0109. The Monkey That Saved the Herd

From Eastern Stories and Legends by Marie L. Shedlock, online at: Baldwin Project.

Notes. See the notes to this version of the story: The Monkeys and the Hollow Canes.

Summary: The wise monkey king and his monkey troop confront a fierce water-ogre who refuses to let them drink the water of his lake.

Read the story below:

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THE MONKEY THAT SAVED THE HERD

(lake with reeds and water lily)

It came to pass that the Buddha was re-born as the King of the monkeys. He lived with his herd of 80,000 monkeys in a thick forest, near a lake. In this lake there lived an ogre who used to devour all those who went down to the water.

The Buddha spoke to his subjects and said: "My friends, in this forest there are trees that are poisoned, and lakes that are haunted by ogres. Eat no fruit and drink no water of which you have not already tasted without consulting me."

This they agreed to. And one day, having arrived at a spot which they had never visited before, they found a great lake. They did not drink, but awaited the return of their King.

Now when he arrived he went round the lake, and found that all the footsteps led down to the lake, but none came up again. And he said: "Without doubt this is the haunt of an ogre."

When this water-ogre saw that they were not invading his domain he appeared in the form of a terrible monster with a blue belly, a white face, and bright red hands and feet. In this shape he came out of the water and said to the King: "Why are you seated here? Go down to the lake to drink." 

But the King said: "Are you not the ogre of this water?" 

"Yes, I am," was the answer. 

"Do you take as your prey all those who go down into this water?"

"Yes, I do, from small birds upwards. I never let anything go which comes down into this water. I will eat the lot of you, too." 

"But we shall not let you eat us." 

"Just drink the water." 

"Yes, we will drink the water, and yet not fall into your power." 

"How do you propose to drink the water, then?" 

"Ah, you think we shall have to go down to the water to drink; whereas we shall not enter the water at all, but the whole eighty thousand of us will take a cane each and drink therewith from your lake as easily as through the hollow stalk of a lotus. And so you will not be able to eat us."

So saying the King had a cane brought to him, and in true belief that the miracle would take place he blew down the cane, which straightway became hollow throughout, without a single knot being left in its length. In this fashion he had another, and another brought, and blew down them. Then he made the tour of the lake, and commanded, saying, "Let all canes growing here become hollow throughout."

Now, thanks to the saving goodness of their re-born chiefs, their commands are always fulfilled. And henceforth every single cane that grew round that lake became hollow throughout. 

After giving his commands the King seated himself with a cane in his hand. All the other 80,000 monkeys, too, seated themselves round the lake each with a cane in his hands. At the same moment when the King sucked up the water through his cane, they all drank in the same manner as they sat on the bank. This was the way they drank, and the ogre could get no power over any one of them, so he went off in a rage to his habitation. The King, with his following of 80,000 monkeys, went back into the forest.

0138. The Goblin in the Pool

From The Giant Crab, and Other Tales from Old India by W. H. D. Rouse with illustrations by W. Robinson, online at: Internet Archive.

Notes. See the notes to this version of the story: The Monkeys and the Hollow Canes.

Summary: The wise monkey king and his monkey troop confront a fierce water-goblin who refuses to let them drink the water of his pool.

Read the story below:

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THE GOBLIN IN THE POOL

 (W. Robinson)

Animals in the forest have no bottles and glasses to drink out of, so if they are thirsty they have to go down to a pool. Now in a certain great forest there was a pool, in which lived a horrible Goblin. He was big and black, like an immense monkey, with an immense mouth, and four rows of sharp teeth; but he could not come out of the water, because he had no nose, but only gills like a fish. So if any animal came down into the water to get a drink, he pounced upon him at once and gobbled him up; but he could not touch the animals while they remained on the bank.

One year there was a great drought, and the sun was so hot that it dried up all the water in that forest for many miles round, except the pool where this Goblin was; but this pool was very deep and cool, under the trees, and therefore it was not dried up. There was a herd of monkeys who had been wandering about for a long time in search of water, but found none, until they came to this pool. But the King of the Monkeys was very clever, and he noticed that there were a great many footprints going down to the water, and none coming away. So he warned his Monkeys not to go near that pool.

However, one of them was very thirsty, and ran down into the water; but as soon as he got into the water, and was having a delicious drink—suddenly he disappeared! There were some bubbles, and no more was seen of the Monkey.

The other Monkeys watched for a long time, wondering what had become of their friend; and then another, who was so thirsty that he could not help it, stepped quietly into the water and began to drink. In an instant he gave a shriek and threw up his hands, and the others saw him dragged down below the water! A few bubbles came up to the top and burst, but the poor Monkey was gone.

What were they to do? They were dying of thirst, and yet they were afraid to drink; the banks were high, and they could not reach the water from the top. So they all sat round the banks, looking at the water, very unhappy.

By-and-by a man came down to the side of the pool. He wanted a drink of water, but he had no glass. So he looked round, and then he saw the Monkeys sitting on the bank, very unhappy.

“What’s the matter?” said he.

“Don’t go into that pool!” said the King of the Monkeys. “If you do, you will be drowned, like our two poor friends!”

Then they told him how their friends had gone into the water to drink, and how they had both been pulled underneath and drowned, none of them could tell how.

The man understood at once that it was a Goblin. So he pulled up a long reed that was growing on the bank of the pool and cut off the ends, and then he put down one end of it into the water and sucked at the other end, and the water came up from the pool into his mouth. At this the Monkeys were delighted, and they all pulled up reeds from the bank (for you know a monkey always imitates what he sees men do), and sucked up the water through them, and so quenched their thirst without going into the pool. And the Goblin, finding that no more food was to be got, died of starvation; and a good thing too.

0027. The Monkeys and the Hollow Canes

From Hindu Fairy Tales by Florence Griswold with illustrations by Helen Jacobs, online at: Internet Archive.

Notes. The wise king who recognizes the clue provided by the footprints might remind you of a fox in Aesop's fables: The Fox and the Lion in the Cave. You can find out more about the nature spirit of the lake, a yaksha, at Wikipedia. Compare also the story of the three princes and the yaksha.

Summary: The wise monkey king and his monkey troop confront a fierce water-ogre who refuses to let them drink the water of his lake.

Read the story below:

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THE MONKEYS AND THE HOLLOW CANES

(Helen Jacobs)

Frametale: The Buddha and his Brethren

One evening during a pilgrimage through the country of Kosala, Buddha and the Brethren were sitting beside a pool around which grew cane-sticks. A Brother broke one off, and after looking at it carefully asked, "Master, why are these cane-sticks hollow?"

"Listen, my Brother, and you shall hear, for such were my orders in times gone by," replied Buddha. Thus he told them this story:

The troop of monkeys and their king

In years long past, all about us was a thick forest in the center of which was a lake of clear cold water. In this lake dwelt a wicked water-ogre who devoured every one that went to the water to bathe or drink.

In the forest also dwelt a troop of eighty thousand monkeys. Their king was the largest and strongest of them all, a mighty monkey as big as the fawn of a red deer. He shielded his subject monkeys from harm, and they gave him in return their love and confidence. Desiring to let them roam at will through the forest, and yet fearing for their safety, one day he cautioned them, saying: "Friends, we have about us trees that are poisonous and lakes that are haunted by ogres. Beware of fruit you have not eaten, and of water you have not drunk. Ask me before you eat or drink."

Readily they assured him that they would do his bidding, and they kept their word, else today we should have no story.

The monkeys at the lake

One warm day when they had wandered far from their home trees, they came upon a lake which was unknown to them. Very thirsty were they, but remembering the words of their wise and good king they sat down to await his coming.

When he came up and found them sitting down, very patient, he said, "Friends, why do you not drink?"

"This lake, dear king," said the spokesman, "we have never seen before. We could not drink without your good word."

"Quite right, my friends," replied the king, for he would have grieved sadly to lose even the least of his subjects. Then he went carefully around the lake examining every foot of ground. At last he came upon a very strange thing. He found the footprints of many animals going towards the lake, but there were no footprints to show that an animal had ever returned.

"Aha," he thought, "this is undoubtedly the haunt of an ogre," and turning to his followers said, "Your caution, friends, has saved you from a terrible death. This lake is haunted by an ogre. Those who go to its brink to drink never return to tell of its waters. Rest you here a while."

Suffering and parched with thirst, they did the bidding of their king, knowing well that in time they would be refreshed.

The ogre and the monkey-king

The ogre, who had been watching them greedily from the bottom of the lake, became angered when he saw the king with his eighty thousand subjects peacefully surround his lake. Such a feast had never before been thrust before his ever-hungry eyes. When he could no longer stand the suspense, he assumed the shape of a monster with a blue belly and the most horrible bright red hands and feet, and went to the top of the water crying, "Why are you all seated here like senseless idiots? When you are so thirsty after your day's walk, why do you not go down to the lake and drink of its cool water?"

Then he added in the sweetest voice he could assume, "Come, come, my friends, come cool yourselves with a long drink out of the most beautiful lake in all India. Its waters are fed from mother-springs hidden deep down in its rocky bottom. Those who drink shall never more know either sorrow or unhappiness."

"Well may you say those who drink shall never more know sorrow or unhappiness," answered the king. "Are you not the ogre of the lake, and do you not take as your prey all who are so unfortunate as to drink of your waters?"

"You are right, O Wise One. I am the ogre of the lake. You are right, I eat every one who comes to drink in my lake. Yes," he went on ferociously for he saw that his words of honey had been of no use, "I eat every one from the smallest of birds upwards, and I shall eat you and every one of your eighty thousand monkeys sitting like toads on the ground."

"Not a monkey seated here shall ever go to fatten your ugly body," said the king.

"If you do not drink, you will die as you sit. You and your eighty thousand monkeys are now near to death for want of water. You see you are mine whether or not you drink of my water."

"Yes, O ogre of the water, water we must have, for faint and weary we are. Yes, water we will have, yet we shall not fall into your power."

"How can you drink without coming to the water's edge? All must do that," said the wicked ogre, not knowing that the king of the monkeys was Buddha the All-Knowing One.

The canes transformed

"Ah," said the king, "you will soon see. You think, poor monster, that we shall have to go to the brink of the lake to drink? If you will wait you will see the lake come to the monkeys as they sit far up on its banks."

These words said, he had a cane brought to him and repeated solemnly the following words: "With canes we'll drink; you shall not take my life." He then blew with all his might down the cane and straightway it became hollow; not even a single knot was left throughout its entire length. Thus he blew through another and yet another, but his eighty thousand subjects would have died of thirst before he could have finished one for each, and not one monkey was he willing to lose. Knowing this he wasted no more time on single sticks, but walked around the lake saying: "Let all the canes growing here become hollow throughout! Let all the canes around here become hollow throughout!"

Immediately all the canes became hollow. The king then commanded each monkey to grasp one cane in his hands and follow him to the lake. He sat down on the banks the length of his cane-stick from the water. One end he put in his mouth, the other in the water, then he began slowly to suck up the water, which came through the cane as easily as though it were the hollow stalk of a lotus. Eighty thousand monkeys did likewise. In this way every one drank his fill from the waters of the lake, yet never a one did that wicked water-ogre catch.

After their thirst was quenched, the obedient monkeys, grateful to their king for having saved their lives from the ogre, began to praise and thank him. The king bade them keep their words and follow him back to the home trees deep in the forest.

When the water-ogre saw that he had been outwitted by the king of the monkeys, he crept in a great rage back to his home at the bottom of the lake, there, as before, to await the com- ing of the unwary traveler who looked not before he drank. As years passed on, the hollow canes growing on the banks of the lake of the ogre became the parents of other hollow canes and they spread and spread to all parts of the world.

That is why we have hollow canes today.