The Gods Must Be Crazy Page #2

Lately, strange new things

sometimes appeared in the sky.

Noisy birds that flew

without flapping their wings.

One day, something fell from the sky.

Xi had never seen anything

like this in his life.

It looked like water, but it was harder

than anything else in the world.

He wondered why the gods

had sent this thing down to the earth.

It was the strangest and most

beautiful thing they had ever seen.

They wondered why the gods

had sent it to them.

Pabo got his finger stuck in the thing and

the children thought he was very funny.

Xi tried the thing out to cure thongs.

It had the right shape and weight.

It was also beautifully smooth

and ideal for curing snakeskin.

And Pabo discovered

you could make music on it.

And every day they discovered

a new use for the thing.

It was harder and heavier and smoother

than anything they`d ever known.

It was the most useful thing

the gods had ever given them.

A real labour-saving device.

But the gods had been careless.

They had sent only one.

Now, for the first time, here was a

thing that could not be shared...

...because there was only one of it.

Suddenly, everybody needed it

most of the time.

A thing they had never needed before

became a necessity.

And unfamiliar emotions

began to stir.

A feeling of wanting to own,

of not wanting to share.

Other new things came.

Anger, jealousy, hate and violence.

Xi was angry with the gods.

He shouted, ``Take back your thing!

We don`t want it!

Look at the trouble it brought. ``

The gods did not take it back.

He shouted, ``You must be crazy

to send us this thing! Take it back!``

Then he shouted,

``Look out! Look out!``

But he spoke too late and

the thing felled his daughter Dani.

Xi carried the thing away

from the shelter and buried it.

That evening, there was no laughter

and no chatter around the family fire.

A strange feeling of shame

had come over the family...

...and they were very quiet.

Xi said, ``I have buried the thing.

It will not make us unhappy again. ``

That night, a hyena smelled the blood

on the thing, and dug it up.

A bad-tempered warthog chased the

hyena away and it dropped the thing.

The next day, Dani found it.

Her brother Toma heard her playing on it

and said, ``Let me try. Let me try too. ``

That night the family was very unhappy.

They began to talk about this thing.

They did not have a name for it.

They called it the ``evil thing. ``

Gaboo said, ``Perhaps the gods

were absent-minded...

...when they dropped

the evil thing on the earth.

They`ve always sent only good things,

like rain, trees, roots and berries to eat.

We are their children and they love us.

But now they`ve sent this evil thing. ``

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