A long time ago, four good friends lived in a village. They were a carpenter, a trader, a goldsmith and a chef.
When they met one day the trader made a suggestion.
“We are not doing very well in our professions. Let us go abroad and sell our goods abroad.
Everyone agreed with him and enthusiastically started to prepare for the journey.
Kappara boat
The carpenter started to look for suitable wood to build a boat called a kappara. Having found the wood the carpenter built the boat. This type of boat could take people and goods across the seas and oceans.
The trader went around the villages looking for puwak or arecanut to sell. This is a nut that people eat when they chew betel leaves.
The goldsmith made plenty of gold jewellery to take.
The chef had a problem. His mother cried and begged him not to leave her.
One sunny day, the four friends embarked on their journey in the kappara boat. Their families waved them off.
Watery deaths
But alas! The four friends could not go far. The boat keeled over and sank and the four friends met with watery deaths.
And what happened after that?
New births
The carpenter was born as a woodpecker. To this day, it flies around pecking at trees to see whether the wood is good to make a kappara boat.
The arecanut trader was born as a koravakka or water rail and goes looking for arecanuts in the villages.
The goldsmith was born as a mosquito and still goes looking for gold.
He goes from person to person buzzing “Where is my gold’?
The cook was born as a nariya (fox) and wanders from village to village looking for its mother He howls “ Hokki Hoyo which means look for Hokki.
