As part of a language lesson this week, I learned the story of the "Rabbit who eats Bananas." (Yes in Cambodia rabbits don't like carrots, they like bananas) So this is a story that all little Cambodian children know. (And, believe it or not, I could tell you the whole thing in Khmer!)
Once, an old Grandma was walking through the forest to get to the market. At the market she bought a basket full of bananas. She put the basket on her head and started home. A rabbit in the forest saw the lady walking with her bananas. He decided he was really hungry and needed those bananas. So, he went into the middle of the road and pretended to be dead. The old lady came upon the 'dead' rabbit and thought- yum a delicious meal. So, she put the rabbit in her banana basket. The rabbit carefully ate all the bananas, leaving only the peels. When the lady walked near a bush, the rabbit jumped out and disappeared into the forest. When the lady arrived home, she looked into the basket and saw that the rabbit and all the bananas were gone! She was very angry and yelled "the rabbit cheated me!"
In Cambodian folklore the rabbit is always the most clever animal. The rabbit is always the judge character in stories. After reading this story in Khmer, our language teacher told us another story about the rabbit and the snail.
The rabbit and the snail decided to race around a big lake. The rabbit was very clever and knew that he could beat a slow snail. So they both started running. Every once in a while the rabbit called out 'where are you snail?' and somehow the snail was always in front of him! The rabbit could not figure it out! It turns out that there was more than one snail in the lake. Every time the rabbit called out, a snail just ahead of him answered. So, even though the snail was slow, he won the race because he was clever.
I told our teacher the tortoise and the hare story this morning. The Cambodia story definitely teaches a different lesson!
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