The Rescue of a Deer

The crow, the mouse, the tortoise and the deer lived together as the best of friends.

One day the deer, Chitránga, did not come home at his usual time. The crow, Laghupátin, flew up to the top of a tree to look for him and searched the whole wood with his sharp eyes. At last he spotted the deer on the river bank, caught fast in a hunter’s noose. The crow flew down and told the mouse and the tortoise.

The three friends quickly talked it over. Then Laghupátin picked the mouse up in his beak and flew him straight to the deer. The mouse Hiranya told the frightened deer not to worry, and in no time he had gnawed right through the cords. The deer was free!

Meanwhile the tortoise, Manthara, who loved his friends dearly, had been plodding along the riverbed to help. Just as he climbed up the bank beside them, the hunter who had set the noose came back. The deer and the others ran off, but the tortoise was far too slow. The hunter grabbed him, popped him into a net, and set off for home. He was cross that he had lost the deer, but at least he had a tortoise.

The friends had seen it all. The mouse, who was very good at thinking ahead, had a plan. Following his advice, the deer ran some distance along the path in front of the hunter and flopped down on the ground as if he were dead. The crow landed on the deer’s head and pretended to peck at his eyes.

When the hunter saw this, he thought, “That deer must have died of its wounds after all!” He put the tortoise down on the river bank and hurried towards the deer.

As soon as the hunter’s back was turned, the mouse scampered up to the net and nibbled a hole in it. Out crawled the tortoise, and with a splash he dived into the river.

The deer had been watching the hunter come closer. When he saw that the hunter had left the tortoise behind, he leapt to his feet and bounded away. The crow flew up into a tree.

The hunter turned back to fetch his tortoise, but all he found was an empty net with a hole gnawed in it. He went home grumbling that the tortoise had escaped and could never be caught now.

Then the four friends met up, full of joy. The deer said to the others, “How lucky I am to have friends like you! Today you saved me from death, and you risked your own lives to do it.”

He thanked the crow and the tortoise and the mouse with all his heart, and the four of them went on living together, happy in their friendship.

Where this story comes from

This adventure ends a longer story in the Kathá Sarit Ságara, a huge Sanskrit collection that the poet Somadeva put together in the eleventh century. It is retold here from the English translation by C. H. Tawney (Project Gutenberg #40588). Somadeva closes it with a lesson: even animals reach their goals by using their wits, and true friends would rather risk their lives than desert a friend in trouble.

In a note, Tawney says that a deer playing dead to fool a hunter turns up in other versions of this fable too. The same four friends appear in the Panchatantra and in the Hitopadesha.

Read the original: Tawney, tr., Kathá Sarit Ságara (Somadeva) (Project Gutenberg #40588)

Best for ages 6–8 — an exciting rescue story about friends who each help in their own way.

A closer reading

The first rescue uses the crow’s speed and the mouse’s teeth. The tortoise’s wish to help then creates a second emergency because he cannot leave the exposed bank quickly. The friends respond by adapting their plan, rather than excluding him for being slower.

In the second rescue, the deer and crow make the hunter believe he can recover the more desirable catch. That distraction gives the mouse time to reach the net and gives the tortoise a route into water. Timing, terrain and complementary abilities all matter; the ending is more specific than simply declaring one friend the bravest.

Try this with the story

Create a four-role plan for the second rescue. Give each friend an action and mark what must happen before the next action starts. Identify why placing the tortoise near the river matters.

Questions to ask

• Why does the first successful rescue lead to a second danger?
• What makes the hunter put the tortoise down?
• How does each friend’s ability contribute to the timing of the escape?

You may also like

• Meeting a New Friend — how the deer first joined the crow, the mouse and the tortoise
• The Crow-Rat Discourse — another story of a crow and his animal friends