82 A PELANDOK TALE. 



I have come from the big jungle where I have been 

 looking for the pelandok, who has deceived me so badly that I 

 want to kill him ; first he diddled me with a hornets' nest that 

 left me full of stings, then he gave me a very nasty moment 

 just now with a big snake but fortunately I saw that it was 

 alive. So I am looking for him to eat him. " 



When the crocodile heard that he in his turn told how 

 the pelandok had cheated him, and how when the pelandok 

 wanted to eat the chadong fruit he had told them that King 

 Solomon had ordered a census to be made and had ordered 

 them to arrange themselves side by side right across the river, 

 and then when they were arranged how he took a coconut and 

 rapped them all on the head saying, " One two three " (crick) 

 " small head, big head " (crack) until he had rapped them all 

 on the head. And then as soon as he. had got across he told 

 them how he had cheated them. And so they too were very 

 angry with the pelandok. 



When the tiger heard the story of the crocodile he said to 

 the crocodile, "We had better lay our plans together ; you 

 can carry me across to the other bank over there and I can 

 hunt for him. If he runs into the water he is your meat but 

 if I catch him on the land he is mine." 



The crocodile agreed, so the tiger got on to his head 

 and was carried across the river and safely reached the 

 other bank. 



Now at the time that the tiger and the crocodile were 

 making this plot the pelandok heard them from the top of the 

 bank that was exactly opposite. The pelandok's thoughts ran 

 thus : 



"I had better kill the tiger now, because he has promised 

 that if I run into the water I am the crocodile's meat but that 

 if he catches me on the land I am his. Ah, I know what to do." 



When the tiger got safely to land he began to look for the 

 pelandok. Now the pelandok went and stood in the middle of 

 a small clearing where there was very little brushwood. The 

 tiger sprang out on the pelandok saying, 



" Now this time I have got you, Sang Dirimba, and I 

 will eat you 



Jour. Straits Branch 



