Reading Notes: Southwestern and California Legends Part B

I am continuing in my reading of the Southwestern and California Legends for this week's Native American readings.

Coyote and the Hare

The story about the measuring worm Legend of Tu-Tok-A-Nu'-La (El Capitan) was a really interesting story. It had one of my favorite qualities about these folklores in that it had a lesson to learn in the end. The small creature ended up being the one who was able to do the difficult task and save the two young boys on the top of the mountain. Those plot twists at the end of the story is one of my favorite things. I may try to integrate the concept of the unlikely hero into my next story that I write (although I feel like this some what applies to the story of the fish, the hunter and the fisherman that I continued writing this week).

I already read the two stories about the Coyote being fooled by both the Hare and the deer. The Coyote seems to be a common factor in a vast majority of Native American stories, however, these stories are different than the first few that I read. Instead of the Coyote being portrayed as clever or even the creator of the earth, in these two stories he is portrayed as foolish and overly self-confident. In the story about the Coyote trying to kill the Hare ( Coyote and the Hare ) I thought the story was going to follow more along the lines of the big bad wolf trying to blow the house down on the three little pigs; I prefer the way the stories plot line actually went. This makes me think of the way that the Coyote is portrayed in the cartoon of Roadrunner and Willy Coyote. I like the idea of reversing the roles of the hunter and its prey to the prey winning out over the hunter. It is similar to the other story about the measuring worm where the unlikely character ends up doing something incredible or saving the day. After all, everyone loves and underdog. 

Bibliography: Myths and Legends of California and the Old Southwest by Katharine Berry Judson (1912).

Reading Notes: California and the Old Southwest Part A

This weeks readings are based on Native American Folklore and I have chosen to read California and the Old Southwest.

What really stood out to me was that all the stories were from different tribes from the same region. It was interesting to get to read all the different version of the story of how the earth was created. The tribes included similar factors such as the Coyote playing a big role in a lot of the stories. Across all the stories, all the main characters are animals. This explains why Native Americans have such a big respect for nature and animals. Some of the creation stories sound similar to stories found in other religions like Christianity. There were multiple stories about a flood, which was also a big event in the Bible.

Bear climbing the mountain

Something that was cool was that all the stories gave explanations for why things are the way they are today. Such as the frog spitting fire into the drift wood explaining why driftwood would start a fire when two logs were rubbed together. Also, the squirrels being burned by the fire explained why his tail was curled as it is and why squirrels in that region have the black (ash) marks down their backs. I usually prefer stories to have some sort of moral to them or a lesson to take away. However, these stories, in a sense, did having something to learn from the stories but instead of being value based they were explanations of the world around us. This might be something fun to try in my stories. I compare it to the musical 'Wicked' which went back and went back to explain what events led up to the movie "The Wizard of Oz."

One thing that confused me in all the stories was that whoever it was creating the world, whether it was Coyote or the Spider, they kept destroying the world over and over. It seemed to be a reoccurring theme that there was always an initial disappointment with how the earth was created and that it needed to be scrapped and done from scratch. One a few of the stories did something to save some of the humans who were already on the earth. What if the story was that the creator was initially pleased with his creation and he didn't destroy it and start over? It would likely be a boring story but maybe another plot twist could occur that would be less drastic but still interesting.

Bibliography: Myths and Legends of California and the Old Southwest by Katharine Berry Judson (1912).

Storytelling: The recovery of the magical fish hook

I could not believe that hunter was brave enough to go after that fish hook as it spiraled away into the depths of the sea. The odds of him finding the fish hook were slim to none, but nevertheless, I admired his courage and persistence in the circumstances. I continued about my own business swimming around exploring the rest of the sea but I soon became too consumed by curiosity.  The feeling overtook me and soon enough, I swam back in the direction of the palace of Watatsumi, god of the sea, to see if hunter had recovered his lost fish hook or if he had been discovered by the guards surround the palace.

I made a few laps around the outskirts of the palace and could not find him anywhere. It occurred to me that  maybe he had not found the magical hook and decided to cut his losses and return home. As I was beginning to turn away from the palace I saw movement in a near by cassia-tree. The movement was too large to be a fish like me so I took cover in a reef nearby to get a better look at what anomaly was hidden in the tree. Once I looked harder, I saw that indeed it was the hunter hiding in the tree! He was peering over the wall and staring at something with great concentration but yet he maintained a soft smile. I could hear the princess just on the other side of the wall humming softly, then all of a sudden, she gasped.

A little fish on a BIG adventure

After a few minutes, I saw the hunter go over the wall into the palace courtyard. He began to talk excitedly with the princess but I could barely make out what they were saying. I swam up and hid in the tree where the hunter had been, just in time to see the king come out to the courtyard to greet the young hunter. They shook hands and went inside the palace leaving me and my curiosity hanging up in that tree. I decided to wait a while and see if they came back out to the palace courtyard but after a few hours, I decided it was a waste of time and was getting ready to leave, until I heard the town crier trout start yelling. He said that the king was ordering all fish to come to the palace for he had a mission that required their knowledge of the land.  I had a hunch this had something to do with the hunter so I headed through the front gates as fast as I could.

I was one of the first few fish in there so I was near the front of the pack when the king came out to address us all and disclose just what our mission was to be. He explained quickly that his new son-in-law had lost his brother's magical fish hook and that whichever fish found it first would be greatly rewarded. I began racking my brain, trying to think if I remembered specifically what direction I had seen the hook float. After the king released us, I began to think back on what I had seen over the past few days. I recalled seeing the hook float to the right of the kingdom towards the reef where the Red Woman dwelt. I visited her and saw she had the hook lodged in her gills. She said she had been sleeping outside when she felt a sharp pain and woke up to this strange object lodged in her gills.

Quickly, I took her to the king who removed it and gave it back to the young hunter. The hunter, king and princess were all so thankful and as a reward, the king declared that I and my family could live in the west wing of his castle since I had done a great service for him! I could not wait to tell my mother, father and brothers of my good fortune. As I headed back to my village, all I could think about was rubbing it in my friends' faces for them undermining my great story.


Author's Note:

This is a continuation of the last story "The Brothers, The Fish and the Lost Fishhook." In this continuation, the little fish follows the hunter as he explores the palace in search of his brother's lost fish hook. I kept the story I told as close to the original as I could. All I wanted was to tell it from a 'fly on the way perspective' so I kept with the narrator being the fish from the other retelling. I was not able to keep the timeline the same as the original though because that one required years. This story I wanted to keep a little faster of a pace so I have it happening all within a few hours. Since the fish had helped the king and the hunter I thought it was only fair that he should be rewarded for his good deeds and living in a royal palace seemed like a good reward. In the first story, all his friends thought what he had told them about seeing the brothers and the fish hook was silly and unimportant. So I can imagine he would want to rush home and tell them what had happened. Boy were they wrong!

Bibliography: Romance of Old Japan, Part I: Mythology and Legend by E. W. Champney and F. Champney (1917).