Reading Notes, The Giant Crab, Part A: The Goblin in the Pool

The pool of water in the forest.

(Source: Pxhere)

There once was a forest where there was a pool which all of the animals of the forest would drink water from. The pool was home to a horrible Goblin that didn't have a nose so he couldn't get out of the water to attack any animals that came by to get a drink of water unless the came close enough to where he could pounce at them from inside the the pool.  One year, there was a great drought and there was a heard of monkeys that were looking for water but they didn't find any until they came across this pool. The King of the Monkeys saw footprints going to the water, but none coming awy from it, so he warned the rest of the moneys to not endanger their lives by getting too close. One of monkeys was extremely thirsty so he disregarded the King Monkey's command and went up to the pool to get water and then he suddenly disappeared. The other monkeys were looking for him and another one was so thirsty that he snuck away to the pool to get some water and then he got pulled in and all of the monkeys heard his screams. They were all thirsty at that point but they knew they were in danger of getting pulled into the water by some creature.

Then, a man walked by and asked why the monkeys were sitting by the pool with a disappointed look on their faces. They told him what had happened to their two monkey friends and the man immediately knew it was a Goblin in the water. He grabbed a long reed and cut off the end and used the reed as a long straw to drink water from the pool without getting too close. Over time, all animals used this method and the Goblin died of starvation.

Source: The Giant Crab, and Other Tales from Old India by W. H. D. Rouse with illustrations by W. Robinson, online at: Internet Archive. The Goblin in the Pool
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