The Good Book_ A Secular Bible - A. C. Grayling [29]
19. ‘He humanises them by being a brother to them even though he is a stranger in their midst.’
Chapter 17
1. As they set forward on the third day of their journey, the stranger said, ‘Will you carry me, or shall I carry you?’
2. Charicles replied, ‘I will carry you, with another story of a cunning animal;
3. ‘Not the fox this time, but the monkey, whose tricks teach us more about men than men can teach us about monkeys.’ The story went as follows.
4. A crocodile and a monkey were friends, and the monkey lived in a tree not far from the stream where the crocodile lived with his wife.
5. The monkey ate nuts that he picked from the treetops, and daily gave some to the crocodile; and the crocodile relished them greatly.
6. One day the crocodile took some of the nuts home to his wife, and she found them excellent.
7. She asked, ‘Who gave these to you?’ so he told her of the monkey.
8. She said, ‘If the monkey feeds on such ambrosial nuts, his heart must be ambrosia itself, for there the essence of these nuts will be collected.
9. ‘Bring him to me so that I can tear him and eat his heart; a dinner such as that would give me more pleasure than anything I have experienced in my life.’
10. The crocodile refused to bring his friend the monkey to his wife, so one day when he was away in another part of the river, his wife summoned the hyena, and explained her desire to him, saying,
11. ‘If you will catch the monkey who is my husband’s friend, and bring him to me alive, I will give you anything you ask by way of reward.’
12. So the hyena went and lay in wait for the monkey, and after several days of patience succeeded in catching him in his powerful jaws.
13. At first the monkey thought he was going to be eaten by the hyena, but when he perceived that the hyena was carrying him along he asked, ‘Where are you taking me?’
14. In a muffled voice the hyena said, ‘The crocodile’s wife wants you, for she wishes to eat your heart, which she thinks must be ambrosia because of the nuts you eat.’
15. At this the monkey began to laugh, to the hyena’s annoyance; he said to the monkey, ‘Why are you laughing? You are just about to have your heart eaten by the crocodile’s wife; how is that an amusing fate?’
16. The monkey said, ‘The crocodile’s wife is going to be very disappointed, and at the same time very angry with you;
17. ‘For you forgot to make sure that I had my heart with me when you caught me.’
18. The hyena stopped in puzzlement at this. ‘What do you mean?’ he asked. ‘Have you not got your heart with you?’
19. ‘No,’ said the monkey. ‘We monkeys always leave our hearts at home, for otherwise we would be too afraid to go swinging in the trees, so high up from the ground. Did you not know that?’
20. ‘Well,’ said the hyena, disconsolate, ‘what am I to do? You are right: she will be angry, and might eat me instead of you.’
21. ‘I would not like that to happen to you,’ said the monkey kindly. ‘If you wait here I will hasten home and get my heart, and then I will have it with me when we reach the crocodile’s wife.’
22. ‘That’s very kind,’ said the hyena, most gratefully, and opened his jaws to let the monkey down.
23. The monkey leaped up into the trees, laughing again and even more loudly; and bade the hyena farewell.
24. ‘There are many morals in this tale,’ Charicles said, ‘but one that always occurs to me is that the politician who takes your vote is like the monkey who promises to fetch his heart;
25. ‘Once he has your vote and is in office, he is like the monkey who has tricked you and leaped into the tree;
26. ‘But the one difference is, you discover that he has no heart at all.’
Chapter 18
1. With such stories the day’s journey of Charicles and the stranger was beguiled. They rode through meadows of anemone, cyclamen, daffodil and iris,
2. Knee-deep in long sweet grass, and in the shade of woods thickly studded with oak and terebinth trees;
3. They rode by the side of streams, and their talk mingled with the sound of waters rushing over stones polished round and clean.
4. Just as the shadows