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[CHUNG Yoon-Ngan <chungyn@mozart.collective.com.au>]

Tales of a Hakka town (3)

There was an old couple in this Hakka town. The surname of the old man 
was Cao, nicknamed Lao Lei Gong or old thunder grandpa. Kong was the
surname of his wife and we kids called her Lao Kong Po or old grandma
Kong. There were very unkind to kids and therefore we regarded them as a
fierce old couple. Kids, in this small town, were afraid of them and they  
composed a rhyme to tease this couple. The rhyme went like this:

Zao Shang Gai Gong O O O      in the morning the rooster crows   
                              cock-a-doo-dle-doo.
Bu Xian You Ge Lao Kong Po    There is an old grandma Kong in Pusing
Da Ge Dian Hua Qu He Feng     Make a telephone call to He Feng
                              (Sungei Siput, another Hakka town where 
                               their married daughter lived)
Bu Xian You Ge Lao Lei Gong   Pusing has an old grandpa thunder

We did not know what it meant, but we knew the old couple did not like
it. Every time when they heard the rhyme they became furious.

They had a few rambutan (tropical lychee) trees near their house.
When the rambutans were in season we used to steal from them.
There was one night we climbed up a tree to help ourselves with
the sweet and tasty rambutans. Somehow they knew we were up in the tree.
Like previous times we remained up in the tree and refused to come down.
They scolded and scolded us. After sometime the couples were tired and
they went back to bed. Then we came down and ran home. But this time they
did not say a word. Suddenly they screamed out:

"There is a ghost. There is a ghost up in the rambutan tree."

We kids were very afraid of ghost. Quickly we came down. The old couples,
each one of them holding a cane, spanked us like mad while we were coming
down. In pain we ran away singing:
 
" Zai Shang Gai Gong O O O
  Bu Xian You Ge Lao Kong Po
  Da Ge Dian Hua Qu He Feng 
  Bu Xian You Ge Lao Lei Gong"

CHUNG Yoon-Ngan