The Crocodile and the Monkey

This story is called The Crocodile and the Monkey, a traditional story from India, retold by W.H.D. Rouse. This is a LibraryCall recording. Once upon a time, there was an enormous river that was both deep and wide. In this river there lived a crocodile. I don’t know whether you have ever seen a crocodile, but you should know that they’re very long, twice as long as your bed. They’re covered with hard green and yellow scales. They have flat, wide snouts, and huge jaws with hundreds of sharp teeth. This particular crocodile used to lie all day in the mud, half underwater, basking in the sun, and rarely moving. But if any little animal came near, he would jump up, open his big jaws, and snap it up. And if you had gone near him, he would have snapped you up easily, too. On the bank of this enormous river lived a Monkey. He spent all day climbing trees and eating wild fruit. He had been eating there so long that there was hardly any fruit left on the trees. Now, it so happened that the crocodile’s daughter had noticed this Monkey. One morning, she began to cry giant crocodile tears. As her tears dropped into the water, Mr. Crocodile woke up from his snooze and looked around to see what was the matter. “Why, daughter,” he said, “why are you crying?” “I’m hungry for a snack!” she whimpered. “All right, dear. Wait a while. If we’re both very still, I’ll soon catch you something.” “But I want that Monkey’s heart!” said the daughter. And her tears started splashing again. “Cheer up,” said Mr. Crocodile. He was very fond of his daughter, and he would have wiped away her tears, only he had no tissue. “I’ll see what I can do.” Mr. Crocodile lay down again in the mud and started thinking. He thought for a whole hour. You see, though he was very big, he wasn’t very smart. At last, he heaved a sigh of relief because he had a plan. He found a place to wait just underneath the tree where the Monkey happened to be swinging by on his tail. “Monkey!” he called out, in the gentlest voice he could manage. It’s not so easy to seem gentle with a huge jaw full of sharp teeth. The Monkey stopped swinging and looked down. The Crocodile had never spoken to him before, so he was rather surprised. “Monkey, my friend!” called the Crocodile again. “Uh, yes Mr. Crocodile?” asked the Monkey cautiously. “I’m sure you must be hungry. I see you’ve eaten all the fruit on these trees. Why don’t you try the trees on the other side of the river?” said the Crocodile. “ I noticed there are still plenty of mangoes and plums over there!” “Thank you for the information,” said the Monkey. “But there’s no way I can safely cross a wide river like this!” “Oh!” said the Crocodile, “Well, that is easily managed. You seem like a nice monkey, so I’d be happy to help. Jump on my back. I’ll swim across the river and drop you off on the other side!” The hungry Monkey had never had such a tempting offer. He joyfully flipped around a tree branch and landed on the Crocodile’s back with a small bump. The Crocodile began to swim slowly across. The Monkey shook with excited anticipation as the trees brimming with fruit came into view. But suddenly, the Monkey felt water begin to tickle his toes! Then it rose to his legs and his stomach. The Crocodile was sinking! “Mr. Crocodile! Please be careful! You’ll drown me!” said the Monkey. “Ha!” laughed the Crocodile, snapping his great jaws. “So you thought I was taking you across out of pure good nature! You are sadly mistaken. The truth is, my dear daughter wants your tasty little heart to eat! If you had seen her crying this morning, I am sure you would have pitied her, too.” “Well, it’s a good thing you told me!” said the Monkey. Luckily, he was a very clever Monkey, and able to think quickly. “Before you drown me, you should know that I never carry my heart inside me; that would be too dangerous. If we Monkeys went jumping about the trees with our hearts inside, we would rattle them to bits in no time!” The Crocodile quickly rose up to the surface of the water again, feeling relieved he had not drowned the Monkey. As I said, he wasn’t a very smart creature. He didn’t realize he was being tricked. “Well then, where do you keep your heart?” asked the Crocodile. “Do you see that cluster of round things up in that tree? Those are our hearts, all in a bunch. They’re pretty safe at that height, I think!” You should know that it was actually a fig tree. The figs did look very much like a bunch of monkey hearts! “Finish taking me to the river bank,” said the Monkey, “then I’ll climb up and drop my heart down to you. I can do just fine without it.” “Splendid!” said the Crocodile, and he continued swimming. When they reached the bank, the Monkey leapt off the Crocodile’s back and quickly swung himself up into the fig tree. Then he sat down on a branch and began to happily eat the figs. “Your heart, please!” called out the Crocodile. “Can’t you see I’m waiting?” + “Well, you’ll be waiting a long time!” said the Monkey. “What kind of fool believes a creature keeps its heart in a tree? Your body may be big, but your wit is small. Thanks again for bringing me over!” The Crocodile snapped his jaws in frustration and returned home to his whining daughter. He felt extremely foolish because, well.. he was! And the clever little Monkey, who now had an entire bank of fruit trees all to himself, had the biggest feast of his life. This was The Crocodile and the Monkey, a traditional story from India, retold by W.H.D. Rouse. This has been a LibraryCall recording.