Announcer:	Unit 5.1. Listening comprehension: Listen to the folk story „The Husband and Wife“ and find out the lesson it teaches.
Narrator:	Kamu and his wife Kami were very much in love with each other. They were always together. They had not been parted even for a single day since they were married. Unfortunately they had no children. But even this did not cause them much unhappiness. All the people in the village talked about Kamu and Kami. Many of them were terribly jealous of their happiness. They simply couldn’t understand why Kamu and Kami never had a quarrel. So these jealous people wanted to make them quarrel and sent for the astrologer. The astrologer promised to bring about a quarrel between the husband and wife. He asked for an enormous sum for his job but the jealous villagers paid it willingly because it would be great fun if Kamu and Kami had a terrible quarrel. So the astrologer went to see Kamu while Kami was busy inside the kitchen.
Astrologer	Dear Kamu. I have come to you today because I’ve got something important to tell you. When I was looking at the stars last night, I happened to see your star and Kami’s.
Kamu:	And what did you see?
Astrologer	I saw that you are a strong and brave man, but I also saw a dark cloud in your life. And the dark cloud won’t go away because it’s your wife.
Kamu	My wife?
Astrologer	Yes, I’m sorry, but she was a dog in her former life.
Narrator	Kamu was very upset when he heard that his wife had been a dog. He wanted to be alone and left his house to go for a walk. In the meantime the astrologer went to Kami. She was eager to know what the astrologer had told her husband.
Astrologer	I told him that he was a happy man because I had learned from the stars that you were a lady of the highest caste in your former life.
Kami	Oh, I’m so happy to hear that.
Astrologer	Unfortunately there’s a terrible secret I didn’t tell him. But you should know about it. Kamu was a low caste man in his past life who sold salt. Even now he smells of salt. Test it for yourself.
Narrator	Kami felt very sad that her husband was such a low person. That night Kamu and Kami went to bed early. They were lying on the floor on their mats. Both were restless and did not fall asleep for some time. After a while Kami thought that her husband was asleep. She gently turned to his side and licked his arm to see whether she could taste or smell the salt. Of course, Kamu was not asleep.
Kamu	So the astrologer was right. You dirty dog! I shall drive you out of my house.
Kami	But I only wanted to taste your salt. The astrologer told me that you had been a salt-seller in your previous life.
Narrator	Kamu asked her what the astrologer had said and he knew that he had been made a fool of. He told Kami what the evil man had told him. After a while they started to laugh and decided that it was wrong to listen to tales and gossip. But they wanted to teach the astrologer a lesson! Next morning, the jealous neighbours came to their house, one by one, to find out whether Kamu and Kami had quarrelled. Husband and wife seemed to be happy as usual, and welcomed their visitors.
Neighbour	We saw the astrologer come to your house yesterday. Did he bring good news?
Kamu	Yes, he did. Our stars are bright with happiness.
Neighbour	Are they? Was that all?
Kamu	Well, not really, but we promised not to tell anybody.
Neighbour	You can trust me. We’ve been neighbours for so many years.
Kamu	I’m sorry to say this but he warned us against all of you. He said you were jealous of our happiness.
Neighbour	Did he really say that?
Kamu	I’m afraid he did. He said that you had all been hyenas and jackals in your former lives.
Narrator	When the neighbours heard that, they went away angrily to find the astrologer. When they found him they wouldn’t listen to him and beat him up and took away the money they had given him.