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| Thursday, February 23, 2006 |
| Ata and the Buffalo |
Once upon a time, when Ata was barely more than a kitten, she lived a long way from where she lives now. The house - made impractically of metal - looked out to sea, and a remnant of rainforest occupied the right-hand corner. Ata and her brothers thought it highly entertaining to take a trip to the beach on occasion. Accessing the beach from the backyard involved climbing down an easy 'cliff', but the beach this brought one to was rocky and unappealing. The preferred route involved a march along a path through the rainforest, clambering down some large, smooth rocks to the beach, and hiking along the sand a way. A relatively short hike would bring the adventurers to a collection of large, rounded, standing stones. These offered shelter from any wind, a little shade, and an ideal spot to build a small fire by which to eat biscuits. After a break, the troupe would often proceed further along and climb up a steep bank, which offered an excellent rolling sand dune.
On this particular day, the merry band consisted of about six children (it was a time ago - Ata cannot be expected to remember precisely), ranging in age from about 5 to about 12 years of age. Ata being the eldest among the group. A base in the shelter of the standing stones had been established, and all group members were happily partaking of sustenance or entertaining themselves with hermit crabs. A rustling in the bush which bordered the sandy beach caused one of the group to look up - and standing there, regarding the group calmly, was a Very Large water buffalo.
Frozen horror promptly gave way to frenzied action. The smallest group members were helped - or rather, shoved - on to the tallest rock. Larger group members followed with haste. All had to stand, as the rock-top was crowded. So stand they did.
Group of children on rock gazed at buffalo on beach. Buffalo on beach gazed at children on rock. While all Ata's experiences with water buffalo indicated that they were generally placid critters, she had also been carefully instructed that they were Unpredictable and Not To Be Trusted. Besides which, they have darn big horns.
Ata began feeling somewhat anxious. The buff did not appear to be in any great hurry, and they could not stand on top of the rock all afternoon. Something had to be done.
Ata was in the habit of taking a long stick with her when she lead this type of expedition. Ostensibly, it was useful in case of Snakes or Thick Vegetation, but in reality Ata just felt it was the right sort of look for an Expedition Leader. In the scramble to be up on the rock, she had fortuitously brought the stick with her.
Feral water buffalo were - and probably still are - a common sight in that part of the world. Frequently, they would visit Ata's backyard during the night, frustrating her parent's tree-planting efforts by rubbing bark from growing saplings with their horns. Ata's father would shoot them with his service rifle. It wasn't big enough to injure a buff, but it does sting, and as such is sufficient inducement to move on.
Ata wondered just how intelligent buffalo were. She raised her stick, and pointed it squarely at the passive and unmoving mountain in front of her. Taking careful aim, she shouted, "Bang!"
There was a pause.
The buffalo lowered its horns, and took one step forward. Ata began to think she'd made a horrible mistake.
Then, abruptly, it turned around and ran off into the bush. Gone.
The journey to the sand dunes was called off in favour of going Home, markedly more quickly than on the way out.
In the years after Ata left that particular community - some four or five years after the story just told - there were a number of goring deaths by buffalo. Unpredictable beasties. See - one should always walk softly in the bush, and carry a Big Stick.
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posted by Ata @ 1:45 pm  |
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| 1 Comments: |
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Ata sounds to have had a marvellous feral childhood.
Such quick thinking with the Big Stick.
(shami shall remember to try that next time she encounters the neighbour’s bull; getting my daughter to stand on the car bonnet and yell had some effect last time, but it could be more effective with height + stick + bang)
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Ata sounds to have had a marvellous feral childhood.
Such quick thinking with the Big Stick.
(shami shall remember to try that next time she encounters the neighbour’s bull; getting my daughter to stand on the car bonnet and yell had some effect last time, but it could be more effective with height + stick + bang)