rice came rolling in where the work was going on, and the widow,
angered, struck a grain and cried, "Could younot wait in the fields
until we were ready? You should not bother us now when you are not
wanted."
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