Story |- Right and Might

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 hisflight he ran through the trees up into the mountains and
into streams. In one of the streams the deer steppedupon 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 againsta nest of red ants. Alarmed, the
red ants flew out to do battle, andin their haste, bit a mongoose. The
mongoose ran into a vineof wild fruit and shook several pieces of it
on thehead 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
red ants bit me, and I ran against the vine." The hermit asked, " O
ants, why did you bite the mongoose?" The red antsreplied: "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." And the hermit asked, " O seed,
why did you fall into the hen's eyes?" And the seed replied: "The deer
shook me down." The hermit said unto the deer, "O deer, why did you
shake down the seed?" The deer answered: "I did notwish to do it, but
the owl called, frightening me, and I ran." "O owl," askedthe 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 cricket must replace
the crushed parts of the fish and make it well," as he, the cricket,
had calledand frightened the deer. The cricket was smaller and weaker
than the owlor the deer, therefore had to bear the penalty.

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