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The
Cow and the Carabao
( Northern Luzon ) |
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| It
is said that a long time ago, the first cow and the
first carabao wore skins that fit them exactly. They
could both walk on only their two hind feet then. They
both served a farmer who demanded much of them as beasts
of burden. But the cow and the carabao were thinking
that he made them work too much.
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| "No
one should work this much under the heat of the sun!"
the cow remarked. "We deserve a vacation!"
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| "What say you
we play hooky one noon," the carabao proposed,
"while the farmer is resting in the shade, as he
always does when the sun is at its most furious?"
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| So it was that one
noon, while the farmer who owned the first cow and the
first carabao was fast asleep, the two friends shrugged
off the plow and raced to the nearby river. They took
off their skins, hung them on the low branch of a tree
at the riverbank, and dived underwater. But alas, as
they were having their fun, the farmer woke up, saw
that his two beasts were missing from the fields where
they belonged, took up his whip and went out searching
for them. By following their footprints he found them
almost immediately, bathing in the nearby river.
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| The farmer frightened
the two beasts with his whip and made them scramble
up to the bank. In their haste to appear decent before
their master, the cow and the carabao switched skins,
but then they were not able to get the false skins off
again. As the carabao was larger than the cow, his skin
sagged at the cow’s belly, and the cow’s
skin clung tight to his flesh. And then it was impossible
to retain their pride. They came before their master
on all fours, begging to be forgiven. The farmer said
they were forgiven, but they could no longer walk on
only two legs, and they could never take off the false
skins they wore. The cow and the carabao accepted their
fate timidly, and handed down to their offspring their
symbols of shame. |
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