A TALE BY THE WAYSIDE. 233 



trickster ; but the whimsicality that underlies this 

 charm is so evanescent that it will not live in pen 

 and ink. The stories can only be told. When one 

 has committed them to writing, even in their native 

 language, one cannot but look at them with the same 

 rueful feeling that a man has when he has picked a 

 wood-anemone and sees it fade and wilt at his touch ; 

 but when one has to translate the story into another 

 language, in which the words have another value 

 and therefore fail to give the true equivalent of the 

 original, the result is no more like the real folk-tale 

 than a flower, dried and pressed between two sheets 

 of paper and labelled wood-anemone, resembles the 

 white star that raises its delicate head above the 

 fallen beech-leaves. 



In the second of three divisions into which the 

 pelandok stories may be said to fall, the little mouse- 

 deer appears in the character of an arbitrator or 

 umpire, chosen on account of his acumen to settle 

 disputes and quarrels. In this role he is generally 

 styled Che Salam di Rimba (Sir Peace of the Forest), 

 and is addressed by all with respect. 



Of this class of story the following will serve as 

 an example. 



Two men (men, be it noticed) quarrelled about a 

 loan which one had made to the other. The debtor 

 had promised to repay the loan in two months. (In 

 Malay, moon and month are the same word.) When, 

 upon the expiry of the stipulated time, the creditor 

 demanded repayment, the debtor replied laconically, 

 pointing to the sky, " There is only one moon." 



"It is two months since I lent you the money," 



