Why the monkey's bum is red? III

“No thank you,” the beggar said, rejecting the food. “I'm not hungry,” he went on, “but it's my scab that makes me miserable today. My body is itching all over. There's a lot of pus. Would you please help me clean some pus?”

She took pity on the agonizing beggar. So she tried the best she could to rid him of the pus. Crusts were removed to get the pus out. Blood came out, too. She had her face and hands covered with pus and blood, but she continued her cleaning work until the beggar was ridden of all his pus. “Thanks a thousand,” the beggar said. “You'd better go to the stream and wash your hands and face,” he told her. Then he was gone.

After washing her face and hands in the stream, Gold Twig had to go home, bracing herself for the severe punishment her mistress was certain to give her for returning empty-handed. As she belatedly lifted up her net, she was astounded to find the net full of shrimps. With her creel full, she was joyfully on her way back home.

On entering her kitchen, Gold Twig met her awe-stricken mistress. “Are you our Gold Twig?” asked the mistress, with her equally awed daughter by her side. The domestic was afraid to speak. Her mistress handed her a mirror. “Look,” she said.

Gold Twig timidly loot at the mirror. She saw a very beautiful girl in the mirror. Gone was her scar on the face. Her face is white and shining like pearl. Her hands were velvety soft. The mother and the daughter wanted to know how Gold Twig had changed herself into the most beautiful girl of the town. The housemaid told them of what had happened.

On the following day, the old, scabby beggar came to the shop of Gold Twig's master to beg for food again. His wife and daughter rushed to embrace him and try to rid him of pustules. Their hands and faces were smeared with pus and blood, of course. Then they left for the stream to wash up. But they returned home angry. Their faces were red and they had hairs all over their bodies. Moreover, each grew a tail.

They angrily faced the beggar who was still at their kitchen. But they could not speak up. They were dumb. The beggar then picked up two red hot slates from the kitchen furnace, telling the dumb pair to sit on them. “If you want to become beautiful,” he said, “you have to sit on the burning slates.” Both did as were told. They leapt up. Their buttocks were burned. “Ha-ha, you are now beautiful,” he said. Then he was gone.

The mother and her daughter grew hairy by the day. Their legs became bandied and their bums were red. They were afraid to meet anybody. So they went into the forest to live there ever after. They are believed to have started Taiwan's first colony of Formosan macaques.

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