The Crab and The Elephant

Once on a time, when Brahmadatta was king of
Benares, there was a great lake in Himalaya, wherein
was a great golden Crab. Because he lived there, the
place was known as the Crab Tarn. The Crab was very
large, as big round as a threshing floor; it would catch
elephants, and kill and eat them ; and from fear of it the
elephants durst not go down and browse there.

Now the Bodhisatta was conceived by the mate of an
elephant, the leader of a herd, living hard by this Crab
Tarn. The mother, in order to be safe till her delivery,
sought another place on a mountain, and there she was
delivered of a son ; who in due time grew to years of
wisdom, and was great and mighty, and prospered, and he
was like a purple mountain of collyrium.

He chose another elephant for his mate, and he re-
solved to catch this Crab. So with his mate and his
mother, he sought out the elephant herd, and finding his
father, proposed to go and catch the Crab.

" You will not be able to do that, my son," said he.

But he begged the father again and again to give him
leave, until at last he said, " Well, you may try."

So the young Elephant collected all the elephants
beside the Crab Tarn, and led them close by the lake.
"Does the Crab catch them when they go down, or
while they are feeding, or when they come up again ? "

They replied, " When the beasts come up again."

" Well then," said he, " do you all go down to the lake
and eat whatever you see, and come up first; I will follow
last behind you." And so they did. Then the Crab,
seeing the Bodhisatta coming up last, caught his feet tight
in his claw, like a smith who seizes a lump of iron in a
huge pair of tongs. The Bodhisatta's mate did not leave
him, but stood there close by him. The Bodhisatta
pulled at the Crab, but could not make him budge.
Then the Crab pulled, and drew him towards himself.
In deadly fear the Elephant roared the cry of capture ;
hearing which all the other elephants, in deadly terror,
ran off trumpeting, and dropping excrement. Even his
mate could not stand, but began to make off Then to tell
her how he was held a prisoner, he uttered the first stanza,
hoping to stay her from her flight :

Gold-clawed 1 creature with projecting eyes,
Tarn-bred, hairless, clad in bony shell,
He has caught me! hear my woful cries!
Mate! don't leave me for you love me well!

Then his mate turned round, and repeated the second
stanza to his comfort :

Leave you? never! never will I go-
Noble husband, with your years threescore.
All four quarters of the earth can shew
None so dear as you have been of yore.

In this way she encouraged him ; and saying, " Noble
sir, now I will talk to the Crab a while to make him let you
go," she addressed the Crab in the third stanza:

Of all the crabs that in the sea,
Ganges, or Nerbudda be,
You are best and chief, I know:
Hear me let my husband go!

As she spoke thus, the Crab's fancy was smitten with
the sound of the female voice, and forgetting all fear he
loosed his claws from the Elephant's leg, and suspected
nothing of what he would do when he was set free. Then
the Elephant lifted his foot, and stepped upon the Crab's
back ; and at once his eyes started out. The Elephant
shouted the joy-cry. Up ran the other elephants all,
pulled the Crab along and set him upon the ground, and
trampled him to mincemeat. His two claws broken from
his body lay apart. And this Crab Tarn, being near the
Ganges, when there was a flood in the Ganges, was filled
with Ganges water; when the water subsided it ran
from the lake into the Ganges. Then these two claws
were lifted and floated along the Ganges. One of them
reached the sea, the other was found by the ten royal
brothers while playing in the water, and they took it and
made of it the little drum called Anaka. The Titans
found that which reached the sea, and made it into the
drum called Alambara. These afterwards being worsted
in battle with Sakka, ran off and left it behind. Then
Sakka caused it to be kept for his own use ; and it is
of this they say, "There is thunder like the Alambara
cloud ! "