george and the dragon and a world of other stories
The curious honeybird
A bantu myth
Leza sat idly juggling the magic of the world: three calabashes, perfectly round and red, picked from the Tree of Everything. "Why three" asked the curious Honeybird.
"how could i juggle with two?" answered leza. "Or eight?"
Leza, Lord and Creator of the Bantu people, looked down from his plateau of sky. He did not live so very high above the people he had newly created - just high enough to see what theu were doing and watch that chey came to no harm. he wished them no harm. Indeed, he wished them all the dood in the world - which was why head decided to pick three calabashes.
" Take these down to First Man and First Woman,honeybird” he said, stringing the three scarlet globes around the bird’s neck. “ I need both hands free to climb down. Tell them that they may open these two. Tell them I’m coming, and that I will explain how to use what’s inside. Also, I will tell them the purpose of the third… Oh, but Honeybird!”
“Yes, master?”
“ Mind you don’t go opening those calabashes!”
“Would I ?” twitered the Honeybird, and flew off.
Leza began to climb down the immense spider’s web which hung from the sky. Though its fabric was almost too fine to see, it was strong enough to bear his weight: so much of him was sunshine.
Meanwhile, the Honeybird wondered about the three calabashes round its neck: whether first man and first woman deserved such a gift, and whether they would be grateful. The gourds were very light to carry: had Leza even remembered to fill them?
That was Honeybird’s excuse to peck a small hole in the first calabash.
Out spilled seeds and grain, hips and haws, bulbs and corms – all good things to plamt in the newly made Earth. Honeybird cocked first one curious eye and then the other over the seed… and could see no harm in opening the second calabash.
Out spilled herbs and spices, gold-dust and ore, pollen and resin- all useful things for a life in a new young world. Honeybird turned each marvel over with its delicate claw…and saw no harm in opening the third calabash.
Out spilled termites and leeches, sickness and madness, weariness and disease, the roaring of a lion, the sharpness of a thorn, vipers and scorpions, misery, pain. And Death, Slithering away faster than thought, each evil thing wriggled into the cracked ground, into hollow trees, into rock crevices or in under the beds of first man and first woman.
“What have you done, you fool!” Leza’s voice boomed out behind the honeybird and ruffled all its feathers with the blast of his breath. “could you not have waited a few short moments? My people will never forgive you for this!”
He tried with all his superhuman might to recapture the wild beasts and vile evils let loose, but they were already gone, already lurking in the Earth’s dark places.
With infinite care, Leza-the-Infinite explained to First man and first woman what to do with the seeds and bulbs and herbs, the metal and the pollen. He told them how to worship him, how to ger by amid the troubles Honeybird had brought on them. Then he kissed them and climbed back up the spider’s web.
But first man and first woman did not want to be left alone. They were so alarmed by the scrabblings under their beds, at the slitherings among their flowers, at the hoots which….
Leza was appalled at their arrogance, astonished at their presumption. “Try and climb up to my home?” he cried. “ Is there no end to their ambition?” and he kept himself to himself after that, confined himself to his shelf of sky-blue vapour, and did not come and go between earth and sky as he had done before.
The honeybird, meantime, does what it can to make amends. Whenever it comes across man or woman, son or daughter, it darts down, uttering its piercing cry of “ Follow, follow!”, leading the way to golden hoards of hidden honey, to crystalline combs of sweetness, in the hope that one day they will forgive the matter of the third calabash.
@vuongtuphuong @walrus
The curious honeybird
A bantu myth
Leza sat idly juggling the magic of the world: three calabashes, perfectly round and red, picked from the Tree of Everything. "Why three" asked the curious Honeybird.
"how could i juggle with two?" answered leza. "Or eight?"
Leza, Lord and Creator of the Bantu people, looked down from his plateau of sky. He did not live so very high above the people he had newly created - just high enough to see what theu were doing and watch that chey came to no harm. he wished them no harm. Indeed, he wished them all the dood in the world - which was why head decided to pick three calabashes.
" Take these down to First Man and First Woman,honeybird” he said, stringing the three scarlet globes around the bird’s neck. “ I need both hands free to climb down. Tell them that they may open these two. Tell them I’m coming, and that I will explain how to use what’s inside. Also, I will tell them the purpose of the third… Oh, but Honeybird!”
“Yes, master?”
“ Mind you don’t go opening those calabashes!”
“Would I ?” twitered the Honeybird, and flew off.
Leza began to climb down the immense spider’s web which hung from the sky. Though its fabric was almost too fine to see, it was strong enough to bear his weight: so much of him was sunshine.
Meanwhile, the Honeybird wondered about the three calabashes round its neck: whether first man and first woman deserved such a gift, and whether they would be grateful. The gourds were very light to carry: had Leza even remembered to fill them?
That was Honeybird’s excuse to peck a small hole in the first calabash.
Out spilled seeds and grain, hips and haws, bulbs and corms – all good things to plamt in the newly made Earth. Honeybird cocked first one curious eye and then the other over the seed… and could see no harm in opening the second calabash.
Out spilled herbs and spices, gold-dust and ore, pollen and resin- all useful things for a life in a new young world. Honeybird turned each marvel over with its delicate claw…and saw no harm in opening the third calabash.
Out spilled termites and leeches, sickness and madness, weariness and disease, the roaring of a lion, the sharpness of a thorn, vipers and scorpions, misery, pain. And Death, Slithering away faster than thought, each evil thing wriggled into the cracked ground, into hollow trees, into rock crevices or in under the beds of first man and first woman.
“What have you done, you fool!” Leza’s voice boomed out behind the honeybird and ruffled all its feathers with the blast of his breath. “could you not have waited a few short moments? My people will never forgive you for this!”
He tried with all his superhuman might to recapture the wild beasts and vile evils let loose, but they were already gone, already lurking in the Earth’s dark places.
With infinite care, Leza-the-Infinite explained to First man and first woman what to do with the seeds and bulbs and herbs, the metal and the pollen. He told them how to worship him, how to ger by amid the troubles Honeybird had brought on them. Then he kissed them and climbed back up the spider’s web.
But first man and first woman did not want to be left alone. They were so alarmed by the scrabblings under their beds, at the slitherings among their flowers, at the hoots which….
Leza was appalled at their arrogance, astonished at their presumption. “Try and climb up to my home?” he cried. “ Is there no end to their ambition?” and he kept himself to himself after that, confined himself to his shelf of sky-blue vapour, and did not come and go between earth and sky as he had done before.
The honeybird, meantime, does what it can to make amends. Whenever it comes across man or woman, son or daughter, it darts down, uttering its piercing cry of “ Follow, follow!”, leading the way to golden hoards of hidden honey, to crystalline combs of sweetness, in the hope that one day they will forgive the matter of the third calabash.
@vuongtuphuong @walrus
Xin nhường cho kẻ khác vậy 
Đưa ta 200 Ngọc thì ta sẽ dịch tiếp nha. 
