Week 6 Story: The Monkey and Girl in the Fire

Once upon a time there was this town that had a large river in the middle of it. Around this river, the soil was very fertile and the people of the village planted a bunch of crops near the river. The crops grew abundantly year after year. Across the river there was a jungle full of monkeys who really wanted to eat the crops. Every time the monkeys crossed the river and entered the crop field they were scared off by the children of the village. One monkey named Henry decided he was going to come up with a plan to become friends with the children so that he could eat the crops and not get scared away. Henry spent a week making a long garland of flowers filled with all different kinds of flowers that were a variety of colors. The garland of flowers smelt so good and began to spread across  the village. Henry crossed the river with the garland and went into the field of crops. As the children began to approach him to scare him off he showed them the flowers. The children soon became amused with the flowers and the monkey.

One girl in particular was very amused with the monkey and promised to marry him within the first day of meeting him. Word of this soon spread around the village and the parents of the girl became very angry. Their daughter was marrying a monkey and that was not okay in this village or anywhere else. The dad of the daughter grabbed his gun and headed into the crop field and shot the monkey. The monkey seemed to be dead and instead of burying this monkey the dad decided to burn him. The family and the village set up a burning area to burn the monkey. When they finally placed the monkey on the fire there was a weird feeling in the air. The daughter of the family decided to make a distraction and pointed up at the sky and said "look!" All at once the daughter jumped into the fire and something very strange happened. A large banging sound was heard and as everyone around the fire blinked, the monkey and the daughter were gone. There was no remains of them, it was like they disappeared out of thin air.

It is known to be that in the village you can hear the monkey and the daughter running through the crop field at night. They have been heard singing, dancing, and even chanting things about fire.


Original Source: Santal: The Monkey and the Girl
Bibliography: Folklore of the Santal Parganas by Cecil Henry Bompas (1909).

Author's Note: The original story is centered around a monkey and a girl. There was a village that had a large river. Near this river, an abundance of crops would grow every year. There was a monkey who wished and tried to eat the crops but the children of the village drove him away. The monkey decided he was going to make a plan in order to get the crops. The monkey went into the field with a garland of flowers and when the children tried to chase him away, he began to drop the flowers and the children became amused and did not drive him away. One of the girls was very fascinated by the monkey and promised to marry him. This spread around the village and the girls parents soon found out about this promise. They were very angry and went out and shot the monkey. Instead of throwing the monkey's body away, they decided to burn it. While they were burning the monkey, the little girl pointed up at the sky and made a distraction for everyone to look up. Just in that moment, she threw a hand full of sand into the air and blinded everyone temporarily. The little girl then leapt up onto where the monkey was being burned and died alongside the monkey. Her family was very angry but said that she must of had the monkey's soul so they accepted the fact and went home.