Читать книгу Stories about elephant calf Lanchenkar - Ayusha Erdyneev - Страница 5

“Dad, why is mom ill?” asked Lanchenkar.

“The terrible King of Crocodiles now lies in wait at our watering place. He attacks all who come for water and eats them. So we have to make do with stagnant marsh water. That’s why your mom, among others, is down with typhus… Well, go on playing and I am going to tend your mother,” said Lanchenpo.

Little Lanchenkar’s heart filled with empathy for the ailing forest inhabitants. He determined to get them pure water at any cost. He had never been at the watering place, so he just followed the animal route.

***

As he was walking briskly, Lanchenkar saw a hare who had only one ear. The hare was sitting under a tree and crying.

“Hi, Hare. What happened to your ear?” asked the Little Elephant.

The Hare told his story. He came to the river for watering and the Crocodile came upon him. He got hold of the poor Hare’s ear, the Hare started running and his ear stuck in the monster’s teeth.

“I got away cheap,” the Hare said.

“This Crocodile’s mouth is so big that you can fully go into it.”

“I’m going to see the monster,” Lanchenkar said bravely. The Hare tried to talk him out of it but could not.

As Lanchenkar was approaching the river, the Young Deer, a friend of his, emerged from bushes and stood in his way. The Young Deer was limping.

“I was drinking water and the Crocodile grasped my leg,” he complained. “He very nearly dragged me under water. Oh, how my leg is aching! That Crocodile surely has sharp teeth, get out of here quick, Lanchenkar!”

Those words only fortified the Little Elephant’s spirit. He continued his way, singing an impromptu ditty.

The horror-stricken Hare and the Young Deer were watching the Elephant Prince approach the river. He looked around trying to see the sloping path that led to the watering place. Suddenly the water seethed and a huge head showed up. It was the Crocodile King! Its skin was covered with big green scales and warts. There were widely-set, yellow eyes on the sides of his head.

“Where are you going, O great Lanchenkar?” the Crocodile asked with a grin.

Still not realizing it was the Crocodile King, Lanchenkar answered politely: “I want to get a bucket of water for my sick mother. Would you please tell me where the watering place is?”

“I am the watering place. Just hop into my mouth and get as much water as you wish,” said the Crocodile King and opened his mouth as wide as possible.

I will taste a suckling elephant,” he thought and closed his eyes in anticipation. He could not close his jaws.

“How tough this Little Elephant is,” he said to himself. He shook his head, opened his eyes and was surprised to see the elephant calf on the river bank.

“That’s a stick I threw into your mouth. Now you’ll never give trouble to anyone,” said Lanchenkar loudly.

When he saw those sharp teeth, the Little Elephant understood who it was and knew what to do.

***

The Crocodile caught sight of the Hare and swam towards him hoping that the Hare would help him get rid of the stick. But the Hare loped as far as he could: he well remembered how he had lost his ear.

“Well, how does it feel to suffer? Poorly? Did you think about it when you attacked your victims? Serves you right, murderer. Now try and swim with that stick in your mouth,” said the Hare and loped into the forest, burning with the desire to tell its inhabitants how Lanchenkar punished the Crocodile.

“So you’ve been punished for maiming my leg, huh? Now you want to eat me but you can’t, right? It seems to be the time for you to pay for the trouble you gave living creatures,” the Young Deer admonished the Crocodile, cautiously advancing towards the watering place.

With the stick in his mouth Crocodile King spent three days. He was angry and hungry.

When they learnt from the one-eared Hare that the “coast’ was clear, all animals rushed to the watering place. No longer afraid of the Crocodile King, they drank the river water to their heart’s content. The Crocodile was hanging around, stick in his mouth, hoping for help but none volunteered, waiting for Lanchenkar.

***

Lanchenkar gave a stern look to the Crocodile, whose mouth with the stick in it looked like the letter A, and asked:

“So, villain, will you keep hurting and killing the poor animals?”

The Crocodile King shook his head frantically in a fit of false repentance and burst into tears. Looking at the weak and crying Crocodile, the woodsfolk felt sorry for him. He no longer appeared to be vicious and dangerous. They believed the Crocodile and asked Lanchenkar to remove the stick.

As he was thanking Lanchenkar, the Crocodile tried not to open his mouth too wide: he feared that Lanchenkar might change his mind.

***

Since that time crocodiles never open their mouths wide; and, having finished with their prey, they always shed tears. Everybody knows that they are feigned and false. That is why they are called crocodile tears.