old times this was not so; the jelly-fish had as hard a shell as any
of them, but he lost it through his own fault, as may be seen in this
story.

The sea-queen Otohime, whom you read of in the story of Uraschimatoro,
grew suddenly very ill. The swiftest messengers were sent hurrying to
fetch the best doctors from every country under the sea, but it was all
of no use; the queen grew rapidly worse instead of better. Everyone had
almost given up hope, when one day a doctor arrived who was cleverer
than the rest, and said that the only thing that would cure her was the
liver of an ape. Now apes do not dwell under the sea, so a council of
the wisest heads in the nation was called to consider the question how a
liver could be obtained. At length it was decided that the turtle, whose
prudence was well known, should swim to land and contrive to catch a
living ape and bring him safely to the ocean kingdom.

It was easy enough for the council to entrust this mission to the
turtle, but not at all so easy for him to fulfil it. However he swam to
a part of the coast that was covered with tall trees, where he thought
the apes were likely to be; for he was old, and had seen many things. It
was some time before he caught sight of any monkeys, and he often grew
tired with watching for them, so that one hot day he fell fast asleep,
in spite of all his efforts to keep awake. By-and-by some apes, who
had been peeping at him from the tops of the trees, where they had been
carefully hidden from the turtle's eyes, stole noiselessly down, and
stood round staring at him, for they had never seen a turtle before, and
did not know what to make of it. At last one young monkey, bolder than
the rest, stooped down and stroked the shining shell that the strange
new creature wore on its back. The movement, gentle though it was, woke
the turtle. With one sweep he seized the monkey's hand in his mouth, and
held it tight, in spite of every effort to pull it away. The other apes,
seeing that the turtle was not to be trifled with, ran off, leaving
their young brother to his fate.

Then the turtle said to the monkey, 'If you will be quiet, and do what
I tell you, I won't hurt you. But you must get on my back and come with
me.'

The monkey, seeing there was no help for it, did as he was bid; indeed
he could not have resisted, as his hand was still in the turtle's mouth.

Delighted at having secured his prize, the turtle hastened back to the
shore and p