by Bob Hartman
‘Ah,’ grinned Tortoise, his wise eyes sparkling. ‘So, if you had never set Tiger free, we wouldn’t have a problem at all?’
‘No!’ Now Rabbit was grinning, too. ‘No, we wouldn’t.’
‘Then I say we leave things as they are,’ announced Tortoise, ‘and solve this problem before it even starts.’
Rabbit thanked Tortoise for his wise decision. Elephant and Buffalo and Crocodile agreed.
And Tiger? For all anyone knows, he may be sitting in that cave and sulking to this very day.
The Two Brothers
Once upon a time there lived two brothers. Silverio, the oldest, was very rich. He was also greedy and deceitful. Manoel was the younger, but even though he was honest and hard-working, he was very poor.
One day, when he could not bear to look at his hungry wife and children any longer, Manoel went to visit Silverio.
‘Help me, please!’ he begged. ‘If you were to give me the use of even a little of your land, I could grow enough to feed my family.’
Silverio thought carefully. He had the chance to do something good. But instead he decided to play an evil trick on his poor brother.
‘Yes, of course,’ Silverio smiled, slyly. ‘On the western edge of my property there is a piece of land I have just purchased from Old Tomaso. You may grow your crops on that.’
Manoel bowed and thanked his brother. What he did not know was that the piece of land was a desert – good for nothing but growing thistles and weeds and straggly bushes.
The next day, Manoel and his wife went to look at the land.
‘I can’t believe your greedy brother is helping us,’ said Manoel’s wife. ‘There must be something wrong with this land.’
‘Or perhaps my brother has changed,’ said Manoel, hopefully. ‘We shall see.’
And so they did. They took one look at the land and knew they had been tricked!
‘We will never feed our children from this land!’ wept Manoel’s wife.
But just as Manoel went to wipe away her tears, he saw something gleaming, shiny and bright, in the middle of a desert bush.
Manoel took his wife’s hand, and together they walked toward the shiny thing. They thought it was an enormous gourd, but when they got closer, they saw that it was a wasps’ nest – a huge wasps’ nest – made entirely of gold.
Manoel’s wife clapped her hands and hugged her husband tight.
‘We’re rich!’ she shouted. ‘We’re rich! Now we can buy a good piece of land and never again have to worry about feeding our children!’
But Manoel just stood there, quietly, shaking his head.
‘My darling,’ he sighed. ‘Silverio said we could use this land. He did not say we could keep whatever we found on it. This golden wasps’ nest belongs to him.’
‘Manoel! Manoel!’ his wife complained. ‘Sometimes you are too honest. Your brother tried to trick us, and now we have the better of him. He need never know about this treasure.’
‘No,’ Manoel insisted. ‘He must. That is the right thing to do. The honest thing.’ So he took his wife’s hand and they went to see his brother.
‘A golden wasps’ nest?’ exclaimed Silverio, when Manoel had told him the story. ‘How interesting.’ And his greedy mind went to work at once.
‘What if there are more wasps’ nests?’ he wondered. ‘And what if my brother or his wife is not so honest the next time? No, I think that I’d better keep this land for myself.’
‘I’ll tell you what,’ said Silverio, at last. ‘I should have given you the use of a much nicer piece of land! There is a little plot to the south which is much better for growing crops.’
‘Thank you,’ said Manoel. ‘You are so generous!’ And off he went to look at the new spot, which proved to be very good indeed.
Silverio, of course, travelled west, just as fast as his horse could carry him. But when he got there, there were no golden wasps’ nests to be found. His greedy, deceitful eyes could see only ordinary grey nests.
‘I’ve been tricked!’ he grumbled. ‘Manoel saw that this land was a desert and made up a story so I would give him a better piece.
‘Well,’ he grinned evilly, ‘we shall see who is the better trickster in this family!’ And he carefully scooped one of the wasps’ nests into his brown leather bag, and hurried off to Manoel’s house.
‘Manoel!’ he called, when he arrived. ‘I have a wonderful surprise for you! I have brought you another of those famous wasps’ nests!’
‘How generous!’ cried Manoel to his wife. ‘You see, my brother is not so bad after all!’
‘Shut your windows,’ Silverio ordered. ‘We don’t want anyone stealing such a valuable treasure. Now open the door, just a crack, and I shall push it in to you.’
Manoel did as his brother told him, and, when everything was ready, Silverio pushed the leather bag with the wasps’ nest through the doorway. Then he pulled the door shut and ran off laughing.
The angry wasps darted out of the nest and buzzed around the room. But as soon as Manoel looked on them with his honest eyes, they turned to gold and fell, clinking like coins, to the ground below! Then the nest turned to gold as well. Manoel and his family were rich at last!
The next day, Manoel went to visit his brother one more time.
Silverio was amazed. His brother was not angry. His brother was not hurt. In fact, he was smiling as he bowed and said, ‘Thank you for your wonderful gift.’
Then Manoel hurried off, bought a huge piece of fertile land and, to his greedy brother’s even greater amazement, became the wealthiest farmer in the country!
Kayoku and the Crane
Snow fell white against the black night sky.
Winter had come to the mountain where Kayoku, the woodcutter, lived with his aged mother.
‘I’m cold,’ the old woman whispered to her son. So he scraped together what little money he had and set off the next morning to buy her a quilt in the village below.
He was halfway there when he heard a cry, and saw a crane, slender and white, held fast to the rich black earth by a hunter’s cruel snare.
Kayoku felt sorry for the beautiful bird, so he took out his knife and cut the snare – string by string – until the crane was free.
Just as the bird flew away, however, the hunter who had set the trap crept up behind Kayoku.
‘What do you think you’re doing?’ he demanded. ‘I worked hard to catch that bird and now you have set her free! You must pay me what she is worth.’
‘But I only have a little money!’ Kayoku explained. ‘Enough to buy a quilt and no more.’
‘That will do nicely,’ the hunter grinned. And so Kayoku gave the man all the money he had.
There was no need to go to the village now, so Kayoku went straight home and told his mother what had happened. She was pleased that he had rescued the crane, and told him so, but she was still cold that night and longed for a soft, warm quilt.
Late the next day, someone knocked on Kayoku’s door. It was already growing dark, so he opened the door carefully and there stood a girl – a beautiful girl – with skin white as rice and hair black as coal!
‘I’m all alone!’ the girl explained. ‘And it’s getting very late. Could I possibly stay in your house for the night?’
Kayoku was at a loss for words, so he looked at his mother.
‘This is a very poor house,’ she said.
‘Especially for one so beautiful as you!’ Kayoku added, shyly.
‘But this is the only house around,’ the girl pleaded. ‘And it will be dark soon.’
‘Yes, yes,’ Kayoku said, at last. ‘If you do not mind our humble little dwelling, we will be happy to welcome you.’
So the beautiful girl stayed the night. And all Kayoku could do was dream of her. Imagine his surprise, then, when she took him aside the next morning and asked if he would marry her!
‘But I am just a poor woodcutter,’ he said. ‘And you… you are beautiful enough to be a princess!’
So Kayoku asked his mother and soon he and the beautiful girl were married. But even though they were very happy, the winter dragged on and on, and Kayoku’s mother still had no quilt.
One bitter morning, Kayoku’s wife took him aside and said very solemnly, ‘I am going to make a quilt for your mother. I will go into my room. I will stay there for three days. And you must promise not to come in and disturb me.’
Kayoku thought this was strange, but he promised anyway, And three days later, his wife came out of the room. She looked pale and thin and tired. But in her hands she held the most amazing quilt Kayoku had ever seen. It was white – white as rice – and it was made entirely of feathers!
‘What a beautiful quilt!’ Kayoku’s mother exclaimed. ‘But it is far too grand for the likes of us.’
‘It is a quilt of a thousand feathers,’ Kayoku’s wife explained. ‘And if we take it and sell it to the lord down in the village, I am sure he will give us enough money to buy plenty of ordinary quilts – and much more besides.’
So Kayoku took the quilt to the village and showed it to the lord. And not only did the lord give him two thousand gold pieces for it, he asked for another one as well.
‘I… I don’t know about that,’ Kayoku stammered. ‘It makes my wife very thin and tired.’
But the lord would not take ‘no’ for an answer. ‘Bring me another quilt,’ he said sternly. ‘Or there will be trouble for you and your whole family!’
So Kayoku returned to his little house on the mountain, glad for the gold jingle-jangling in his money bag, but worried about what the lord’s demands would mean for his beautiful wife.
It was just as he feared. When he told his wife that the lord wanted another quilt, he could see the weariness in her eyes.
‘This one will take a week,’ she sighed. ‘And, once again, you must promise not to enter the room.’
Kayoku promised and, as he watched his wife shut the door, he could only think of how much he truly loved her.
He waited one day, two days, three days.
He waited four days, five days, and six.
But in the middle of the seventh day, Kayoku could stand it no longer. He called his wife’s name, but there was no answer. He banged on the door – there was no answer still. And so, unable to control his worry and his fear, Kayoku threw the door open, and gasped at what he saw!
For standing in front of him was not his wife at all, but a tall slender crane, plucked clean of every feather. And at the crane’s feet lay another beautiful quilt.
‘I am the crane you saved from the hunter’s snare,’ the bird explained. ‘Out of gratitude for your kindness, I took the shape of a beautiful girl and vowed to be your wife forever. But now… now you have seen my true shape. And so, sadly, I must leave you.’
And with that, the window flew open and a flock of cranes filled the room. They wrapped their wings around the naked crane and carried her off into the sky until they looked no bigger than snowflakes, delicate and white, against the black mountainside.
And even though Kayoku sold the second quilt and became a wealthy man, he felt poor forevermore, for he never saw his beautiful crane-wife again.
The Two Sisters
There once lived a woman with two daughters. The oldest was rude and bad-tempered, much like the mother herself. But the youngest was kind and gentle. And for that reason, the other two women took advantage of her and forced her to do the hardest housework.
‘Take this bucket!’ the mother shouted at her younger daughter, one day. ‘And bring us fresh water from the well!’
Unfortunately, the well was an hour’s walk away. And the bucket was very heavy. But the younger daughter smiled and did as she was told.
She picked up the bucket. She walked and walked and walked. And when she came at last to the well, she filled the bucket with water and started for home.
Along the way, she met an old woman.
‘I am so thirsty, my dear,’ the old woman begged. ‘And I have no bucket of my own. Could you, perhaps, give me a drink from yours?’ The younger daughter felt sorry for the old woman.
‘Of course!’ she said. ‘Here, let me help you.’ And she lifted the heavy bucket to the old woman’s lips.
What she did not know, however, was that the old woman was really a fairy in disguise!
‘Thank you, my dear.’ said the old woman, as she wiped her lips on her sleeve. ‘Your kind words and deeds are as beautiful as flowers and precious as jewels. So from now on, whenever you speak, that is what will drop from your mouth.’
The younger daughter was puzzled. This was the most peculiar thing anyone had ever said to her. But she didn’t want to hurt the old woman’s feelings, so she smiled politely and carried her heavy bucket home.
‘Where have you been?’ her mother shouted, when the girl walked through the door. ‘We’re dying of thirst!’
But when the younger daughter tried to explain, rubies and roses and daffodils and diamonds came tumbling out of her mouth!
Her mother was amazed, and immediately called for the older daughter.
‘Here!’ she ordered, shoving the bucket at the older daughter. ‘Take this bucket to the well and fill it!’
‘Take it yourself!’ the older daughter snapped back. ‘I don’t do that kind of work!’
‘Well you’ll do it today!’ her mother hissed. ‘And if an old woman asks you for a drink, you’ll give it to her. And then jewels will fall from your mouth, too.’
So the older daughter trudged off to the well, grumbling and complaining all the way. She filled her bucket and started for home. But instead of an old woman, she met a beautiful princess. It was the fairy, of course, in a very different disguise!
‘I’m so thirsty,’ said the princess. ‘I don’t suppose you could give me drink?’
‘Who do you think I am?’ snapped the older daughter. ‘One of your serving girls? If you want a drink, you can go and get it yourself!’
‘I see,’ said the princess. ‘Your harsh words and deeds are as cruel as serpents and ugly as toads. So from now on, whenever you speak, that is what will drop from your mouth.’
‘Stupid woman!’ thought the older daughter. But when she returned home and tried to explain what had happened, the fairy’s curse came true – toads and lizards and snakes leaped out of her open mouth!
‘You’ve tricked us!’ the mother shouted at her younger daughter. ‘Look what you’ve done to your sister!’
‘But it’s not my fault, mother!’ pleaded the girl, a precious jewel accompanying every word.
‘Get out!’ her mother shouted. ‘Get out and never come back!’
So the younger daughter left. And, while the mother and the older daughter battled with snakes and toads for the rest of their lives, the younger girl met a handsome prince who asked her to marry him.
And so she ruled at his side – with words beautiful as flowers and deeds precious as jewels – and lived happily ever after.
The Selfish Beasts
One evening, Lion, Vulture, and Hyena were chewing on an antelope.
‘I’ve been thinking,’ said Lion. ‘The three of us are friends. We like the same kind of food. Why don’t we share a house together?’
‘An excellent idea!’ squawked Vulture, as he picked a bone clean.
‘I couldn’t agree more!’ yapped Hyena. ‘But I do think we should set some rules first. So that we don’t upset each other.’
‘Well there’s only one thing that bothers me,’ Lion growled. ‘And that’s staring. I can’t stand it when someone stares at me. It’s so rude!’
‘Oh, I don’t mind that,’ squawked Vulture. ‘But it does upset me if anyone makes fun of my head-feathers. They’re so beautiful and full, my pride and joy!’
‘What I can’t stand,’ said Hyena, ‘is gossip! I’m not perfect. I’ll admit that. My fron
t legs are longer than my back ones. But when I find out that the other animals have been talking about me, it drives me crazy!’
So Lion, Vulture, and Hyena built a home together. And the next morning, while Lion yawned and Vulture cooked breakfast, Hyena went out for a walk.
But as soon as he stepped out of the door, Lion said to Vulture, ‘I don’t know why Hyena is so sensitive about his legs. Surely it would be much worse if they were ALL short!’
What Lion didn’t know was that Hyena had not walked very far. He heard what Lion said about him and came rushing back through the door. But he didn’t say a thing. He just stared at Lion angrily and growled.
‘What did I tell you?’ Lion roared. ‘I can’t abide staring!’
‘And I can’t stand gossip!’ Hyena snapped back.
And so they began to claw and bite and wrestle and fight.
Vulture tried to stay out of it, but when Lion kicked over his cooking pot and sent the hot coals flying at Vulture’s head, he too became angry and joined the battle.
‘Enough! Enough!’ roared Lion at last. ‘It is clear that we cannot live together. We must go our separate ways and never meet again.’
The other two licked their wounds and nodded in agreement. And the three of them left the little house for good.
And so, even to this day, Lion always eats alone. When he has had enough, he leaves. And then, and only then, does Hyena come to gnaw what is left.
And Vulture? Vulture only comes floating down from the sky when Hyena is gone – to pick at the bones and sing his sad, squawking song. For when the hot coals landed on Vulture, they burnt away his beautiful head-feathers and left him bald forever!
The Determined Frog
Splish and splash. Jump and croak. Frog hopped in and out of the muddy pond.
His mother was there. His father, too. And all twenty-seven brothers and sisters – diving and swimming and paddling about.