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.
'Shall I ask the Man here to cut you with kris? Shall I send for
Raja Moyang Kaban, the King of the Elephants, to pierce you with
his tusks, or shall I call Raja Abdullah, the King of the Crocodiles,
to bite you?'

And Pau Amma said, 'I am ashamed! Give me back my hard shell and
let me go back to Pusat Tasek, and I will only stir out once a
day and once a night to get my food.'

And the Eldest Magician said, 'No, Pau Amma, I will not give you
back your shell, for you will grow bigger and prouder and
stronger, and perhaps you will forget your promise, and
you will play with the Sea once more.

Then Pau Amma said, 'What shall I do? I am so big that I can only
hide in Pusat Tasek, and if I go anywhere else, all soft as I am
now, the sharks and the dogfish will eat me. And if I go to Pusat
Tasek, all soft as I am now, though I may be safe, I can never
stir out to get my food, and so I shall die.' Then he waved his
legs and lamented.

'Listen, Pau Amma,' said the Eldest Magician. 'I cannot make you
play the play you were meant to play, because you escaped me at
the Very Beginning; but if you choose, I can make every stone and
every hole and every bunch of weed in all the seas a safe Pusat