06th July, 1997

The White Witch to the rescue

By Uncle Douglas

Mynah Bird sat on the huge olive tree in the forest chewing a juicy olive fruit and listening to some men who were clearing some land in the forest.

“When we build a house here, it will be a good place to bring visitors to shoot animals. And we can catch animals and sell them for very high prices,” said one of them to his friends. “We can be rich quickly,” he said. “And Lokka will he happy. This was his idea.”

Mynah Bird did not like what he heard. He flew away into the forest to meet his friends Hawa the Hare, Nariya the Jackal and Dandu Lena the Rock Squirrel.

Dandu Lena was high on the tall jambu tree chewing a big, red juicy fruit. Mynah Bird flew up and perched on the same branch next to the squirrel.

“The jambus are very tasty,” said the squirrel to Mynah Bird. “Try one.”

“I’m sure the jambus are tasty, but what I’m going to tell you is not at all sweet” said Mynah Bird.

“Tell me, but wait till I finish eating this jambu. I don’t like bitter things when there are sweet things in my mouth,” said Dandu Lena.

Mynah Bird did not wait. He quickly told the squirrel what he had seen and what he had heard. “Just imagine! They want to shoot some of us and catch some of us and sell us for good prices.”

“We must go and find Hawa. He will think of something to drive those men away. Because this is very serious.

If they are allowed to carry on, they will destroy the whole forest,” said Dandu Lena excitedly.

Hawa the hare stopped munching his juicy carrot when he heard Mynah Bird’s story.

“Something must be done soon”, he said. “Let’s go and look for Aliya the elephant. Sometime ago, he helped to drive some men who came to cut down trees in this forest.”

“Aliya the elephant and family are not in the forest now” said Mynah Bird. “They have gone to eat sugarcane in a field far away from here. They will be back when the big moon shines twice.”

Hawa the hare wiggled his long ears. He always did this when he was thinking. Suddenly he said. “I have it. Let’s go and see Nanda the White Witch. She will know how to drive these evil men away.”

Amila, Nanda’s daughter, saw the friends coming. She ran upto them. “I’m so happy to see you. Have you come to play with me?”

Amila especially liked Dandu Lena because he was always ready to play.

The squirrel jumped on to Amila’s shoulder and started nibbling her ear, while Hawa and Mynah Bird went into the cave to speak with Nanda.

In a short while, Hawa, Mynah bird and Nanda came out. They were laughing. Hawa and Mynah Bird didn’t look worried at all. They seemed to be very happy.

“Nanda has agreed to drive those men out of this forest. And she is sure they will never come back again,” Hawa told Dandu Lena. “All we have to do is to get two frogs. She said she would not hurt them. She only wanted them for three or four hours.”

“Oh, that will be easy,” said Dandu Lena. “I have some frog friends, who live in a pond nearby. I’ll go and see them. They’ll be happy to come.”

When the sun was just setting behind the big rock, Nanda started her work behind the bushes close to the place that was being cleared by the men.

One of the men started lighting fires round the area to keep animals from coming to their camp.

The man lit one fire and went on to light the other. He turned back to see how the fire he had lighted was blazing, but there was no fire at all. He lighted the second fire and went back to see why the first fire was not blazing. He saw a strange creature with a pail of water, putting out the second fire too.

The man shouted at the creature, who walked upto him.

The man could not believe what he saw. Standing before him was a man with a frog’s legs. The man turned around and saw another creature. A huge frog with a man’s legs.

The man looked at one and then at the other. ‘What are they?’ he thought to himself.

Then the frog with the man’s head and hands said to the other. “We can catch this and put him in a cage and sell him to the people in the lower world.”

The man with the frog’s head croaked and nodded his head. He then reached out with his froggy hand and held the man. The man shrieked. He grabbed his hand loose and ran into the hut where his friends were.

“They want to put me in a cage and sell me to the lower world,” he screamed. “I’m leaving you. If you will listen to me, you’ll do the same.”

The man’s friends looked at him. “Are you drunk? Who are you talking about? Who is going to sell you?”

“I don’t know, but they are there. I saw them. One of them caught my hand.” He shivered when he said that. “You walk out of that door and you can see them.”

One of the man’s friends, walked out. Just as he stepped out, an icy cold hand caught his arm and dragged him clean out.

The thing croaked. Then the man with the frogs legs said. “This is another. There must be some more. The lower world people will be very happy. And we can be very rich.”

The frog with the man’s legs croaked and nodded his head.

The man wrenched his hand off the thing’s grip and rushed back into the hut.

“It’s awful. It’s awful!” he shouted when he got back to the hut. “We must get out of here. He looked around and saw a loose plank on the wall at the hut. One by one they quietly crawled out and ran as fast as they could to the Lokka’s house.

“We can’t go back to that forest,” they told the Lokka. “The place is haunted.”

They told the Lokka what they had seen and heard. “They wanted to catch us put us in a cage and sell us to the people in the lower world.”

The Lokka did not believe a word of what they said. “Come let’s go and see these strange animals. Men with frog’s legs. Frogs with men’s legs. All this sounds like too much of toddy.”

“When you go there you will know if it is toddy or not,” said the men.

The men walked with the Lokka upto a place from where they could see the hut and the clearing. Then they stopped. “There’s the hut. You go there alone, because this is as far as we go.”

The Lokka called them cowards and walked on. He walked up to the hut. Nervously he pushed the door open. There was somebody standing right in front of him. He flung the door wide open and got the shock of his life. He had never seen anything like this before. The thing had the head, face and arms of a man and the rest was an enormous frog.

“Here’s another,” the manfrog said. “The others escaped, but we’ll get this one.”

There was a loud croak behind him. Lokka turned around and got a bigger shock.

Standing there was a thing with the head and arms of a frog and the legs of a man. It croaked.

The fat, short Lokka had seen enough. He flung himself away from these horrible things and ran to his men. “Run” he screamed. “They are coming. Don’t stop. They’ll get you.”

Hawa, Dandu Lena, Mynah Bird and Nanda the White Witch laughed. With a touch of Nanda’s wand the frogs got back their own shapes. And everyone was happy. The forest was now safe, thanks to Nanda the White Witch.

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