The Crab and the Monkey
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The Crab and the Monkey (さるかに合戦 sarukanigassen?) is a Japanese fairy tale collected in Japanische Mahrchen. Yei Theodora Ozaki included it in Japanese Fairy Tales,[1] and Andrew Lang, somewhat euphemized, in The Crimson Fairy Book.[2]
[edit] Synopsis
A crab found a rice ball. A monkey persuaded the crab to trade it for a seed. The crab planted and tended the seed, but though it grew into a tree and bore fruit, the crab could not get it by climbing. The monkey came by (or the crab sought him out), and climbed the tree, promising to throw half down, but only ate or threw down rotten ones. When the crab complained, it threw the fruit at him until he died (or in Lang's version, she gathered the fruit and the monkey came down and attacked, leaving her for dead).
With the help of some friends, always including a mortar and sometimes a bee, an egg, or a chestnut as well, the crab's child avenged the attack.
[edit] References
- ^ Yei Theodora Ozaki, Japanese Fairy Tales, "The Quarrel of Tee Monkey and the Crab"
- ^ Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, "The Crab and the Monkey"
