Old Stories Page 3

did not have love for his mother

  He killed her!

  Dear mother, dear mother

  I am the rabbit, your son

  I love you so much

  Open the door and feed me!

  This time the rabbit’s mother replied and the monkey killed her at first glance. When the rabbit found out that his mother was missing, he sat next to the fire to hide his tears. Although the monkey knew he was crying for real, he did not say anything.

  Since that day the rabbit and the monkey are not friends, because the rabbit betrayed his friend.

  The Race

  One day the rabbit found a snail, and he said to the snail, “You are not able to run! All you know is how to crawl in the soil.”

  Then the snail says, “Come on Sunday and you will see.”

  The snail prepared a hundred bits of paper and wrote some words on each paper, but the message was the same on all those papers. The snail handed out the papers to his friends and said, “When the rabbit comes here calling me, one of you will say: I am the snail.”

  Then the snail told his friends to hide behind the bushes where the rabbit and the snail will pass.

  On Sunday the rabbit arrived there and found the snail. So the rabbit says, “Let´s race. But I will win.”

  At that moment the snail hid behind a bush and let the rabbit run. During the running, the rabbit was calling out, “Snail, snail,” and each time one of the snails that had hidden behind the bushes answered, “I am the snail, I am the snail.”

  Finally, the rabbit was very tired and he sat down saying, “Snail, I am so tired and you have won.”

  So, the snail won because of his cleverness.

  The Monkey and the Turtle

  Once upon a time, when animals spoke, a monkey and a turtle were very good friends. But the monkey was very stingy!

  One day the turtle decided to visit his best friend. When the turtle arrived at the monkey's house, the monkey had laid a table for lunch. He told his friend to go wash his hands before lunch. The turtle was quite keen for the meal, so he rushed down to the river.

  After the turtle had washed his hands, he crawled on all four legs back to the monkey's house. When he got there, the monkey asked to see his hands. He complained that the turtle's hands were full of sand! So the turtle was not allowed to eat unless he went back to wash his hands again.

  But while the turtle was away, the monkey carried on eating until all the food was finished!

  Days later, the turtle invited the monkey to race a twelve kilometer marathon. The turtle wanted to prove that he was cleverer than the monkey. So he planted one turtle every two kilometers where they were supposed to have a pit stop. He also planted another turtle to begin the race with the monkey. The turtle himself waited in the bushes right at the finish line.

  When the race started the monkey swore that he would finish the race long before the turtle. So he put up his house as a bet!

  "One, two, and three!" and the race started. As he ran the monkey mocked the turtle.

  "You crawling reptile, you will never beat me, even on my death bed!” he said.

  Surprisingly, at 180 meters the monkey saw a turtle 20 meters ahead. The monkey was startled and ran as fast as he could to gain pace. The monkey ran faster and faster, but every time he came close to one of the 200 meter pit stops, he saw a turtle upfront.

  So it went, on and on, until the end of the race. By the time the monkey reached the end he was exhausted and out of breath. And there was the turtle!

  The turtle asked the monkey who is the cleverest between them. The turtle had won the race, and he had won the monkey's house as well!

  The End of a Friendship

  A long time ago, when the animals spoke, the monkey and the tortoise were great friends. The tortoise ate a lot, and the monkey did not want to eat with other animals.

  One day, the monkey invited the tortoise for lunch together at its home. On purpose, the monkey served the food up on the table, and the tortoise could not reach the height of the table. The monkey ate alone, and the tortoise went home hungry and angry!

  In those days there was a great lack of water. So whenever the animals wanted to eat, they had to wash their hands at the river.

  One day the tortoise wanted to get revenge for what the monkey did. On its birthday, it invited its friend the monkey to celebrate with a party together. So the tortoise invited the monkey first to the river to wash their hands and then to go back home to have lunch.

  But when they got back, the monkey had its hands dirty again! It has four legs, and it uses its four legs to walk on, so that’s how they got dirty again. The tortoise told the monkey that it was tired and couldn't go back to the river again together. So, the monkey had to go alone. It had to, because it couldn't eat with dirty hands.

  On its way back to the river, the monkey remembered how its friend tortoise ate a lot. It would eat everything alone. So the monkey turned away towards its home and stayed there.

  Actually, the tortoise wanted revenge for what the monkey had done before. It ate everything it had cooked, and their friendship ended that way.

  The Dancing Goat

  One day, a goat got lost in the bush. And she met a wolf.

  The goat said, “Mr. Wolf, I know you want to eat me. But I would like to die happy!”

  The wolf asked the goat, “Die happy? How?”

  The goat answered, “I would like to die dancing.”

  Then the wolf took his guitar. He started playing it. And the goat started dancing.

  Near that place, there were some dogs. They came to see what was happening. The wolf was afraid of dogs. So he ran away!

  And the goat kept on dancing because she was free from the wolf.

  Obey the King

  A long time ago, the king of the bush was Mr. Lion. He sent many animals to stop the noise that was coming from a small lake in the bush. But they did not succeed in stopping the noise made by the frogs in that lake.

  An elephant volunteered to stop it. The elephant was sent out as a guard. At midnight the noise began and the elephant started killing the frogs. The following day he did the same thing.

  After a couple of weeks, the king Lion was happy because the elephant had stopped the noise.

  But about a month later, they saw a lot of insects on their farm. The king Lion asked the elephant to call the frogs to come and eat the insects. The elephant was on tenterhooks and said slowly that he had killed all of them.

  The elephant said, “Sorry . . sorry, I killed . . killed them!”

  Then the king Lion said, "Elephant, I asked you to stop the noise, not to kill the frogs."

  The elephant was put in prison for many years. The king told all the animals to always obey exactly what he said.

  Ku Do Teku

  Once upon a time in the countryside when animals could talk, an old and good man went to the bush to look for firewood. It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining brightly and the birds were singing. It was a party day in the jungle! Along the way, the old man suddenly heard a low voice shouting, “Help me! Help me!”

  He went to the place where the voice came from, and he saw a big snake with a huge stone upon it.

  “Oh! Good man! This heavy stone is resting on me and I cannot get out. Can you help me out?” asked the snake of the man.

  The man lifted the stone, but then suddenly the snake said,

  ‘‘Oh, you are no longer my friend, I will bite you.”

  The man shouted, “Oh! Wait! Don’t bite me. Why don’t we go and see the hare? I am sure he will help to sort this out.”

  They went to see the hare and they told him what had happened. Then the hare said, “All right, now let’s go back to the place where all this happened.”

  So they went back to the place where the snake was when the man passed by.

  “Now Mister Snake, show me where you were when the man came along!” said the hare.

  The snake went there and the hare told the man to p
ut the stone back where it was. So he did. Finally, the hare turned to the man and said, “Now go away and leave the snake where it is!”

  Note by Ángelo Alberto Cossa: ‘‘Ku do teku" is an expression used in the Cicopi language to call the listeners’ attention at the beginning of a story.

  Why Frog is So Ugly

  Many years ago, the Lizard and the Fog were friends. So one day they decided to look for girlfriends in the city, because they were single. But the Frog was jealous of the Lizard's shining and brilliant skin.

  He said, “What did you do to be able to go around looking so beautiful? Look at me, I am very ugly and wrinkled. Can you help me to do something about my skin, so that it will look like yours?”

  The Lizard said, “Why not? Now listen: put some water in a pot and put it on the fire. Next you . . . . . . .”

  But the Frog said, “I know already, I know. Shut up, my friend.”

  And he left, not waiting to hear any more. So he arrived home and put some water in a pot. When the water began to boil, he threw himself into it, and his skin was burnt and his tail came off.

  Instead of being brilliant and beautiful like the Lizard, he became even more ugly.

  The Three Friends

  Once upon a time three boys were friends. They didn't know how to speak Portuguese. Each of them knew only one Portuguese word! The first knew "Somos nós - it is us", the second knew "Sim, senhor - yes sir", and the last one knew "A razao explica - it is clear.”

  One day they were walking around and suddenly they found a dead man on the path. They stopped to see what was going on with that man.

  Minutes later four policemen arrived and they asked the three friends, “Who killed this man?” or in Portuguese, "Quem matou este senhor