Page:Chinese Fables and Folk Stories.djvu/124

120 He sat down at his desk and thought, and he stirred the ink in his ink-dish, not knowing what he did.

Then he wrote this story and said: "In my mind this is a strange thing. The snipe is a fine creature in the air. He has two wings and has great power to do for himself.

"Small fishes swim in the water and the snipe can take any one he wants, but he can not live in the home of the bivalve, or try to take life away from him without perishing himself.

"If he had power to go under the water and live, there would be no small fishes in the river, and if he were big, like the eagle or bear, there would soon be no fishes in the world. I am glad the Creator made him a small creature and not too powerful.

"The bivalve—he has great power to live under the water. Small swimming things can not escape if they pass by his door, but if he could move about like other fishes with his great power and his appetite for many fish, I think the mother of all fishes could not make enough for his greedy mouth, for now he opens his doors all day long and takes in the creatures that swim by.

"I had fish from the river last night for my evening meal, but I think they never passed the bivalve's house or he would have had them for his supper.

"When the bivalve and snipe fought together, each