--- title: Just So Stories, The Crab that Played with the Sea, part 3: the Moon pulls the sea, and how tides really work — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Just So Stories, The Crab that Played with the Sea, part 3: the Moon pulls the sea, and how tides really work», a lesson of the books course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: The Magician makes a deal: Pau Amma gets his hard shell back f --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/92-justso-crab-3-the-moon-pulls-the-sea/) [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 3: the Moon pulls the sea, and how tides really work Lesson 92 of the books course of Mova's primary school: 31 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/92-justso-crab-3-the-moon-pulls-the-sea/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/92-justso-crab-3-the-moon-pulls-the-sea/0/) — The Magician makes a deal: Pau Amma gets his hard shell back for eleven months of the year, but in the twelfth month it will go soft again, to keep him humble. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/92-justso-crab-3-the-moon-pulls-the-sea/2/) — The Magician makes a Magic with all five fingers of his right hand, and Pau Amma shrinks into a little green crab beside the canoe, crying «Give me the scissors!» - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/92-justso-crab-3-the-moon-pulls-the-sea/3/) — The girl gives him her scissors. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/92-justso-crab-3-the-moon-pulls-the-sea/4/) — He snaps them happily: now he can eat nuts, crack shells, dig holes, climb trees, breathe in dry air and hide under any stone. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/92-justso-crab-3-the-moon-pulls-the-sea/5/) — «I did not know I was so important. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/92-justso-crab-3-the-moon-pulls-the-sea/6/) — Kun?» «Payah kun,» says the Magician, laughing, and the tiny crab scuttles away. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/92-justso-crab-3-the-moon-pulls-the-sea/7/) — Now the Man must paddle all the way home. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/92-justso-crab-3-the-moon-pulls-the-sea/8/) — He grumbles; the Magician calls him lazy and says something unkind about his children, and the Man answers: then let the Sea work for him twice a day for ever. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/92-justso-crab-3-the-moon-pulls-the-sea/9/) — So the Fisherman of the Moon lets his line down and pulls the whole sea, and the canoe whizzes back into the Perak river. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/92-justso-crab-3-the-moon-pulls-the-sea/10/) — Ever since, says Kipling, the Moon has pulled the sea up and down and made the tides; when he pulls too hard we get spring tides, too softly, neap tides. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/92-justso-crab-3-the-moon-pulls-the-sea/11/) — Pau Amma's babies hide under stones, wave their scissors, climb palm-trees for coconuts and go soft once a year, and they nip you if you take them home in a pickle-bottle, which serves you right. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/92-justso-crab-3-the-moon-pulls-the-sea/12/) — The Magician: «I will give it back, Pau Amma, for eleven months of the year; but on the twelfth month of every year it shall grow soft again, to remind you and all your children that I can make magics, and to keep you humble.» - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/92-justso-crab-3-the-moon-pulls-the-sea/13/) — Pau Amma: «I have made my choice. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/92-justso-crab-3-the-moon-pulls-the-sea/14/) — I will take all the gifts.» The Magician uses «all five fingers of his right hand», and Pau Amma becomes «a little green crab», so tiny that he could hide under the shadow of a dry leaf. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/92-justso-crab-3-the-moon-pulls-the-sea/15/) — The little crab: «I can eat nuts. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/92-justso-crab-3-the-moon-pulls-the-sea/16/) — I can crack shells. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/92-justso-crab-3-the-moon-pulls-the-sea/17/) — I can dig holes. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/92-justso-crab-3-the-moon-pulls-the-sea/18/) — I can climb trees. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/92-justso-crab-3-the-moon-pulls-the-sea/19/) — I can breathe in the dry air, and I can find a safe Pusat Tasek under every stone.» - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/92-justso-crab-3-the-moon-pulls-the-sea/20/) — In the story the Magician calls the Man lazy and says his children will be the laziest people in the world, with a made-up name for the people of Malaya. - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/92-justso-crab-3-the-moon-pulls-the-sea/21/) — That was an old, unkind idea about a whole people, and it is wrong: no people is lazy by nature. - [24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/92-justso-crab-3-the-moon-pulls-the-sea/24/) — The Magician warns the Fisherman to pull «twice a day and twice a night for ever ... - [25](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/92-justso-crab-3-the-moon-pulls-the-sea/25/) — But be careful not to do it too hard, or I shall make a magic on you as I did to Pau Amma.» - [26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/92-justso-crab-3-the-moon-pulls-the-sea/26/) — Kipling: «From that day to this the Moon has always pulled the sea up and down and made what we call the tides»; too hard makes spring tides, too softly makes neap tides. - [27](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/92-justso-crab-3-the-moon-pulls-the-sea/27/) — Pau Amma's babies hate being «taken out of their little Pusat Taseks and brought home in pickle-bottles. - [28](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/92-justso-crab-3-the-moon-pulls-the-sea/28/) — That is why they nip you with their scissors, and it serves you right!» Kipling also says it isn't fair to hunt Pau Amma's babies just because of their father's old rudeness. - [29](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/92-justso-crab-3-the-moon-pulls-the-sea/29/) — The end-poem is a riddle about steamship companies of 1902: the lines that sail east past Singapore, like P. and O. and B.I., pass Pau Amma's playground; the Atlantic lines never go there. - [30](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/92-justso-crab-3-the-moon-pulls-the-sea/30/) — Real life: tides ARE made by the Moon, by its gravity, its pull, together with a smaller pull from the Sun; Kipling's fairy-tale reason has a true heart. - [31](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/92-justso-crab-3-the-moon-pulls-the-sea/31/) — Real life: most coasts get two high tides and two low tides in about 25 hours, so the tide comes about an hour later each day. - [32](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/92-justso-crab-3-the-moon-pulls-the-sea/32/) — Real life: spring tides, the biggest, come at full moon and new moon, when the Sun and Moon pull in a line; neap tides, the smallest, come at half moon. - [34](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/92-justso-crab-3-the-moon-pulls-the-sea/34/) — Real life: young crabs moult many times a year and older ones less often, some about once a year; the coconut crab of the Indian and Pacific Ocean islands really climbs palm-trees and cracks coconuts with its huge claws. - ← previous: [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/) - next →: [Just So Stories, The Cat that Walked by Himself, part 1: the First Friend and the First Servant](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/93-justso-cat-1-the-first-friend-and-the-first-servant/) - ↑ back to [Books](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/)