At this the turtle cried and begged them to spare his life, but they
paid no heed to his pleadings and threw him into the water. He sank
to the bottom, but very soon came up with a lobster. The monkeys
were greatly surprised at this and begged him to tell them how to
catch lobsters.
"I tied one end of a string around my waist," said the turtle. "To
the other end of the string I tied a stone so that I would sink."
The monkeys immediately tied strings around themselves as the turtle
said, and when all was ready they plunged into the water never to
come up again.
And to this day monkeys do not like to eat meat, because they remember
the ancient story. [149]