The Silk Road

Once upon a time there was a self-proclaimed holy man named Abijah. He had been inculcated into a dangerous cult and once rescued by 14 of his sons, was deprogrammed and then forced to take the only job available in the village, selling tampoons along the Silk Road.

He was not a modest man, but he felt he was honest and hardworking. He had been the husband of 6 wives, all of whom decided his snoring could no longer be tolerated, so they packed his bags and sent him on his lonesome way.

Now, a princess named Sneakumella had ordered a large quantity of these fine tampoons that were Abijah's stock and trade. She had been waiting for months to receive them. She felt that it was high time she stopped wearing the cumbersome diaper type cloths, which were proving to be rather inadequate during that sensitive time of the month, and to give the miracle tampoons a try.

Lonesome Abijah made his way slowly to the princess's palace with her order. He was very much focused on finding at least two new wives by the end of the week, so he was less attentive to his business than he ought have been . Just a few miles from the palace, Abijah came across some bitter sweet berries. They were seductive to all of his senses and he felt he could not go on without collecting some of their juice. What could he use to collect this bitter sweet tonic? Ah! The tampoons of course.

As he squeezed the juice from the berries with his bare hands, he sopped it up with the tampoons. He put them in a large jar and secured the lid.

Eventually he reached the palace. With a deep bow he presented the princess with half of her order.

"Where is the rest of my order???" She demanded. "I will have the guards arrest you for stealing and you will be hung by morning, Sir!!"

Abijah, wanting to keep his head and also hoping to gain favor with the princess, perhaps even making her his wife, presented her with the jar of juicy tampoons.

Well, the princess was aghast! It looked as if Abijah was trying to get away with selling her used tampoons!! She was livid. She ordered her guards to take him away and to hang him at dawn.

And that is how the saying, "the bitter juice of one berry may be more than enough to cause the end of Abijah" came to be.

You have been warned. The End.