The Monkey Wife

By Peter Halder

The Monkey Wife: Four Bizarre Tales of the Rainforest

Following on from Peter Halder's first collection in The Aligator and the Sun, these four incredible tales add more color to and further illuminate the tapestry of ancient rainforest myths, from Guyana on South America's Caribbean coast.

The feature tale, The Monkey Wife, portrays an episode of life in the rainforest and human frailty. It is seminal, heart rending and poignant. Kere Kere and The Bush Spirits recounts the escapades of a young hunter with Bush Spirits when trying to find his way home. The Overbearing Father-In-Law tells the story of a childless old man who creates a daughter and makes impossible demands, after she gets married, on his son-in-law.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Proglen
• Release date: Jun 2, 2014
• ISBN: 9786167817446

Peter Halder

Peter Halder is the pen name of Burnett Alexander Halder. He was born in Guyana, formerly British Guyana, and educated there, the United Kingdom and the University of the West Indies in Trinidad and Tobago.Peter worked as a journalist and later joined the Government Service. He served in District Administration, Licence Revenue and Foreign Affairs. As a diplomat, he was Deputy Head of Mission, Guyana Embassy, Washington D.C., U.S.A. and subsequently appointed High Commissioner to Canada. He resigned and accepted an appointment as a Consultant with the Government of Fiji. He later became a Consultant with the Fiji Embassy to the U.S.A. and after, with the Fiji Permanent Mission to the United Nations.Peter received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Guyana Cultural Association of New York, USA and Editor’s Awards from The National Library of Poetry, Maryland, USA. His first book, The Cat of Muritaro, was published in 2012. He has a blogsite at www.peterhalder.wordpress.com/ at which his nostalgias, articles, short stories, and poems can be read.He is now retired and lives with his family in Virginia, U.S.A.

Book preview

The Monkey Wife

Four Bizarre Tales of the Rainforest

By Peter Halder

The Monkey Wife

Copyright © Peter Halder, 2014

First Published 2014

Smashwords Edition

eBook Edition published by

DCO Books

Proglen Trading Co., Ltd.

Bangkok Thailand

http://ebooks.dco.co.th

ISBN 978-616-7817-44-6

All Rights Reserved

This book is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and other elements of the story are either the product of the author's imagination or else are used only fictitiously. Any resemblance to real characters, living or dead, or to real incidents, is entirely coincidental.

This book is dedicated to my wife, children and grandchildren

Contents

The Monkey Wife

Kere Kere and the Bush Spirits

The Overbearing Father-in-Law

The Spirit of the Roses

About the Author

THE MONKEY WIFE

Ahanu and Adsila

Ahanu and his wife Adsila lived in a large cottage in the forest. It took them months, working together, to build a cottage on a grassy verge surrounded by bamboo groves. The four beams were the trunks of small trees and the rafters made from stout bamboos. The four walls and the roof were made from the dried branches of the troolie palm. There was a doorway but no door. A long, wide straw mat covered the open space of the doorway. Shortly after the cottage was completed, the couple was joined by Ahanu’s brother Echak.

One day, Ahanu and his wife walked to a lake some distance away to catch fish. On their return journey hours later, Ahanu walked slowly, burdened as he was by a quake, filled with fishes, over his left shoulder. Adsila held his right hand as they trod along a beaten trail. She was telling her husband what she planned to cook for dinner when they heard an eerie sound coming from within a grove of mahogany trees on their right. Whee, whee, aiyee, aiyee, the weird sound continued. They stopped and looked at each other wondering what was making the sound since it did not sound human.

A rush of cold wind erupted suddenly from the grove and across their path. Both shivered as the wind gusted around them and then swept past

They happened to look at the grove and saw a monkey swinging from limb and limb on a tree. It shouted, Whee, whee, aiyee, aiyee.

Adsila burst out laughing and said, Oh my, it is just a monkey and there I was thinking all the time it was a Forest Spirit.

Well I didn’t think it was a Forest Spirit though I am sure there are many of them around. On the other hand, I thought it could be the spirit of one of my dead relatives. The dead visit the living from time to time, replied Ahanu.

And what a cute monkey it is. I would dearly like to have it as a pet in our home for when you and your brother go hunting or to our farm, I am alone at home. The monkey can keep me company, said his wife.

Okay then, let me see what I can do to catch it for you.

Ahanu placed the quake with fishes on the ground and looked around for a fruit tree. He soon spotted a wild cashew tree abundant with large yellow fruit. The tree was not high so he did not have to climb it, He reached up and picked a few. He returned to Adsila. They noticed that the monkey had reached the last branch of the tree and on spotting the fruits Ahanu held in his hand dropped to the ground. It walked slowly forward and the man gently placed the cashews on the ground so as not to damage them. The animal crawled to the cashews, picked up one and began to eat. As it did so, it kept glancing at Adsila from time to time in a friendly manner. The woman walked slowly forward and rubbed the monkey’s head with the palm of her hand. The animal grinned and put out its right hand to her. Adsila slowly put her hand forward and clasped that of the monkey. Now she was smiling as was the monkey.

When the fruits were eaten, the monkey lifted its face up to Adsila and kept on smiling. The woman nodded her head in the direction they were going and said, Would you like to come with us and live in our home?

The husband and wife were shocked and amazed when the monkey nodded yes. And so Adsila holding the monkey’s hand and Ahanu with his quake of fishes, walked home.

The monkey remained outside the cottage while Adsila prepared dinner.

At dinner, it sat with Ahanu, Adsila and Echak on a large, wide, thick straw mat on the floor inside the cottage. The monkey ate fruit while the family ate a dinner of fish boiled in coconut milk, together with boiled cassava and yams.

The Monkey Woman

Adsila was all excited the next day when she announced

that the monkey was female and she decided to name it Bala. The two became close. Bala followed her around when she did her work, standing beside her or perched on her shoulder. The animal watched with great interest as Adsila did her cooking. From time to time, she rubbed Adsila’s face or her neck, smiling as she did so, always smiling as though it was all a joke. She ran to Ahanu now and then but for some unknown reason kept her distance from his brother Echak.

One day, Ahanu and Echak announced that they were going hunting for deer or wild pig.

I would love to go with you. I have not been on your hunting trips for a long time. It is boring sitting all by myself doing nothing except preparing dinner for your return. Besides I can help you with many things when you make your kill. It will not take me long to cook dinner when I return. We have a lot of fish drying in the sun outside and we have baskets of cassava, yam and sweet potato, pleaded Adsila.

And what about your favorite pet Bala? We cannot take her with us for sure, asked Ahanu.

Well, I guess I will just have to leave her at home. It will be the first time she will be at home all by herself but she is accustomed to it and its surroundings and will find things to do to occupy her time. She may even go for a walk nearby.

Okay then. You can come along with us. You can bring a large straw bag to put meat in, as well as our sharp cutlass and two knives. You can also bring another bag to put in the hides. Scraped and dried, they can make a skirt for you and footwear.

While Ahanu and Adsila were speaking to each other, Bala was listening keenly and smiling all the time.

But sister-in-law, if you come with us and help us as you say, you will certainly be tired. And then again we cannot say for sure when we will return. Will you still be able to make dinner?

Not to worry Echak. I will make dinner, I promise you.

The three soon left the cottage on the hunting trip.

Some time later, Bala walked outside to the wooden tray with dried fish and took three, one by one, into the home. She put them on a bamboo table. She stood erect and began to take off her skin. She placed it over a chair. She began to stretch and stretch, whispering words in a strange language at the same time. Suddenly, she turned