Magic Drums and Magic Trees

Magic Drums and Magic Trees

Once upon a time, there was a kind-hearted king who had a magic drum. This magic drum has a secret that no one but the king knows. As long as the owner of the magic drum does not step over a stick on the road or a branch that falls to the ground, then when he hits the magic drum, food will flow. On the contrary, when he hits the magic drum, not only will there be no food, but three hundred fierce warriors will descend from the sky and beat the people present to their knees and beg for mercy with whips. Since the king kept this secret in mind, he acted very cautiously. Therefore, the magic drum always provides food, and there has never been a phenomenon of sending samurai, and everything is going well.

One morning, the king's wife took her little daughter to a nearby river to bathe. The little girl picked up a palm fruit and ate it. Unexpectedly, a tortoise had lost the fruit, and the tortoise wanted to take the opportunity to get a handful, so he forced the mother and daughter to bring them to the king. He asked the king, "Is stealing other people's property a serious crime in our country?"

The old king said: This is indeed a serious crime. So the tortoise babbled about how the king's wife stole the food that his hungry family desperately needed. After he finished speaking, the king said calmly: "Well, tortoise, since you think my wife stole your food, I will pay you for the loss. Say what you want! I will give you what you want - chicken, sheep, slave, which one do you choose?"

The tortoise said without hesitation, "I want your magic drum."

The king was helpless. He was a man of his word. He had promised the tortoise what he wanted, so he had to reluctantly give up his love and gave the magic drum to the tortoise. But he did not tell the tortoise the secret of what would happen if he crossed the stick on the road. He knew that sooner or later the tortoise would encounter this situation, and he took a little comfort in thinking of this.

That night, the tortoise showed the magic of the magic drum at home. He was overjoyed, thinking that he would never need to work again in his life. For three days in a row, the tortoise's family did nothing but eat and sleep, and slept. As a result, it became more and more arrogant and lazy. Finally one day, when the tortoise came home, he unknowingly stepped over a branch on the road. When he got home, he beat the magic drum again. This time, instead of delicious food, three hundred samurai came. These samurai, with whips and sticks in their hands, beat the whole family of the tortoise until they cried and shouted, and all of them lay on the ground, dying. When the samurai disappeared, the tortoise gradually woke up. It shook its aching body and said to itself, "There is something wrong with this demon drum, it seems that it has become a demon." It added, "Anyway, this demon drum can't be used in the future at home. It's better to go and exchange it with the king for something else."

So it slipped out of the house quietly with the magic drum and came to the palace. The king had long expected the tortoise to come, because he had heard that the tortoise had been beaten. When the tortoise saw the king, he complained, "I'm tired of this thing, please give me something else!"

"Very well," replied the king, for he wished the tortoise had brought back the magic drum sooner.

"It just so happens that I have a magic tree that can be used in exchange for magic drums." The king said: "This magic tree will grow vegetable soup and bread, but only once a day. If anyone asks for more food on the same day, the magic tree will die."

The tortoise happily traded the magic drum for this very unusual magic tree. After hiding the tree in a secret place in the jungle, it went home.

The next morning, the tortoise and his wife came to the magic tree with ten gourds. The tortoise's wife couldn't believe her eyes. They put large pieces of milky white bread into the largest gourd, and filled other gourds with vegetable soup dripping from the magic branch. That night, the tortoise's family enjoyed a sumptuous dinner. But when the little tortoises asked where the food came from, the old tortoise said nothing, because the king had told it that the magic tree could only be used once a day.

A few days later, the children complained that they were not eating enough, and the eldest son secretly followed his father and discovered the secret. Just after his father took the food, the eldest son of the turtle took his younger siblings to find the magic tree and greedily ate the vegetable soup and bread on the tree.

The next morning, as usual, the tortoise got up early in the morning and secretly went to get the food. However, it was very surprised to see that the magic tree had died, and in the place where the magic tree was originally placed, there were dense layers of thorny rafiya palms.

It crawled home angrily and hungry, and led the whole family to the jungle where the magic tree was released. It pointed to the place full of thorns, and said to its wife and children, "Dear ladies and children, I have tried my best to feed you, but you have broken the magic, so that I can no longer do anything. From now on, you have to find food in the bushes by yourself." After speaking, it first got into the thorns by itself. Then, its wife and children also climbed in one after another.

It is said that since then, the tortoises have settled among the thorns of the Lafia palm trees, until now.

Dear baby, let's guess the riddle together:

The head is small and the neck is long and the feet are short, and the body is safe in the hard shell. Don't look timid and afraid of things, but the lifespan is boundless. [Puzzle: Turtle]