` Once a day and once a night the Sea runs up the Perak river and drives the sweet-water back into the forest , so that my house is made wet ; once a day and once a night it runs down the river and draws all the water after it , so that there is nothing left but mud , and my canoe is upset . Is that the play you told it to play ? ' ` No , ' said the Eldest Magician . ` That is a new and a bad play . ' ` Look ! ' said the Man , and as he spoke the great Sea came up the mouth of the Perak river , driving the river backwards till it overflowed all the dark forests for miles and miles , and flooded the Man 's house . ` This is wrong . Launch your canoe and we will find out who is playing with the Sea , ' said the Eldest Magician . They stepped into the canoe ; the little girl-daughter came with them ; and the Man took his kris -- a curving , wavy dagger with a blade like a flame , -- and they pushed out on the Perak river . Then the sea began to run back and back , and the canoe was sucked out of the mouth of the Perak river , past Selangor , past Malacca , past Singapore , out and out to the Island of Bingtang , as though it had been pulled by a string . Then the Eldest Magician stood up and shouted , ` Ho ! beasts , birds , and fishes , that I took between my hands at the Very Beginning and taught the play that you should play , which one of you is playing with the Sea ? ' Then all the beasts , birds , and fishes said together , ` Eldest Magician , we play the plays that you taught us to play -- we and our children 's children . But not one of us plays with the Sea . ' Then the Moon rose big and full over the water , and the Eldest Magician said to the hunchbacked old man who sits in the Moon spinning a fishing-line with which he hopes one day to catch the world , ` Ho ! Fisher of the Moon , are you playing with the Sea ? ' ` No , ' said the Fisherman , ' I am spinning a line with which I shall some day catch the world ; but I do not play with the Sea . ' And he went on spinning his line . Now there is also a Rat up in the Moon who always bites the old Fisherman 's line as fast as it is made , and the Eldest Magician said to him , ` Ho ! Rat of the Moon , are you playing with the Sea ? '
And the Rat said , ' I am too busy biting through the line that this old XXXXX is spinning .
Bingtang Fisherman Ho Malacca Perak Sea Selangor day girl-daughter sweet-water