Animal's Wisdom

The lion was dying of hunger because he could not find any prey. He had been searching for three days but had caught none. However, he had caught some tiny insects and a few rats but was not full because he was such a heavy feeder. He stood on a hillside that afternoon staring keenly at the valley below which was about five miles away, hoping to see a big straying animal to prey on. Suddenly his eye caught up with a deer moving in the bushes along the valley. He started racing in that direction.

Often, the birds of that valley yelled at lions when they saw them, especially when they were fiercely behind prey. The birds had seen him on the hill that afternoon. As he began speeding forcefully down the hillside, the valley birds started yelling in different bird sounds; “kwi-kwi, ku-ku, swing-swing, tilin-tilin, zi-zi, kroko-kroko, kong-kilin, tswirrrrrr.” This was a warning to all the animals who could not fly or climb that they should run for their dear lives.

The deer, aware of this signal, turned to find out the direction of the enemy. To his surprise, he saw a lion speeding towards him fiercely, from the hillside. The lion was about four miles away. Without any waste of time, the deer took on his heels at the fastest speed ever. In confusion, he missed the way to his hiding place but found himself near a wide river that he couldn't cross because it had no bridge.

A crocodile showed up and asked, “Who are you and what do you want in our territory?” The deer answered wisely with a question, “And why are you talking to me alone? Small crocodile, what can you do alone? The crocodile said there were many of them and they would deal with him accordingly. The deer said he had lied and that if they are many, they should show up for him to see. The crocodile dived into the water and in a minute, came back with so many of them.

The deer Exclaimed, “You are so few! If you know you are many, line up fast from this bank to that other one, and I would count you up to confirm." Angrily, the crocodiles lined up very fast to prove that they were truly many. The deer told them he would count by stepping on each of them so that he would not make any mistake. All the crocodiles agreed.

The deer then proceeded with the counting; “One, two, three, four, five ..., 98, 99, and when he reached the one hundredth, he leaped and landed ashore. Turned very fast and told the crocodiles, “Thank you, my friends, you’ve just made a good bridge for me to cross and escape from that fierce lion who is coming to gobble me up. Look, there he comes. Get him! Good food for you!” While the crocodiles turned to see the oncoming lion, the deer moved triumphantly on the way to his habitat.

The fierce lion who was on speed could not halt himself on time before reaching the river. He tried to force stop, but had to tumble thrice, then landed into the river. The crocodiles fell on him and wanted to tear him into pieces but he screamed, “Please, please, I wanna pee-pee, I wanna pee-pee!” All the crocodiles closed their mouths and grumbled, “Mmmm! Go! Go! And don’t mess up our appetite with your stinky pee. Pee fast and come back here!” The lion leaped ashore, and as if he was going to pee, fled away. The crocodiles missed good food that day, both the deer and the lion. The lion hurried back to his den and never went to that particular valley to hunt again.