An Ape and A Firefly

An Ape and A Firefly

A Philippine folk tale.

Background:  Pope Francis made a historic trip to Philippine, January, 2015.  To celebrate this historical event, I searched and found a folk tale of Philippine.  I am sharing this folk tale with friends.  Enjoy the story.

Long ago, an ape, weighing approximately 400 pounds, met with a firefly, weighing less than an ounce in a forest.  This ape is notorious about his bully habit to other creatures.  In meeting with the firefly in the forest, he sneered at her, purposely lowering his voice to show off his authority over her.

"Hey, you, firefly.", said the ape.

"Hello, Sir.  What can I do for you?", answered the firefly politely.

"Why do you always carry a lantern wherever you go?" , challenged the ape.

"Because I do not want to bump into a mosquito in the forest" , said the firefly.

"No. You carry the lantern because you are scared of the darkness.  Firefly, Firefly, Scary fly." , the ape, sneered and laughed with a menacing manner and walked away.

The sneering of the ape did not stop there. He went to the village and told everyone he knew that the firefly he met was a scary fly.

One day, the firefly visited the village and found out everyone in the village sneered at her.

"Firefly, firefly, scary fly."

The firefly was furious; she went directly to the ape's hut.  The ape was asleep.  The firefly flew over to the front of the ape's eyes, flashing her light over ape's eyes, waking up the ape.

"What are you doing here? Don't you see I am asleep?", asked the ape.

"Because you told everybody that I am a scary fly.  It is bad when you say bad things about me behind my back; besides it is not true at all", said the firefly.

"Oh, yeah." , the ape sneered at her again and  said, "Do you want to fight?"

"Yes, I will fight you to restore my reputation." , said the firefly.

"Ha, ha, ha.  You, tiny creature want to fight me; ha, ha, ha.  You better have million of your friends to help you." , said the ape, "by the way, where and when do you want to have a fight?"

"I will fight myself; you better to have hundreds of your friends to help you." , said the fly, "Tomorrow, we fight on the open area in front of the forest when the clock strikes 3.

On the next day, 10 minutes before 3 PM, the firefly presented herself alone, while the ape had assembled hundred of his friends, each one brought a club to help.

"Hey, the scary fly.  Do you still want to fight?" , sneered the ape.

"Yes, when the clock strikes 3.", said the fly.

When the clock struck 3, the fight began.  The firefly flew to a nose of the first ape.  The 2nd ape, lifted up his club, aiming at the fly, and took all his strength to hit the fly.  He missed the fly.  The fly flew away.  The club hit  the first ape so hard that the first ape collapsed and became unconscious.

Then the fly flew to the nose of the ape who had just knocked down the first ape.  The 3rd ape saw that fly sitting on the nose of his friend.  Again, he lifted up his club high in the air and used all his strength to hit the fly.  He missed again. However, the 2nd ape could not absorb all the pain from the hitting, he  collapsed too and became unconscious.

This went on for a while until the only ape standing, was the one who had bullied her The ape knelt down and asked for mercy.

"All right, I forgive you.", said the fly, " Listen, from now on, you should not bully other fellows  You should not say bad things behind other people's back.  You should not underestimate other fellows. Even a small creature like me knows how to defend herself."

After giving the ape the lesson, she flew back to the forest with her lantern.