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through the deep warm water, and under the roots of the Wonderful
Tree he touched the broad back of Pau Amma the Crab. And Pau Amma
settled down at the touch, and all the Sea rose up as water rises
in a basin when you put your hand into it.

'Ah!' said the Eldest Magician. 'Now I know who has been playing
with the Sea;' and he called out, 'What are you doing, Pau Amma?'

And Pau Amma, deep down below, answered, 'Once a day and once a
night I go out to look for my food. Once a day and once a night I
return. Leave me alone.'

Then the Eldest Magician said, 'Listen, Pau Amma. When you go out
from your cave the waters of the Sea pour down into Pusat Tasek,
and all the beaches of all the islands are left bare, and the
little fish die, and Raja Moyang Kaban, the King of the
Elephants, his legs are made muddy. When you come back and sit in
Pusat Tasek, the waters of the Sea rise, and half the little
islands are drowned, and the Man's house is flooded, and Raja
Abdullah, the King of the Crocodiles, his mouth is filled with
the salt water.

Then Pau Amma, deep down below, laughed and said, 'I did not know
I was so important. Henceforward I will go out seven times a day,
and the waters shall never be still.'

And the Eldest Magician said, 'I cannot make you play the play
you were meant to play, Pau Amma, because you escaped me at the
Very Beginning; but if you are not afraid, come up and we will
talk about it.'

'I am not afraid,' said Pau Amma, and he rose to the top of the
sea in the moonlight. There was nobody in the world so big as Pau
Amma--for he was the King Crab of all Crabs. Not a common Crab,
but a King Crab. One side of his great shell touched the beach at
Sarawak; the other touched the beach at Pahang; and he was taller
than the smoke of three volcanoes! As he rose up through the
branches of the Wonderful Tree he tore off one of the great twin
fruits--the magic double kernelled nuts that make people young,--
and the little girl-daughter saw it bobbing alongside the canoe,
and pulled it in and began to pick out the soft eyes of it with
her little golden scissors.

'Now,' said the Magician, 'make a Magic, Pau Amma, to show that
you are really important.'

Pau Amma rolled his eyes and waved his legs, but he could only
stir up the Sea, because, though he was a King Crab, he was
nothing more than a Crab, and the Eldest Magician laughed.

'You are not so important after all, Pau Amma,' he said. 'Now,
let me try,' and he made a Magic with his left hand--with just
the little finger of his left hand--and--lo and behold,
Best Beloved, Pau Amma's hard, blue-green-black shell fell off
him as a husk falls off a cocoa-nut, and Pau Amma was left all
soft--soft as the little crabs that you sometimes find on the
beach, Best Beloved.

'Indeed, you are very important,' said the Eldest Magician.

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