A CHILD WHO SPEAKS ANIMAL'S LANGUAGES

Once upon a long time ago there was a motherless child, whose name was Khem. Khem lived with his father who was a hunter in jungle near the base of a mountain.

Since he was a child, Khem always listened to the voices of animals saying to each other and a sweet sound of waterfall together with the wind swinging leaves of trees in the forest which enabled him to speak all animals' languages.














Even though his father was a hunter, Khem loved nature very much. He wanted to live in the world with lots of birds, mountains and waterfalls because he considered every thing in the world as his relatives.

Every time his father carried crossbow into the forest where he went hunting, Khem felt very worried about small and big animals that would eventually be killed by his father.

One day, while Khem was playing on swing under the shade of a big tree in front of his cottage with a young monkey, a rabbit, a squirrel, and magpie, there was a pair of doves flying to roost on a branch of the tree.

Khem looked up and saw that the left thigh of the female dove was injured and was bleeding and the blood dropped on the leaves under the tree.

Seen such a situation, Khem and his playmates (animals) looked at the injured dove in a so pity way.

Then, the female dove, with tears streaming, talked to her husband, "Oh my dear! I feel very painful; I can't continue flying and it's sure that our babies in the nest have no food to eat."

Trying to comfort his wife, the male dove said, "Oh my dear, do not speak too loud if the hunter hears us, he will surely 1kill us," The wife said in a low voice, "This hunter is really cruel."

The husband responded, "That's the reason which made his son motherless." Having heard the criticism of the two doves, Khem screamed to them, "Oh my lovely dove, let me apologize for my father's mistake."

When the doves knew that Khem was the hunter's son, the male dove felt so frightened and he flapped his wings and flew right away. Unfortunately, the female dove, as a result of exhaustion, tried to fly and hit a branch of the tree and fell down.

Seen the female dove got stuck on the thatch, Khem moved forwards quickly to lift her carefully and said, "Don't worry! I'll help you." For the male dove, when he saw the kindness of the boy, he was absolutely delighted and flew back to the female dove.

Khem dropped the oil of oleandra neriiformis (kind of plant used to cure illness or injury) on the female dove's injury. Then, he took three pieces of citronella and crumpled it to make it softer. He rolled the injured leg of the female dove with a great care. After that, Khem persuaded all of his friends who are animals to bring the wounded dove to her nest.

It's nearly noon so Khem's father was back home from hunting. When he arrived home, he felt very doubtful because Khem was not there. Then, he started to cook rice and cook sour soup with a kind of vine with eatable leaves and rabbit meat that he hunted.

While the hunter was preparing meals for lunch, Khem arrived. When he saw Khem was unhappy, the hunter inferred that his son might be hungry, so he said, "Hurry up my son! Come to have lunch; this sour soup with rabbit meat is very delicious."

When realized that another rabbit was killed by his father, Khem sobbed alone on the step of his cottage, thinking of his small rabbit friend that was missing his mother.

Having seen his son was sobbing, the hunter tried to console him and, at the same time, he held his son's hand to have lunch. Khem wiped the tears from his eyes and then walked to take the ground sesame that left from the last dinner to eat as lunch with his father.

The hunter wondered and asked, "Why don't you eat this sour soup?" "I don't eat that soup because it is made from the meat of my friend's mother," answered Khem. When he heard his son said like this, the hunter started thinking, "Everyday I go hunting for meat of animals for my son, but I don't know what makes him refuses to eat the meat."

Khem continued, "The female dove that you shot in her thigh this morning talked with her husband that the cause that made my motherless is because of your action of killing animals everyday." The father fondled his son head and said, "Oh my lovely son! I'll never go hunting anymore from now on." Khem,
by putting his two hands together (Sampas), said to his father, "Thank father very much."

- END -
Source: Do Do's Books