How the Panda Got it's White Patch

By:

Copyright © 2003 Giles

In the beginning, all the animals in the world lived in Asia, many of them lived near the Himalayas and in some parts of China. Panda was all black, he looked very similar to Black bear, people and animals often got them mixed up, Panda did not like this. Panda fed on the bamboo plant in the forests of China, some other animals fed on the bamboo as well as Panda, Panda hated this.
The animals often teased Panda and Black bear, saying that they were cousins.
Black bear didn't mind it at all, but Panda absolutely despised it!

One day, Panda had had enough of it all so he decided to try and scare the other animals away from his home. He thought, and he thought, and he thought all night, eventually he thought a hole in the ground. Finally, he thought he could make himself look scary, this is what he did: He stole cloth, thread and white paint from a little village on the edge of the forest. He had seen people sewing clothes and material together, so he knew roughly what to do.
He sewed the material together to make a suit, then he painted it white to make it look more ghostly. When he had finished, he put the suit on and made a "ruuuuuurgh!" noise.

Langur, Black bear and Takin were gathering some bamboo to give to some of the younger animals when they heard the "ruuuuuurgh!" noise and saw the great black and white shape. Takin and Langur ran in horror, but Black bear wasn't frightened at all, he hid behind the bushes and waited for Panda to turn back and walk back to where he'd come from.
When Black bear came to the thing's hideout, he saw it take off the white
patch, it was Panda.
Black bear went back to where the other animals were hiding, they were all chatting about the beast; "What was it?!", "What could it be!?", "Who is it?!"...
"It's Panda!" Black bear interrupted.
"Panda?" the animals were very surprised.
"Yes, it is Panda!" said Black bear.
"What's Panda doing scaring us like that?" asked Snow leopard.
"He was telling me something yesterday," said Black bear "He said he wanted the bamboo all to himself, he put that white suit on to scare everyone away!"
"That's greedy!" said Langur.
"We should teach him a lesson!" said Markhor
"I shall tear up his suit and feed him to the alligators!" said Snow leopard.
"No!" said Langur "I shall bury his suit in the snow of the Himalayas! He'll never find it there!"
"No!" said Griffon vulture "I will carry it to the top of Mount Everest! He'll
never get it there!"
"No!" said Takin "I will throw it in the sea and he will never see it again!"
"No, no, no!" Said Black bear "That's not really teaching him a lesson, that's
just hiding his suit!..."
"I've got an idea," said Yak "We should paint something sticky on the inside of his suit, something so sticky that he won't get it off."
"Yak, you're a genius!" said Black bear "We'll go and see the wise man who lives in Tibet and ask him for something sticky!"

So the animals went to see a wise man in Tibet, the wise man was a very old magician who knew almost every trick in the world.
"Please help us," said Black bear "Panda has made a white suit and he's scaring all the animals, we need something sticky to put in Panda's suit so it will stick on forever."
"Ahhh," said the old man "I have just the thing!" The old man went into his hut and came out with a small barrel of water. "Put a little bit of tree sap into this magic water and put the water on the inside of Panda's suit, it will be stuck on him like a horn of a Rhinoceros, he will never get it off."
"Thank you." Said the animals.

The animals painted the magic glue on the inside of Panda's suit, and waited for
Panda to put it on.
When Panda came it put his suit on, it felt very strange "My suit feels funny."
Said panda.
So Panda went to scare all the animals away. All the animals were so scared
that they ran far away, to Europe, to Africa, to the North pole, to the South pole, and across the ice to America, these are the places where all the other animals live today.

When Panda tried to take his suit off he couldn't, because the magic glue had dried out and stuck to Panda. Panda tried and tried, but he couldn't get the suit off. The animals all started laughing, "That will teach you to go scaring us like that!"

Panda still wears his white suit to this day, but he can't get it off, he's worn it for so long that hairs have sprouted from underneath it. And that is how Panda got his huge white patch.