The mouse that changed into a girl
In the old India of four castes, a Brahman, that is a noble of the upper caste, was one day walking near a fountain when a mouse fell at his feet — it had been dropped from the beak of a crow. The Brahman picked the little animal up and took it home. He cured it and cared for it so much that it changed into a little girl. The Brahman was very happy because he didn't have any children and he had always wanted a daughter.
The girl grew up. The Brahman asked her when she was going to choose a partner. The Brahman wanted to have grandchildren. His daughter told him that she wanted the strongest person in nature.
“Then what you want is the Sun”, responded the Brahman.
And so the next day he said to the Sun,
“My daughter desires a spouse that is invincible, would you take her as your wife?”
But the Sun replied,
“The clouds destroy my strength.”
The Brahman asked the same question of the clouds.
“The wind makes me go where it wants”, responded the clouds.
So the Brahman asked the wind to marry his daughter.
“My strength cannot match that of the mountain”, said the wind.
The Brahman asked the mountain to wed his daughter.
“The mouse is stronger than me”, said the mountain, “ it makes holes in me everywhere and penetrates into my insides”.
So the Brahman asked the mouse to marry his daughter. And the mouse said that, as it happened, he had been looking for a bride for a long time, and accepted the proposal of marriage to the Brahman's daughter. The Brahman asked his daughter if she wanted to marry the mouse and she replied,
“Yes, I do, because the mouse defeats the mountain, which is stronger than the wind, which beats the clouds, which weakens the Sun.”
And the Brahman thought,
“To get to all this, why did I bother to get the mouse to change into a girl in the first place?”
And from that day on he devoted himself to the task of how he could change his daughter back into a mouse, so that she might be happy with the mouse which defeats the mountain, which is stronger than the wind, which beats the clouds, which weakens the Sun.
Text: Koldo Izagirre
Translation: Joe Linehan
Voice: Tim Nicholson
