Oban's Myths & Legends
The Monkey and the Crocodile (continued)
The crocodile had only swum a little way when he dived under the water.
“Why did you do that?” said the monkey, spluttering and spitting out water. “I could have drowned”.
“You are going to drown” said the crocodile. “I'm going to hold you under the water and kill you. My wife wants me to bring her your heart so she can eat it.”
“Ah, you should have told me before we left” said the monkey.
“I didn’t bring my heart with me. I don’t keep it inside me all the time because it could get knocked to pieces from all that jumping around in the tree” he said.
"Take me over to the island and after I've eaten some mangoes, we'll go back to my tree and I'll get my heart for you” said the monkey.
“No way, monkey” said the crocodile. "We’re going back for your heart first and then we’ll see about the mangoes.”
“Fair enough, you’re the boss” said the monkey.
When they got back to the tree the monkey jumped off the crocodile’s back and ran up high into the tree.
The monkey yelled down at the crocodile “You dumb crocodile, who ever heard of anyone keeping their heart up a tree. You may be bigger than me and have lots of sharp teeth but you're not smarter than me. My heart is inside me, come up here and get it if you can”.
The crocodile realised he'd been tricked. He was sad and miserable.
“This is not good. How am I ever going to explain this to my wife?” the crocodile thought to himself. “She so wanted to taste that monkey’s heart”
A tear fell down his cheek as he swam back to his wife.
The End
