A TALE BY THE WAYSIDE. 229 



known, and the most popular, are those that have for 

 their hero the little mouse-deer, whose Malay name is 

 pelandok. 1 It is the smallest of all the deer tribe, 

 the daintiest and most exquisitely formed little 

 creature that can be imagined. A full-grown animal 

 is barely eight inches high ; and so small is the scale 

 upon which it is built that its feet, with their deli- 

 cately cloven little hooves, have not the thickness of 

 the slimmest of penholders. 



No one, so far as I am aware, has attempted any 

 analysis or classification of the mouse-deer stories. 

 They seem to contain three separate conceptions of 

 the character of the mo use- deer, and though no hard 

 and fast line of division can be drawn, most of the 

 stories fall into one of the three classes. 



First of all, we have " the wily mouse - deer " 

 pelandok jenaka the trickster, the practical joker, 

 often the petty cheat. He is the counterpart of 

 Eeynard the Fox in the stories of Central Europe, of 

 the Jackal in India and in East Africa, and of " B'rer 

 Kabbit " in negro tales. He escapes from an enemy 

 by his cunning, but he is generally powerless to 

 destroy his enemy ; he contents himself with mocking 

 at his discomfiture, generally quite needlessly, rather 

 in gamin fashion, and thus only succeeds in whetting 

 a natural desire for revenge. 



Of this class are the following stories : 



A mouse-deer one day fell into a trap, and being 

 unable to get out again waited there until an elephant 

 happened to pass by. Then the mouse-deer called out 

 "Why, brother elephant, what are you doing?" 



1 The final k is silent : pronounce p&ando. 



