In the days of old, Thunder and Lightning lived among the Earth. Thunder was an old mother sheep and Lightning was her son. Lightning was a ram. When the ram got angry, he used to go about and burn houses.
When Lightning did this his mother used to yell at him and ask him not to do any more damage.
But Lightning did not care for what his mother said and he continued to do the same thing whenever he was in a very bad mood.
Finally, the people could take it no more and they complained to the king of the place.
The king made the two of them live in the far side of town as far as possible from the other people's houses.
However, Lightning still continued with his behaviour.
So finally, the king made an order that Thunder and Lightning should leave the town and not come back here.
Though the sheep and the ram left town, it was not of much help to the people because the ram was still capable of burning the forest when he got angry.
So when the people complained to the king again, the king banished Lightning and Thunder from the Earth and made them live in the sky.
Since then, Thunder and lightning went to the sky.
When Thunder is angry he still commits damages as before.
But people can hear his mother, the Thunder scolding him and asking him to stop.
However, when the mother has gone some distance away from the naughty son, people can still see that the ram does damage and his mother's voice cannot be heard.
Adapted from Nigerian Folk Tales
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