Sahn-Kia [1]

A Yahgahn Fable

There was once a Trelli girl named Andayla who had bad manners. She was the absolute WORST! She ate more than was good for her, and never once said “Thank you.” She would fart or belch at meals and not say, “Excuse me.” She pushed people out of the way, took things without asking first, and never did as her elders told her to. For example, if someone told her not to stomp on the floor, she would stomp louder.

One day, her mother got fed up with her behavior, and walked off. She arrived home again several hours later, and held onto Andayla’s arm.

“Please come, Andayla.”

“Why?”

“Because, your family is tired of your bad manners. For a month, you shall live with our friends, a Duenicallo family.”

“But why?”

“Just because.”

“TELL ME!”

“Not unless you ask nicely.”

Andayla pouted.

Finally they got there, and Andayla’s mother left her with the family of Duenicallo. She looked into the large yellow eyes of the eldest member of the family, Gruntis, and said, “Well, I suppose you’re my family for a month.”

“Unfortunately, yes.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I mean, ‘unfortunately, we are your family for the next month.’ ”

“You’re not very nice.”

“And we don’t try to be nice. Maybe that’s why you’re here.”

She went stomping off to her ‘new’ room.

It was a long, hard month. They were unkind to her; they ate meals without calling her to join them, so she rarely got to eat with them. They grabbed things from her hands without asking. They made stinks all the time and never asked her to excuse them. They would shove her out of the way, yell at her, and they never let her do anything she asked to do. Plus, they also never listened when she told them to do something, like stop yelling. If she said that, they’d just yell louder.

One day, she got into a big screaming match with three of them, and it kept getting worse and worse. Finally, she yelled, “YOU PEOPLE NEED TO HAVE GOOD MANNERS!”

Everyone was quiet suddenly. Then, Gruntis said calmly, “But you do not have good manners, why should we?”

“Because…” she said, realizing then that this must have been arranged, “because if no one had good manners, all would be chaos. No one would get along, and everyone would suffer from want of kindness.”

Gruntis smiled. “Then you understand now why your family has had a hard time putting up with you. You have learned a very valuable lesson, I believe.”

She sighed. “Yes, I have.”

After a pause of a few minutes, she finally said, “This was a set-up, right?”

Gruntis smiled. “Yes, it was. We normally have very good manners. But your family was so fed-up with your behavior that they called on us. We are very tough and persistent.”

“Indeed you are.” She hugged Gruntis. “Thank you, Gruntis, for this experience.”

“You are welcome.”

So from then on, Andayla always said “please” and “thank you.” If she had a stink or a belch to make, she politely asked to be excused and let it out elsewhere, or if one slipped, she said, “Please excuse me.” She never took anything without asking, was kind to people, and never again shoved anyone. She had learned very good manners, and everyone loved her for it.

The moral of this story is that without good manners, no one would get along well together, and people who practice good manners are liked better than those who don’t.

The End

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[1] Sahn-Kia means “many thanks,” because “sahn” denotes something large, and “kia” means “thank you.”