The Giant Crab

Listen Ad Free https://www.solgoodmedia.com - Listen to hundreds of audiobooks, thousands of short stories, and ambient sounds all ad free!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Once upon a time there was a lake in the mountains,
and in that lake lived a huge crab. I dare
say you have often seen crabs boiled and put on
a dish for you to eat, And perhaps at the
sea side you have watched them sidling away at the
bottom of a pool. Sometimes a boy or girl bathing

(00:21):
in the sea gets a nip from a crab, and
then there is squeaking and squealing. But our crab was
much larger than these. He was the largest crab ever
heard of. He was bigger than a dining room table,
and his claws were as big as an arm chair.
Fancy what it must be to have a nip from

(00:41):
such claws as those. Well, this huge crab lived all
alone in the lake. Now, the different animals that lived
in the wild mountains used to come to that lake
to drink, deer and antelopes, foxes and wolves, lions and
tigers and elephants. And whenever they came into the water

(01:02):
to drink, the great crab was on the watch, and
one of them at least never went up out of
the water again. The crab used to nip it with
one of his huge claws and pull it under and
then the poor beast was drowned and made a fine
dinner for the big crab. This went on for a
long time, and the crab grew bigger and bigger every day,

(01:25):
fattening on the animals that came there to drink. So
at last all the animals were afraid to go near
that lake. This was a pity because there was very
little water in the mountains, and the creatures did not
know what to do when they were thirsty. At last,
a great elephant made up his mind to put an
end to the crab and his doings. So he and

(01:47):
his wife agreed that they would lead a herd of
elephants there to drink, and while the other elephants were drinking,
they would look out for the crab. They did as
they arranged. When the herd of elephants got to the lake,
these two went in first and kept farthest out in
the water watching for the crab, and the others drank

(02:07):
and trumpeted and washed themselves close inshore. Soon they had
had enough and began to go out of the water.
And then, sure enough the elephant felt a tremendous nip
on the leg. The crab had crawled up under the
water and got him fast. He nodded to his wife,
who bravely stayed by his side, and then she began,

(02:31):
dear mister crab, She said, please let my husband go.
The crab poked his eyes out of the water. You know,
a crab's eyes grow on a kind of little stalk,
And this crab was so big that his eyes looked
like two thick tree trunks with the cannon ball on
the top of age. Now, this crab was a great flirt,

(02:53):
or rather he used to be a great flirt, but
lately he had nobody to flirt with, because he had
eaten up all the green that came near him. And
missus Elephant was a beautiful elephant with the shiny brown skin,
an elegant flapping ears, and a curly trunk, and two
white tusks that twinkled when she smiled. So when the

(03:14):
big crab saw this beautiful elephant, he thought he would
like to have a kiss, And he said, in a
wheedling tone, dear little elephant, will you give me a kiss?
Then missus Elephant pretended to be very pleased, and put
her head on one side and flapped her tail, and
she looked so sweet and so tempting, that the crab

(03:36):
let go the other elephant and began to crawl slowly
towards her, waving his eyes about as he went. All
this while mister elephant had been in great pain from
the nip of the crab's claw, but he had said nothing,
for he was a very brave elephant. But he did
not mean to let his wife come to any harm,

(03:57):
not he It was all part of their trick. And
as soon as he felt his leg free, he trumpeted
loud and long, and jumped right upon the crab's back. Crack,
crack went the crab's shell, for big as he was,
an elephant was too heavy for him to carry. Crack, crack, crack.

(04:18):
The elephant jumped up and down on his back, and
in a very short time the crab was crushed to mincemeat.
What rejoicing there was among the animals when they saw
the crab crushed to death. From far and near they
came and passed a bout of thanks to the elephant
and his wife, and made them king and queen of
all the animals in the mountains. As for the crab,

(04:41):
there was nothing left of him but his claws, which
were so hard that nothing could even crack them. So
they were left in the pool. And in the autumn
there came a great flood and carried the claws down
into the river, and the river carried them hundreds of
miles away to a great city, where the king's grants
found them and made out of them two immense drums,

(05:04):
which they always beat when they go to war. And
the very sound of these drums is enough to frighten
the enemy away. End of the giant Crab