Children must often have wondered why jelly-fishes have no shells, like
so many of the creatures that are washed up every day on the beach. In
old times this was not so; the jelly-fish had as hard a shell as any
of them, but he lost it through his own fault, as may be seen in this
story.
The sea-queen Otohime, whom you read of in the story of Uraschimatoro,
grew suddenly very ill. The swiftest messengers were sent hurrying to
fetch the best doctors from every country under the sea, but it was all
of no use; the queen grew rapidly worse instead of better. Everyone had
almost given up hope, when one day a doctor arrived who was cleverer
than the rest, and said that the only thing that would cure her was the
liver of an ape. Now apes do not dwell under the sea, so a council of
the wisest heads in the nation was called to consider the question how a
liver could be obtained. At length it was decided that the turtle, whose
prudence was well known, should swim to land and contrive to catch a
living ape and bring him safely to the ocean kingdom.
It was easy enough for the council to entrust this mission to the
turtle, but not at all so easy for him to fulfil it. However he swam to
a part of the coast that was covered with tall trees, where he thought
the apes were likely to be; for he was old, and had seen many things. It
was some time before he caught sight of any monkeys, and he often grew
tired with watching for them, so that one hot day he fell fast asleep,
in spite of all his efforts to keep awake. By-and-by some apes, who
had been peeping at him from the tops of the trees, where they had been
carefully hidden from the turtle’s eyes, stole noiselessly down, and
stood round staring at him, for they had never seen a turtle before, and
did not know what to make of it. At last one young monkey, bolder than
the rest, stooped down and stroked the shining shell that the strange
new creature wore on its back. The movement, gentle though it was, woke
the turtle. With one sweep he seized the monkey’s hand in his mouth, and
held it tight, in spite of every effort to pull it away. The other apes,
seeing that the turtle was not to be trifled with, ran off, leaving
their young brother to his fate.
Then the turtle said to the monkey, ‘If you will be quiet, and do what
I tell you, I won’t hurt you. But you must get on my back and come with
me.’
The monkey, seeing there was no help for it, did as he was bid; indeed
he could not have resisted, as his hand was still in the turtle’s mouth.
Delighted at having secured his prize, the turtle hastened back to the
shore and plunged quickly into the water. He swam faster than he had
ever done before, and soon reached the royal palace. Shouts of joy broke
forth from the attendants when he was seen approaching, and some of them
ran to tell the queen that the monkey was there, and that before long
she would be as well as ever she was. In fact, so great was their relief
that they gave the monkey such a kind welcome, and were so anxious to
make him happy and comfortable, that he soon forgot all the fears that
had beset him as to his fate, and was generally quite at his ease,
though every now and then a fit of home-sickness would come over him,
and he would hide himself in some dark corner till it had passed away.
It was during one of these attacks of sadness that a jelly-fish happened
to swim by. At that time jelly-fishes had shells. At the sight of the
gay and lively monkey crouching under a tall rock, with his eyes closed
and his head bent, the jelly-fish was filled with pity, and stopped,
saying, ‘Ah, poor fellow, no wonder you weep; a few days more, and they
will come and kill you and give your liver to the queen to eat.’
The monkey shrank back horrified at these words and asked the jelly-fish
what crime he had committed that deserved death.
‘Oh, none at all,’ replied the jelly-fish, ‘but your liver is the only
thing that will cure our queen, and how can we get at it without killing
you? You had better submit to your fate, and make no noise about it, for
though I pity you from my heart there is no way of helping you.’ Then he
went away, leaving the ape cold with horror.
At first he felt as if his liver was already being taken from his body,
but soon he began to wonder if there was no means of escaping this
terrible death, and at length he invented a plan which he thought would
do. For a few days he pretended to be gay and happy as before, but when
the sun went in, and rain fell in torrents, he wept and howled from dawn
to dark, till the turtle, who was his head keeper, heard him, and came
to see what was the matter. Then the monkey told him that before he left
home he had hung his liver out on a bush to dry, and if it was always
going to rain like this it would become quite useless. And the rogue
made such a fuss and moaning that he would have melted a heart of stone,
and nothing would content him but that somebody should carry him back to
land and let him fetch his liver again.
The queen’s councillors were not the wisest of people, and they decided
between them that the turtle should take the monkey back to his native
land and allow him to get his liver off the bush, but desired the turtle
not to lose sight of his charge for a single moment. The monkey knew
this, but trusted to his power of beguiling the turtle when the time
came, and mounted on his back with feelings of joy, which he was,
however, careful to conceal. They set out, and in a few hours were
wandering about the forest where the ape had first been caught, and
when the monkey saw his family peering out from the tree tops, he swung
himself up by the nearest branch, just managing to save his hind leg
from being seized by the turtle. He told them all the dreadful things
that had happened to him, and gave a war cry which brought the rest of
the tribe from the neighbouring hills. At a word from him they rushed
in a body to the unfortunate turtle, threw him on his back, and tore off
the shield that covered his body. Then with mocking words they hunted
him to the shore, and into the sea, which he was only too thankful to
reach alive. Faint and exhausted he entered the queen’s palace for the
cold of the water struck upon his naked body, and made him feel ill
and miserable. But wretched though he was, he had to appear before the
queen’s advisers and tell them all that had befallen him, and how he had
suffered the monkey to escape. But, as sometimes happens, the turtle was
allowed to go scot-free, and had his shell given back to him, and all
the punishment fell on the poor jelly-fish, who was condemned by the
queen to go shieldless for ever after.
(Japanische Marchen.)