The Marriage of Beauty

The marriage of beauty


Once they lived a young and beautiful girl who vowed never to marry a man with any scar or defect. Her man had to be spotless and charming. Not even a scratch should be on his skin. Many suitors proposed to her and each time one purposes, she would release a black fly from a tiny black gourd to examine him. The fly Wonder all over The Man and come back to report either or scar or some kind of defect or mark. The girl you will turn down the proposal immediately.
This went on for many years until a dragon heard about it. ‘I am going to marry that girl,' the dragon said.

Leaving his dwelling place far in the forest, he set off for the girl’s town.

On his way he met a black snake with a glittering dark skin. ‘could please lend me your skin,' he asked the snake.

The snake agreed. The dragon then took off his own knotty-rough skin which he gave to the snake and donned the new one.

A bit further on answer a catfish in a stream and asked to borrow his white teeth.

The catfish consented. In this way the dragon borrowed the best of all possible features and appeared to be the most handsome man in the world, with neither scars nor blemishes.

Wednesday young men reached the girl’s town, his striking beauty enchanted everybody.

In no time the news spread around that the most handsome men was in town.

Every girl vied for him. When the girl heard about the man she releases her fly to inspect him.

The fly's report was favorable this time.

She ran quickly to her parents and told them that she had found the man she roved.

They told her that she should not take the man by his looks, but she would wait until she get acquainted with him.

At this the girl become furious and insisted that she gets married to the main that's very day.

Nothing in the world would stop her. Finally her parents approved of the marriage since they believed that the young man had come especially for their daughter.

Inevitably, when he saw her, he fell in love with her and they got married.

The next day the men decided to go home. ‘stay here and wait for me,' he told his wife.

‘I’ll come back for you later. I have to go home for something important.’

Of course that meant nothing to the girl. She decided to go with him, and the man agreed to take her alone.

As they were preparing to go, her younger brother asked if he could accompany them.

The girl refused, saying in anger, 'you filthy and dirty why do you like to be with decent people? Get out of my sight!’

The boy was dirty and ugly, and the girl hit ugliness, dirt and defects.

However, he turned himself into a lizard and slipped into the basket she packed her things in.

As they walked alone, simpering and joking, the men split a piece of kola nut into two. Give one half to the girl and kept the other half.

They what all day on the shadow of primeval forest, climbing rocky hills, sloshing through swamps, walking steadily until dusk set in.

The girl wondered why they continue to walk deeper and deeper into the forest.

The road that traveled apparently led nowhere, and I still went on it became quite indistinguishable, like a hunting path.

But the knew how to trace it, and he urge her to follow him.

The girl was not particularly concerned about the dangers of the forest anyway.

She had only wandered. The handsome man in front of her was priceless.

She could endure any hardship and pay price to have him.

When they had gone far into the forest, the young men asked her to wait for him on the path while he went into the bush for a few moments.

There was nothing to fear.

When he returned he no longer had to fine, spotless, black glistening skin he once had, but a crude, knotty one.

The girl became frightened.

‘Don’t you see my share of the kola nut?’ he asked her.

‘why are you afraid? I am the same man!’

The girl wanted to run away, but how could she? As the dusk could thicker the man continued changing his features until he looked awful and monstrous.

Even when he had actually become a dragon, again he still claimed to be the same man.

‘This girl will be my breakfast tomorrow,' he said under his breath.

The girl became the think of her home, her family, and her parents advise.

But it was too late. Now she was defenseless in a terrible forest and was at the mercy of a dragon.

Maybe the fly have erred, she thought. But then the flight was not supposed to examine characters but only features.

They walk on and on until they come to high cliff which blocked the road.

The dragon threw some magic powder at the cliff and a road appeared through it.

The laser in the girl’s basket grabbed some of the powder and kept it.

After they have passed through the cliff, it closed up again as before.

Further along the way they met a large river. Again the dragon threw his powder at it and a dry land lay from shore to shore.

They crossed the river and immediately the road disappeared, leaving the water to flow freely once again.

At last they arrived in a town of human-eating dragons.

The girl could see rings of human skull in encircling the town.

Dragons around with sharp red teeth; their skins were knotty and uncouth; large eyeballs bulged in their faces.

They had big-hairy ears. They spoke a strange language in deep voices she couldn't understand.

Did greeted your friend who had been lucky enough to bring a live human with him.

The dragon that have brought the girl placed her in a cave, give her some rice and meat, and to her to cook and eat and make herself at home.

He was going with his friends to hunt humans. The girl did not know what the dragon had planned to do to her, when he left she sat in the corner of the cave and wept bitterly.

She crept out of the cave when she could cry no more.

Then, to her amazement, she's so her little brother at the door.

At first she couldn't believe her eyes, didn’t the boy called her name. She took him in her arms. ‘how did you manage to come here?’ she asked, pressing him hard to her chest. Tears in her eyes.

‘I've always being with you, sister,' the boy said. ‘ I come to save your life.’

(At the boy’s birth it has been said that he will be a medicine man.)
'How could you save me?’ she asked him.
'Don't worry, sister,' the boy replied.
When evening came the boy stuck a horn at his sister’s bedside, one in the doorway, and another one near the fireside.

Stay were medicine horns, planted with black thread, a cowrie neatly fasten at the mouth of each one.

The night grew dark, horribly dark, and does striking cried of the night prowlers were heard all around.

At midnight the dragons returned from the Safari, with human corpses hanging on them. The flew into all the town in the mighty whirlwind.

The wind took the trees and the houses and the girl became very frightened.

But her brother to her not to be afraid; nothing would happen.

Suddenly she went to sleep for the dragon that brought her had cast a spell on her.

At once her brother made himself invisible, stealthily to dragon crept in and tried to seize her by the throat and strangled her to death.

The horn at the doorway suddenly spoke: 'what are you doing, you naughty dragon? I see you. If you touch that girl you will know who I am.’

Then the one year the fireside said, 'the fellow almost got caught in my trap. Why are you so inquisitive? I was about to strike the not the dragon deal! Why did you interfere?

Then the one at the bedside said, 'can I be this close to the girl and fail to protect her?

Or you fellows have no faith in me? Leave the naughty beast to me!’

The dragon ran out of the cave. All this time the girl was soundly asleep. Dreaming of her home.

With a sudden jerk she woke up in the darkness, chilling again with fear.

She wanted to call her brother, but she didn't dare to make a sign for fear of being snatched away by those deadly dragonish talons that she had seen and feared. How would a little boy fight a dragon?

Certainly this was the end of her life. If death come to her here, how many people would have stories to tell about her, cynical, ridiculous stories.

All this trouble you have been avoided had she decided to remain unmarried.

She had realized too late that there were no perfect man in the world.

In this world the best often turned out to be the worst.

She tried not to think too much in order to control herself.

She set up, trembling, on the verge of tears. At least dawn came to her rescue, for with the coming of town the dragons left the village for another day hunt.

Her brother quickly appeared before and Said: 'get your things together, sister, for we are leaving now.’

'But the dragons will see us on the way!’ she cried.

'Do what I said, sister,' he replied.

hard things will stay pack in the basket just as she had packed him when she left home.

She simply took the basket and stepped outside why her brother climbed into the attic of the cave and brought down seven kenja of rice, and scattered the rice in the yard.

The big seven-headed rooster that usually called to dragons when things went amiss in the absence, Kim running from a rubbish pile near the town and begin pecking at the rice grains.

The girl and her brother left in a hurry.

on their way back they crossed the river and passed through the cliff with the help of the powder the boy had salvaged.

Fabian the rooster had finished pecking the grain of rice and became calling the dragons.

They came with a rushing wind, furious and excited. So the girl dragon-husband has such the town for the girl without success.

He searched alone the road which led towards her home, but couldn't find any sign of her.

At last he returned to his own time feeling the pain of his greed and failure.



The Evil Forest

Reason knows if you see animal tracks around a town without traps, it doesn’t mean that the townsmen do not know how to set traps.

If you see a bachelor living with beautiful, single girls without proposing marriage to them, it doesn’t mean those men are not interested in marriage.

Once a young, beautiful woman went to a certain town and walked straight to a small, round house where a fine young man sat in a rattan chair. She told the young man, 'I want to marry you.’

The young man looked at the woman in utter amazement.

A woman making a proposal to him was something he had never expected to experience in his lifetime.

'How did she know I was a single man anyway?’ he thought.

He accepted the proposal out of curiosity rather than interest, for he wanted to study this young lady to know what sort of woman she was.

‘Thank you for accepting my proposal,' the young woman said, growing relaxed and cheerful.

The you man brought her a stool.
They sat under a starry sky.
‘The last request I want to make,' the woman continued, 'is that in our marriage I will play the man and you'll play the woman.’

‘What are you talking about?’ the young man asked, perplexed and highly disturbed.

‘Don’t let it bother you, young man,' the woman replied.

‘My dear lady,' he cried the young man, 'I understand your situation.
Women are humans like men.
They too have feelings! So you have the right to make proposal to me. But to expect me to play the woman in our marriage is altogether unacceptable.’

‘Listen,' the woman said. ‘When I grew up I planned on marrying a man to serve him.
We woman always feel that men ought to make our farms, hunt for us, fishing for us, and build our houses.

On behalf of womanhood I would rather do these things for a man.

So don’t worry.
As this is the dry season, the first job I want to tackle is to start a farm.

When I begin, cook for me each day, prepare my bath, sweep the house, make the bed, and bring my food at noon.’

The same curiosity that led the man to accept the marriage proposal persuaded him to agree to the second one.

Let me do what the woman wants and see what happens, he thought.

During the week the woman had a blacksmith of the town make a big Cutlass for her.

It was a heavy Cutlass with a sharp edge.
Then she told her husband that she had seen some good farmland near the town for growing rice, and would not venture further.

She would make a large farm; he should be prepared to work hard to plant all of it with rice, since that was a woman’s share of the farm work.

For several days the woman walked through the high forest around the town.

To her delight she saw that the luxuriant forest in the western outskirts was fallow; she decided to use it.

When she told her husband about her decision, he objective to it with horror.

‘Its an evil forest!’ he cried, his eyes poking out in fear.

Then he told her in a whisper: 'Don't let anyone else hear that you wanted to make a farm in it.

If you love me and yourself, listen to my advice.’

‘Remember I told you at the beginning that I would play the man and you will play the woman!’ the woman said.

‘You are playing the woman roles well.
Woman are by nature scared and soft-hearted.
That why they always want their husbands to be strong, brave and wise.

And that’s what I am. Don’t worry. Leave everything up to me.’

‘But you are a stranger in this town!’
‘I said don’t worry,' the woman said curtly. ‘No more comment!’
‘You know,' the man said, trying to think about what to tell the woman to dissuade her from farming in the evil forest, 'if you see animals tracks around a town without traps, it doesn’t mean that the townsmen do not know how to set traps.

The men of this town are good farmers.
So don’t think we naturally like to play the woman.

I agreed to your proposal out of curiosity.

If that forest could be made into a farm, you wouldn’t have seen it fully grown.
For your own sake take my advice.’

The woman still paid him no attention; so he said no more.

One fine morning she took her Cutlass and went into the evil forest.

She saw no omen.
Nothing convinced her that the forest was evil.
So she started clearing the undergrowth.

At noon the young man brought her some food.

To his amazement she had cleared more than an acre of undergrowth.

She ate sparingly and resumed working.
In one day she cleared five acres.

The next morning, When she returned to the forest, she saw that more than twenty acres of undergrowth have been cleared in her absence.

She shuddered with fear, 'what is the cause of this?’ she wondered.

But she was brave enough to resume working. At noon the man brought her food.

‘Don’t you think the clearing is large enough now for one farm?’ he suggested.
The area cleared was as large as to normal farms combined.

‘ I think so,' the woman said quickly and returned to work, thinking all the time about the strange incident.

Who had helped to cut the bush in her absence?

The next day she returned to find more than 50 acres of undergrowth cleared.

She tremble and started running back to town, but, remembering what she had told the young man, she stopped and went back to work.

At noon the young men set out with some food for her, but didn’t arrive until sundown because the clearing had grown on exceptionally wide and he had to walk almost the whole day before reaching her.

The Woman did not eat, but told him instead that they should go back to the town.

On reaching the town she went straight to bed in her sweating-drench work clothes.

All night she was restless in bed, thinking.

Big young men's advise became to make sense to her, but she couldn't give up.

That would make her a woman.
A man must always complete any project he begins.

The following day she took an axe to cut down the trees, for she realized that the clearing was large enough. In fact too large for one farm.

At noon the man took some food to her and saw that she had cut down many trees.

He stared with surprise at the amount of work the woman had already done; he couldn’t do that much work in one day.
She ate and they returned to the town.

When she went back to the farm the next day she saw that all the trees had been cut down in her absence.

Utterly confused and sick with surprise, she returned home quietly and met the young man blowing on the fire under a rice pot.

‘What happened?’ he asked.
'You left the farm early today!’
‘Nothing,' she heaved a sign, looking absolutely into the distance.

Laying her axe down she went into the bedroom, undressed, and went to bed.

“Are you sick?’ the young man called to her, but she didn’t reply.

Thinking that something strange might have happened to her, he went into the bedroom and opened the bamboo window.

Rays of sunlight with dancing motes poured into the room.

The woman had covered herself snugly with a blanket and was curled up on her side facing the wall.

‘What happened?’ the Young man asked again, bending over her, his lips parted, he hands resting on his kneecaps to support his body.

Turning her head backwards briefly glancing at his face, she said, 'I do not feel well today.’

There was streaks of tears on her fat cheeks.

The young man went back to continue the cooking.

When he had finished, he put a bowl of rice for her on a table in the bedroom and went out to the evil Forest, where he discovered that all the trees have been cut down.

He nodded several times and concluded that his wife had been awestruck by the strange incident.

‘Why didn't she listen?’ he said to himself.
‘To turned back now will be just as dangerous as going forward.’

His wife’s shock developed into an illness and for several months he was forced to nurse her. One day when she seemed to recovered he told her:
‘Lets burn the farm. It’s dry now.’
‘You think it’s dry enough?’ she asked.
‘You want to draw back?’ the man asked with severity.
‘No, no!’ she said with a sudden burst of excitement.

She couldn't draw back and still be a man.

If the unburned farm remained laying in waste, it would forever confront her as evidence of her laziness.

‘Let’s burned it if you think it’s ready for burning.’ She declared.

Towards the end of the dry season they burned the farm, in it burned very well.

When the rainy season began the man started planting the farm with five, in keeping with the woman’s share of farm work.

He needed only to begin.
When he went to the farm each morning, he saw that a great deal of it had been planted in his absence.

He worked only four days on the farm and it was all planted with rice.

Normally he wouldn't have been able to plant half of it with rice, however strenuously he might have worked throughout the planting season.

When the farm was all planted, they spent most of their time in the town while the rice grew, for neither bird nor other animals bothered it, and as the forest land was extremely fallow, they didn’t need to weed it.

At harvest time the king of the monkey gathered together all his subjects, took them to the farm, and they consumed every bit of the rice.

When the young man and his wife inspected the farm one morning, they discovered that all the rice was gone.

They stood on the edge of the farm for a long time, speechless and terror-stricken, staring at the empty farm and at each other.

Then all of a sudden, they saw a herd of monkeys, their tails raised in the, walking defiantly into the bush on the other side of the farm.

'I told you!’ the man said to his wife. ‘You have caused us to make a farm in the evil forest and this is our reward! You see, the townspeople do not stop anyone from making a farm here.

After all, nobody wants to keep an evil forest.

But anyone who makes a farm in this spot does so at their own risk.

Our work has gone in vain and it is too late to make a new farm.
'I told you!” he cried. ‘I told you! I told you! We are going to starve! We will starve! You are a stubborn woman.’

The anger in the man’s voice frightened the woman. suddenly he started boxing the air with his clenched fists and howling cusses at her.

She defended herself with her arms and recreated, tripping over logs and rocks.

Eventually he calmed down, signed, and bowed his head.

‘Don’t worry,' she said.
'Those monkey will pay for their mischief.

They can’t eat all our rice and go free.
I will set a lifa behind the farm. Don’t be disturbed. Rely on me.’

Early the following morning the woman went to the bush to make the traps.

The man refused to accompany her; he sat all day on his porch brooding over the misadventure.

'Why did I allow her to go on with this sacrilegious affair?’ he muttered.

'Infatuation! Yes, that’s it! Allowing a woman to treat me like this! What does it look like? Stupid! Senseless! A woman telling me to play the woman and me agreeing to it! I am a fool! Yes. I’m a complete fool,' the man cussed himself repeatedly.

When he became tired of cussing, he went into the house, lay down awhile and then returned to the porch; he walked around the house again, talking to himself all the while.

Since the couple’s actions were heard of, no one came to console the man.

After all, his condition was to be expected; so he was watched from a distance like a disease.

Since no medicine man could or would help him, the young man was left to wander along and ponder on the stubbornness of woman and his own stupidity.

In the evening the woman returned from the bush in high spirits; she told the young man that she had made twelve lifa around the farm.

'Those monkey are now in danger,' she kept saying, bobbing her head vigorously.

But her reassuring words only worsened the man’s condition.

She caressed and hugged him in an effort to cheer him up, he remained unresponsive and lifeless.

In desperation, she to the outskirts of the town, collected an assortment of herbs, and administered them without success.

Sleep was the cure. They went to bed early that evening and woke up late in the morning when a sudden burst of energy and well-being sprang up in the young man; he felt fresh and happy.

This is not only because of the rest he had had. He had made a decision.

‘You know,' he told the woman forcefully, 'look for another man.
I don’t want to be your husband anymore.’

‘what are you talking about?’ the woman cried with astonishment. ‘You mean to say you'll leave your wife at the first sign of trouble? Don’t let me believe that.
Be a faithful companion.
Some men love a woman only when she is well, young, and pretty.
Don’t act like such men. Be a faithful companion.’

‘I say we not married anymore!’ the man said harshly. ‘Look for a different man.’

'Well,' the woman said, embarrassed, 'let me check the traps tomorrow and share with you whatever I get.

Then you may go your ways. Alright?’

'I’ll wait till tomorrow,' the man said, walking away.

She went to the traps the next morning and brought back a dozen of dead monkeys. The monkey corpses dangle from her shoulders as she walked proudly to the house.

When the young man saw her, he ran to her eagerly and helped carry them into the house.

That day they are a lot of monkey meat and put the rest of it on the dryer suspended above the fireplace to dry.

'I told you,' the woman said, smiling. ‘Those monkeys will not go free.
We don’t have rice but we’ll have all the meat we want.
We can sell some of our meat and buy rice with the money.’

‘I have changed my mind,' the man told her with a smile.

‘What?’ she stared at him with warmth.


'There's a point to what you said. A very important point.
It’s not good for a man to leave his wife only because of trouble.

If you promise me you won’t make the same mistake again, we could remained married.’

‘A baby antelope can show its mother a trap,' the woman said soberly and bowed her head sadly.

Pulling herself together continued in quite voice: you know, if you allow a starving man to help himself with your food, he’ll eat all of it.

I've always envied man about the role they play in the marriage.

I thought it was kingly.
To have someone wait on you, to have the power to make the last decisions on important issues, to walk about with confidence, these are some characteristics of men which I’ve always envied.

Now I see that they are not so easy and delightful as they seem.

If a woman tried to play a man’s roles in life, she will end up overplaying it.’

Tears seeped out of her shiny eyes. She bowed her head remorsefully.

The young man sidled to her and held her in his sinewy arms.
‘now I know… I know…' she wept.

‘Don’t let that bother you,' the man said, pressing her against his body. ‘when I agreed to play the woman, I was not doing only out of curiosity as I said.

I myself have always envied the roles the woman play in life.

The mere word “mother” carries so much meaning and affection.

We even call the earth our mother and all that.

I thought woman had the best of everything—don’t let us drag things out.
I will not leave you no matter what happens.’

‘From now on I’ll play the woman and you the man.’ The woman promised.

‘Let’s forgot about who will play what,' the man retorted sharply.

'Do you think when you get sick I won’t make hot water for your bath, cook for you, and take care of you just because I am a man?
Let’s be everything to each other.’

His words had a soothing effect upon her. She stood up, wiped her face with the back of her hands, ruffled in her wiry hair for a time and grew relaxed as if a burden had descended from her head.

The next morning she visited her traps again and brought back eleven monkey corpses.

The following day she brought ten.

This went on from day to day, the number decreasing, until one morning when one of her traps caught only a big, red head monkey, which had apparently fought fiercely to free itself and fun away, as was shown by the loose thatch in the trap; the trap sticks which she had tied firmly together were now held only loosely by the piassava fibers.

She gritted her teeth and looked grimly at the monkey.

Then she took it down and set the trap again, her gaze still fixed on the creature.

‘I’m not dead yet,' the monkey told her.
‘Take your Cutlass and cut my head off.’.

The woman held her breath; her heart pounding her ribs furiously; she crouched to run away, but the monkey stood up with a stagger and said, 'if you run, I will chase you.
Wherever you go I’ll go until I catch you. I told you what to do, and that’s exactly what you must do if you know what is good for you. Let me repeat: take your Cutlass and cut off my head.’

In fear, confusion, and desperation the woman took her Cutlass and hit the monkey with the blunt side many times until it lay on the ground dead and mangled in a pool of blood.

She didn’t cut off the head.
She picked up the monkey to carry home, but just before she entered the town it told her:
‘I’m not dead yet. Build a fire here and burn the hair off my body.’

‘Well, then wait here and let me go for the fire,' she said harshly, dropping the monkey to the ground with a thud.

‘You may go,' the monkey said, 'I won’t bother chasing you.

But if you don’t bring the fire right away you will drop dead.’

The woman ran to the blacksmith's shop which was located on the edge of the town.

Fortunately she found the blacksmith at work and he give her some live charcoals on a piece of zinc which she used to built the fire and burned the monkey.

When she had finished, the monkey said:

‘I’m not dead yet. Take your Cutlass and cut me to pieces, and then get some fresh leave and pack me in them.
No more mistake this time.
You didn’t cut my head off as I told you before.’

The woman cut the monkey to pieces, gathered some Goa leaves and packed the meat in them.

When she took the meat home, her husband was disappointed, for she had only a package in her hand rather than a monkey corpses.

‘An unlucky day, heh?’ he said, grinning.

'Well, a hunter can’t be lucky every day. Maybe the monkey are getting to know the location of the traps.’

The woman make no comment.
Placing the package near the fireplace, she told the man to loosen it, wash the meat and put it on the dryer.

Only one of her lifa had caught a monkey; not wishing to bring a lone monkey corpses to town, she had decided to a package of it.

Would you please loosen the package, wash the meat and put it on the dryer?

‘No don’t wash me and put me on the dryer.
Cook me,' the monkey meat said.
The man was startle and stared aghast at the package.

‘The voice can’t possibly come from the package,' he whispered.

‘Perhaps it’s my wife speaking.’
I a loud voice he called to his wife, who had gone into the bedroom: 'were you talking to me?’

'Since when have you started hearing voices?’ she asked, coming out of the bedroom with quicken steps.

‘Nobody talked to you!
Loosen the package and put the meat in the dryer!’
She told the man roughly and went back into the room.

The young man untied the package and washed the meat in a pan, but when he was about to place it on the dryer, it said: 'No, I told you to cook me. Understand! Put me into a put and cook me!’

‘What—what—what this , my people!’ the man cried.

‘Come! Come and hear your meat talking! You are a terrible woman!’ he called as he scattered the meat on the floor in fear.

The woman rushed out of the bedroom and found the meat scattered all around.


‘You people are not children, but full grown adults,'
The monkey meat said. ‘So act sensibly. I'm not asking you to do anything on usual.
Put me into a pot and cook me!’

‘And you couldn't do something that simple?’ the woman chided the man, staring at him reproachfully.

Stunned, the men watched her with amazement, speechless.

The woman gathered to meet together in a pain, washed it, what's it into a pot, added water, salt, pepper and oil and placed the pot on the fire; she nervously hitched firewood together under the pot and blue on the fire.

After the meet had boiled quite a while, it said, 'I'm done now.
Take the pot down, put me into a pan, and eat me.’

At this the man ran to the porch, Shouting to the woman over his shoulder, 'From today, I'm no longer your husband! You may have the house, everything in the house, including your meat! If I follow you any further I will lose my life!’
He disappeared from the porch.

The woman took the pot down, emptied it in a pan, it's plenty of the meat and drink the soup until she was filled.

She make an attempt to cover the rest of the soup in the meat with a plate until evening, but the monkey meat said: 'Eat all of me if you know what is good for you.’

Fearfully she stuffed herself with all the meat.

In the afternoon she roamed dejectedly about the town, crying and not knowing what to do.

Her stomach bulged as if she was pregnant, pain her severely.

In the evening she felt like releasing herself and went and went the bush, where is she passed out the monkey!

'Take your cutlass and cut my head off,' the monkey told her.

The woman ran with all her might to the town.

But just as she was about to enter the town, the monkey suddenly grabbed her by the breasts, swung from side to side, squealing and screaming excessively.

She cried hysterically, calling for help.

Luckily, the blacksmith who was still in his shop pounding a red-hot iron, heard her cry and rain to her immediately; and surprisingly saw of monkey hope to the woman's breasts.

‘What!’ he cried.
‘you mean to say monkey wants a woman? I can’t believe it! No, I can’t.’

He went back to his shop and brought the long, red hot iron he had been pounding and pierced the monkey in the ear with it.

The iron went to the monkeys head and it fell to the ground with a heavy this; wriggling in pain.

‘Mr. Blacksmith l,' it said as the blacksmith pulled the iron out of his head.

The blacksmith winced but he was man enough not to run away.

The woman, who was no longer surprised at the monkeys incredible behavior, stood still and listened. ‘Mr. Blacksmith, you saved this woman,' the monkey continued weakly. ‘It’s unlawful to make a farm or set traps in the evil Forest. This woman broke both laws. The spirits of the forest commanded us monkeys to eat her rice.
I am the king of the monkeys. After we had eaten up all the rice, the spirit thought that you have scared the women away; to mysteriously lose all the rice on such a large farm to fighting anything sane person. Of course, she did very little of the work. The farm made itself! This sort of misery did not put her off, however.
when we had eaten the rice she went right back and made lifa to catch us.
By the time I took notice of the traps, very many monkeys had already been killed. I told the spirit of the forest about the senseless killing, and he gave me the power of speech to tell the woman to remove her traps. While I waited for her one of them caused me by accident. Since you wanted to kill, I thought I'd let her kill me for the rest of her life. I could keep coming back to life to give her the chance to kill me again.’

'King Monkey,' said the blacksmith, 'I'm not interested in long talks.
Leave the woman alone and go back to the forest.’
‘No,' said the monkey, I'll dad know you have spoiled my plan.’
‘What plan?’ the blacksmith asked, a fearful look on his face.

‘The Spirit of the forest told me that no one who makes trap for monkeys in the evil Forest whoever succeed in killing them again. I forgot to have him protected us from all human beings. It looks as if human beings in general like to kill.’

'What do you mean, King Monkey?’ cried the blacksmith.

'You see,' said the monkey, 'this woman would have never succeeded in killing me. She could cut my head off, cut me to pieces, cook me, and even eat me, and still I would come back to life. These are the very things she had been doing to me all day. I could have escaped into the bush long ago, but I wanted her to have unlimited opportunities to kill… but now you have killed me, Mr. Blacksmith, because you have never set traps for monkeys in the evil Forest. Thus, if you kill a monkey it cannot live again. Life is to deserting me,' suddenly overcome by weakness, the monkey stirred uneasily, gasped, and died. ‘Burry me,' where his last words to the blacksmith and the woman.

The woman and the blacksmith obediently dug a grave right there and then buried the monkey.