Stories about elephant calf Lanchenkar - Ayusha Erdyneev

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shake and tremble, Crocodile,

      Be ready, O green king!

      As white as milk, I’m Lanchenkar,

      The Elephant Prince. Hear me?

      I’m going to the watering place

      And I have no fear.

      There’ll be pure water for animals.

      I’ll get it. Is that clear?”

      The horror-stricken Hare and the Young Deer were watching the Elephant Prince approach the river. He looked around trying to see the sloping path that led to the watering place. Suddenly the water seethed and a huge head showed up. It was the Crocodile King! Its skin was covered with big green scales and warts. There were widely-set, yellow eyes on the sides of his head.

      “Where are you going, O great Lanchenkar?” the Crocodile asked with a grin.

      Still not realizing it was the Crocodile King, Lanchenkar answered politely: “I want to get a bucket of water for my sick mother. Would you please tell me where the watering place is?”

      “I am the watering place. Just hop into my mouth and get as much water as you wish,” said the Crocodile King and opened his mouth as wide as possible.

      I will taste a suckling elephant,” he thought and closed his eyes in anticipation. He could not close his jaws.

      “How tough this Little Elephant is,” he said to himself. He shook his head, opened his eyes and was surprised to see the elephant calf on the river bank.

      “That’s a stick I threw into your mouth. Now you’ll never give trouble to anyone,” said Lanchenkar loudly.

      When he saw those sharp teeth, the Little Elephant understood who it was and knew what to do.

      ***

      The Crocodile caught sight of the Hare and swam towards him hoping that the Hare would help him get rid of the stick. But the Hare loped as far as he could: he well remembered how he had lost his ear.

      “Well, how does it feel to suffer? Poorly? Did you think about it when you attacked your victims? Serves you right, murderer. Now try and swim with that stick in your mouth,” said the Hare and loped into the forest, burning with the desire to tell its inhabitants how Lanchenkar punished the Crocodile.

      “So you’ve been punished for maiming my leg, huh? Now you want to eat me but you can’t, right? It seems to be the time for you to pay for the trouble you gave living creatures,” the Young Deer admonished the Crocodile, cautiously advancing towards the watering place.

      With the stick in his mouth Crocodile King spent three days. He was angry and hungry.

      When they learnt from the one-eared Hare that the “coast’ was clear, all animals rushed to the watering place. No longer afraid of the Crocodile King, they drank the river water to their heart’s content. The Crocodile was hanging around, stick in his mouth, hoping for help but none volunteered, waiting for Lanchenkar.

      ***

      Lanchenkar gave a stern look to the Crocodile, whose mouth with the stick in it looked like the letter A, and asked:

      “So, villain, will you keep hurting and killing the poor animals?”

      The Crocodile King shook his head frantically in a fit of false repentance and burst into tears. Looking at the weak and crying Crocodile, the woodsfolk felt sorry for him. He no longer appeared to be vicious and dangerous. They believed the Crocodile and asked Lanchenkar to remove the stick.

      As he was thanking Lanchenkar, the Crocodile tried not to open his mouth too wide: he feared that Lanchenkar might change his mind.

      ***

      Since that time crocodiles never open their mouths wide; and, having finished with their prey, they always shed tears. Everybody knows that they are feigned and false. That is why they are called crocodile tears.

      Riddles

      Lanchenkar had a friend Lanchenak, an ordinary grey baby elephant. Lanchenak was fond of riddles. The two made a bargain: if one of them could not solve the riddle he should give a bunch of bananas to the other.

      ***

      “Where do elephants hide?” Lanchenak asked his friend.

      “In the jungle! Beyond high mountains!” ventured Lanchenkar but was wrong.

      “Okay, I don’t know. Where?”

      “Give me a bunch of bananas, as agreed, and I’ll tell you.”

      “Here it is.”

      “Elephants hide in apples,” answered Lanchenak laughing.

      “Why haven’t I ever found them there?” wondered Lanchenkar.

      “This calls for another bunch,” was the reply. With the bananas in his possession, Lanchenak went on: “You can’t see them; they hide well!”

      ***

      “What’s in the middle of an apple?” Lanchenak asked a new question.

      “Seeds! Pulp! The elephants’ hiding place!” Lanchenkar said at a venture.

      “Wrong! Do you give up?”

      “Yes.”

      “The letter P is in the middle of apple,” replied the implacable Lanchenak.

      ***

      Lanchenak offered riddles to woodsfolk every day, collecting sweet tribute and coming home with loads of bananas.

      The animals were angry and Lanchenkar decided to teach him a lesson.

      He met Lanchenak loaded with new bunches of bananas and said:

      “I know a riddle. No one has guessed it so far.”

      “Let me try,” said Lanchenak, all agog.

      “It’s a special riddle, I can’t tell it to everybody,” announced Lanchenkar with an air of importance.

      “Come on, tell me. If I fail, I’ll give you one bunch of bananas or even two!”

      “You don’t understand. It’s really a puzzling riddle.”

      “I’ll give you all bananas,” persisted Lanchenak.

      “Very well. Listen: ‘A trunk at the front, a trunk at the end and ears in between.’”

      Lanchenak was thinking hard and long but could not guess. He gave his bananas to Lanchenkar and said:

      “It’s a difficult riddle. I don’t know the answer, I give up. You tell me: who?”

      “Take one bunch of bananas – I don’t know the answer either. As I told you, no one does,” Lanchenkar replied.

      Reflection

      At their next meeting Lanchenkar asked Lanchenak: “Want another riddle?”

      “Yes, I do,” answered Lanchenak. “But now the deal is this: one riddle, one bunch of bananas.”

      “Good. Listen: ‘My eyes, my ears, my trunk, but it’s not me. When I extend my trunk to it, its trunk extends to me too.’”

      “It’s your father! Your mother! An elephant-werewolf! A twin extraterrestrial!” tried his luck Lanchenak.

      “You couldn’t find the correct answer. If you want to know it, give me bananas.”

      “Take it and tell me what it is.”

      “My reflection in the water,” answered Lanchenkar treating himself to bananas.

      “I thought so but I was too shy

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