A giant-like buffalo with mighty horns lay under a tree asleep. Two mischievous eyes peeped through the branches, and a little monkey said: “I know a good old buffalo, who’s sleeping ‘neath the tree. But I am not afraid of him, nor’s he afraid of me”.
And he leaped from the branch onto the buffalo’s back. The buffalo opened his eyes, and seeing the monkey dancing on his hip, he closed them again, as if only a butterfly were on his back. The rascal monkey tried another trick. Jumping on the buffalo’s head between his two large horns, he held the ends and swung, as on a tree. But Buffalo did not even wink. “What can I do to make my good friend angry?” he thought. And while buffalo was eating in the field, he trampled on the grass wherever he wished to graze. And the buffalo merely walked away.
Another day the mischievous monkey took a stick and knocked the buffalo’s ears with it, then while he was taking a walk he sat on his back like a hero, holding the stick in his hand. And to all of this the buffalo made never a murmur, though his horns were strong and mighty.
But one day, while the monkey sat on his back, a fairy appeared. “A great being you are, O buffalo”, she said, “but little do you know your strength. Your horns can break down trees, and your feet could crush rocks. Lions and tigers fear to approach you. Your strength and beauty are known to the whole world, and yet you walk about with a foolish monkey on your back. One blow of your horns would pierce him, and a stroke of your foot would crush him. Why do you not throw him to the ground and finish with this play?”
“This monkey is small”, replied the buffalo, “and Nature has not given him much brain. Why then should I punish him? Moreover, why should I make him suffer in order that I may be happy?” At this the fairy smiled, and with her magic wand she drove the monkey away. And she gave the great buffalo a charm by which no one could cause him to suffer again, and he then lived happy ever after.
