a. To appreciate how fate works
b. To understand that nothing is impossible
c. To realize the necessity of keeping awake and of being alert
d. To see how people going about ordinary duties often put us
in peril
The second young man said, "But you have not had the wonderful experiences in the world that I have had. Before I was born my mother was caught by a leopard. While the leopard was carrying her off I was born and left on the ground. When the leopard reached his den he ate my mother. The next morning men followed the tracks of the leopard and found me. They raised me without a mother. Was that not a wonderful experience?" They answered, "That was surely a wonderful experience."
The third man said, Do you want to hear mine? One day four of
us started on a journey. Before we had gone far we came to a cannibal
chief's village. We were caught and taken to the chief. The
chief said that they should kill one of us and divide the meat among his
people. They killed one and left the three of us. They penned
the three of us in an iron tower. After a while the chief sent them
to kill another one of us for soup. They came and caught one of us
and killed him. That left only two of us. On the morrow the
chief sent to have another killed. They came and killed the other
one. I alone was left. They said, 'Tomorrow, we will come and
kill you.' In the night I looked up and saw that god had opened the top
of the tower. I tried to climb to the top of the tower, and with
great difficulty I got to the top and jumped down outside. I ran
and ran until daylight. In the morning they went to the tower to
get me, and I was gone. They followed me. But I did not keep
going. I climbed into a tree and hid there. The men who were
hunting me came near the tree and asked a man whether he had seen any one
running away. The man said, "I have seen no one." The men who were
hunting me said that they would have to give up and go home. One
of them said, "I believe that I will climb this tree and cut some verandah
poles." He climbed the tree and began to cut poles. He cut three
poles. Only one was left, and I was on that one. When he began
to cut the one which I was on, there was a cry from the river. The
children had gone to the river to swim, and one had fallen into the water.
He stopped cutting poles and ran to the river to help save the child.
I came down and ran away before he came back to the tree. Was that
not a great experience?" They said, "Indeed, that was a great experience."