The legend of the monkey's paw began in an inhospitable land through which a river ran. Large forests had surrounded the banks of the river which was the one and only source of life in this barren deserted wasteland.
Huge sand dunes covered most of the landscape here and all life in these parts depended on the river. Many creatures lived among the densely packed trees that surrounded the river. Creatures that had lived in this oasis for life for centuries before the place was found by travelling desert nomads who made it their home.
But all was not well in the forest.
The tribe at first took only what was absolutely necessary for its survival from the forest and coexisted with its inhabitants. But later generations of tribesmen became greedy and started to take much more than they needed from the forest.
The tribe could no longer coexist in harmony with the forests other inhabitants and one of the older men in the tribe, who was from one of the first generations to live in the forest, decided upon what he had to do.
As day turned to night and the last ray of sunlight left the sky, the old man started preparing for the creation of what is known only as the monkeys paw. There was nothing special about the paw at first, it was just an uninteresting inanimate object, but that was about to change.
The old man prepared the ingredients and equipment he would need for the ritual he was going to perform, a ritual which would channel evil into the monkeys paw to give it the power to grant three wishes to three different people. But for every wish granted some of the evil contained within the paw would be released and would cause side effects to the wish.
The transformation of the paw would make it an extremely powerful weapon that would be the destroyer of the tribe and would continue to spread evil for as long as it had power enough to grant wishes. But when creating the accursed talisman the old man had no idea of the trouble it was to cause.
If ignorance is bliss then he must have been in heaven when he failed to realise the potential power of the paw.
After preparing everything he needed the old man just had to wait for the next full moon which was the only time he would be able to perform the ritual. And so he waited but as he did so the tribe continued to take ever more from their forest home, wreaking havoc upon this once unified land where it once co existed with the forests other inhabitants.
Eventually the night of the full moon came and as the clouds dispersed the bright full moon cast reflected light upon the land and the old man initiated the ritual. And so that night evil was channelled into the monkeys paw to give it power.
The accursed talisman had been created and the world would know its power all too soon.
The old man planed to prove that greed would be the downfall of us all and he gave the paw to the leader of the tribe the next day thinking that the side effects of the wishes would stop the tribesmen being so greedy. But what he didn't know was that the paw would do much more than that.
The paw would destroy the tribe because of the greed of the tribe's leader.
After learning that the paw could grant wishes the tribe leader decided to try it out and made his first wish, and as soon as he did so one of the dried up fingers on the paw bent leaving two still straight symbolising the number of wishes the user had left.
The rest of the tribe was blissfully ignorant of the paw that would be their destroyer and would never know what caused the terrible occurrences that killed them all.
The first wish the tribe leader made was to never have to hunt again. He thought that it would be a good thing if he didn't have to hunt but it was the exact opposite.
As a result of the wish being granted all the huntable creatures in the forest mysteriously disappeared and no matter how hard the tribesmen looked they couldn't find them. Only the old man and the tribe leader knew who and what was to blame. The tribe had to resort to foraging to get its food and its leader became afraid of what the consequences would be if the tribe found out that it was his fault.
The tribe leader thought that the side effects of the wish were just a one off thing and used a second wish to try and set things right again after the disastrous first wish His second wish was to have enough food to last until the destruction of the tribe and as he made the wish another finger on the paw was bent leaving just one of the symbolic fingers still straight.
Again the effects of the wish were immediately apparent as one of the tribesmen returned with the news that he had found a gigantic food store while foraging. The rest of the tribe including its leader followed him to the food store he had found and within it found every kind of food imaginable. They all began eating with the exception of the tribe leader who was weary of the ill effects caused by his first wish.
He was right to be apprehensive about the food because that night the tribesmen, who had all eaten the food, were killed by poison contained within the food and the tribe was destroyed, leaving only its former leader still alive.
The former tribe leader realised the power of the paw at that moment and for the first time thought of others before himself. He knew that if he would die if he did not use his last wish to save himself, but he thought of the destructive power of the paw and thought it better to destroy it before it caused any more trouble.
And so he made his third and final wish.
He wished for the paw to be destroyed...
But he did not think of what side effects could be caused by the wish and instead of the paw it was him that was destroyed by the wish and the land was left devoid of human life.
But the story doesn't end there.
The legend of the paw was carried upon the breath of the wind and was told and retold to generation after generation.
But unlike most stories it remained unchanged even after thousands of years of retelling and when the paw was found again after over 5000 years there wasn't a person alive who didn't know about the monkeys paw.
The paw had power yet and was to cause even more trouble.
But that is another story...