Storytelling Stones

John Elamatha

The young stonemason stood flustered in front of that big marble rock, which was so gigantic
as to weigh 6 tonnes. A heavily built young sphered came out of the rock and asked:

‘Michael, is it possible?”
“Who are you?”
“You know me, don’t you? I am David who overpowered the Palestinians for Israelites at the
Elah Valley.”

“Oh, my Goodness. It is unbelievable for all. You are the shepherd youth who overwhelmed
a seven-feet long giant in a wrestling, aren’t you?”

“Yes, I am. You stand here embarrassed, too, in front of this colossal marble stone. I felled
Goliath-the giant of the Palestinians-by hurling a stone from my sling. What can we not
achieve, if we have brains?”

“Yes, of course. I still keep in my memory the first book of Samuel in the Old Testament. You
felled him with a stone from your sling. But I have in my leather bag my sledge and hammer.
David, I will bring you out.”

It was that shepherd youth who broke into Michelangelo’s mind at that time. It was a short
time ago that he met the youth, while the latter was tending sheep in the mountain vales of
Caprasi. He was an almost 17-year old young man, with bushy, flyaway hairs and a sturdy
body. He held a spear in his right hand. In his left shoulder he carried a leather bog and held
in his left hand a sling. He was sanctity clothed, his genitals barely covered with a sheet torn
off from a jute bag. The sheep loitered around him, neighing aloud.