A Tongue Twister Tale
by
S. E. Schlosser

Once upon a time . . . several Buddhist monks lived in a great temple that stood in a magnificent garden full of flowers and rare plants.

When Eve plucked the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, when she and Adam were driven from Paradise, there fell from the flaming sword of the cherub a spark into the nest of the bird, which blazed up forthwith. The bird perished in the flames; but from the red egg in the nest there fluttered aloft a new one—the one solitary Phoenix bird. The fable tells that he dwells in Arabia, and that every hundred years, he burns himself to death in his nest; but each time a new Phoenix, the only one in the world, rises up from the red egg.

A father squirrel was teaching his son one day how to forage for food. He showed him how to find the best seeds, nuts, mushrooms and pinecones. The little squirrel enjoyed all these foods, but found the seeds most to his liking. His father cautioned him: "Son, don't let your hunger run away with you. Never venture beyond the edge of this forest for food, or you will be sorry."

An owl, in her wisdom, counseled the Birds that when the acorn first began to sprout, to pull it all up out of the ground and not allow it to grow. She said acorns would produce mistletoe, from which an irremediable poison, the bird- lime, would be extracted and by which they would be captured.