.
Grandfather and the Monkey*
..........Like many others in the world there was a mother and father who had a son called ... Well, no-one knows for sure, for this was long ago when the world was younger than she is today and somewhen, between that moment and this, his name has been lost. These things happen. These things have always happened. But, because this child is so very, very important, and to make sure that he is never, ever forgotten, we choose to call him Grandfather.
..........Now, when Grandfather was raised full and grown there came a day that he left his home and walked out into the world, wandering this way and that, that way and this. He wendered wherever the wind and the stars took him, until, in the course of his journeying, a whole month went by without him seeing any other person. Not a one. And it was then, and then only, that he stopped and looked close about him. To his right, a range of mountains rose, height upon height and on their jagged crags and pikes were clouds, snagged like tufts of wool. To his left a lake, deep and wide and blue as summer, that stretched far and away into the distance, and the sky with it. Everywhere he turned his eye was met with an astonishment of plants, animals and the living wood. 'This,' thought Grandfather. 'Would be a fine place to live.'
..........So, he built a house. First, he chopped down as few trees as were needed to make walls, shutters, a shingle roof and a fine front door. Then, he collected just enough clay from the lake's margins to make a large cooking pot, bowls, and bricks for a chimney and hearth where he would roast wild sheep or goat and where the pot would bubble with huge brown or silver fish. And when, as would happen, he had neither meat nor fish to eat there were leaves, roots, corms and tubers, fruits and forest sponges aplenty: so, if in all the days of his life Grandfather never grew fat, never once did he go hungry either.
..........And the years passed.
..........Whenever the mood came upon him Grandfather would go for long walks; not to any place in particular, just amblings, to see what the world might wish to show him. In the mountains it was dizzying waterfalls and glittering streams, their waters so cold they made his teeth hurt. In the mossy depths of the forest he found a young swash that babbled and chuckled before disappearing underground into a cavern black as night. Over there an oak rose twice as tall as any other tree and behind it a river, old and slow and so widely deep that even Grandfather could not hope to cross. And here, towards the sunset, the forest went on forever and ever until it reached the sea.
..........One day, quite by accident, Grandfather found a small horse hiding in a shadow and thought to himself, 'If only it were larger I might ride it. And how wonderful would that be?' So, he picked it up with one hand, tucked it under his elbow and took it home where he built a stable without a door for it right next to his house. Then, he set about the difficult business of breeding a horse big enough and strong enough that a person might ride it. A task made all the harder because Grandfather knew so very little about horses, and so very less about how to breed them.
..........And the years passed.
..........On one of his many rambles, Grandfather came to a place where the forest thinned to fields filled with sunshine, grasses, meadow flowers and a farmstead with a thick, thatched roof. And monkeys. Quite a few monkeys. Certainly more than five. From where he stood, in the leaf-green shadows of the wood, Grandfather could see them them milking, shearing, picking and planting. 'So much busy-busy-ness,' he marvelled, 'What clever monkeys!'
..........The next time he went a wandering, or perhaps it was the time after that, he discovered a grand castle being built high upon hill. By monkeys. Lots and lots of monkeys. So many, in fact that Grandfather quite lost count. They were scaffolding, sawing, hammering and raising, by means of large, creaking, groaning cranes, great bulks of stone and timber; higher and higher. And with each raising the castle itself seemed to grow higher and higher. 'Oh my,' thought Grandfather. 'What clever monkeys!'
..........And then, not so very soon after that, on a decidedly drizzly day, he found himself somewhere the forest was no longer forest but a devastation of splinters, stumps and a cracked open sky. And monkeys. Again there were monkeys. And these were feeding whole trees into the mouth of a strange building that shrieked and snarled and spat out great, groaning wagon-loads of timber which trundled away down a rutted, muddy track. This time when he said to himself, 'Clever monkeys.' Grandfather didn't sound quite so sure as he had before.
..........And the years passed
and there came a slow, Sere-month evening when Grandfather thought that possibly, maybe, it just might be that his meanderings were a little bit lonely now; in a way that they had never been before. And he further thought that perhaps the wonders of the world, while most definitely still wonderful, could be yet more so if there was someone with whom he might share them all. Now, because this was long ago, when the world was younger than she is today, the path of Grandfather's thoughts led him to a place of decision; 'Marriage!'
..........The following morning he set off to the high mountains where he panned for gold in their clear and glittering rills, squeezing the tiny yellow flecks together and forming fat nuggets of such a number that he was able to fill a whole basket full of them which he then, over the course of the long winter evenings, made into one hundred golden rings which he set aside in a wooden coffer. The following spring he braved the night-black cavern to prise rare and precious jewels from its slime-dank walls and polished them, every morning after breakfast, until, by mid-summer, his box overflowed with earthly treasures. And all the while, he continued breeding horses.
..........Now, it happened that around this time, a colt was born and grew to such a size that even a person as large as Grandfather might ride it. So he did. Returning home that evening he looked at the horse in the stable and at the box of gold and jewels on the table and said to himself, 'Surely, with all of this there is no bride price that I cannot pay.'
..........The very next day a monkey knocked on his door. It had two eyes, no tail, and wore clothes just as a person might. Even a hat. It looked, thought Grandfather, quite like those monkeys he'd spied at the farmstead in the forest. Indeed, it bore more than a passing resemblance to the ones he had noticed at the castle on the hill, and was certainly not too dissimilar to those he had watched working at the saw mill in the rain. 'Perhaps this one is also clever?' He thought.
.........."Excuse me, sir," said the monkey. "But I am all alone in the world and the forest and there is a storm coming. Might I shelter here for the night?"
..........Grandfather wasn't sure what to do as he'd never had a visitor before, never mind one as strange as a two-eyed talking monkey. So, he thought for a moment, and then for another, before, a third moment having passed, he said;
.........."Cross your hearts and hope to die
..........should you this day tell a lie.
..........Tell me, monkey, do you mean me harm?"
..........And the monkey took off its hat, looked Grandfather in the eye and replied, in a very earnest voice,
.........."No sir, I do not." And it smiled a toothy smile (as monkeys often do) before crossing its heart. So, Grandfather invited the monkey inside where he gave it the warmest place by the hearth to sleep and the biggest bowl of lamb stew for its supper. And later, when the wind started to rattle the shutters and the rain to clatter on the shingle roof, they went each to their beds.
..........In the morning Grandfather woke to find both storm and monkey gone. Gone too was the coffer where he kept all the rings and jewels. 'Gone,' Grandfather said to himself as he opened his fine front door and went outside. 'How strange.' He was half-way down the front steps when he saw the monkey, the missing box strapped to its back, racing away as fast as it could.
.........."Stop!" Cried Grandfather. And then, "Thief!" But the monkey-thief did not so much as pause, indeed, it seemed to run faster. 'Perhaps,' Grandfather thought, 'this monkey is not so clever as those other ones, for though it has stolen from me it is heading straight towards the river that runs so deeply wide that even I cannot cross it. And if I cannot then surely this creature, who is really rather small and puny will not be able to either. In which case,' Grandfather concluded, 'there is no need for me to hurry. No, no need at all.' And being thus reassured by his own reasoning Grandfather sauntered, leisurely, after the fleeing thief.
..........However, when at last he came to the river, he saw that somewhen, in the years all gone between, a ferry had been built. By monkeys. And there, approaching the far bank, safe and dry on the wooden raft, stood the thief with the stolen chest.
.........."Stop!" Grandfather called to the monkey operating the ferry, "Thief!" He cried, pointing at the monkey with the box. And though the ferry-monkey turned to look at Grandfather, its eyes surprisingly large and white, instead of stopping, it continued to sweep the vessel's large oar through the water. Indeed it might have rowed that bit faster. And soon, too soon, the ferry was all the way across and the monkey-thief was off, and running, running. And gone. "Clever monkeys!" Cursed Grandfather.
..........And a day passed,
and after it a year, and then as had happened once before, a monkey knocked on the door.
.........."Excuse me, sir," said the monkey as it took off its hat, "But I am all alone in the world and the forest and have travelled far and far without food. And, sir, I was wondering, might I beg of you such hospitality as any guest might?"
.........."I know you, do I not?" Grandfather fixed his eye on the face of the creature before him. "Did I not give you shelter only one year ago? Shelter and a fine bowl of well seasoned stew? And did you not repay my kindness by stealing from me, all of my rings and all of my jewels?"
.........."Yes, sir," the monkey confessed, "I did. And I am most bitterly ashamed. But, sir, if you let me I will work for you until I have paid back all that I owe, until I have made right all the wrongs I have done. Sir, you need only give me food to eat and a place to sleep, and I will serve you well and faithfully till such time as you are satisfied my debt is settled."
..........Grandfather was silent for a long time. A very long time. A really, very, very long time. Then, at last, he said,
.........."Cross your hearts and hope to die
..........should you this day tell a lie.
..........Look me in the eye and tell me,
..........clever monkey, do you mean me harm?"
And the monkey looked Grandfather in his eye and replied in a very sincere voice,
.........."No sir, I do not." And it smiled a toothy, monkey-smile and crossed its heart. So, Grandfather made a bed for it in the lee of the stables, where the wind and the rain would not trouble it, and gave it a small bowl of fish soup for its supper. And, the bowls being clean he said,
.........."Tomorrow I will put you to work." And the two of them went each to their beds.
..........The sun was still napping behind the mountains when a loud neighing woke Grandfather. Fearing wolves or worse he flung back the covers and rushed outside only to see the monkey, perched high upon the horse's back, gallop past him; fast as a stone from a sling.
.........."Stop!" cried Grandfather. And then, "Thief!" But he knew, in his hearts, that the monkey-thief would not stop and he knew too that he would not be able to catch the horse and its rider before they reached the monkey-ferry. And so, when he got to the bottom of the steps, Grandfather simply sat down and listened to the hoof beats growing fainter and farther, farther and fainter as the sun poured the morning down the mountain slopes toward him. When the light reached his toes Grandfather promised himself that he would not be tricked by a 'clever monkey' ever again, not once, not ever, not as long as he should live.
..........And a day passed,
and after it a year and then another day was just beginning when Grandfather heard a loud lumbering-rumbling-clanking noise. Opening the shutters he saw a huge iron carriage drawn by a team of six white horses getting closer and louder, louder and closer. 'It is', Grandfather thought above the din. 'A very large carriage, and they are very fine horses, even if not quite so large and fine as the one stolen from me.' Then, before he could notice or think any more, they came to a halt. And in the dusty silence that followed, a monkey came knocking.
..........This time Grandfather did not wait for it to remove its hat, or speak, but wrenched open the door and bellowed,
.........."I know you, thief! Twice have you stolen from me, and twice twice will I see you punished!" He stamped down the steps in a great fury, his hands curling into fists and the monkey-thief retreated before him all the way to where the horses and carriage stood.
.........."Sir," the monkey-thief stopped and bowed, sweeping off its hat in a grand manner. "You are right that I have wronged you but I am here, sir, to make amends." As nervous as it looked it did not back away as Grandfather stomped across the remaining distance between them but continued, "And there is little time for me to do so. Sir, have you not heard that
Sute Izugarria, the mightiest of dragons, is wroth with you?" At this Grandfather paused. "That it intends to burn you to a cinder with its fiery breath because you have taken gold from its mountain streams and jewels from the night-black cavern?" Grandfather stood very still, looking this way and that, in case the dragon should be smouldering somewhere nearby. "Sir, I have come to save you and reclaim my honour." Said the monkey-thief. "See how thick are the walls of my iron carriage? No dragon fire can possibly harm you in there. See how strong and fast are my horses? No dragon could possibly catch them. See how time grows short? So please, sir, forgive me and allow me to carry you away to safety." And without waiting for Grandfather's response, the monkey-thief slowly crossed its one heart and smiled, its two eyes never leaving Grandfather's face. "I promise." It said and heaved open the carriage door.
..........The news the monkey-thief brought made Grandfather very afraid; for who has not heard of
Sute Izugarria? Or the wrath of Dragons and the fiery and gruesome torments they inflict upon those they believe have wronged them? Quite. Therefore, none should be surprised that Grandfather did not hesitate but climbed swiftly into the iron carriage, only managing the 'Thank' of 'Thank you' before the heavy iron door thunked solidly shut.
..........It was much smaller inside than it looked from the outside and all too soon it became terribly hot and stuffy in there. Grandfather found he was struggling to breathe so began to bang on the walls and the roof, "Monkey!" He choked, but received no answer. "Monkey!" He called again, but the carriage kept thundering along. 'Perhaps this monkey-thief cannot hear me?' He thought, as his breaths grew faster and shallower and shallower and faster until, between one breath and the next, he fell in to a deep, unknowing sleep.
..........When Grandfather awoke he felt the grit and itch of sand beneath his bare back and the cold weight of binding iron chains upon his arms and legs. There was even a chain wrapped around his head which forced his mouth open but left him unable to speak. From the corner of his eye he saw, rising up, all around him, row upon row of seats, and in each one sat a monkey. Grandfather lay, naked and helpless, in the centre of a huge arena.
.........."I have done as you asked, my King." Grandfather managed to turn his head towards the voice of the monkey-thief. "The brute-beast is here, bound and delivered to you as promised. Now, sire, will you keep your side of our bargain?" The king to whom the thief spoke was a large monkey wearing burnished steel armour and a crown made of gold from mountain streams and encrusted with sparkling jewels of the kind found in a night-black caverns.
.........."I will," declared the monkey-king and handed the thief quite the biggest, burstingest bag of coin any monkey had ever seen before beckoning, in a decidedly regal manner, to a scowling young female monkey who shuffled forward to where the monkey-thief waited.
.........."So you're the famous monster hunter?" The monkey-princess asked. At this monkey-thief laughed as it slung the unwieldy, jangling purse over its shoulder and took her hand.
.........."Not any more." It replied with a grin. Then, somewhat carefully, it bowed to the monkey-king, low and with a flourish. In her turn the monkey-princess curtsied to her father, not quite so low, perhaps, and perhaps not quite so gracefully, before the two of them, thief and princess, princess and thief, walked out of the arena and this story: hand in hand, with nary so much as a backward glance.
..........In the silence they left behind the monkey-king drew its sword and marched across the sand to where Grandfather lay.
.........."Here," it proclaimed, it's words carrying to the highest and furthest seats. "Is the creature that lurked in our forest. Here is the thief of our flocks and our fish. Here is the looter of our gold and treasures. Here lies the demon that keeps you from sleep." And with that the monkey-king swung its great sword and cut off first Grandfather's left foot. Then his right.
..........And the crowd began to cheer.
.........."No more," cried the king, "shall this monster stalk our land and our nightmares. No more will this savage take what it ours."
.........."No more!" Roared the crowd.
..........And the cheering grew louder
as the sword rose and fell. And the sword rose and fell, as the monkey-king cut off first Grandfather's left hand. Then his right.
..........And the cheering grew so loud
that only the monkey-king could hear Grandfather's screams, only the monkey-king saw the tears fall from Grandfather's eye. And only the monkey-king, without saying another word, cut off Grandfather's head.
..........And the cheering did not stop
until long after Grandfather's hearts had stopped beating and there was no more blood or life left in his body.
....................___________
* based on Basque folk tales of the Tartalo.
.
Grandfather and the Monkey
Linear Mode
