Reading Notes: Rouse's "The Giant Crab & Other Tales from Old India" (Part A)

For this week and next week, I'm going to be reading Rouse's "The Giant Crab & Other Tales from Old India," which is a collection of stories and Indian fables for children. For each reading note, I'm going to select a few of my favorite stories to discuss, which will be potential idea for writing my own stories! Here are two stories that caught my eye:

The Giant Crab

• There was a Giant Crab that lived in a lake in the mountains. He would use his giant claws to nip anyone who would come drink from the lake. Crab became so big from eating the animals that came by, and all the animals became fearful of going to the lake even though they were thirsty.
• The Elephants wanted to retaliate and stop Crab. Some Elephants would watch out for Crab while the rest of the herd drank. Unfortunately, Crab nipped Mr. Elephant and dragged him under. In order to save her husband, Mrs. Elephant flirted with Crab to distract him (successfully), and once he loosened his grip, Mr. Elephant stomped on his back. Then, the Crab "mincemeat" with only his claws left.
• Mr. and Mrs. Elephant became King and Queen of the animals and mountains. Later, a flood washed Crab's claws to a city where the King's sons found them and made them into drums to play at war.

I thought this story was a little morbid and brutal, but still very interesting. I like how they decided to choose Elephants as the saviors of the animals even thought they were among wolves, lions, tigers, and foxes (all of which could have defeated crabs).

The Giant Crab

The Dishonest Friend

• A man had a dishonest friend. When asked to take charge of his plough, the dishonest friend sold it. When the man came back for his plough, the dishonest friend said a giant rat ate it. The man accepted the lie.
• The man then took the dishonest friend's son out for a walk, leaving him at a friend's house. When the man came back to the dishonest friend, he claimed that a hawk took the son. The dishonest friend called him a liar and a murderer and brought him to court.
• The judge figured out the dispute between the friends, concluding that if the dishonest friend wanted to find his son, he had to find the lost plough.
• Moral of the Story: Honesty is the best policy.

I thought this story had an interesting twist at the end, and I was kind of taken aback at how the writer decided to promote honesty between these characters. Out of all the short stories I read, the title of The Dishonest Friend caught my eye the most because it was more vague than the other titles, which made me curious as to what it would be about.

The Dishonest Friend

Bibliography: W.H.D. Rouse's "The Giant Crab & Other Tales from Old India)