When the Squirrel King Telling a Saga

It was a bright blessed day, a bird said to the others, "Hey! Wanna hear something interesting about a Saga?" Others replied, "Yes of course!" ... "Good idea!" ... "Gimme, gime the saga!" ... "I'm waitin'!" ... "Yo, listen up,

One day, of all the animal-kings, were expected to gather around, in a general assembly, facilitated by an international organization called the United Notions or UN. It is the world's largest, and most familiar, international organization of the animals.

Every beast king was allowed to speak, about anything inspiring. And one by one, the kings have delivered their speeches. When it was the Squirrel King's turn, Lynx, who served as Secretary General of the UN, said, "Now, we invite the Scondrel King to appear on the pulpit!" One of the councilors, Rabit, whispered, "Your Majesty, it's not Scondrel, it's Squirrel!" The Lynx casually commented, "Yea... whatever, I know!"

Feeling belittled, the Squirrel King, refused to move from his chair, even though the assembly clerk had given a signal. He hoped, the Secretary would make a correction, and also, may his ally, colleague and business partner, Panda, support him. He glanced slightly, it seemed Panda was busy taking notes. The Secretary repeated, "He who feels, has been given a chance to deliver a speech, be welcomed!" Still not budging, the Squirrel King turned to Panda, who seemed busy with his Suanpan. Again, Lynx announced, "If you won't, it's okay!" Getting confused, Squirrel King looked at Panda. He was busy playing mahjong.

Didn't want to lose the moment, as his alibi, Squirrel King began to make a speech, "Your Excellency the Secretary General! Ladies and gentlemen! All the Kings have delivered their speeches, so allow us to present a saga, which might inspire. The saga goes like this,

It was evening, the king returned to the palace from hunting, and the Empress rose to greet him, and they sat down. After the repast, the Empress began to speak about a young Prince who was about to be punished. The young Prince, was accused of lying, for declaring before everyone, that he was healthy and safe, but the physician stated, based on a laboratory test, he had the potential to contract a disease. However, this accusation, was widely denied by the public.

The king said, "This day too, such an one of my vezirs made intercession for him and I sent him to the prison." The Empress said, "Dost thou see how thou believest me not? Lo, now all of them are allied, they wish to release this youth from thy hand and set him free, that afterward, when they find an opportunity, they may finish their affair.

O king, this night I saw in my dream, that thou wast seated on thy throne, when a poisonous dragon appeared before thee; I counted, and it had forty heads, each of which was poison-smeared, and behind it, crept an untold innumerable host of snakes. And they came on till that dragon took the king and his throne in its mouth, but it could not swallow them, and so, put them out again. Three times it tried thus, and at length, unable to avail, it gathered into one place all the venom that was in its forty heads, when, while it was making to shower that over the king, I cried out from opposite, 'O king, the dragon is about to shower venom over thee.' And I cried so that I awoke through fear." Then was the king afraid, and he said, " What may the interpretation of this dream be?" The lady answered, "O king, the interpretation of this dream is clear ; that dragon is this youth, and those forty heads are thy vezirs, each one of whom is full of poison, and that host of snakes is the rabble who follow them; that dragon which three times sought to swallow thee, is again this youth who purposed evil against thee, and his succeeding not is his being feeble, and his making to shower over thee, the poison that was in those his forty heads is the forty vezirs' being one, and his wishing to slay thee by their aid ; and my crying out is my saying" every day, 'O king, have great care.' 

That is the interpretation of this my vision. O king, be thou ware of these, take my counsel; every day thou sayest, 'I will kill him;' yet thou killest him not. My story with thee resembles the story of a certain king and a weaver." The king said, "Relate it, let us hear." Quoth the Empress,

"Of old time, there was a great king. One day, a man came before him and said, 'My king, I shall weave a turban such that one born in wedlock will see it, while the bastard will see it not.' The king marvelled and ordered, that that weaver should weave that turban; and the weaver received an allowance from the king and tarried a long while.

One day he folded up this side and that side of a paper and brought it and laid it before the king and said, 'O king, I have woven that turban.' So the king opened the paper and saw that there was nothing ; and all the vezirs and nobles who stood there looked on the paper and saw nothing. Then the king said in his heart, 'Dost thou see ? I am then a bastard;' and he was sad. And he thought, 'Now, the remedy is this, that I say it is a goodly turban and admire it, else will I be put to shame before the folk.' And he said, 'O master, it is a goodly turban, I like it much.' Then that weaver youth said, 'O king, let them bring a cap that I may wind the turban for the king.' They brought a cap, and the weaver youth laid that paper before him, and moved his hands as though he wound the turban, and he put it on the king's head. All the nobles who were standing there said, 'O king, how fair, how beautiful a turban!' and they applauded it much. Then the king rose and went with two vezirs into a private room and said, 'O vezirs, I am then a bastard; I see not the turban."

The Empress went on, 'O king, I had that dream this night, there is no doubt, that it is as I have interpreted. O king, if the king's life and throne go, who knows what they will do to hapless me?" And she began to weep. When the king saw the Empress, thus weeping his heart was pained and he said, " On the morrow, I will indeed refuse the words of whichsoever of my vezirs makes intercession for that scoundrel Prince, and I will indeed kill him; for, according to the dream thou hast had, this is no light affair." And they went to bed."

"Thus," said the Squirrel King, "Your Honor, this saga has been the guidelines and catalogue of the storytellers in the past view years. Hopefully, it could be worked up."

The audience applauded, loudly. The Rabbit, whispered to Lynx, "Wonderful! The saga was identical with "Thousand and One Nights" by Scheherazade." Lynx retorted, "Very much alike to Hans Christian Andersen's Keiserens nye klæder!" The Rabbit chimed in, "Yeah, akin, except "the bastard!" Lynx commented, "Yea... yea... and he is ... one of them!" while the tip of his thumb, was directed towards the Squirrel King. 

The fowl cackled, and all at once, cheerfully, they carried a tune,

The colors of the rainbow

So pretty in the sky

Are also on the faces

Of people going by

I see friends shaking hands

Saying, "How do you do?"

They're really saying

"I love you"

I hear babies cry

I watch them grow

They'll learn much more

Than I'll never know

And I think to myself

What a wonderful world *)

"And Allah knows best."

Citations and Reference:
- EJW Gibb MRAS, The History of Forty Vezirs, written in Turkish by Shaykh Zada, George Redway.
*) "What a Wonderful World" written by Bob Thiele and George David Weiss.

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