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 Fisherman is spinning . I do not play with the Sea . ' And he went on biting the line . Then the little girl-daughter put up her little soft brown arms with the beautiful white shell bracelets and said , ' O Eldest Magician ! when my father here talked to you at the Very Beginning , and I leaned upon his shoulder while the beasts were being taught their plays , one beast went away naughtily into the Sea before you had taught him his play . And the Eldest Magician said , ` How wise are little children who see and are silent ! What was the beast like ? '
And the little XXXXX said , ` He was round and he was flat ; and his eyes grew upon stalks ; and he walked sideways like this ; and he was covered with strong armour upon his back . '
Bingtang Fisherman Ho Magician Man Singapore bracelets dagger day girl-daughter