Narrative Text Fable - Mouse Deer and Giant Story (Favourite stories from Indonesia)

One beautiful morning Mouse Deer decided to fish in a certain river. On the way he met his friend, Swine, who stopped him for a chat. When Swine heard that Mouse Deer wanted to go fishing, he asked whether he could join him, Mouse Deer did not object, as Swine promised to help him with the work. The two of them went on together and soon they met Tiger and Elephant. When they heard that Mouse Deer and Swine were going to the river, they decide to go along, too. And so the four animals went together to the river to fish.

          When they arrived at the river bank, Mouse Deer immediately began to give orders left and right. Elephant had to dam the river with stones and tree trunks. Tiger and Swine had to throw away the river water while Mouse Deer himself set out to catch the fish left on the dry river bed. There were, however, few fish, so they decided to go further down the river to try their lick again. Mouse Deer ordered Swine to stay behind with their catch. He himself went with Tiger and Elephant further downstream where the tree of them began their work all over again.

Meanwhile, a giant came to the place where Swine sat. As soon as he saw the glittering fish, he grabbed them greedily and stuffied them what into his mouth. It was useless for Swine to protect and the giant did not even listen to him. Swine ran toward his friends and told them had happened. Of course, the three others were bot very pleased.

The second time, too, they did not catch enough fish. did not even listen to him. Ordered Tiger to stay behind with their second catch, while he, Swine and Elephant went further away to dam the river at another place. As soon as the three of them were out of sight, the hungry giant came from behind the bushes and ate up all the fish. Tiger snarled angrily, but he did not dare to fight the giant.

When the other animals came back with their catch they found a very ashamed Tiger without a single fish. Mouse Deer scolded him until he became red in the face. Now it was Elephant’s turn to play guard.

“You are so big. Friend Elephant. Certainly, we can trust you to defend our fish,” said Mouse Deer.

For the third time the giant came to eat the fish. When Elephant saw how big he was, he became afraid and let the giant steal their fish. Mouse Deer and the others came back, they found the basket empty again. Mouse Deer was very angry with his three friends. He shouted, “What’s the use of having such big and strong bodies, if you can’t even chase away one single giant. This time I will stay here myself. Do you think I am too small to do this job? Go away , the three of you, and catch as a many fish as you can. When you come back, you will find that robber lying here in front of me, bound and helpless.”

After Swine, Tiger and Elephant had gone away, Mouse Deer plucked a big bunch of reeds from the river side. He tied these reeds around his body. Then lying down under the nearest tree, he bound the reed ends to the roots of the tree. He was very busy tying himself when the giant came. Mouse Deer pretended not to see him and went on with his work. The giant became curious and instead of grabbing the fish he stopped to look sown at Mouse Deer and asked what he was doing.

“Well. Well. Don’t you know what is going happen today?” asked Mouse Deer in a surprised tone.

“What is going to happen today?” asked the giant curiously.

“I thought everybody knew about it,” answered Mouse Deer. “You must have been a sleep when Nabi Sulaiman came into the forest to warn all the animals about the big flood. The big flood will carry everybody away to the see, unless he takes precaution to be safe.”

“Oh, I have not heard about this flood,” answered the giant, who believe every word Mouse Deer said, “Tell me, what do you do to avoid being carried away?”

“Don’t you see what I am doing” said Kancil. “I bind myself to these roots, so that the water will not drag me away

“That’s a very good idea,” said the stupid giant. “Won’t you help me a little?”

“Why not? I am always ready to help somebody in need,” answered Mouse Deer. “But these reeds are not strong enough to hold your heavy body. Why don’t you go into the forest and collect a big bunch of thick rattan? I shall wait for you here. But hurry, we don’t have much time as the flood will come soon after noon.”

The stupid giant, afraid of losing his life, ran into the woods and soon came back with a big load of rattan. Mouse Deer told him to bind his own legs tightly together with the rattan, then sit with his back against a big tree so that Mouse Deer could help him tie his body against the tree trunk. The giant did everything Mouse Deer said. Soon he was sitting boud and helpless against the tree. To be  completely safe, Mouse Deer wound several more pieces of rattan round him so that the giant could hardly move.

Then the clever little animal called out to his friends who were still busy catching fish some distance away. Swine, Tiger and Elephant did not have much trouble killing their enemy.

Of course, Mouse Deer did not tell them that he had tricked the giant, and the other three animals thought that he had fought with him. They all admired his enormous strength. They gave Kancil the biggest share of the fish, and after having finished their meal each of them went his own way.

  

Moral Value : A problem maybe quickly resolved when using reasonable intelligence

 The words that maybe difficult : 

-         

-          Immediately                      : segera

-          Lick                                   : menjilat

-          Ashamed                           : malu

-          Scolded                             : dimarahi

-          Robber lying                     : perampok berbaring

-          Bound                               : terikat

-          Plucked                             : dipetik

-          Pretended                          : pura-pura

-          Curious                              : ingin tahu

-          Precaution                         : tindakan pencegahan

-          Bind                                  : mengikat

-          Thick                                 : tebal

-          Legs tightly                       : kaki erat

-          Against                              : terhadap

-          Trouble killing                   : pembunuhan masalah

-          Tricked                              : terbujuk

-          Fought                               : berjuang

-          Enormous strength            : kekuatan besar