I love Pandas. Actually I am overly obsessed with them, as I have real Panda Slippers, which I got from the National Zoo in DC, several Panda Plushies: three larger ones and three smaller ones, a Panda folder, Panda keychain, Panda T-shirt (although my art teacher said it looked like a rabid chipmunk since the colors were inverse as in panda's eye patches were white instead of black, etc.), Panda tag, Panda stool, Panda pictures, Panda stationary, and a "Pandas at Play" poster for my wall on their way.Pandas are the symbol for Ying and Yang living in harmony together. Also I am sympathetic to them because they are endangered species. The story of how the pandas got their black fur which was once white is: there were once four sisters who were shepherds who were friends with a panda cub. One day a leopard came and attacked the panda cub, but the four sisters fought using their staffs of bamboo providing a distraction for the panda cub to escape. Unfortunately, the four sisters lost against the leopard, as using the bamboo staffs as a weapon came to no avail, and they lost their lives in the process. All of the pandas in China were called to attenc a funeral for the brave sisters who had fought to defend the panda cub's life. At this part there are two versions of the story that I had come across. The first one goes that in a symbol of mourning, the pandas wore black armbands, and the black dye of the armbands, moistened by many tears from the pandas, began to run. When the pandas wiped their eyes, the armband left black marks. When the pandas consoled each other by hugging, the dye left black spots on their backs. When they covered their ears to block out the sound of crying, the black dye colored their ears. The other version is that the pandas covered themselves in ashes as a sign of mourning. Both say that in honor of the four sisters, they made an oath never to remove the black ashes/dye. In China, there is a mountain which the villagers call the "Four Sisters Mountain." Also there is another version of the beginning of the story which is instead of four sisters it was one little girl.
