Hanuman Fights Matchanu
(Wat Pho in Bangkok)
When the monkeys find that Phra Ram has vanished, Pipeck is able to tell them what has happened to him. Hanuman is chosen to recover the lost leader, and having prostrated himself at the feet of Phra Lak he sets off for the underworld, following the directions the seer has given him.
The way is not easy. The path soon comes to an end at a lotus pool. In the middle of this pool, severed from its stalk and floating on the green surface, is a particularly lovely lotus flower. Puzzled, Hanuman bounds this way and that, looking for a possible entrance to the underworld. Suddenly, the answer comes to him, the lotus stalk. He examines the end of the stalk closely, and there, sure enough, is a tiny passageway. Having recited a spell that causes his body to shrink, he squeezes into this passageway and shoots down it until he falls out into a completely different world, right in front of the outer walls of the city of Badan.
A thousand demons stand watch along the walls, but Hanuman does not permit them to detain him long. Grasping his trident firmly, he leaps among them, striking left, right and center, using his weapon to such effect that within a few minutes there is not a live demon watchman in all Badan. As he pushes on into the city, however, a huge and furious elephant charges him. Hanuman vaults lightly onto its neck and stabs it to death. Next he comes to a line of flaming volcanoes. He flies to a peak and there stamps about so heavily that the mountains collapse, extinguishing the flames. Next, swarms of mosquitoes, each the size of a partridge, attack him and try to drain him of his blood. Hanuman coolly crushes them as they fly at him until not one remains.
In the very center of the city he comes to a second lotus pool. By this time his hostile reception in the underworld has slightly ruffled his normal good humor, so that when a strange figure, half-monkey and half-fish, pops up on the surface of the pool and shouts at him rudely, "Now then, what are your doing here? Be off quickly, before I lay my hands on you." his irritation is such that his first impulse is to deal with it as he has dealy with Badan's other guardians. Noticing that the little figure is really remarkably handsome, however, despite the fish tail, he masters his irritation and calls out: "Well spoken, small fry ! Now be a good lad and show me the way on from here."
This impertinence so infuriates the guardian of the pond that instead of answering, he snatches up a lotus flower and fetches the Son of the Wind a resounding blow across the head with it.
"That's the last time I try to be polite to a watchman,'' says Hanuman, and launches himself at the little beast, meaning to crush the life out of it. To his astonishment he finds the creature well able to take care of itself, and he receives quite as good as he gives in the ensuing conflict. After a furious struggle, they both draw back and look at each other with a new respect. When Hanuman has recovered his breath, he tries a fresh tack.
Look here, young fellow," he says, "what are you doing down here? You are at least half a monkey, and yet you are working for the demons, our deadly enemies. Who are you, and how did you come down here?
Speak up now, and tell me all about yourself."
"Well," says the little one, "the fact is I'm called Matchanu. My mother is the Queen of the Sea, Supanna Matcha and my father is Maiyarap, King of the Underworld. That is, my foster father is Maiyarap. My mother, you see, is Totsagan's daughter, and when she found that she was going to give birth to me, she was terrified, not being married, as to what her father would say. As soon as I was born, she decided to leave me to whatever fortune the gods thought suitable for a foundling. I can't say I blame her. Totsagan is supposed to have a very nasty temper when he's crossed. Well, to cut a long story short, Maiyarap found me and, not having a son of his own, decided to adopt me. He brought me back here from the overworld, and set me up as guardian of this pond. I must say I'm grateful to the old boy, because its more than my real father, Hanuman, did for me.
When the Son of the Wind hears this, his heart almost bursts with paternal pride. "Well, bless me," he says, slapping his thigh, "I might have known it. Handy with your fists, hot-tempered and handsome, in other words, a real chip off the old block. My boy, prepare yourself for a surprise. You are now looking at your father, Hanuman the Brave, no less." He preens himself.
But Matchanu hoots with laughter. "A likely tale," he says. "My father is a bit out of the ordinary. Supanna Matcha told me that I would know him because he can exhale the sun and moon from his mouth. If you can do that, my dear sir, I'm prepared to believe your claim, but otherwise..."
No sooner are these words out of his mouth than Hanuman has leapt into the air and breathed sun, moon stars into the wondering sky. Matchanu immediately throws himself dutifully on his knees. "Please my apologies, father," he says. "I really didn't know..."
Not at all," says Hanuman, "you were quite right to stop me. But you should know that I'm trying to Phra Narai, and I need to be directed to Maiyarap's castle."
Now this places Matchanu in an invidious position. Gratitude to Maiyarap requires him to remain silent, yet filial devotion urges him to give an answer. He compromises by giving the direction in the form of a riddle.
"Not in the air, nor on the ground,
But through the water you must go—
Completely dry. For it is so
That what is lost may yet be found."
The Son of the Wind understands immediately. He thanks his son and, having caused his body to shrink again, once more enters a tiny passageway in a lotus stalk at the center of the pool and follows it down into the heart of Maiyarap's kingdom.
