The Story of Ze Lion and
Ze Sheep by ©richard de souza
inspired by Joseph Campbell
Once upon a time in a faraway land called Africa, there was a lioness called Elsa who was heavily pregnant. Sadly, she died in lion birth leaving a tiny lion cub to fend for himself.
Luckily, a flock of sheep came along and feeling sorry for the tiny lion cub took him in and treated him as one of their own and he was soon happily munching grass and following the other sheep.
One day, a Big Lion came across them and scratching his head wondered what a lion cub was doing with a flock of sheep.
The Big Lion let out a roar and as you all know, a lion roar can be heard from up to 5 miles away…the sheep frightened ran away but the little lion cub stood his ground shaking slightly, wondering what was making the big noise.
The Big Lion softly paced right up to the little lion cub till their noses were nearly touching and said ‘Why are you hanging out with all these sheep ?’’
The little lion cub replied ‘baa baa…’
Annoyed, the Big Lion grabbed the little lion cub by his mane and marched him to the side of the river where the water was still and clear…
The Big Lion said ‘look into the water little one and tell me what you see’
The little lion cub peered into the still waters and saw a tiny face that looked just like the Big Lion and nothing like the sheep.
The Big Lion said ‘see, you are a Lion like me…’
The Big Lion, who was always hungry said ‘its time for dinner’ and took the little lion cub back to his cave and lying in the corner was an antelope that the Big Lion had killed earlier.
The Big Lion said ‘now I am going to give you some real food…’
The little lion cub said ‘but I am a vegetarian and don’t eat meat’
Illustrations by ©Andrew Hammond
The Big Lion laughed and grabbed a chunk of antelope meat and forced it into the little lion cub’s mouth. Bit by bit, the antelope meat slid down the little lion cub’s throat into his stomach. When it reached his stomach, something strange happened that had never happened before...
an electric charge flowed throughout the whole body of the little lion cub and he let out a small lion roar for the first time! The Big Lion grinned and said ‘now you know what it feels like to be a lion…’
There are many morals to this story but the one I love is that if you hang out with sheep you start to behave like sheep…
©MYSTRAWBERRYMONKEY.COM
back to top