Funday Times

The roaring mouse deer
Deep in a jungle cave on a steep hill, Meeminna the mouse deer lived with her little baby deer. One rainy day she heard a large animal panting up the hill to take shelter in the same cave. Meeminna peered out and saw it was Diviya, the leopard, who was sure to gobble them all up if it ever got into the cave. The quick thinking Meeminna immediately smacked all her little ones as hard as she could so that they wept and cried at the top of their voices. As they were crying out their mother shouted at them, "Stop screaming for food, little ones, I am going out now to kill a leopard for your dinner".

The foolish Diviya heard all this and was sure a fierce monster in the cave was about to kill him for dinner. He turned tail and kept running till he met his clever friend Nariya the jackal. When the leopard told him, "I am running away from the monster in that cave, who kills leopards for food". Nariya laughed out loud and said, "Foolish fellow, you have nothing to be scared of. Only a harmless little mouse deer lives in that cave. Go back there, without being a coward".

Diviya refused to believe him. Nariya then said, "I will go back to the cave with you to show there is nothing to be scared of". To make the foolish leopard more confident Nariya tied one end of a jungle creeper round Diviya's waist and the other end round his own neck.

Nariya now led the way up the hill to the cave with the foolish Diviya following behind. As soon as Meeminna saw these two struggling up the hill, the quick thinking mouse deer shouted fiercely at the jackal, "Go back, silly Nariya! I ordered you to bring me seven fat leopards to feed my young ones, but you are bringing only one skinny fellow". Foolish Diviya was now sure that Nariya the jackal had trapped him to be food for a fierce monster.

Diviya immediately turned tail and bolted down the hill as fast as it could, dragging the unfortunate Nariya behind him by the creeper tied around its neck. Nariya the jackal banged helplessly on the rocks and trees on the way down. The creeper throttled him and he was stone dead by the time Diviya reached the bottom of the hill. When the foolish leopard saw the bared teeth of the dead jackal he said, "Do not grin Nariya, I am lucky to have had a narrow escape from the fierce beast in that cave, although you tried to trap me".

No animal bothered the clever Meeminna ever after.
(From Princes, Peasants and Clever Beasts by Tissa Devendra)

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