cQvip. 
 
 2 , 
 
 JUlinami 
 
 16TLCL) 
 
 
 aeaic no> 
 
 m 
 
 
BATTLE 
 
 or 
 
 THE MOHXEY & THE CRAB. 
 
 A monkey and a 
 crab once met 
 when going 
 round a 
 mountain. 
 
 v 
 
4 
 
 * 
 
 The monkey had picked up a 
 persimmon-seed, and the crab had 
 a piece of toasted rice-cake. The 
 monkey seeing this, and wishing 
 to get something that could be 
 turned to good account at once, 
 said: ‘‘Pray, exchange that rice- 
 cake for this persimmon-seed.” 
 The crab, without a word, gave 
 up his cake, and took the per- 
 simmon-seed and planted it. At 
 

 once it sprung up, and soon be- 
 came a tree so high one had to 
 look up at it. The tree was full 
 of persimmons but the crab had 
 no means of climbing the tree. 
 So he asked the monkey to climb 
 up and get the persimmons for him. 
 The monkey got up on a limb 
 
 * 
 
 of the tree and began to eat the 
 persimmons. The unripe persim- 
 mons he threw at the crab, but 
 
fr- 
 
 ail the ripe and good ones he 
 put in his pouch. The crab under 
 the tree thus got his shell badly 
 bruised and only by good luck 
 escaped into his hole, where he 
 lay distressed with pain and not 
 able to get up. Now when the 
 relatives and household of the 
 crab heard how matters stood they 
 were surprised and angry, and 
 declared war and attacked the 
 
monkey, who leading forth a nu- 
 merous following bid defiance to 
 the other party. The crabs, find- 
 ing themselves unable to meet and 
 
cope with this force, became still more ex- 
 asperated and enraged, and retreated into 
 
 their hole, and held a council of war. 
 
 ” ' " . ~ ' ' - 1 — " ' 
 
i Then came a rice-mortar, a pounder, 
 ?a bee, and an egg, and together they 
 devised a deep-laid plot to be avenged. 
 
First, they requested that peace 
 be made with the crabs; and thus 
 they induced the king of the mon- 
 keys to enter their hole unattend- 
 ed, and seated him on the hearth. 
 The monkey not suspecting any 
 
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 7 [C 
 
 J <2& 
 
 plot, took the hibashiy or poker, to 
 stir up the slumbering fire, when 
 bang! went the egg, which was 
 
 If lying hidden in the ashes, and 
 
 !] 
 
 burned the monkey’s arm. Sur- 
 prised and alarmed he plunged 
 
Y 
 
 his arm into the pickle-tub in the 
 kitchen to relieve the pain of the 
 burn. Then the bee which was 
 hidden near the tub stung him 
 
 sharply 
 
 already 
 
 in his face 
 wet with 
 
 tears. 
 
 Without 
 
 waiting to brush 
 
! 
 
 
out came the crabs in a crowd 
 and brandishing on high their 
 pinchers they pinched the monkey 
 
 to pieces*