{"id":11509,"date":"2026-05-28T12:00:25","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T11:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/?p=11509"},"modified":"2026-05-22T16:19:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T15:19:16","slug":"oral-literature-the-water-buffalo-and-the-tiger-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/05\/28\/oral-literature-the-water-buffalo-and-the-tiger-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Oral Literature. The Water Buffalo and the Tiger"},"content":{"rendered":"

A farmer, his plough over his shoulder, led his water buffalo to the field. The mud in the field was soft and sticky, and the buffalo was up to his belly in mud, so that he had great difficulty in pulling the plough. In fact, it took him a long while to plough a little piece no larger than a plantain leaf. <\/em><\/p>\n

This made the farmer so furious that he started to beat him with a stick, cursing him meanwhile, “Stupid water buffalo! You move as slowly as a snail! Look at the tiger now, how quick and strong he is! Why can’t you be like that!” “Tiger, indeed! What’s so wonderful about a tiger, I should like to know,” said the water buffalo as he was being lashed and cursed by the farmer.<\/p>\n

The farmer would not listen, but went on cursing and beating him, until he said again, “So you look down upon me, do you? If you really think so much of a tiger, take me to one tomorrow, and I will show you who is the better!” The next morning, the farmer took the water buffalo to a tiger’s den. When the tiger scented the buffalo, he rushed out and was about to spring upon him, but the water buffalo shook his sharp horns and said quite calmly, “Tiger, tiger! I came here today not to fight you, but to tell you that your teeth are blunt. Go and sharpen your teeth for three days, and I’ll sharpen my horns. Then we will have a duel.” “Right!” agreed the tiger, going back to his den with a great roar.<\/p>\n

Back in his den, he started to sharpen his teeth for three days and three nights till they were as sharp as razors, while the water buffalo spent only one day sharpening his horns. He spent the other two days wrapping his body with layer on layer of straw, until his whole body was covered with a thick padded armour.<\/p>\n

After that, he went and had a good roll in the mud, so that he was covered with a fine, smooth layer of black mud, and no straw could be seen. The day of the duel arrived. The water buffalo and the tiger came to the appointed place at the appointed time. When the tiger saw that the water buffalo was entirely covered with mud, he asked the water buffalo, “Why are you muddy all over?”<\/p>\n

“It is the height of summer, isn’t it?” said the water buffalo. “Who can stand such heat? You know very well that it is my habit to have a mud bath several times a day!” The tiger opened his eyes wide and examined the water buffalo from head to foot, but could find no fault with him.<\/p>\n

In fact, he thought to himself that the water buffalo had grown fatter in the last three days, and smiled slyly, thinking, “Aha! Very good! He is fat and tender. I shall have a nice meal today!” “Bah, tiger, tiger! You may be able to bully pigs and sheep, but you’ll see! You will not be able to hurt a hair on my body!” “What! I was ready to kill and eat you three days ago, without waiting to sharpen my teeth! Today, my teeth are as sharp as razors. Of course, my bite will be deadly!” “I see you still claim to be the stronger. Let us see! I’ll lie down first and let you bite me three times. Then you must allow me to butt you three times with my horns.”<\/p>\n

It would have been very foolish of the tiger to refuse such an advantageous offer. He accepted it readily, sprang upon the water buffalo, and started to tear and rend him. After three bites, the tiger thought the buffalo must be mortally wounded, but he wasn’t. The tiger’s teeth had only torn the straw into shreds, leaving the water buffalo unscratched. When he had had his three bites, the water buffalo got up calmly, lowered his head and butted the tiger three times in succession.<\/p>\n

At the first blow, his horns pierced the tiger’s stomach; at the second, they broke the tiger’s back; at the third blow, the tiger’s intestines came out on the buffalo’s horns, and the tiger lay dead on the ground in a pool of blood.<\/p>\n

The farmer saw it all with his own eyes and greatly admired the wisdom and courage of his water buffalo. And from that day onward, he treated his water buffalo with love and tenderness, and never again abused him as a stupid animal. Indeed, to this present day, people respect water buffaloes for their wisdom, though they may not be able to plough or pull a cart as fast as a horse nor run as fleetly as a deer. (Folktale from Chuang People, China) \u2013 (Photo: Pixabay)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A farmer, his plough over his shoulder, led his water buffalo to the field. The mud in the field was soft and sticky, and the buffalo was up to his belly in mud, so that he had great difficulty in pulling the plough. In fact, it took him a long while to plough a little […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11510,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}