Who can stop the wind?

Many animals lived in an African village in the middle of the forest. The bossy lion, the rabbit, the hare, the sometimes rogue monkey, the tortoise, the fowl hen, the hyena, the snail in the sun, the elephant, the gazelle, the cat, the leopard, the goat , the Marmoset, the Big Dog, the Giboo, the Ant, the Angry Cat, and others and more. Not to mention a wide variety of birds, like the Parrot, the Blackbird, the Turtledove, the Canary, the Kite, the Partridge, the Raven, I don’t know how many more.

In general, they understood each other well and proceeded as good friends. When questions arose among some, they all came together to judge and call to order those who had done wrong. Other times, however, the strongest abused their strength against the weak. Then the weakest defended themselves, using their intelligence to defend themselves against the strongest. It could not be otherwise.

Among the weak, some stood out in their struggle against the powerful. They were, for example, the Rabbit, the Hare, and the Tortoise.

At once, the Lion, the lord of those surroundings, decided to take the test of the nine. I wondered if indeed some of these clever animals could do what he had never been able to do: hold the wind.

He called all three. The Rabbit, the Hare and the Tortoise. And he said to them:

– We need to hold the wind. And he who succeeds in it will have a reward.

The Rabbit replied:

“I don’t think it’s that hard.”

The Hare thought and gave his opinion:

– Easy there won’t be. But there is nothing in this life that skill and intelligence cannot achieve.

Only the tortoise was silent. So all of a sudden, she couldn’t figure out how to stop the wind.

Rabbit went from there and set up some big nets. But no matter how big the nets were and how large they were and how tight the meshes were, I couldn’t stop the wind.

Hare used another process. It was gathering bushes and with them building a large wall. But as big as the bushes and as big as the walls, the wind kept blowing and running through the forest like a madman.

The Tortoise thought, he thought, and at some point his idea was already formed.

He got a gravy, took a stick, and went to the Lion.

– Here you have this stick and this sauce. Bake the sauce on the stick and I guarantee you will never have eaten such a tasty sauce in your life.

Now that’s what the lion wanted to hear. He took the stick and the sauce, but when he tried to put the sauce on the stick, the sauce slipped and fell to the floor. It was experimenting, experimenting, until it lost the whole sauce.

Angrily, he sent for the tortoise to explain how the sauce was roasted on the stick.

The Tortoise calmly answered him:

“Lion, king of the beasts, don’t ask me that, I’m a poor little animal.” You will know it, for you are strong and command everything. Didn’t you tell me to hold the wind?

The Lion wondered at the tortoise’s cleverness. He gathered all the animals together and said to them:

– Companions! Let’s all discuss this: between strength and intelligence what is worth? Are we or are we not all the same? Manuel Ferreira Who can stop the wind? Port, Wing Editions, 1987