1.1 Moon language  (Page 4/5)

The moon became full once more and the mantis followed it to see where it went when it sank below the horizon. He flew from bush to bush, from stone to stone, watching it circle the sky. He came upon a waterhole deep in the sand, trampled by many hooves – and there, far below, was the moon, caught in the water.

Stealthily he crept down the steep bank to where the coarse dark sand was damp. He paused, gazing at the bright, hovering disc. He pounced on it, clutching at it with his spiny claws. But he sank gasping under the water, then struggled to the bank wet and afraid. And still the moon lay there – bright and glowing.

Many times the mantis tried to pry the moon out of the water – but he failed. At last, in anger, he took a rock and hurled it, cursing the moon.

The stone shattered the reflection and a thousand splinters of moonlight pierced the mantis’s eyes. He ran away, far from the waterhole where he thought the moon was caught, and hid in a thorn tree. He could not ease the splinters from his eyes and in everything he saw were brilliant beans of moonlight. He could not sleep – there was no darkness in which to rest. He no longer wished to be a god and sit astride the moon so that the desert animals would praise him and he wondered how he could have hoped for that.

He crept up the thorn tree to where the branches reached into the warm evening air. He waited there until the moon rose – for him, a great fragmented light. He held out his front legs to it – folded up because he prayed – and he begged the moon to give him back his sight.

He swayed gently on a twig, his head bent – a small and humble insect. And the moon kept on rising, higher and whiter than before. Then at last it set at the edge of the desert’s barren wastes, and still the mantis sat, bowing to it as he prayed.

When daylight came, it was pale and steady and the shadows of the thorn trees fell sharply on the sand; bird-flight was clear and swift and the mantis knew the moon had taken all the splinters from his eyes.

That was long ago – when the great herds wandered freely from the sea to the vast, dry plains of the Heikum .* But the children of the mantis live there still, brown and green as the leaves that change with the seasons. And they sit, their forelegs held up in praise of the moon that forgave and restored the sight of their ancestor – the small short-winged one, who wished to be a god.

Heikum* - A Bushman people.

Read the instructions carefully and then answer the questions.

“There was a mantis who wanted to catch the moon.” This is the first sentence of the story. Explain in your own words why he wanted to do it.

Smart vocabulary adds to the rich atmosphere of this story. Use a dictionary to determine the meaning of each of the words listed below.

Revere “every creature would revere him.”

Elusive “The moon was elusive for it did not always rise at the same time.”

Supple “…slim and curved and supple as a hunting-bow.”

Lithe “the new young moon was lithe and swift..”

Stealthily “ Stealthily he crept down…”