Then down came the
pestle, tumbling on him from a shelf, and the mortar, too, came
rolling down on him from the roof of the porch and broke his back, and
so weakened him that he was unable to rise up. Then out came the crabs
in a crowd, and brandishing on high their pinchers they pinched the
Monkey so sorely that he begged them for forgiveness and promised
never to repeat his meanness and treachery.
* * * * *
MOMOTARO, OR LITTLE PEACHLING
A long long time ago there lived an old man and an old woman. One day
the old man went to the mountains to cut grass; and the old woman went
to the river to wash clothes. While she was washing a great thing came
tumbling and splashing down the stream. When the old woman saw it she
was very glad, and pulled it to her with a piece of bamboo that lay
near by. When she took it up and looked at it she saw that it was a
very large peach. She then quickly finished her washing and returned
home intending to give the peach to her old man to eat.
When she cut the peach in two, out came a child from the large kernel.
Seeing this the old couple rejoiced, and named the child Momotaro,
or Little Peachling, because he came out of a peach.
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