The
next night all the girls waited as Ms Clare got her book and sat down
in her seat. "What kind of story do you girls feel like tonight? A
funny story, a scary story..."
"One with animals!!" interrupted Jenny.
"Well let's see...ah here we are, the story of the crab snd the monkey."
The
Crab and The Monkey
retelling by Sonal Patni
email me
Upon a high mountain, deep in the valley there grew a beautiful kaki
tree. There was a crab that lived under this tree and she spent most of
her days under its shade. Since this was an extravagant mountain, there
were several merchants and travelers that came by. The crab was lucky
enough to find a bowl of rice a pilgrim left behind. Seizing this
opportunity, the crab dragged the bowl back under her tree.
A monkey that was leaping from tree to tree happened to catch a glimpse
of this. His eyes grew wide and his stomach grumbled, for rice was his
favorite dish. He came down to the little crab and offered the kernel
of his kaki fruit in exchange for half of the rice. The crab loved kaki
fruit, and knew she would not be able to finish all this rice, so she
agreed. They shared their food and then said goodbye.
A few weeks went by before the crab saw the monkey. The monkey was
again very hungry and wanted some kaki fruit. He politely asked the
crab if he might take some kaki fruit. The crab was unable to climb the
tree and deliver the fruit but thought that the monkey might be able to
help her out. She agreed to let the monkey climb her tree if he would
throw her down some fruit too. The monkey nodded, and climbed up the
tree.
Much to the crab’s surprise, the monkey filled only his own pockets
with the fruit. The few he threw to the crab were moldy and spoilt. The
crab became furious and wondered what she could do. She then hollered
at the monkey “Dear monkey, you are rather skillful, but you have eaten
so much that I don’t think you will be able to do a somersault!” The
monkey was the best at somersaults in his village and took offense to
this comment. He flipped in the air to prove that little crab wrong.
When the monkey went up in the air all the fruit he collected fell from
his pockets. The crab quickly grabbed as many as she could and hurried
back to her house. When she came out to finish collecting the fruit,
the monkey struck her on the head and beat her very badly.
Luckily some of the crab’s friends were in the neighborhood, found her,
and nursed her back to health. After she had shared her horrific story,
they
all agreed to teach the monkey a lesson when he returned to collect the
fruit. The crab and her friend, the wasp, placed a mortar above the
door, and an egg over by the tree. The crab hid under the ground, while
the wasp sat in the water bucket.
It wasn’t long until the monkey came tip-toeing across their way. He
called out for the crab, but there was no response. A huge grin came
over the monkey's face for the fruit was his for the taking. His eyes
were however quickly drawn to the egg. As he grabbed it the egg burst
into a million pieces and struck him in the face. To relieve his
burning the monkey went over to the water bucket, but as he flung it
towards his face the wasp stung him. The monkey became quite terrified
and began running for the door, but when he flung the door open, the
mortar stuck him on the head.
"Ms Clare, what happened to the monkey!!??!" asked Jenny.
"Well, up in the mountains they have to behave too. I think the monkey
went to jail to think about what he did." responded Ms Clare.
The next night Ms Clare thought she would peek in and see how the girls
were doing.
Author's Note:
I didn’t really change much about the story, and kept it around the
same length. The characters are the same, except I added thoughts of
the crab. Since my frame is a lady reading to children I decided to
leave out the fact that the monkey gets killed. It seemed a little
extreme for a bedtime story. I just let Ms Clare make up an ending. I
really like how this story has a lot of great lessons in it, especially
about greed. There is the obvious punishment of the monkey, and the
overlooked punishment of the crab. The only reason the crab gets struck
is because she gets greedy and goes back to collect more fruit. I think
this story fits into my theme because it allows us to see how there is
a respect for all creatures in the Asian culture. Here we see how
blurry the lines between humans and animals in Asian tales are. In
Asian culture, animals are viewed and treated as equals.
Bibliography:
Story Title: The Crab and the Monkey
Story Websource:
http://www.mythfolklore.net/andrewlang/228.htm
Book Title: Andrew Lang’s Fairy Books
Author: Andrew Lang
Year: 1903
Image:
Title: Monkey
Story Websource:
http://www.keaner.net/sketch/Monkey.jpg
Author: Kean Soo
