The Man Who Would Be King of the Apes

Hello, hello and welcome back to Story Nauri.

You're listening to Jana and I'm here with two stories from Southern China.

The first is called The Man Who Would Be king of the apes.

Once in a quiet Chinese village there lived a poor wood cutter called Wei.

Wei was not very good at cutting wood and his wife May often reminded him of this.

Way?

He's been gone all morning.

Did the trees run away from you again?

She sighed, shaking her head.

One misty morning, hoping to bring something home, anything.

Wei wandered deeper into the forest than ever before, searching for wild mushrooms,

but the forest was big and dark, and soon he was lost.

Wei sat down beneath an ancient tree

and folded his legs like the monks he had seen meditating.

"'I'll just rest a moment,' he murmured,

and promptly fell fast asleep.

In the morning, a young ape looked down from a tree and spotted way.

Say?

He cried to the other apes.

Our ancestor has returned.

Soon, apes of all shapes and sizes were peering down, scratching their heads and whispering.

...