Articles Available Online

  DON’T GIVE UP THE FIGHT   While cavorting in a field, the wild horse felt overjoyed to see a water hose flailing in all directions, water spraying from it fearsomely as the farmer tried in vain to grab hold of it The horse shouted as loud as he could, encouraging the hose, ‘Don’t give up the fight!’   The hose answered him enthusiastically, ‘Right on my friend!’         THE SHADOW   A terrible shadow spread slowly over the heads of the people, hiding from them the rays of the sun No one dared look up to see the reason, instead they bent their heads even more than before while the huge shadow crept ever faster Finally their days turned into the longest of nights Life came to a stop Daily activities stumbled Sadness and depression spread throughout the country But still no one dared to think even for a second to raise his head   Rumours began to marry crazily and beget huge numbers of sons of all shapes and colours Some said it was punishment from God for the people’s level of moral decline and their heedlessness of principles and values Others said it was a swarm of locusts such as had never been seen in all of human history and that it might last for many months Scientists maintained that the lunar eclipse and the solar eclipse had become intermeshed and that this had formed the persistent black night Life remained in this stumbling and sluggish state The foundations of the civilisation on which the country had risen were broken and it fell to the earth with a terrible, loud sound This caused its neighbours great joy and delight in its misfortune A swampy tide of myths and rumours covered the country The people began to suffer from pains in their backs and necks   Finally a courageous young man appeared who decided to raise his head to the sky, despite the warnings of his family and friends, so that he might know the nature of this terrible thing that had entirely destroyed his