The story of two neighbours

 Tse-Ring and Cham-Ba were neighbours.

Tse-ring was a rich man, and he lived in a huge house. But he was greedy and stingy.

Though Cham-Ba’s house was small and he was poor; he was generous and helped others as much as he could.

Once two Sparrows had built a nest above the door of Cham-Ba’s house. When the two Sparrows were away and searching for food, the baby sparrow which had hatched, fell off the nest and broke its leg. Cham-Ba was about to come back home and saw the baby sparrow. Gently, he carried the Sparrow back to his home and tied the leg of the sparrow with a thread and healed it.

The baby Sparrow had in reality been a fairy.

So, after a few months, the sparrow brought in two grains and gave it to Cham-Ba.

“Plant the grains in your garden.” The Sparrow chirped at the poor man.

The poor man was surprised to hear the talking sparrow, and decided to follow the instructions of the sparrow.

A few months after that the grains had grown into beautiful plants and every plant had magnificent jewels in every branch!

Cham-Ba took the jewels to the next village and sold them. He received a lot of money and became very rich.

Tse-Ring came to know about his neighbour’s sudden wealth and came to talk to him.

Cham-Ba did not suspect anything wrong and told the Tse-Ring the story of the Sparrow.

The next day, Tse-Ring saw that two Sparrows had made a nest above his door too.

When the two older sparrows were away, Tse-Ring climbed up to the nest and pushed the little Sparrow down and broke its leg. After that Tse-Ring mended the leg of the Sparrow with a thread and put it back in the nest.

A month later, a sparrow came to Tse-Ring’s house and put two grains on the table of Tse-Ring’s house.

“This is in return for the kindness that you have shown me. Plant it and see what happens.”

Tse-Ring snatched the grains and planted them.

Later when the crops came up, he was horrified to find a large man with a large bundle of papers in his hands.

“I am your creditor from your previous life. You were in my debt. I have come back to take what is mine.”

After that the man took over all of Tse-Ring’s wealth and Tse-Ring was reduced to nearly the state of a slave in his house.

*********

Meanwhile Cham-Ba had to leave town for a new job and he left a bag of gold dust with Tse-Ring. Cham-Ba did not want the gold-dust in his home when he was not there, for fear of thieves.

Unfortunately, Cham-Ba did not know that Tse-Ring had become very poor or that Tse-Ring was a very greedy man.

When Cham-Ba came back from his trip, Tse-Ring filled up a sack of sand in a sack and gave it to Cham-Ba.

“Where is my gold?” Cham-Ba demanded angrily.

“I do not know!” Tse-Ring told the other man. “The gold has turned into this.”

Cham-Ba said nothing but he just walked away from there.

First he brought a monkey and taught it to say just one sentence. “I turned to this.”

A few days later, news spread around the village that Cham-Ba had opened a free school for children.

Now that Tse-Ring knew that he could not afford expensive education, he sent his son to the free school.

That evening when Tse-Ring went to the school, he saw Cham-Ba teaching many children and a monkey! But his own son was missing.

“Where is my son?” Tse-Ring demanded angrily.

“I turned to this.” The monkey said, over and over again, because that was the only thing it had been taught.

Tse-Ring had no choice but to give back Cham-Ba’s gold dust to take back his own son.

Why does a jellyfish have no bones?

 Long ago, there was a king of the Dragon Palace. The Dragon Palace was huge and grand and right in the middle of a beautiful island.

Once when the king’s wife was in the family way, she had a strange craving.

She wanted to eat the liver of a monkey.

The king immediately sent for his guards – the jellyfish and his minister – Turtle and explained to the two of them about his wife’s craving.

Turtle nodded at the king. “I shall handle this, your majesty.”

The turtle roamed around the city and found no monkeys there.

The wise turtle then swam under the sea. There he found a monkey playing in the mountains near the seashore.

“Master Monkey, I am thrilled to find you playing here. Can I take you to a bigger and grander palace where you can enjoy yourself better?”

The monkey did not suspect anything and it agreed to the turtle’s offer.

The turtle then carried the monkey on its back to the island.

The monkey was thrilled to see the palace from outside. It was studying the gates of the palace and the other places outside when the turtle asked it to wait outside.

“I shall talk to the king to let him know that you have come.” The turtle told the monkey.

The monkey nodded and was happily looking around outside the palace when the turtle went inside.

The jellyfish outside the palace saw the monkey and burst out laughing.

The monkey was confused.

The jellyfish then told the monkey the real reason why he had been brought here.

*********

A little later, the turtle came out and found the monkey looking worriedly at the sea.

“You can come inside, Master Monkey.” Then the turtle paused looking at the anxious monkey.

“What is it? Why are you upset?”

The monkey sighed. “It looks like it is going to rain. I left my liver outside, on top of the tree where I have my house. My liver will get drenched in the rain.”

The turtle believed that monkey. Thinking that, the craving of the king’s wife would remain unsatisfied, even after eating the monkey, the turtle took the monkey back to the seashore.

There the monkey escaped and told the turtle all about the words of the jellyfish.

The king of the Dragon Palace as punishment for talking too much, scaled off the skin and took away the bones of the jellyfish.

Since that day, all jellyfish have no bones in their body.

Spider Tales

In West Africa, there is a set of stories called ‘Spider Tales’ or ‘Anansi Tales’. This is the story of how that name came to be.

In the olden days, most of the stories were the stories of Nyankupon, the chief of the Gods. However, Anansi, the spider, wanted stories to be about it.

So one day, Anasi went to Nyankupon and told the chief of the Gods about his wish.

Nyankupon studied Anansi and then nodded slowly. “What you ask shall be done, if you get a jar of live bees, a boa constrictor and a tiger.”

Anansi smiled and walked away from there.

Then Anansi took an earthern pot and went near a huge bee hive in the forest.

He was studying the hive and seemingly talking to himself.

‘No! It cannot be done.’

‘The vessel is not big enough.’

‘It can be done.’

‘The bees cannot do it.’

Predictably, the bees saw the strange behaviour of the spider and came closer.

“Are you talking to yourself?” One of the bees asked Anansi.

It seemed like Anansi had not noticed the bees. He shrugged impatiently. “Nyankupon and I had a debate. Nyankupon said that bees could not get inside this jar.” Anansi shrugged nonchalantly. “I disagreed.” Anansi nodded at the bees. “I am just wondering whether Nyankupon is right or not.”

The bees chagrined at Anansi. “Nyankupon is wrong. We can fit inside.”

Saying this, all the bees flew inside the jar.

Once the jar was full, Anansi sealed the jar from the outside and took the jar with him.

The next day, Anansi took a long stick and went to the area of the boa constrictors. There he again started talking to himself.

‘Not this big.’

‘Has to be smaller.’

‘Probably this big.’

Naturally a boa constrictor saw it and was confused.

“What are you doing?”

Anansi shrugged. “Nyankupon thinks that you are not as long as this stick. I think you are longer.”

The boa constrictor swelled with pride. “I am longer than that.”

Anansi suddenly looked a little unconvinced. “Can I measure you with this stick?”

“Of course.”

The boa constrictor wrapped itself around the stick. Quickly, Anansi tied the snake around the stick.

The next day, Anansi blindfolded itself and went to the tiger’s cave.

There Anansi rumbled and hit the tiger by mistake.

“What are you doing?” The Tiger roared angrily.

Anasi did not open its eyes. “Can’t you see? I have blindfolded myself, because now with my eyes closed, I can see more, in my mind. These are the most beautiful sights I have ever seen.”

The Tiger looked at Anasi with curious interest, forgetting his annoyance. “Can you blindfold me too? I also want to see these sights.”

Reluctantly, Anansi agreed to do so.

After blindfolding the tiger, Anansi led the tiger, along with his jar and stick and went to see Nyankupon.

Nyakupon was amazed at the spider’s ingenuity. Since then the old tales were called Anansi tales.

The Story of Good Faith

 Once a Tiger had been locked in a strong house by a human.

The tiger tried to push against the wall and the door of the house, but it was successful. The tiger was sitting morosely in the house hearing the rushing stream of water, just out of the place.

Some time later, the tiger was very hungry too when it heard the sound of an animal outside the house. It peered from the window and saw a beautiful deer which had come to the place to drink water from the stream.

“Sister Deer!” The tiger pleaded. “Please open the door.”

The Deer was startled on hearing the words from a tiger and nearly ran away from there.

“Please do not run away.” The tiger said immediately. “I was put here by a human. I need to get out, so that I do not starve and die in here.”

The deer studied the strong door and the tiger. A second later, the deer shook her head. “No Tiger! I shall not let you out. You may eat me, if I let you out.”

The Tiger shook his head in a sagely manner. “If you let me out you, I will be indebted to you. How can I eat you in good faith?”

The deer was unconvinced.

But the Tiger talked some more and finally the deer was convinced.

It opened the door of the house.

The tiger came out and in hunger, it pounced on the deer.

“I am going to eat you!”

The Deer looked around for help and found no one else. “You… said… you… would… not hurt me…” The animal bleated sadly at the Tiger.

The Tiger roared. “When one is hungry, who cares about good faith?”

The Deer was desperate and it realized that its end was near. “Will the others also believe the same?” The Deer asked suddenly.

The Tiger moved back in slight shock hearing the Deer’s words.

Which was when the Deer nodded earnestly. “If we find three others who also do not believe in Good Faith, then you can eat me.”

The Tiger stared and looked at the house where it had been help captive and it remembered the human who had locked it in. “Agreed.” The Tiger agreed arrogantly. The Tiger was sure that no one was going to accept the Deer’s theory.

It went exactly like that.

They first went to a tree.

“Brother Tree, the Tiger and me have come to you to seek an opinion.” The Deer sounded timid.

The tree had been gently swaying its branches in the wind and turned to the two animals. “What opinion?”

“This Tiger had been locked in a house…” The Deer told the Tree everything.

Finally, the Deer looked at the Tree. “Now, after hearing my story do you think Good Faith exists?”

The Tree firmly shook its head. “I feel sad for you Sister Deer.” But the Tree suddenly looked sullen. “In my entire experience, I have found that good faith does not exist. Look at me. I help everyone, including humans. Do any of them even think of thanking me for what I do? They even break off my tender branches to use it.” The Tree sighed eyeing the Deer. “No Sister Deer, good faith does not exist.”

The Tiger looked proud, but said nothing.

Both the animals saw many cattle grazing the field and found a buffalo all alone.

The Deer repeated its problems to the Buffalo. “Do you think Good Faith exists, Aunt Buffalo?”

The aged buffalo shook her head. “From my experience, I find that such a thing does not exist.”

The Deer paled as the buffalo continued. “Look! When I had a calf, I let the younger calf eat the juicy grass and ate old grass. After the calf has grown up, do you think, the calf is grateful to me for what I have done? No. Neither are humans any better.” So the buffalo shook her head. “I am sure that Good faith does not exist.

Sadly, the Deer was trying to accept the fact that it was going to be eaten. It realized that the opinion of the third person was going to doom it.

Which was when, they met a Hare.

The Deer told the Hare how it had found the Tiger and was about to ask its question.

But the Hare seemed confused.

“You found the Tiger in a house?” The Hare looked at the Tiger.

“Yes.” The Tiger growled angrily.

“How can a Tiger be found inside a house?” The Hare’s question came up immediately.

The Deer started explaining again. “I was going to a stream to drink water…”

“Take me to the place.” The Hare told the two impatient animals. “Then I can understand better.”

Grumbling, the Tiger led the Hare to the House near the stream. The Deer reluctantly followed the two animals.

“Was the Deer inside the house?” The Hare asked looking at the place.

The Tiger growled. “NO! I was inside the house.”

The animal walked inside the house. “Like this.”

“Was the door bolted from outside?” The Hare asked looking at the door.

“Yes!” The Tiger snarled.

“Like this?” The Hare asked bolting the door shut.

The foolish Tiger realized it a second later and uselessly threw itself on the bolted door.

“Go your way, Sister Deer.” The Hare told the Deer.

The Deer and Hare left the roaring Tiger in the house and both went their way.