蔡妮燕
People who plant bamboos know that there must be a
specially humongous and green bamboo in every bamboo forest.
There was once a pretty huge bamboo forest in the
back of a school in Nantour. One day, some little boys came here and
were curious about the tallest bamboo, which stood alone in the forest.
A boy whose name was Johnny said that it was the king of bamboos, and
it couldn』t be harmed by anything. Doubting what Johnny said, the rest
of the boys decided to burn down the bamboo to verify this legend. So
they put some withered leaves around the root of the bamboo and lit a
fire. The fire soon spread out and the air was filled with smoke.
After the fire went out, every one was surprised at seeing the king of
bamboos; its surface was completely without any burnt marks and the
color of its surface didn』t become any darker because of contact with
the fire. Having learned that this legend was true, Johnny carved his
name on the king of bamboos happily and left.
Two weeks later, when Johnny was playing basketball
with his classmates, suddenly he was hit by a basketball. He fell down
instantly and couldn』t move at all. There was a strange and horrible
mark on his chest, with the color of black and a little purple. He was
soon taken to the hospital; after resting for five days, he came back to
school. But every one could see clearly that he was dispirited; some
kind of green light seemed to be in his eyes, just like a dead person.
Every afternoon when students were sleeping, he would hide under a tree
and keep saying, 「I am not afraid of fire! I am not afraid of fire! I am
……」 What』s worse, his mother said that he would get up at midnight to
drink water-- the water in the fish bowl, the water for soaking dirty
clothes, even the water in the bathtub--he would drink any kind of
water, except boiled water! His body and spirit was getting weaker and
weaker with each passing day.
Worried about Johnny』s situation, his mother
requested a shaman to hold seances to drive the black magic away. The
shaman read incantations and waved a wooden sword in front of the king
of bamboos. He burned a piece of charmed paper with Johnny』s name on it
and then put the ashes into a cup of water. As soon as he splashed the
ash water to the bamboo, the name that Johnny had carved on the bamboo
disappeared suddenly! Also Johnny had recovered his health gradually
since then.
It was said that the king of bamboos was later cut
down by the shaman in order to avoid such problems. No plant dared to
grow at the same place where the bamboo stood; even other bamboos seemed
to get away from it.