The Legend of the Monkey

Intelligent and playful are the two words that would come to mind to maybe most people when they hear the word monkey. And yes they are, monkeys are intelligent creatures and there are 260 species of them. They would hang around people and imitate what they see, funny as how they start doing things people usually do.

Speaking of monkeys, I don't remember it as I was barely 4 years old, but mom and dad would tell me stories of monkeys living around where we used to live in the rural province of Palawan in the Philippines and there was this one monkey who would visit our house and snatch bananas. And this I assume was a tame monkey as dad said, "That monkey helped people get rid of their head lice as long as they have banana ready at hand." The problem, if this monkey gets bored, it pulls the hair off the person I was told.

Well, enough of my memories, let's get on the legend of the monkey instead. What does the legend say?

A long time ago, there lives a peasant couple who had been blessed with a dozen of male youngsters. They may be poor and can hardly make ends meet but they love their sons dearly.

At those times, the husband was so pleased for having all boys. A proud father indeed, boasting to his fellow farmers that he have boys now that can soon be helping him on the farm work once they get older.

"I'm happy and thankful I have all these boys. I know they would be helping me on plowing the fields and other farming works," he said with pride to his farmer friends.

But then, he noticed all his sons are lazy and naughty. All day long they play, it seems like having fun is all they have in mind.

The boys can't be found at home often but on the nearby forest. Their laughter can be heard even from afar living in a small village. They love playing tricks and having fun, running around in the forest. And you know what they love of all things? They love climbing trees and looking for vines around to play with. They find the vines fascinating. They could spend the whole day like this until their parents look for them. This means day is almost over and night time is about to fall.

Their backyard is another paradise for the boys. They enjoy picking up fallen fruits from the trees growing in their backyard. They would climb up mango trees, avocado, macopa, and their favorite, the banana.

During rainy days and the boys can't go out, they would stay home. But the weather wouldn't stop them from being playful.

"Boys, who hid the ladle?" their mother asked the boys one time when she was ready to cook meals in the kitchen and the ladle was missing.

Most of the items at their home are misplaced whenever the boys are around. They like hiding things away. They would jump up the table and jump around the chairs, running around. And no matter how their mother and father forbids them from doing so, they won't listen. But despite all the craziness and damaged furnitures along with other items at home, their parents couldn't get mad at them that long. They still love the boys so much and has a lot of patience with them.

"Their kids, and it's just normal for them," the mother and father were talking one day. "Soon, when they're grown ups, they would change and I would be having a lot of helping hands on the farm," her husband added.

But they were mistaken, three more years passed by and the kids became more playful and mischievous. Often, the few appliances they have would be destroyed and items that were missing can be hardly found. It got worst opposed to what they believe!

Not only that, now they have little amount of fruits to sell in the market as the boys had consumed most of it. And poor trees, some or most of the branches had been damaged with the boys being reckless from climbing and picking. They prefer fruits than vegetables.

One day when the couple got home from a tiring day in the farm, they saw the house was a mess! Clothes scattered all over the place along with defective chairs and other items surprised them. They had never seen the house as messy as this before.

"Boys?! Anybody home?" called out the husband as he started looking for their kids but none of the boys are at home. The wife went to look in the kitchen and it was a mess too. There's no cooked food either prepared for them.

They even went out to look for their sons at the yard or in the neighbors area but they're not there either. But both know a place, the very last place they knew the boys used to visit, the forest.

Off they went to the forest and guess what? They knew it! The boys would be in there. They didn't even notice their parents coming as they are so busy playing. Some are running around, climbing trees, and when the couple spotted some that are quarreling, they just couldn't help themselves contain the anger. Enough is enough.

Both found broken branches, picked it up to spank their boys and this caught their attention. They all run as fast as they could. The couple run after them but the boys are just to fast they couldn't keep up. The boys running away was just disrespectful and this made the couple even furious. The husband discarded the broken branches he had picked up, so did her wife.To their surprised, the broken branches got stuck to the bottom of the boys as they continue running away and it couldn't be removed.

The couple went back home, thinking that their boys would be home later that night, probably while they were sleeping as they knew they would be scared of their anger. The couple fell asleep from being so tired.

When they woke up the following morning, the kids still aren't home. This got both worried so they went back to the forest where the boys loves hanging around, that same forest they went to last night. The boys are probably back in there.

In the nearby forest, they didn't see any of their boys, but instead they got the attention of 12 strange creatures as they approach. All have furs, big ears, and most have tails while some of the creatures still have their tails growing from their behind. As they saw the couple, they transferred from branches to branches and continued playing around.

The couple believes these are their boys. And they were. They became the first monkeys. They didn't go back home. They stayed in the forest and did what they love doing all day, playing around and climbing up trees and swinging on vines.