This week I learned a new story called the Magical Burro. It was actually one of the stories that a classmate of mine learned and performed in my January storytelling class at Lesley. It stuck with me all this time and I thought it was about time to learn it. When I’m learning a story, I sometimes type it out to make sure that I know it well. Although I never memorize my stories, by writing them down I embed them in my memory in yet another way.
When I told this story at the Medford Farmer’s Market on Thursday I had my biggest market crowd yet and they all seemed to enjoy it. Reading it isn’t the same as seeing it, but hopefully you’ll get some of the idea.
The story I’m about to tell is called the Magical Burro and it’s from Mexico. For those of you who don’t know, Burro means donkey in Spanish. Our story starts with a man named Pedro who was in a great hurry. He set out on the road only to find that it was extremely hot, so hot that it was hard to walk and he couldn’t bear the thought of hurrying along. Any ordinary man would have continued to trudge along the road, but Pedro was no ordinary man. Instead, he sat down on the side of the road and began to carve a wooden burro.
While he was carving a finely dressed foreigner came riding by on a great white horse. When he saw the foreigner approaching, Pedro but down the wooden burro and began to stroke it. The wealthy foreigner stopped his horse and called down to Pedro, “Why on earth are you stroking that piece of wood?”
Pedro hurriedly covered the ears of the wooden burro, “Don’t call her that!”
“Her?” asked the foreigner. He jumped down off his horse and peered more closely at the wooden burro.
“Yes, this is a special burro.”
“Why, what’s so special about it?”
“Well… I’m not sure if I should tell you, it’s a bit of a secret to tell the truth.”
The wealthy foreigner was extremely interested, he loved to know secrets. “You can tell me!”
Pedro looked up at him, squinting his eyes, and in the end beckoned him forward. “This burro is a special because it is a magical burro!”
“A magical burro?!” cried the foreigner.
“Shh! You don’t want to startle her!”
“What makes her so magical?”
“Well the moment you sit down on her she comes to life and is the fastest burro you’ve ever seen, faster even than the wind!”
The foreigner thought this was wonderful and he wanted nothing more in the world than to ride the magical burro. “How much does she cost?”
“I could never sell her! She’s one of a kind! There’ s nothing like her in all the world!”
The more Pedro spoke about how wonderful his magical burro was the more the foreigner wanted it, so he looked around him and said, “Well if you can’t sell her, could you trade her?”
“Trade her? For what?”
“I would give you… my horse!”
Pedro tried to hide his excitement. “Your horse? Well… I guess I might be convinced. But you couldn’t ride the magical burro in all your fine clothes, she would be too scared.”
“Then we should trade clothes as well!” cried the foreigner.
“If you insist…”
“I do!” And the foreigner quickly undressed and handed his clothes to Pedro who gave his own clothes to the foreigner. Once they were dressed in each other’s clothes, Pedro hopped up on the horse and gave the foreigner one last warning.
“The burro will stay wooden as long as I am in sight, so don’t try to sit on her until you can no longer see me!” As the foreigner agreed, Pedro drove his heels into the horse and galloped away as fast as he could.
The foreigner watched eagerly as Pedro got farther and farther away and when he could no longer see Pedro he gave a cry of delight and hopped onto the wooden burro.
“Go, go, go!” he cried.
But nothing happened. And as he waited he realized that the magical wooden burro, wasn’t so magical after all. But by the time he realized this, Pedro was far far away and no longer in need of hurrying.