Atondido Stories
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 Varana-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 un-
cle, your very sweet nephew, you call me! You mean me to un-
derstand, 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 Varana-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," an-
swered the crab; "but I'm not going to let you eat m e. On the
contrary, is it yo u that I am going to destroy. For you in your fol-
ly 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, say-
ing, "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!
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