The Speaking Crab by Cecil Henry Bompas (adapted excerpt)
At this sound the farmer was very frightened, and puzzled also; for he thought, "If this were a human being crying, everyone in the
neighborhood would have heard and woke up, but it seems that I alone am able to hear the sound; who can it be who is talking about my
servants?" So, he went back to bed and told no one. The next morning when the laborer looked for his yoke ropes, he missed one; and then he
remembered that he had used it to tie up the crab; so, he went to the place and found his rope. When his master brought them their breakfast
that day and they had finished eating, the laborer began to tell how he had lost one of the yoke ropes and had found it again: and how he had
used it for tying up the crab which he had found. The master asked whether the crab was alive or dead; and the laborer said that it was dead.
Then the master said "My man you have done a very foolish thing why did you tie it up alive? Last night!
I could not sleep for its crying. Why did
you imprison the innocent creature?" "And he told them the song it had sung and forbade
them ever to cause such pain to living creatures. He
said "Decide its fate outright or you will bring disgrace me; when I heard the lament, I thought it was a man, but now I learn from you that it
was a crab. I forbid you ever to do the like again." And at the time of the Sohral festival the farmer called together all his household and sang
them the song and explained its meaning to them, and the men who heard it remember it to this day.