The Monkey and the Jelly-fish

THE MONKEY AND THE JELLY-FISH

Children must often have wondered why jelly-fishes have no shells, like

so many of the creatures that are washed up every day on the beach. In

old times this was not so; the jelly-fish had as hard a shell as any

of them, but he lost it through his own fault, as may be seen in this

story.

The sea-queen Otohime, whom you read of in the story of Uraschimatoro,

grew suddenly very ill. The swiftest messengers were sent hurrying to

fetch the best doctors from every country under the sea, but it was all

of no use; the queen grew rapidly worse instead of better. Everyone had

almost given up hope, when one day a doctor arrived who was cleverer

than the rest, and said that the only thing that would cure her was the

liver of an ape. Now apes do not dwell under the sea, so a council of

the wisest heads in the nation was called to consider the question how a

liver could be obtained. At length it was decided that the turtle, whose

prudence was well known, should swim to land and contrive to catch a

living ape and bring him safely to the ocean kingdom.

It was easy enough for the council to entrust this mission to the

turtle, but not at all so easy for him to fulfil it. However he swam to

a part of the coast that was covered with tall trees, where he thought

the apes were likely to be; for he was old, and had seen many things. It

was some time before he caught sight of any monkeys, and he often grew

tired with watching for them, so that one hot day he fell fast asleep,

in spite of all his efforts to keep awake. By-and-by some apes, who

had been peeping at him from the tops of the trees, where they had been

carefully hidden from the turtle’s eyes, stole noiselessly down, and

stood round staring at him, for they had never seen a turtle before, and

did not know what to make of it. At last one young monkey, bolder than

the rest, stooped down and stroked the shining shell that the strange

new creature wore on its back. The movement, gentle though it was, woke

the turtle. With one sweep he seized the monkey’s hand in his mouth, and

held it tight, in spite of every effort to pull it away. The other apes,

seeing that the turtle was not to be trifled with, ran off, leaving

their young brother to his fate.

Then the turtle said to the monkey, ‘If you will be quiet, and do what

I tell you, I won’t hurt you. But you must get on my back and come with

me.’

The monkey, seeing there was no help for it, did as he was bid; indeed

he could not have resisted, as his hand was still in the turtle’s mouth.

Delighted at having secured his prize, the turtle hastened back to the

shore and plunged quickly into the water. He swam faster than he had

ever done before, and soon reached the royal palace. Shouts of joy broke

forth from the attendants when he was seen approaching, and some of them

ran to tell the queen that the monkey was there, and that before long

she would be as well as ever she was. In fact, so great was their relief

that they gave the monkey such a kind welcome, and were so anxious to

make him happy and comfortable, that he soon forgot all the fears that

had beset him as to his fate, and was generally quite at his ease,

though every now and then a fit of home-sickness would come over him,

and he would hide himself in some dark corner till it had passed away.

It was during one of these attacks of sadness that a jelly-fish happened

to swim by. At that time jelly-fishes had shells. At the sight of the

gay and lively monkey crouching under a tall rock, with his eyes closed

and his head bent, the jelly-fish was filled with pity, and stopped,

saying, ‘Ah, poor fellow, no wonder you weep; a few days more, and they

will come and kill you and give your liver to the queen to eat.’

The monkey shrank back horrified at these words and asked the jelly-fish

what crime he had committed that deserved death.

‘Oh, none at all,’ replied the jelly-fish, ‘but your liver is the only

thing that will cure our queen, and how can we get at it without killing

you? You had better submit to your fate, and make no noise about it, for

though I pity you from my heart there is no way of helping you.’ Then he

went away, leaving the ape cold with horror.

At first he felt as if his liver was already being taken from his body,

but soon he began to wonder if there was no means of escaping this

terrible death, and at length he invented a plan which he thought would

do. For a few days he pretended to be gay and happy as before, but when

the sun went in, and rain fell in torrents, he wept and howled from dawn

to dark, till the turtle, who was his head keeper, heard him, and came

to see what was the matter. Then the monkey told him that before he left

home he had hung his liver out on a bush to dry, and if it was always

going to rain like this it would become quite useless. And the rogue

made such a fuss and moaning that he would have melted a heart of stone,

and nothing would content him but that somebody should carry him back to

land and let him fetch his liver again.

The queen’s councillors were not the wisest of people, and they decided

between them that the turtle should take the monkey back to his native

land and allow him to get his liver off the bush, but desired the turtle

not to lose sight of his charge for a single moment. The monkey knew

this, but trusted to his power of beguiling the turtle when the time

came, and mounted on his back with feelings of joy, which he was,

however, careful to conceal. They set out, and in a few hours were

wandering about the forest where the ape had first been caught, and

when the monkey saw his family peering out from the tree tops, he swung

himself up by the nearest branch, just managing to save his hind leg

from being seized by the turtle. He told them all the dreadful things

that had happened to him, and gave a war cry which brought the rest of

the tribe from the neighbouring hills. At a word from him they rushed

in a body to the unfortunate turtle, threw him on his back, and tore off

the shield that covered his body. Then with mocking words they hunted

him to the shore, and into the sea, which he was only too thankful to

reach alive. Faint and exhausted he entered the queen’s palace for the

cold of the water struck upon his naked body, and made him feel ill

and miserable. But wretched though he was, he had to appear before the

queen’s advisers and tell them all that had befallen him, and how he had

suffered the monkey to escape. But, as sometimes happens, the turtle was

allowed to go scot-free, and had his shell given back to him, and all

the punishment fell on the poor jelly-fish, who was condemned by the

queen to go shieldless for ever after.

(Japanische Marchen.)