r hole, and held a council of war.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

Then came a rice-mortar, a pounder, a bee, and an egg, and together
they devised a deep-laid plot to be avenged.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

First, they requested that peace be made with the crabs; and
thus they induced the king of the monkeys to enter their hole
unattended, and seated him on the hearth. The monkey not suspecting
any plot, took the _hibashi_, or poker, to stir up the slumbering
fire, when bang! went the egg, which was lying hidden in the ashes,
and burned the monkey's arm. Surprised and alarmed he plunged 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
in his face already wet with tears.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

Without waiting to brush off the bee and howling bitterly, he
rushed for the back door: but just then some sea-weed entangled his
legs and made him slip. Then, down came the pounder tumbling on him
from a shelf, and the mortar too came rolling down on him from the
roof of the porch, and broke his back and so weakened him that he
was unable to rise up. Then out came the crabs in a crowd and
brandishing on high their pinchers they pinched the monkey to
pieces.

[Illustration]

_Printed by the Kobunsha in Tokyo, Japan_

End of Project Gutenberg's Battle of the Monkey & the Crab, by Anonymous

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