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A warrior sets out in search of water to save his kingdom from drought. He brings home what they think is a 'water-seed'.
The First Well
Retold by BookBox
There once was a small kingdom
around a lake.
One very hot summer,
it did not rain
and the lake dried up.
People grew anxious
and went to the King.
“It has not rained
for so long.
Our fields are
barren!”
said the farmers.
“There are no
fish to catch.
How shall we
earn a living?”
asked the fishermen.
“Save us from disaster,
good King,”
urged the women,
as their children cried
with thirst.
The King sent his
four generals
in all directions
to look for water.
The first general
went east,
towards the sunrise;
the second went south,
to the dust and heat;
the third went
west,
where the sun sets;
and the fourth
followed the North Star.
They searched day and night,
night and day;
high and low
they searched everywhere,
but in vain.
Three of the generals
returned,
empty-handed.
But the general
who had gone north
was determined
not to fail his King.
At last, he reached
a cold mountain village.
As he sat at the foot
of the mountain,
an old woman
came by
and sat next to him.
The general
pointed at the horizon
and said,
“I belong to a beautiful
kingdom,
where it has not rained
for a whole year.
Can you help me
find water?”
The woman motioned the general
to follow her
up the mountain
and into
a cave.
“We have no water
in our country either,”
she said.
Then, pointing to the
icicles in the cave,
she continued:
“We call this ice.
Take some,
and your kingdom
will never go thirsty again.”
The general broke off
a huge piece,
loaded it onto his horse-cart
and rushed back home.
By the time he
reached the court,
the enormous icicle
had melted into a
small lump of ice.
Nobody in the court had
ever seen ice,
so everybody gazed at it
with wonder.
“This must
be a water-seed!”
one of the ministers
exclaimed suddenly.
The King ordered the
‘water-seed’
to be sowed immediately.
While the farmers
dug a hole,
the lump dwindled
in the sun.
They swiftly placed
the seed in the hole,
but before they could
cover it up,
it had vanished.
The farmers there
grew confused and worried.
They dug deeper and deeper
into the earth, all night long,
looking for the
mysterious seed.
At the break of dawn,
the King found the farmers
fast asleep
around a hole.
around a hole.
Curious,
he peeped in
and cried out in amazement:
“Wake up,
my worthy men -
the water-seed has sprouted!
There’s water in the hole!”
This is how the
first well was created.
Illustrations: Emanuele Scanziani
Music: Holger Jetter
Animation: Alfrin Multimedia
Translation: Annemarie Bakker
Narration: Mauna Vander Vlugt
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