There were tribes that lived in the deep forests. They sent messages to one another by beating out signals on their drums. Everyone knew the language of the drums.
There was a woodpecker named Koka in the forest. He was extremely intelligent. He heard the sounds made by the drums and picked up many of the rhythms.
He could imitate the drum sounds on tree trunks and often created a lot of confusion by sending off messages. One day, he sent a message saying that an elephant was running wild. The tribes wasted a lot of time looking for the elephant, but all the elephants they saw seemed perfectly normal.
The Jolama tribe sent a message one day that a neighbouring tribe of Karabis was attacking their forest. They were cutting down trees or burning them down, trying to chase out the local tribe. The drums began to beat and all the tribes got ready to defend their forest.
There was a battle in the forest that day. The tribes managed to save their forest. The Chief of the Jolama tribe held a feast and invited all the others to attend it. It so happened that Koka was sleeping on a tree near the celebration. He couldn’t sleep with all the noise and singing.
The next day, the tribesmen were fast asleep having drunk a lot of wine the night before. As they slept, Koka saw a spy from the Korabi tribe. He was sneaking around the sleeping tribesmen and counting them. He also hid a few of their spears and axes.
Koka thought something was wrong.
“I should wake up the tribesmen. But how?” thought Koka. Then he remembered the drums. “I think I’ll try to beat the drum. The noise will wake up these fellows!”
Koka flew to one of the drums. When he tried to peck at it, the skin on the drum broke. Koka looked around, but found the bang had not woken the men up.
He thought for a while. Then he went close to the sleeping Chief, his spear near him. Koka began to peck at it. There was a steady tattoo sound that said, “Danger! Danger! Wake up! Wake up! Enemy! Enemy! Wake up! Wake up!”
The Chief heard the sound. He jumped up and saw the spy. He shouted and the tribesmen woke up. The spy was caught. The Jolamas gave him a beating and sent him home. Koka became a hero and a pet of the Jolama tribe.
