by Annie H. Liko

Created on: May 11, 2009

NATIVE TALES

The following jokes are not in any way or another, an attempt to degrade or poke fun at the natives' naivety. It is just a humorous way of looking at the transitions that we natives have to go through as modernization enters our world. The jokes may have various versions but these are the versions being circulated in our "circle". Since the jokes are passed on through the words of mouth and there are no copyright infringements involved, why not let the jokes be alive. Hit it!

SERIOUSLY?

There was once a Tribal Chieftain during the British Occupation who was invited to go to the State Capital to attend a meeting. Despite being respectable, he had not been able to experience or use modern amenities as he stayed in one of the remote parts of the country. His old lady tagged along with him for the trip. Both of them were illiterate and they were the very first amongst all the different groups of tribe to have the opportunity to go thus far - by air.

While they were in mid-air, the wife started to roll out her favorite "si-reh" or betel leaf which was commonly used in their tribe as one of the favorite past-time like smoking tobaccos. As usual after chewing the leaf concoction for a few moments, saliva flooded her mouth and being ignorant, she just spat it out of the plane's window; thinking that being transparent means it was open. The saliva splat onto the window and as the stewardess passed by her, she was horrified to see the "blood stain" saliva on the window.

Calmly, she asked the wife: - Are you serious?

The wife calmly answered the stewardess back in her own dialect: "Si-reh meh tok" (Yes, this is Si-Reh), which the stewardess assumed as: "Yes, it's serious."

Panicked, the stewardess tried to get help while trying to appear composed and the wife was confused with all the commotions around her. Finally their translator came to the stewardess' rescue, saying that there was nothing wrong with the wife. The stain on the plane's window was that of the "Si-reh" which made the saliva red and not blood as had been assumed by the stewardess. The wife had thought that the stewardess was asking her whether she was taking "Si-reh" the betel leaf and she had said "yes".

FLUSHING IT DOWN

A tribal chief was invited to attend a gathering in town. After a few days' walk through the jungle, he and his escorts (the men from the Office who invited him) finally reached their destination.

He was put into a hotel room with a young aide on standby because

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