{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_25590/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_25590","id":"gutenberg_25590","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/25590","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Adventure","Category: Children & Young Adult Reading","Category: Humour","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Fairy tales -- Japan"],"text":"Produced by Jacqueline Jeremy, and the Online Distributed\nProofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was\nproduced from images generously made available by The\nInternet Archive/American Libraries.)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n    THE SILLY JELLY-FISH.\n\n    Told in English by B. H. Chamberlain\n\n\n    Griffith Farran & Co., London & Sydney, N.S.W.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\nTHE SILLY JELLY-FISH.\n\n\nOnce upon a time the King of the Dragons, who had till then lived as a\nbachelor, took it into his head to get married. His bride was a young\nDragonette just sixteen years old,--lovely enough, in very sooth, to\nbecome the wife of a King. Great were the rejoicings on the occasion.\nThe Fishes, both great and small, came to pay their respects, and to\noffer gifts to the newly wedded pair; and for some days all was feasting\nand merriment.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nBut alas! even Dragons have their trials. Before a month had passed, the\nyoung Dragon Queen fell ill. The doctors dosed her with every medicine\nthat was known to them, but all to no purpose. At last they shook their\nheads, declaring that there was nothing more to be done. The illness\nmust take its course, and she would probably die. But the sick Queen\nsaid to her husband:\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\"I know of something that will cure me. Only fetch me a live Monkey's\nliver to eat, and I shall get well at once.\"--\"A live Monkey's liver!\"\nexclaimed the King. \"What are you thinking of, my dear? Why! you forget\nthat we Dragons live in the sea, while Monkeys live far away from here,\namong the forest-trees on land. A Monkey's liver! Why! darling, you\nmust be mad.\" Hereupon the young Dragon Queen burst into tears: \"I only\nask you for one small thing,\" whimpered she, \"and you won't get it for\nme. I always thought you didn't really love me. Oh! I wish I had staid\nat home with my own m-m-m-mama and my own papa-a-a-a!\" Here her voice\nchoked with sobs, and she could say no more.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nWell, of course the Dragon King did not like to have it thought that\nhe was unkind to his beautiful young wife. So he sent for his trusty\nservant the Jelly-Fish, and said: \"It is rather a difficult job; but\nwhat I want you to try to do is to swim across to the land, and\npersuade a live Monkey to come here with you. In order to make the\nMonkey willing to come, you can tell him how much nicer everything\nis here in Dragon-Land than away where he lives. But what I really\nwant him for is to cut out his liver, and use it as medicine for your\nyoung Mistress, who, as you know, is dangerously ill.\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\nSo the Jelly-Fish went off on his strange errand. In those days he was\njust like any other fish, with eyes, and fins, and a tail. He even had\nlittle feet, which made him able to walk on the land as well as to swim\nin the water. It did not take him many hours to swim across to the\ncountry where the Monkeys lived; and fortunately there just happened to\nbe a fine Monkey skipping about among the branches of the trees near\nthe place where the Jelly-Fish landed. So the Jelly-Fish said: \"Mr.\nMonkey! I have come to tell you of a country far more beautiful than\nthis. It lies beyond the waves, and is called Dragon-Land. There is\npleasant weather there all the year round, there is always plenty of\nripe fruit on the trees, and there are none of those mischievous\ncreatures called Men. If you will come with me, I will take you there.\nJust get on my back.\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\nThe Monkey thought it would be fun to see a new country. So he leapt on\nto the Jelly-Fish's back, and off they started across the water. But\nwhen they had gone about half-way, he began to fear that perhaps there\nmight be some hidden danger. It seemed so odd to be fetched suddenly in\nthat way by a stranger. So he said to the Jelly-Fish: \"What made you\nthink of coming for me?\" The Jelly-Fish answered: \"My Master, the King\nof the Dragons, wants you in order to cut out your liver, and give it\nas medicine to his wife, the Queen, who is sick.\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\"Oh! that's your little game,--is it?\" thought the Monkey. But he kept\nhis thoughts to himself and only said: \"Nothing could please me better\nthan to be of service to Their Majesties. But it so happens that I left\nmy liver hanging to a branch of that big chestnut-tree, which you found\nme skipping about on. A liver is a thing that weighs a good deal. So I\ngenerally take it out, and play about without it during the day-time. We\nmust go back for it.\"--The Jelly-Fish agreed that there was nothing\nelse to be done under the circumstances. For,--silly creature that he\nwas,--he did not see that the Monkey was telling a story in order to\navoid getting killed, and having his liver used as medicine for the\nfanciful young Dragon Queen.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nWhen they reached the shore of Monkey-Land again, the monkey bounded\noff the Jelly-Fish's back, and up to the topmost branch of the\nchestnut-tree in less than no time. Then he said: \"I do not see my liver\nhere. Perhaps somebody has taken it away. But I will look for it. You,\nmeantime, had better go back and tell your Master what has happened. He\nmight be anxious about you, if you did not get home before dark.\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\nSo the Jelly-Fish started off a second time; and when he got home, he\ntold the Dragon King everything just as it had happened. But the King\nflew into a passion with him for his stupidity, and hallooed to his\nofficers, saying: \"Away with this fellow! Take him, and beat him to a\njelly! Don't let a single bone remain unbroken in his body!\" So the\nofficers seized him, and beat him, as the King had commanded. That is\nthe reason why, to this very day, Jelly-Fishes have no bones, but are\njust nothing more than a mass of pulp.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nAs for the Dragon Queen, when she found she could not have the Monkey's\nliver,--why! she made up her mind that the only thing to do was to get\nwell without it.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n_Printed by the Kobunsha in Tokyo, Japan._\n\n\n\n\nTHE KOBUNSHA'S JAPANESE FAIRY TALE SERIES.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n     1. Momotaro or Little Peachling.\n\n     2. The Tongue Cut Sparrow.\n\n     3. The Battle of the Monkey and the Crab.\n\n     4. The Old Man who made the Dead Trees Blossom.\n\n     5. Kachi-Kachi Mountain.\n\n     6. The Mouse's Wedding.\n\n     7. The Old Man and the Devils.\n\n     8. Urashima, the Fisher-Boy.\n\n     9. The Eight-Headed Serpent.\n\n    10. The Matsuyama Mirror.\n\n    11. The Hare of Inaba.\n\n    12. The Cub's Triumph.\n\n    13. The Silly Jelly-Fish.\n\n    14. The Princes, Fire-flash and Fire-fade. (_in the press_)\n\n[Illustration]\n\n_Copyright Reserved._\n\n\n[Illustration]","title":"The Silly Jelly-Fish: Told in English","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":1171}