Monkey (5 page)

‘Ha, ha,’ laughed the demon. ‘I have often heard those monkeys say that their king had gone away to learn religion. This means that he’s come back again. What does he look like and how is he armed ?’

‘He carries no weapon at all,’ they said. ‘He goes bareheaded, wears a red dress, with a yellow sash, and black shoes – neither priest nor layman nor quite like a Taoist. He’s waiting naked-handed outside the gate.’

‘Bring me my whole accoutrement,’ cried the demon.

The small imps at once fetched his arms. The demon put on his helmet and breastplate, grasped his sword, and going to the gate with the little imps, cried in a loud voice, ‘Where’s the owner of the Water Curtain Cave ?’

‘What’s the use of having such large eyes,’ shouted Monkey, ‘if you can’t see old Monkey ?’

Catching sight of him the demon burst out laughing. ‘You’re not a foot high or as much as thirty years old. You have no weapon in your hand! How dare you strut about talking of settling accounts with me ?’

‘Cursed demon,’ said Monkey. ‘After all, you have no eyes in your head! You say I am small, not seeing that I can make myself as tall as I please. You say I am unarmed, not knowing that these two hands of mine could drag the moon from the ends of Heaven. Stand your ground, and eat old Monkey’s fist!’

So saying he leapt into the air and aimed a blow at the demon’s face. The demon parried the blow with his hand.

‘You such a pigmy and I so tall!’ said the demon. ‘You using your fists and I my sword – Nol If I were to slay you with my sword I should make myself ridiculous. I am going to throw away my sword and use my naked fists.’

‘Very good,’ said Monkey. ‘Now, my fine fellow, come onl’

The demon relaxed his guard and struck. Monkey closed with him, and the two of them pommelled and kicked, blow for blow. A long reach is not so firm and sure as a short one. Monkey jabbed the demon in the lower ribs, pounded him in the chest, and gave him such a heavy drubbing that at last the demon stood back, and picking up his great flat sword, slashed at Monkey’s head. But Monkey stepped swiftly aside, and the blow missed its mark. Seeing that the demon was becoming savage, Monkey now used the method called Body Outside the Body. He plucked out a handful of hairs, bit them into small pieces, and then spat them out into the air, crying ‘Change!’ The fragments of hair changed into several hundred small monkeys, all pressing round in a throng. For you must know that when anyone becomes an Immortal, he can project his soul, change his shape, and perform all kinds of miracles. Monkey, since his Illumination, could change every one of the eighty-four thousand hairs of his body into whatever he chose. The little monkeys he had now created were so nimble that no sword could touch them or spear wound them. See how they leap forward and jump back, crowd round the demon, some hugging, some pulling, some jabbing at his chest, some swarming up his legs. They kicked him, beat him, pommelled his eyes, pinched his nose, and while they were all at it, Monkey slipped up and snatched away the Demon’s sword. Then pushing through the throng of small monkeys, he raised the sword and brought it down with such tremendous force upon the demon’s skull, that he clove it in twain. He and the little monkeys then rushed into the cave and made a quick end of the imps, great and small. He then said a spell, which caused the small monkeys to change back into hairs. These he put back where they had come from; but there were still some small monkeys left – those that the Demon had carried off from the Cave of the Water Curtain.

‘How did you get here ?’ he asked.

There were about thirty or forty of them, and they all said with tears in their eyes, ‘After your Majesty went away to become an Immortal, we were pestered by this creature for two years. In the end he carried us all off, and he stole all the fittings from our cave. He took all the stone dishes and the stone cups.’

‘Collect everything that belongs to us and bring it with you,’ said Monkey. They then set fire to the cave and burnt everything in it.

‘Now follow me!’ said Monkey.

‘When we were brought here,’ they said, ‘we only felt a great wind rushing past, which whirled us to this place. We didn’t know which way we were coming. So how are we to find the way home ?’

‘He brought you here by magic,’ said Monkey. ‘But what matter? I am now up to all that sort of thing, and if he could do it, I can. Shut your eyes, all of you, and don’t be frightened.’

He then recited a spell which produced a fierce wind. Suddenly it dropped, and Monkey shouted, ‘You may look now!’ The monkeys found that they were standing on firm ground quite close to their home. In high delight they all followed a familiar path back to the door of their cave. They and those who had been left behind all pressed into the cave, and lined up according to their rank and age, and did homage to their king, and prepared a great banquet of welcome. When they asked how the demon had been subdued and the monkeys rescued, he told them the whole story; upon which they burst into shouts of applause.

‘We little thought,’ they said, ‘that when your Majesty left us, you would learn such arts as this!’

‘After I parted from you,’ said Monkey, ‘I went across many oceans to the land of Jambudvipa, where I learnt human ways, and how to wear clothes and shoes. I wandered restless as a cloud for eight or nine years, but nowhere could I find Enlightenment. At last after crossing yet another ocean, I was lucky enough to meet an old Patriarch who taught me the secret of eternal life.’

‘What an incredible piece of luck!’ the monkeys said, all congratulating him.

‘Little ones,’ said Monkey, ‘I have another bit of good news for you. Your king has got a name-in-religion. I am called Aware-of-Vacuity.’

They all clapped loudly, and presently went to get date-wine and grape-wine and fairy flowers and fruit, which they offered to Monkey. Everyone was in the highest spirits. If you do not know what the upshot was and how he fared now that he was back in his old home, you must listen to what is related in the next chapter.

M
ONKEY
, having returned in triumph, after slaying the Demon of Havoc and snatching the demon’s huge cutlass, practised sword-play every day and taught the small monkeys how to sharpen bamboos with spears, make wooden swords and banners to carry; how to go on patrol, advance and retreat, pitch camp, build stockades, and so on. They had great fun doing this; but suddenly, sitting in a quiet place, Monkey thought to himself, ‘All this is only a game; but the consequences of it may be serious. Suppose some human king or king of birds or beasts should hear what we are at, he may very well think that we are hatching a conspiracy against him and bring his armies to attack us. Bamboo spears and wooden swords wouldn’t help you much then. You ought to have real swords and lances and halberds. How are we to get hold of them?’

‘That’s an excellent idea,’ they said, ‘but there’s nowhere we can possibly get them from.’

At this point four old monkeys came forward, two red-bottomed horse-apes and two tailless apes with plain behinds. ‘Great king,’ they said, ‘if you want to get weapons made, nothing could be easier.’

‘Why do you think it so easy ?’ asked Monkey.

‘East of our mountains,’ they said, ‘there are two hundred leagues of water. That is, the frontier of Ao-lai, and at that frontier there is a king whose city is full of soldiers. He must certainly have metal-works of all sorts. If you go there, you can certainly buy weapons or get them made for you. Then you can teach us to use them, and we shall be able to defend ourselves. That is the way to protect us against extinction.’

Monkey was delighted with this idea. ‘You stay here and amuse yourselves,’ he said, ‘while I go off and see what can be done.’

Dear Monkey! He set out on his cloud trapeze, and in a twinkling he had crossed those two hundred leagues of water,
and on the other side there was indeed a city with walls and moat, with wards and markets, and myriad streets where men walked up and down in the happy sunshine. He thought to himself, ‘In such a place there are sure to be ready-made weapons. I’ll go down and buy some. Or better still, I’ll get some by magic’ He made a magic pass, recited a spell and drew a magic diagram on the ground. He then stood in the middle of it, drew a long breath and expelled it with such force that sand and stones hurtled through the air. This tempest so much alarmed the king of the country and all his subjects that they locked themselves indoors. Monkey lowered his cloud, made straight for the government buildings, and soon finding the arsenal he forced open the door, and saw a vast supply of swords, lances, scimitars, halberds, axes, scythes, whips, rakes, cudgels, bows, and crossbows – every conceivable weapon. ‘That’s rather more than I can carry,’ he said to himself. So, as before, he changed his hairs into thousands of small monkeys, who began snatching at the weapons. Some managed to carry six or seven, others three or four, till soon the arsenal was bare. Then a great gale of magic wind carried them back to the cave. The monkeys at home were playing in front of the cave door, when suddenly they saw a great swarm of monkeys in the sky above, which scared them so much that they all rushed into hiding. Soon Monkey lowered his cloud and turned the thousands of little monkeys into hairs. He stacked the weapons on the hillside and cried, ‘Little ones, all come and get your arms!’ To their astonishment they found Monkey standing all alone on the ground. They rushed forward to pay homage, and Monkey explained to them what had happened. When they had congratulated him on his performance, they all began to grab at swords and cutlasses, pick up axes, scramble for spears, drag off bows and crossbows. This sport, which was a very noisy one, lasted all day.

Next day they came on parade as usual, and the roll-call disclosed that they numbered forty-seven thousand in all. All the wild beasts of the mountain and demon kings of every kind, denizens of no less than seventy-two caves, came to pay homage to Monkey, and henceforward brought tribute every
year and signed on once in every season. Some supplied labour and some provisions. The Mountain of Flowers and Fruit became as strong as an iron bucket or wall of bronze. The demon kings of various districts also presented bronze drums, coloured banners, helmets, and coats of mail. Day after day there was a tremendous bustle of drilling and marching. Everything was going well, when suddenly one day Monkey said to his subjects, ‘You seem to be getting on well with your drill, but I find my sword very cumbersome, in fact not at all to my liking. What is to be done ?’

The four old monkeys came forward and said, ‘Great King, it is quite natural that you, being an Immortal, should not care to use this earthly weapon. Do you think it would be possible for you to get one from the denizens of the sea ?’

‘Why not, pray?’ said Monkey. ‘Since my Illumination I have mastery of seventy-two transformations; greatest wonder of all, I can ride upon the clouds. I can become invisible, I can penetrate bronze and stone. Water cannot drown me, any more than fire can burn me. What’s to prevent me getting a weapon from the Powers of the Sea ?’

‘Well, if you can manage it,’ they said. ‘The water that flows under this iron bridge comes up from the palace of the dragon of the Eastern Sea. How about going down and paying a call upon the dragon-king? If you asked him for a weapon he would no doubt be able to find you something suitable.’

‘I’ll certainly go,’ said Monkey. He went to the bridgehead, recited a spell to protect himself from the effects of water, and jumped in, making his way along the water-course till he came to the bottom of the Eastern Sea. Presently he was stopped by a Yaksha who was patrolling the waters.

‘What deity is that,’ he asked, ‘pushing along through the water ? Give me an account of yourself and I will announce your arrival.’

‘I am the monkey-king of the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit,’ said Monkey. ‘I am a near neighbour of the Dragon King, and consider that I ought to make his acquaintance.’

The Yaksha brought in the message, and the Dragon King rose hastily and came to the door of his palace, bringing
with him his dragon children and grandchildren, his shrimp soldiers and crab generals.

‘Come in, High Immortal, come in,’ he said.

They went into the palace and sat face to face on the upper seat. When they had taken tea, the dragon asked,’ How long, pray, have you been Illumined, and what magic arts have you learned ?’

‘I have led a religious life since my infancy,’ said Monkey, ‘and am now beyond birth and destruction. Recently I have been training my subjects how to defend their home; but I myself have no suitable weapon. I am told that my honoured neighbour within the shell-portals of his green jade palace certainly has many magic weapons to spare.’

The Dragon King did not like to refuse, and ordered a trout-captain to bring out a huge sword.

‘I’m no good with a sword,’ said Monkey. ‘Can’t you find something else?’

The Dragon King then told a whitebait-guardsman with the help of an eel-porter to bring out a nine-pronged fork. Monkey took hold of it and tried a few thrusts.

‘It’s much too light,’ he said. ‘And it does not suit my hand. Can’t you find me something else ?’

‘I really don’t know what you mean,’ said the Dragon King. ‘The fork weighs three thousand six hundred pounds.’

‘It doesn’t suit my hand,’ said Monkey, ‘it doesn’t suit my hand.’

The Dragon King was much upset, and ordered a bream-general and a carp-brigadier to bring out a huge halberd, weighing seven thousand two hundred pounds. Monkey seized it and after making a few thrusts and parries tossed it away saying,’ Still too light 1’