The Toad and the Kite

The toad had lent some beads to the kite. The latter did not want to pay them back, so he kept on traveling and traveling; he was no longer seen in the village.

When the toad came to ask for the beads back again, the kite would jest; he would not even be there; he used to say:

“Tomorrow, tomorrow.”

When the toad was weary to death he began to plan schemes to have a talk with the kite.

At the approach to the toad’s village on this side of the river was a deserted field. It was a dry season, the grass was faded, and the toad set the field alight. When the fire was burnt out, he placed himself on a clod of earth and exposed his white stomach to the sky.

When the kite saw the smoke of the fire, he soared in the air to see whether there might not be mice lying in the fields on their backs, suffocated and dead. While he was gazing downwards, he spied something shining on a clod of earth and began to beat his wings and to say to himself, “There is a mouse.”

The Toad in the home of the Kite

The kite swooped down and seized upon the white object; he put it in his bag and carried it through the sky; but he did not see that it was a toad.

That evening, when he returned to his village, the kite went indoors with his mice and began to count the number in his bag. When the mice escaped, they ran, but the toad jumped out and said:

“Hulloa, Kite! Here I am. Give me my beads!”

The Toad hopping out of the Kite’s bag

The kite stood amazed; he was ashamed. He proceeded to take his beads out from his secret chamber and counted them out to the toad.

“My friend, take your beads; it is right.... But how will you return to your village? I have not carried you for nothing.”

The toad said, “I have taken my beads; if I had not laid a trap for you, I should not have known how to get back my loan! I know the paths which lead back to my home.”

The kite did not understand the toad’s cleverness. At night when he went to lie down, he hung up his bag on the door of his house very close to the ground. When the toad saw the bag, he jumped inside and remained there all night.

The kite took his bag early and went for a walk; but it became very hot, stiflingly hot. So he went to look for a river, placed his bag on the bank, and descended to the water to bathe.

The toad them jumped out, crying, “Aha, my friend! I have traveled for nothing after all!”

If the toad’s limbs are feeble, his wits are not wanting.