Salam The Mouse Deer- Second Evening
Old Abdullah picking his way homewards through the deep forest one evening at sundown by following the narrow winding Wild Beast tracks that criss-cross it in every direction but which to him were as familiar as our town streets to ourselves, had picked up a baby honey bear which had lost it’s parents, and had brought it back with him as a special pet for Deman and Mina; to the unspeakable delight of both the children.
“Oh, Granddad, how lovely!’’ cried little Mina, her bright brown eyes glistening with joy. “Now you can tell us your story of ‘How Salam tricked, the Bear!”‘‘Yes, and how Sang bruang lost his beautiful long tail the Bear”interposed Deman.
But I thought you wanted to hear how your friend the mouse deer jumped down friend tigers throat!”laughed the old man.
“Of course we do! Of course we do! shouted the children together. But tonight you must tell us your two bear stories first, so that our own little Bear can hear them .”And old Abdullah, thus pressed, had no choice but to begin.”
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“In the days before all the giants had been, killed out of the Land -yes, and even before Sang Bruang the first of all the bears, had Lost his long long tail- he had already fallen out with the little Mouse-Deer, Friend Peace-of the-Forest.
So one day, when Friend Peace and the bear were having arguments about—well, about everything they could think of to quarrel over-Salam offered to wager that he would beat the Bear at tunnelling through the trunk of an Ironbark Tree that grew close beside them. Ho ! said friend Bear. In the name of Allah, the all powerful,you must be raving mad, Friend Peace! why ill back m myself against you, or anybody, to hack a hole through any tree in the Forest, long before You could get claws! Now go home and think the matter over but, if you still wish it, we will try conclusions tomorrow’.
This was just what wily little Salam wanted, and away he scampered to find his old friend, Si Kumbang, the Big Black Borer Beetle. ‘Friend Borer’, he cried, when at last he found him, ‘ have wagered that to-morrow I will bore a hole clean through an Ironbark Tree, before Friend Bear can get half so far on the opposite side. I cannot really tunnel like that, you know, so I have come to seek your help”.
“Have no fear, Friend Peace!” said the Big Black Grandfather Borer Beetle. ‘I myself, with all my kith and kin, uncles and aunts and cousins, will help to bore it for you ; and you shall soon have so huge a hole ready bored in the tree that Friend Bear—ay, and all his precious relations into the bargain would be able to get inside it with ease.”
So saying, Friend Borer flew off to call up all his tribe; and, before long, a vast pitch-black, buzzing, clinging cloud of Borers had alighted on the trunk of the Ironbark Tree and had begun to drill steadily away at the trunk on one side, which seemed to dissolve itself into sawdust as if by magic.
When the Beetles had, completed their task, they plugged up the hole with the loose sawdust and clay and then covered the opening over with bark and moss; so that the tree looked just the same as before. So Salam now went off home with an easy mind, chuckling to Himself—for all the world like a rice-pot boiling over
The next morning, when the rivals met, Friend Borer, and great army of his relations, could be heard noisily booming away in the tree-tops; whither they had all come (like the spectators at a Beast-fight) to watch the scene *
“Are You ready?” called the Bear from his own side of the great tree. “Ready,” answered Salam.
“Then bore away as hard as you like” roared the Bear.
Both parties bored and kicked and hacked their hardest, while Bruin roared and roared and roared again in his excitement. The rubbish from the hole on Salam’s side flew out in a great whirlwind of sawdust, whereas Friend Bear, for his part, did little more than blunt his claws. For the tree, being ironwood, he could make no great impression upon it beyond rending off some strips of bark; whereas Salam went crashing almost through the trunk, from the tunnel that he made on his side of the tree, thanks the clever work of Friend Borer and his relations. The contest, therefore, was very soon over, and Friend -Bear was compelled to admit his defeat. But, for once in a way, having enjoyed the excitement, he took it all in very good humour, and they parted on the friendliest terms.’
From
A. Hillman Salam the Mouse Deer London: Macmillan & Co.1938
