230 IN MALAY FORESTS. 



The elephant stopped and inquired what the matter 

 was, and what the mouse-deer was doing at the bottom 

 of the pit. The mouse-deer exclaimed 



" What, you foolish elephant, have you not heard 

 that the sky is going to fall ? I am staying down 

 here to be out of harm's way." 



The elephant replied that he had not heard any- 

 thing about it, but at the mouse-deer's suggestion he 

 looked up above his head, and there, between the tree- 

 tops and the sky, he saw the clouds scudding by. 



" See how the clouds are flying," cried the mouse- 

 deer. " It won't be long now before the sky falls." 



The elephant looked again, and then, without 

 further parley, plunged into the pit for safety. 



The mouse-deer then managed to get on to the 

 elephant's back, and thence to leap up to the mouth 

 of the pit and to make good his escape. 



He was then mean enough to go and tell the man 

 who had made the pit : which is somehow rather 

 disappointing. 



Another time the mouse-deer wished to cross a 

 river, but dared not swim it for fear of the crocodiles 

 that infested it. He had therefore to rely upon his 

 cleverness, and accordingly got into conversation with 

 the Crocodile Raja, who lay basking upon the bank, 

 and started a discussion as to whether there were 

 more crocodiles or mouse-deer in the world. In the 

 course of the argument the Crocodile Raja said that 

 there were more than a thousand crocodiles in his 

 river alone, and the mouse-deer expressed his surprise 

 that there should be so many crocodiles in the whole 

 world, and suggested that the Crocodile Raja should 



