Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
The Grateful Crane "Fighting sparrows fear not man," as the old proverb says. Yet it was not a sparrow but a crane that fell down out of the air. Near the feet of Musai, the farmer's boy, it lay, as he waded in the ooze of his rice field, working from daybreak to sundown.
Instead of seeming frightened when the man came near, the bird bent down its neck, as if to submit to whatever the farmer's boy should do. Gently Musai plucked out the arrow and helped the bird to rise, pushing back the undergrowth so that its broad white pinions could have free play.
After a few feeble attempts to fly it spread its wings, rose up from the earth, and after circling several times round its benefactor as though to thank him, it flew off to the mountain. Musai went back to his work, hoping that in season his labor would yield a good crop. He had his widowed mother to support and must needs toil every day.
"I can spin such cloth as was never made in this province, if you will build me a separate room. I cannot weave here, or make the fine pattern of red and white except when alone and in perfect silence. Build me a room, and the money you need will flow in." The old mother was doubtful as to her daughter-in-law's project and even Musai was but half-hearted. Yet he went to work diligently.
Throwing down thread and web she moved angrily to the door, gave a shrill scream and flew out under the sky. Like a white speck against the blue hills, she appeared for a little while and then was lost to sight. Son and mother once more faced poverty and loneliness, and Musai again splashed barelegged in the rice field. Little Surya Bai
From time to time, she pressed from her heart's blood red drops with which to dye some strands, and thus the weaving went on. The web of the cloth was nearly finished. Musai astounded looked on without moving, until suddenly called by his mother, he cried out in response, "Yes, I'm coming." The startled crane turned and saw the eye in the wall.
Musai hurried to the grassy bank at the edge of the paddy field as fast as he could wade through the liquid mud, to see what was the matter with the crane. Throwing down his hoe, and looking in the grass, he saw that an arrow was sticking in the crane's back, and that red drops of blood dappled its white plumage.
Not satisfied with having been delivered from starvation by a wife that served him like a slave, Musai stealthily crept up to the paper partition, touched his tongue to the latticed pane, and poked his finger noiselessly through, thus making a round hole to which he glued his eye and looked in. What a sight!
Then, when again on the edge of need, Musai asked his wife if she were willing to weave another web of the wonderful Crane's-down cloth. Cheerfully she agreed, cautioning him to leave her in privacy, and not to look upon her until she came forth with the cloth. But alas for the spirit of prying impertinence and wicked curiosity!
Word Of The Day