How the yetis did away with themselves
In Khumbu, amongst the mountains of Nepal, there lived snow people who were known as Yetis. The Yetis avoided being seen during the day, hiding in the snow and observing the labour of the humans. When it got dark, the Yetis came down to the villages and tried to copy what humans did but they were so clumsy they undid everything the humans had done the previous day, spoiling all the vegetable gardens. The inhabitants of Khumbu, the famous Sherpas, did not dare fight the Yetis: they were many and very strong.
After thinking and talking about the problem for some time, the Sherpas came up with a plan. They knew that they were being watched by the Yetis during the day and this fact was highly important. One day the Yetis saw the Sherpas drinking from a barrel, fighting with swords and then going home. When darkness fell, all the Sherpas were at their windows, anxious to see the result of their plan.
The Yetis came down to the village and did what the humans had done. They drank from the barrel, got drunk, started to fight with each other using swords and killed each other. For this time the barrel wasn't filled with water, which the Sherpas had drunk, and the swords weren't made of wood; the barrel was full of spirits and the swords of cutting steel. From then on the Sherpas could grow their crops in peace.
But, from time to time, they look up at the mountains and feel that somebody is watching them from up there in the snow somewhere: the Yeti, a survivor from that battle, the Snowman that nobody has seen but that everybody knows lives up there in the Himalayas.
Text: Koldo Izagirre
Translation: Joe Linehan
Voice: Tim Nicholson
