It happened once upon a time that a certain musician was walking by a river, and as it was a peaceful and inspiring landscape, he felt that he would like to stay there for some time. His needs were few, and from what the forest gave him he made himself a small shelter. Then, every day, he sat by the river or walked in the forest, absorbing the beauty that he found there.
In particular, the sounds of nature inspired him, and he began to search out the tones he heard with his instrument, which had strings stretched from a large, hollow gourd to a neck of bamboo. In this way he spent many hours diving deep into the sea of vibration.
Then one day, while the musician was away bathing in the river, his hut was visited by a mouse. The mouse, being very curious, looked everywhere, and at last found its way through a sound-hole into the gourd of the instrument.
There was nothing there for the mouse to eat – but the cavernous space made its voice echo loudly. Intrigued, the mouse began to vigorously chatter and squeak.
Other mice nearby, hearing what sounded like an enormous one of their kind, said to themselves, “Surely this is some manifestation of the mouse god!” And they quickly assembled offerings of seeds and other mouse delicacies to lay before the instrument.
When the mouse inside the instrument realised what was happening, he decided to command the members of his tribe. “Bow down!” he shouted. “Tremble! Do my bidding, or suffer the consequences!”
“We bow,” said the other mice, humbly. “What shall we call you, your greatness?”
“You may call me ‘Your Resonance’, said the mouse. “Bring more seeds!”
“Yes, Your Resonance,” said the followers. “At once!”
But just then the musician, returning to the hut, discovered to his disgust that his instrument had become infested with mice. While the mouse-followers were collecting more offerings, the musician went away again, and shortly returned from a nearby village, carrying a cat that he had borrowed.
And in a short time, that was the end of the self-proclaimed mouse-god.