How the Elephant got his Tusks and How the Cobra got His Hood

Images taken from http://wallpapers.free-review.net/15__Family_Indian_Elephant.htm and http://skinnymoose.com/moosedroppings/2008/05/22/animal-rights-group-maybe-responsible-for-turning-deadly-cobras-loose-in-onslow-county-nc/


Story behind this short story: in 7th Grade, we learned about myths and legends, especially about creation myths (how people created stories to explain why their world was created the way it was, and why things are the way the are). Our task at school was to create an original "creation" myth, and this was the following story I came up with......


Long, long ago, the people and all of the animals lived in the sea, as the continents and the oceans hadn't been made yet. Everyone lived peacefully, until the day the cobra and the elephant came to be created....

Once God had created the elephant and the cobra and set them in the ocean with everything else, He commanded them to take care of all the animals and above all: make sure greed never came between them.

For a while, the elephant and the cobra lived happily and were the best of friends.

But one day, the cobra was swimming along when he spotted a sea cave. Being the curious soul that he was, he slithered into the cae to see what he could find.

To his amazement, he saw eight huge golden balls! They looked so lovely and beautiful. So beautiful in fact, that the cobra just couldn't leave them there. He decided to take theme home and hide them, as he wanted to keep these for himself.

Carrying the eight golden balls in his tail, he slithered along back home. On the way he bumped into elephant.

"What are those?" asked the elephant

"What's what?" replied the cobra.

"Those lovely things that are dangling at the end of your tail", was elephant's reply.

"Oh, nothing", the cobra quickly said.

"They look so beautiful!" cried the elephant, "I want them."

"No!" cried the cobra, "These are mine!"

"But I must have them!"

"No! I found these first!"

"I WANT THEM!!!" screamed the elephant.

A terrible argument followed.

The sound of the elephant and the cobra reached all the way to heaven.

"What's all that noise?" cried God. He decided he ought to go and investigate.

Sure enough, he saw the elephant and the cobra fighting over the eight golden balls.

"ENOUGH!" boomed God, "You have broken the promise of not eing greedy! Now you must pay!"

God waved a finger at the elephant, and the two buck teeth that the elephant had turned into two enormous tusks!

Then, God grabbed one of the eight golden balls and shoved it down the cobra's throat. The golden ball stayed there, and that's how the cobra has got a hood.

With the remaining seven golden balls, God threw them and they landed on all four corners of the Earth, where they transformed and became the seven continents of the world: Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America and South America.

The animals and the people were allowed to move up to the land and there they settled, except for the fish, because they didn't want to leave the sea.

The elephant and the cobra were forced to live in places where the temperature was hot and the climate was harsh. They have lived there ever since.

That is how the elephant got his tusks and how the cobra got his hood.

- Raymond Teodo