Part 5 (1/2)
So the Mouse-deer, chuckling to himself, bandaged his ankles, and made them fast to the floor of the hut.
”Do you not feel the pain in your legs?” asked the Mouse-deer.
”I think I do,” was the foolish Giant's reply.
So the Mouse-deer bandaged his legs and made them secure, so that the Giant was quite unable to move.
By this time the Giant began to get uneasy, and trying to get up, and finding himself securely bound, he struggled, and roared in pain and anger.
The little Mouse-deer sat before him and laughed, and said:
”You were a match for the Deer, the Pig, the Bear, and the Tiger, but you are defeated by me. Don't make so much noise, or I shall drive a peg through your temples and kill you.”
Just then the others returned from their fis.h.i.+ng. Great was their joy to find their enemy securely bound. With shouts of triumph they fell upon the Giant and killed him, and praised the Mouse-deer for his cleverness in securing him.
THE STORY OF THE MOUSE-DEER, THE DEER, AND THE PIG
A Mouse-deer, wandering in the jungle, fell into a pit. He could not get out, so he waited patiently for some pa.s.ser-by. Presently a Pig pa.s.sed by the mouth of the pit. The Mouse-deer called out to him, and he looked in and asked the Mouse-deer what he was doing at the bottom of the pit.
”Don't you know what is going to happen?” said the Mouse-deer. ”The sky is going to fall down, and everybody will be crushed to dust unless he takes shelter in a pit. If you want to save your life, you had better jump in.”
The Pig jumped into the pit, and the Mouse-deer got on his back, but he found he was not high enough to enable him to leap out.
Next a Deer came along, and, seeing the two animals in the pit, asked them what they were doing there.
The Mouse-deer replied: ”The sky is going to fall down, and everyone will be crushed unless he hides in some hole. Jump in, if you want to save your life.”
The Deer sprang in, and the Mouse-deer made him stand on the back of the Pig; then he himself got on the back of the Deer and jumped out of the pit, leaving the other two to their fate.
The Deer and the Pig were very angry at being tricked in this way by such a small animal as the Mouse-deer. They scratched the side of the pit with their feet until it sloped, and enabled them to scramble out; then they followed the trail of the Mouse-deer, and soon overtook him.
The Mouse-deer saw them coming, and climbed up a tree from the bough of which a large beehive was hanging.
”Come down,” said the Pig and Deer angrily. ”You have deceived us, and we mean to kill you.”
”Deceived you?” said the Mouse-deer in pretended surprise. ”When did I deceive you, or do anything to deserve death?”
”Didn't you tell us that the sky was going to fall, and that if we did not hide ourselves in a pit we should be killed?”
”Oh, yes,” was the reply. ”What I said was perfectly true, only I persuaded the King to postpone the disaster.”
”You need not try to put us off with any more lies. You must come down, for we mean to have your blood.”
”I cannot,” said the Mouse-deer, ”because the King has asked me to watch his gong,” pointing to the bees' nest.
”Is that the King's gong?” said the Deer. ”I should like to strike it to hear what it sounds like.”
”So you may,” said the Mouse-deer, ”only let me get down, and go to some distance before you do so, as the sound would deafen me.”
So the Mouse-deer sprang down and ran away. The Deer took a long stick and struck the bees' nest, and the bees flew out angrily and stung him to death.