The Crab that Played with the Sea (2 of 5)

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THE CRAB THAT PLAYED WITH THE SEA (CONT'D)

'Payah kun,' said the Eldest Magician; and he breathed upon the
sand and the rocks, where they had fallen in the sea, and they
became the most beautiful islands of Borneo, Celebes, Sumatra,
Java, and the rest of the Malay Archipelago, and you can look
them out on the map!

By and by the Eldest Magician met the Man on the banks of the
Perak river, and said, 'Ho! Son of Adam, are all the Animals
obedient to you?'

'Yes,' said the Man.

'Is all the Earth obedient to you?'

'Yes,' said the Man.

'Is all the Sea obedient to you?'

'No,' said the Man. 'Once a day and once a night the Sea runs up
the Perak river and drives the sweet-water back into the forest,
so that my house is made wet; once a day and once a night it runs
down the river and draws all the water after it, so that there is
nothing left but mud, and my canoe is upset. Is that the play you
told it to play?'

'No,' said the Eldest Magician. 'That is a new and a bad play.'

'Look!' said the Man, and as he spoke the great Sea came up the
mouth of the Perak river, driving the river backwards till it
overflowed all the dark forests for miles and miles, and flooded
the Man's house.

'This is wrong. Launch your canoe and we will find out who is
playing with the Sea,' said the Eldest Magician. They stepped
into the canoe; the little girl-daughter came with them; and the
Man took his kris--a curving, wavy dagger with a blade like a
flame,--and they pushed out on the Perak river. Then the sea
began to run back and back, and the canoe was sucked out of the
mouth of the Perak river, past Selangor, past Malacca, past
Singapore, out and out to the Island of Bingtang, as though it
had been pulled by a string.

Then the Eldest Magician stood up and shouted, 'Ho! beasts,
birds, and fishes, that I took between my hands at the Very
Beginning and taught the play that you should play, which one of
you is playing with the Sea?'

Then all the beasts, birds, and fishes said together, 'Eldest
Magician, we play the plays that you taught us to play--we and
our children's children. But not one of us plays with the Sea.'

Then the Moon rose big and full over the water, and the Eldest
Magician said to the hunchbacked old man who sits in the Moon
spinning a fishing-line with which he hopes one day to catch the
world, 'Ho! Fisher of the Moon, are you playing with the Sea?'

'No,' said the Fisherman, 'I am spinning a line with which I
shall some day catch the world; but I do not play with the Sea.'
And he went on spinning his line.

Now there is also a Rat up in the Moon who always bites the old
Fisherman's line as fast as it is made, and the Eldest Magician
said to him, 'Ho! Rat of the Moon, are you playing with the Sea?'

And the Rat said, 'I am too busy biting through the line that
this old Fisherman is spinning. I do not play with the Sea.' And
he went on biting the line.

Then the little girl-daughter put up her little soft brown arms
with the beautiful white shell bracelets and said, 'O Eldest
Magician! when my father here talked to you at the Very
Beginning, and I leaned upon his shoulder while the beasts were
being taught their plays, one beast went away naughtily into the
Sea before you had taught him his play.

And the Eldest Magician said, 'How wise are little children who
see and are silent! What was the beast like?'

And the little girl-daughter said, 'He was round and he was flat;
and his eyes grew upon stalks; and he walked sideways like this ;
and he was covered with strong armour upon his back.'

And the Eldest Magician said, 'How wise are little children who
speak truth! Now I know where Pau Amma went. Give me the paddle!'

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