Spot of Gur.
One day, the Devil was sitting on a log of wood just outside the forest, blinking lazily in the pleasant winter sunlight, when Chinnu, the local woodcutter’s son, passed by.
“Howdy,” said the Devil, as he was in a pleasant mood.
“Howdy,” said Chinnu, for he was a pleasant boy. But then, as he turned to look at the Devil, he saw the Devil’s horns and tail, and stopped.
“You are the Devil,” he said, wonderingly.
“What of it?” said the Devil, a little miffed.
“You’re bad,” said Chinnu. “I should run.”
“Who says I’m bad?” said the Devil, indignantly.
“People,” said Chinnu.
“People!” snorted the Devil. “People don’t know anything. They have to blame somebody for things that go wrong, so they’ve chosen me. Shall I prove it to you?”
“Okay,” said Chinnu, as it was a Sunday and he didn’t have to go to school.
“See here,” said the Devil, unwrapping a small scrap of plantain leaf. “There is some delicious gur inside. Now watch.” The Devil dipped his little finger into the sticky gur and then trotted up to a broken wall a little way away. Then he placed his little finger on the wall and drew a little bindi of gur on it.
“Did I do anything wrong?” He asked Chinnu after settling himself down on the log of wood again.
“No,” said Chinnu.
“Now sit here and watch,” said the Devil, patting the log on his right.
So Chinnu sat and watched.
A little ant who was scouting around for food smelt the delicious gur on the wall and scurried off to tell his family about it. Slowly, millions of little ants began pouring out of their anthill and made their way to the gur.
The lizards, basking in the sun, flicked open their sleepy eyes and began creeping towards the ants.
The cats smelt the lizards and came out of the barns.
The dogs smelt the cats... the leopard smelt the dogs... the tiger smelt the leopard... and then came the hunters in droves. The animals snapped and snarled, growled and barked, and bit and scratched while the hunters cursed and shouted and banged away with their guns. What a ruckus it was!
“Let’s go from here,” sighed the Devil, “this place is too noisy.” When they reached the outskirts of the village, the Devil said goodbye to Chinnu.
“See how they all blame me?” he said. “All I did was put a little spot of gur on a wall. They did the rest themselves.”
And the Devil smiled his wicked smile.