Sabaidee SJDers, Below is our first February posting from Nar Bounheng. I am resending it to the group because she forgot to use [SJD] in the subject. Nar: Thanks again for sharing. Your hipness and wisdom certainly enhanced the piece, even for those who have heard of the story before. I am ready for more!! Enjoy, Toon __________________________________________ << Subj: Lao fable: Monkey Hearts for Lunch Date: 2/5/99 5:36:19 AM Eastern Standard Time From: hanumahn@tidalwave.net (Bounheng Inversin) To: Kartoon22@aol.com, satjadham@usa.net Hi folks, Following is an old animal fable. Some of you may have heard this before, but told in different variation. Note that heart, liver or any innerds of animals are considered delicacy in Laos. So, people wanting to eat them would go at great length to get them even the consequence may be adverse! Enjoy! MONKEY HEARTS FOR LUNCH A long time ago, when all animals and humans lived side by side on Earth and could speak one another's language, two crocodiles-- a mother crocodile and her son-- lived by a wide and winding river. One day the mother crocodile said to her son: 'I am hungry. I am so very very hungry and I want to eat a monkey's heart.' 'Monkey hearts? Yes, I want to eat a monkey's heart too.' 'YEs, a delicious lunch of monkey hearts. Yum...Yum...But where can we find a monkey's heart?' said the mother crocodile. Whooomp! A coconut fell to the ground. The crocodiles looked up at a coconut tree and saw a monkey climbing up its trunk. 'Mother, look over there on that coconut tree. There is a monkey climbing up its trunk.' said the young crocodile. 'Yes, a monkey indeed. A delicious monkey with a delicious monkey's heart for lunch. But how will we catch that imp?' asked the mother crocodile. 'I have an idea.' said the crocodile son. 'Mr. Monkeyyy. Sabaidee, Mr. Monkey!' called the young crocodile alluringly as he swam to the bank of the river to get the monkey's attention. 'I am just swimming around here in the river. We crocodiles love to swim. Yesterday I swam over to the island in the middle of the river. Do you see it over there? There are the biggest, ripest and the sweetest bananas in all the land on that island. Big beautiful bananas. We, crocodiles, don't eat bananas. Do monkeys eat bananas?' 'I love bananas. Banana is my favorite food. But how can I get to the island? I cannot swim' said the monkey drooling. 'No problem,'said the crocodile. 'You can sit on my back and I will take you over there myself. In fact, I am not doing anything today anyway. So, let's go to the island of the big, beautiful and sweet bananas.' 'Good idea! said the trusting monkey. And he jumped down from the tree and hopped on the back of the crocodile. The monkey rode on the back of the crocodile as the latter swam around the river to get to the island of the most beautiful and sweetest of bananas. 'Ooh, this is fun! I like swimming,' said the monkey. 'Swimming is....' Just then the crocodile dove deep into the water. The monkey was startled but held tight to the back of the crocodile. He was scared because he could not breathe and worse of all he could not swim to save his life. The crocodile came back up and broke surface of the water. The monkey sputtered and spat and coughed. 'Wha..wha...what are you DOING?' catching his breath. ' YOu know that I cannot swim.' said the monkey. 'Ha...ha..ha...! What am I doing? asked the crocodile. 'I am going to drown you and then eat your heart. Monkey hearts are our favorite food.' 'You what? You want to eat my heart?' asked the monkey. 'I am so sorry, buddy. Why didn't you tell me before we left that you wanted my heart? I left it up on that coconut tree. Take me back to the bank and I will climb the tree and gladly give it to you!' said the cunning monkey. 'You mean, you left your heart on the tree? You're putting me on!' said the crocodile. 'Sure! You think I'm some kind of nuts to carry my heart with me everywhere? I didn't want to get it wet. Now, please take me back and I will give it to you!' said the monkey. So, the crocodile with the monkey atop his back swam back to the bank of the river, to the same spot where they left earlier. Once arrived on the bank, the monkey jumped off and quickly climbed up the tree. 'Oh, here is my heart,' said the monkey. 'Come on up and get it Mr. Crocodile. It's up here!' 'Climb? Me?' said the crocodile. 'You know that I cannot climb a tree.' 'Oh, I forgot! How stupid of me!' said the monkey. 'But have no fear, my friend. I will tie this rope around you. Then I'll pull you up the tree so that you can get my heart. 'Good idea!' said the crocodile. The monkey jumped down from the tree and took a long rope and tied it around the chest and under the front legs of the crocodile. Then he called for help from all his monkey friends. Upon hearing the call, many monkeys jumped through the trees and came to give a friend a hand. They grabbed a piece of the rope and yanked the crocodile up. Now, Mr. Crocodile began to feel hungry and greedy. And he said 'Pull me up! Pull me up higher some more! Hurry, hurry! I cannot reach your heart yet.' 'Oh, no, Mr. Crocodile! You will stay where you are just like that, dangling in mid-air forever!' The monkeys cackled, chattered and jumped up and down like monkeys always do. 'PLease, monkeys, please let me down. Otherwise, my mother will come and eat all of you.' pleaded the crocodile feeling seasick and his hunger gone! 'I will let you down only if you promise to never, never and ever eat monkeys' hearts or bother monkeys anymore! Is that a deal?' said the monkey. 'But monkey hearts are our favorite food.' 'In that case, goodbye. Stay cool and we'll see you later, Alligator!' 'Noooo, no, please wait! I promise never, never, ever eat monkey hearts again!' 'OK, it's more like it! Down you go!' said the monkey. They lowered the crocodile to the ground. He landed with a big thud! Then he scrambled into the river to join his mother. "So, my son, where is the monkey's heart?' asked the mother. 'Mother, I don't like monkey hearts. Let's eat elephant ears or frog legs instead!' The End. Pasid/lesson: Yak hai poen tye, toh tye (you want them dead, you end up being dead! Or is it 'The one who laughs last laughs louder!) Bounheng Inversin 6807 Ingraham Street Riverdale, MD 20737-1707 301-306-0345 ----------------------- Headers -------------------------------- Return-Path: Received: from rly-za05.mx.aol.com (rly-za05.mail.aol.com [172.31.36.101]) by air-za05.mail.aol.com (v56.24) with SMTP; Fri, 05 Feb 1999 05:36:18 -0500 Received: from tidalwave.net ([208.206.112.8]) by rly-za05.mx.aol.com (8.8.8/8.8.5/AOL-4.0.0) with SMTP id XAA01070 for ; Thu, 4 Feb 1999 23:02:15 -0500 (EST) Received: from hanumahn [208.220.24.241] by tidalwave.net (SMTPD32-4.07) id ABF61B6012E; Thu, 04 Feb 1999 22:56:38 EST Message-Id: <3.0.6.32.19990204230142.007f6730@postoffice.tidalwave.net> X-Sender: hanumahn@postoffice.tidalwave.net (Unverified) X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Light Version 3.0.6 (32) Date: Thu, 04 Feb 1999 23:01:42 -0500 To: Kartoon22@aol.com, satjadham@usa.net From: Bounheng Inversin Subject: Lao fable: Monkey Hearts for Lunch In-Reply-To: <1c2dcb8c.36b9c5c5@aol.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" >>