How Rhino Got His Horn and Thick Skin
When all who want to listen are sitting ready in the square with
Ohanzee in its centre he begins the tale.
Great Rhino, the first of his kind was not borna as he is now, but was born of a family of beasts that have not existed in these parts since before Waha cast Grandmother Spider's net in the Great Darkness, likely an age before that.
These beasts were known as Hippopotamus and they lived in the great serpents and lakes of that time often with just their eyes, their ears and their noses poking above the water. They would walked the land to graze on the lush growths of vegetation, but only for short periods of time for their skin was smooth and soft and black and burnt terribly under the glare of Bright Treasure.
They were large beasts, fat and round on the great grazing then. They had no horns but great tusks and a wide mouth that could open wider than those of the great snakes.
Great Rhino was different to the others of his family, he liked to leave the waters for longer than the others, in fact he liked to spend most of his time out of the waters and wandering the land discovering things. At first he suffered greatly from the heat and light of the Bright Treasure, but he learnt to hide within the shade of plants and rocks.
One day when he was wandering he heard something, a faint noise so distant, the sound of weeping. It was such a sad sound it filled his heart with such sorrow and he ran back to the river to tell his family. His family told his to stay in the river and to stop wandering so that he would not hear such things. Life in the river was easy and fat.
But Great Rhino could not forget the sound of weeping and could not shake the sorrow that it had brought to his heart. He took to wandering and more so than before for now he had something to search for. Farther and farther he wandered from the river he wandered and the land changed, dryer and the earth firmer and the plants on that land changed too, growing shorter until there were just planes of grass.
The animals changed too and Great Rhino met other beasts that he had not met before and of each he asked "Can you not hear the weeping? Where does it come from?" But each type of beast just looked on this strange fat creature and laughed. The beasts with horns laughed at his lack of horns, the beasts with fur laughed at his lack of fur, the beasts with long legs laughed at his stumpy legs and none answered his questions for none had heard the weeping.
On he travelled and grass made way to dusty desert and he grew thin as the grazing vanished, but still he journeyed on. And the Bright Treasure glared down on him and his skin boiled but still he pressed driven by the weeping that grew stronger in his ears. He came upon an oasis, barely more than a mud hole and drank the little water that was left an collapsed in the mud around it. Twice he rose and twice he collapsed again as the Bright Treasure pressed down on him and his skin now drawn tight and sunken where his body was once fat and round was covered all over with the mud of that place.
It was cooling and the Earth of that mud gave him strength enough to stand again. The Bright Treasure was angered that such a beast would defy him and turned his full attention to Great Rhino who crossed the land that Bright Treasure had chosen to scorch. But Great Rhino drew energy from the Earth covering him and it baked hard against the Bright Treasure and he pressed on.
Time passed, so much time and finally Great Rhino found an opening in the ground and the weeping was coming from this place. He walked in and went down, down, down, the sound getting louder until it was deafening, and there at the end of his journey he found a great cavern, the Cave of Tears and here the very Earth itself wept. And where the tears fell from the roof of the cave the Earth crept down making great spikes that hung from above and where the tears landed great spikes were formed rising up to meet them so that it was as if the cave had teeth.
Great Rhino crept forward and a tear fell on the end of his nose and in that tear were the memories of when the river used to visit and of how Bright Treasure was jealous and scorched and dried the land and all of the sorrow was in that tear.
Great Rhino turned and ran overcome as he was, ran blindly straight for the river, ran so uncaring for himself and so desperate to get directly to the river that he ran straight into the ground, ran straight through the Earth. His great tusks broke away and his broad mouth was crushed by the Earth but he charge on uncaring for himself.
On he charged through the Earth until he reached at last the river where he broke through and as that tear on the end of his nose touched the river water the river felt the sorrow and remembered his long forgotten visits. "Take me to her" he demanded of the broken beast and through sheer force of will Great Rhino turned about and charged back through the earth followed by the river.
So they travelled within the Earth and away from the glare of the Bright Treasure until finally Great Rhino burst through into the cavern and behind him burst the river to meet once again with his love.
That cavern still exists, the Cave of Tears. Now though the tears wept are tears of joy for the river still visits and the tears of the Earth fall into a pool that is the child of River and Earth.
And Great Rhino's horn? Well, when he burst through into the cavern he did so just below where the tears had been falling and one of the Earth Teeth stuck to his nose, stuck fast where the tear of the Earth fell.
So it was that Great Rhino got his skin and his horn and forge a place for himself and his children on the plains.
If ever you find a rhino with a horn of stone then you will know that that beast has found the Cave of Tears and drunk of the waters of the child there in.
