--- title: Just So Stories, The Crab that Played with the Sea, part 1: the Eldest Magician and the sea that will not behave — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Just So Stories, The Crab that Played with the Sea, part 1: the Eldest Magician and the sea that will not behave», a lesson of the books course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: At the Very Beginning the Eldest Magician gets the Earth an --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/90-justso-crab-1-the-eldest-magician/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Books](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/) / Just So Stories, The Crab that Played… # Just So Stories, The Crab that Played with the Sea, part 1: the Eldest Magician and the sea that will not behave Lesson 90 of the books course of Mova's primary school: 21 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/books/90-justso-crab-1-the-eldest-magician/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/90-justso-crab-1-the-eldest-magician/0/) — At the Very Beginning the Eldest Magician gets the Earth and the Sea ready and teaches each animal its «play»: the Elephant plays at being an Elephant, the Beaver at being a Beaver, and so on. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/90-justso-crab-1-the-eldest-magician/2/) — Only the little girl sees him go. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/90-justso-crab-1-the-eldest-magician/3/) — The Magician walks round the world. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/90-justso-crab-1-the-eldest-magician/4/) — In the North the Elephant's diggings become the Himalayas; in the East the Cow's eaten patch and her sitting-place become the Indian Desert and the Sahara; in the West the Beaver's dam becomes the Everglades; in the South the Turtle's flung sand becomes the islands of Malaysia and Indonesia. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/90-justso-crab-1-the-eldest-magician/5/) — But the Man says the Sea is not obedient: once a day and once a night it rushes up the Perak river and floods his house, then runs out again and leaves only mud. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/90-justso-crab-1-the-eldest-magician/7/) — The sea runs out so fast that the canoe is pulled past Selangor, Malacca and Singapore to the island of Bintang. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/90-justso-crab-1-the-eldest-magician/8/) — The Magician asks all the animals, who say «not us»; he asks the old Fisherman in the Moon, who spins a line to catch the world, and the Rat in the Moon, who bites the line. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/90-justso-crab-1-the-eldest-magician/9/) — Neither is playing with the Sea. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/90-justso-crab-1-the-eldest-magician/10/) — This tale is set «before the High and Far-Off Times», in «the Time of the Very Beginnings», even earlier than the other stories. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/90-justso-crab-1-the-eldest-magician/11/) — The animals are called «All-the-Elephant-there-was», «All-the-Cow-there-was» and so on, because there was only one of each at the start. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/90-justso-crab-1-the-eldest-magician/12/) — The Man says «Yes, I am too wise for this play; but see that you make all the Animals obedient to me.» - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/90-justso-crab-1-the-eldest-magician/13/) — Pau Amma the Crab, «next in the game», says «I will play my play alone in the deep waters, and I will never be obedient to this son of Adam.» - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/90-justso-crab-1-the-eldest-magician/15/) — The Magician breathes on the animals' work: Elephant, North, the Himalayan Mountains; Cow, East, the Indian Desert and the Desert of Sahara; Beaver, West, the Everglades in Florida; Turtle, South, Borneo, Celebes, Sumatra, Java and the Malay Archipelago. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/90-justso-crab-1-the-eldest-magician/18/) — The Perak river, Selangor, Malacca, Singapore and Bintang are real places in and near Malaysia. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/90-justso-crab-1-the-eldest-magician/19/) — The Fisherman of the Moon is «spinning a fishing-line with which he hopes one day to catch the world», and the Rat of the Moon «always bites the old Fisherman's line as fast as it is made». - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/90-justso-crab-1-the-eldest-magician/20/) — Real life: the Himalayas were pushed up because the land of India has been moving north and crashing into Asia for about 50 million years; they are still rising a little every year. - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/90-justso-crab-1-the-eldest-magician/21/) — Real life: the Sahara was green, with lakes, hippos and grass, until about 5,000 to 6,000 years ago; it dried because of slow changes in the Earth's tilt and the rains, not because a cow sat there. - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/90-justso-crab-1-the-eldest-magician/22/) — Real life: the Everglades in Florida are a very wide, slow «river of grass» over flat land, made by rain and water flowing south, not by a beaver; there are no beavers in the Everglades. - [23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/90-justso-crab-1-the-eldest-magician/23/) — Real life: the dark patches on the Moon are wide plains of old cooled lava; people in different lands see a man, a rabbit or a woman in them. - [24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/90-justso-crab-1-the-eldest-magician/24/) — There is no Fisherman or Rat up there. - [25](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/90-justso-crab-1-the-eldest-magician/25/) — Talk in this lesson: «skibidi» = a silly word kids shout, meaning nothing much; «wicked» (New England, USA) = very. - ← previous: [Just So Stories, How the Alphabet Was Made, part 3: «the Alphabet, all complete», and how letters really began](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/89-justso-alphabet-3-the-alphabet-all-complete/) - next →: [Just So Stories, The Crab that Played with the Sea, part 2: Pau Amma loses his shell](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/91-justso-crab-2-pau-amma-loses-his-shell/) - ↑ back to [Books](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/)