Therefore, from now on you will fly only at night so that no one will see your naked wings and mock you unfeelingly.  The Creator, however, will never forget a sacrifice.”

The Elephant and the Ants

One day the King of the Ants complained to Solomon that the elephant was trampling on all the ants that came under his feet and would not listen to the appeals of the ant king.  Solomon spoke to the elephant, admonishing him to look out where he placed his feet and not to step on ants if he could help it, but the elephant merely answered: “What do ants matter?  What can they do to me?”  So the king of the ants decided to teach the elephant a lesson.

He assembled all his subjects and ordered them to dig a deep pit, large enough to accommodate an elephant.  This they covered over with long but light branches, leaves, and grass stalks.  The pit was made in one night, on a spot where the elephant passed every morning on his way to his daily bath in the river.  Sure enough, at dawn the elephant came walking down his path and stumbled into the pit.  He never got out.  The ants crept into his body and devoured him from inside.  After that day, Solomon told braggarts: “Watch the ants, you men of pride, and be humble!”

Born in Holland, Jan Knappert received a degree in Sanskrit, Hinduism, and Buddhism from the University of Leiden. He followed this with later degrees in Semitic languages, Islam, Indonesian languages and linguistics, Swahili literature, and a number of African languages. He has held teaching positions at several universities in Africa. Currently, Knappert is a lecturer at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London.