Free Monkey by Wu Ch'eng-en Page B

short rest in that arbour. Go and wait for me outside the gates.’ When they had retired, he took off his court hat and robes, and scrambled up on to a high tree, and began to pluck the ripest and largest fruit he could see. Sitting astride a bough, he regaled himself to his heart’s content, and then came down. He put on his hat and robes, and called to his followers to attend him while he returned in state to his lodging. After a few days, he did the same thing again.
    One morning her Majesty the Queen of Heaven, having made up her mind to give a Peach Banquet, told the fairy maidens, Red Jacket, Blue Jacket, White Jacket, Black Jacket, Purple Jacket, Yellow Jacket, and Green Jacket to take their baskets and pick peaches in the Peach Garden. They found Monkey’s followers barring the gate.
    ‘We have come,’ they said, ‘by command of her Majesty to pick peaches for a banquet.’
    ‘Halt, my fairy beauties,’ said one of the guards. ‘Things have changed since last year. This garden has been put incharge of the Great Sage, Equal of Heaven, and we must get his permission, before we can let you in.’
    ‘Where is he ?’ they asked.
    ‘He’s feeling rather tired,’ a guardian spirit said, ‘and is having a nap in the arbour.’
    ‘Very well then,’ they said, ‘go and look for him, for we must get to work at once.’ They consented to go and tell him, but found the arbour empty, save for Monkey’s hat and robe. They began looking for him, but he was nowhere to be seen. The fact was that Monkey, after supping away and eating several peaches, had changed himself into a little fellow two inches long, and was curled up asleep under a thick leaf high up on the tree.
    ‘We must carry out our orders,’ said the fairy maidens, ‘whether you find him or not. We can’t go back empty-handed.’
    ‘Quite right, fairy beauties,’ said an officer, ‘we must not keep you waiting. Our master has been used to going about a great deal, and probably he has gone to look up some of his old friends. Just you go and pick your peaches, and we’ll tell him when he comes back.’
    So they went into the garden, and first they picked three basketsful from the trees in the near part of the garden, then three from the trees in the middle. But when they came to the trees at the back, they found nothing but snapped stalks. All the peaches had been taken. However, when they had looked about for some time, they did succeed in finding one solitary peach that was not quite ripe, hanging on a southward-facing bough. Blue Jacket pulled the bough towards her and picked the peach, then let go. This was the very bough where Monkey was sleeping in his diminutive form. The jerk awoke him, and rapidly changing himself back again, he cried out, ‘Where have you come from, monsters, and how comes it that you have the audacity to pick my peaches?’
    The terrified fairy maidens with one accord fell upon their knees, crying, ‘Great Sage, don’t be angry I We are not monsters; we are seven fairy maidens sent by the Queen of Heaven to pick peaches for her Peach Banquet When wecame to the gate, we found your officers on guard. They looked everywhere for you, but couldn’t find you. We were afraid to keep her Majesty waiting, so as you could not be found we came in and began to pick. We beseech you to forgive us!’
    Monkey became all affability. ‘Rise from your knees, fairies,’ he said. ‘Tell me now, who is invited to this banquet?’
    ‘It is an official banquet,’ they said, ‘and certain deities are invited as a matter of course. The Buddha of the Western Heaven will be there, and the Bodhisattvas and Lo-hans; Kuan-yin too, and all the Immortals of the Ten Islands. Then there will be the five spirits of the Pole Star, the Emperors of the Four Quarters, the gods and immortals of the seas and hills – all of them will come to the banquet.’
    ‘Shall I be asked ?’ inquired Monkey.
    ‘I haven’t heard it suggested,’ one of them