SOME MOUSE-DEER TALES. 63 



" With evil," answered the dish-cover : " I was once bright and 

 new, fine with silk and gold thread, the pride of my mistress, 

 but see, now that I am torn and tarnished, she has cast me 

 away on the river.*' "Hear that ?" quoth the Mouse-deer. 

 " Don't ask stupid questions, you silly buffalo. But, as for 

 these creatures lifting that tree-trunk and setting you free, 

 Mr. Crocodile, I don't believe a word of it, and I won't, till I 

 have seen it with my own eyes. Let go that old bull's leg : it 

 is very tough : and keeping your eye on yonder baby buffalo, 

 who cannot run far and is very tender eating, just tell these 

 beasts to lift up this trunk, as you want me to believe they 

 lifted it just now, and then only will I accept your story." So ; 

 the crocodile was nettled, and did as the Mouse-deer asked, 

 let go the bull's leg and approached the trunk to instruct the 

 buffaloes how to raise it, once more. Then the buffaloes 

 strained and strained and lifted it a little. " See," said the 

 crocodile, peering and pushing right under the trunk to watch 

 the work, " see, up it goes." " And down it goes," yelled the 

 Mouse-deer : " down with it, you buffaloes, quick, quick, on 

 top of the rogue." The buffaloes dropped the tree, and there 

 was the crocodile pinned fast beneath it and sore wounded, 

 " As long as there is a crocodile in the world," said the dying 

 beast, " he shall be your foe and the enemy of all your tribe, 

 you accursed mouse-deer.'' " Well, well," answered Si Plandok. 

 " as long I am in the world, my wits shall be my friends, I 

 hope." 



Then the Mouse-deer went on his way up hill and down 

 dale, through jungle and plain ■ till he was faint and thirsty. 

 At last, he came to a stream and went down to drink. " There 

 are no crocodiles here," he thought to himself, and he drank 

 from a brook, his back turned to the big river. But a croco- 

 dile crept up and seized one of his hindlegs. " Ho," said he, 

 nearly screaming with pain, " I was mistaken. What is to be 

 done now ? Mr. Crocodile, sir, why are you biting a dead 

 branch ? " " Call your leg a dead branch ?" laughed the cro- 

 codile. "That's not my leg," said the Mouse-deer, "taste it 

 carefully : don't bite or you'll miss the flavour : does it not 



R. A. Soc, No. 45, 1905. 



