The Strong White

There was once a farmer who needed to plough his farm and get rid of pests on his land. The farmer worked hard, but was not able to till all the land and the insects ate much of his crop while it was still in the field. One morning he told his wife he was going to the market.

When the farmer arrived at the market he found a horse trader. He bought a strong white horse and then went over to the fly catchers den and bought a chameleon called Color. In those days chameleons used to help people get rid of insects. The interesting trio of a strong white horse, a chameleon called color and a tired farmers arrived home late at night to eat, rest and prepare for work the next day. At night the horse turned to the chameleon and said, “My name is Strong White what is yours”. The Chameleon said, “well I don’t have to be strong I just change color, play dead and get to eat the insects”.

The next morning the farmer took his new team to the field and White pulled the plough through the mud and got himself all dirty. Color, the Chameleon, put on his dead color and ate all the insects that passed by. The farmer was very happy with their work. In the evening White had to take a bath and thought that color should too. But Color was too lazy to clean himself up and went to work the next day without taking a bath. This went on for many days until Color began to emit an awful smell. White pleaded with Color to clean himself as he was beginning to raise quite a stink! White told Color, “You only have to look dead, not smell dead to do your job”. But Color just laughed and would not listen to White and said, “I told you I don’t have to be strong like you all I need to do is play dead”.

One day a vulture appeared in the sky above. Vultures do not have very good eyesight, but they can smell a dead frog from a mile away. That night White mentioned the vulture, but color said, “No one can see me when I change color”. The following day the vulture appeared again slowly circling the farm. When Color had eaten enough for the day he settled down to sleep. That was when it happened. In one sweep of its wings the vulture swooped down and gulped up Color in less than a second. Strong White never saw Color ever again.  

Allan Bukusi