The Story

INTRO

The chapter on Traditions in Kane explains that the moment in which mythological tradition is most active is the moment when its orders of knowledge are most focused. That moment is the actual telling of a story. The traditional act of storytelling involves different aspects that make a story more powerful. These include the voice of the narrator, its polyphonic form and the effects that nature, people and the surroundings have on a story, consistency and the replication of the essential patterns of mythology, and finally, improvisation. The main instrument in any story is the voice, which brings the listener away from their current state of reality to the unseen worlds of tribal memory. For our oral presentation, we have each selected various short stories that derived from oral cultures where the tradition of storytelling created a bond between humanity and our relationship with the earth and the world we live.

The Earth on Turtle’s Back

 Before this earth existed, there was only water. The water stretched as far as the eye could see, and in the water lived birds and animals that could swim around. Above the water among the clouds was the sky land. In this land stood a great beautiful tree. It had four white roots that stretched far in every direction and the branches were covered with many fruits and flowers.

 In the sky land lived an ancient chief. One night his young wife had a dream where the great tree was uprooted. The next morning she told her husband about her dream.

 After she told him the story, he nodded and said “My wife, I am sad that you had this dream. However, it is clearly a dream of great power and we must do what we can to make it true. The great tree must be uprooted.”

 The chief called all of the young men together and told them that they must pull up the tree. But the roots were so strong and deep that they could not uproot it. After their failure, the ancient chief wrapped his arms around the tree and bent his knees and strained. At last, with one great effort, the chief uprooted the tree and laid it on its side. The trees roots were so long that they had shot deep into the sky land and created a big hole. The wife of the chief went to the hole, grabbed the tip of a branch for support, and leaned way over to look down. It seemed as though she saw something deep within the hole that glittered like water. She leaned even further to get a better look when her hand slipped from the branch and she fell down, down, down into the hole with only a few seeds in her hand from the branch of the tree.

 Far below in the water, some birds and animals looked up to the sky.

 “Something is falling toward us from the sky!” said one of the birds

“We must do something to help her!”  So two swans flew up. They caught the woman and slowly brought her back down to the water where all the other birds and animals were watching.

 “She is not like us” said one of the animals. “Look, she doesn’t have webbed feet. She will not survive in the water.”

 “Then what shall we do?” said another of the water animals.

 “I know”, said one of the birds, “I have heard that there is earth far below the water. If we dive down and bring up the earth, then she will have a place to stand.”

 So the birds and animals decided that one of them would have to dive down and bring some of the earth back to the surface. One by one they all tried.

 The duck dove down first. He swam down, down, far beneath the surface, but could not reach the earth. Then the beaver tried, he swam down, down, but could not reach the earth either. Then the Loon tried. Swimming with his strong wings. He was gone a long, long time but he too failed to bring up and earth. Soon it seemed that all had tried and failed. Then a small voice spoke. “I will bring up earth or die trying.”

 The animals looked to see that this small voice came from a tiny muskrat. She dove down and down, and swam and swam. She was not as strong or swift as the other, but she was determined.

 She went deep down into the darkness, and still swam deeper. She went so deep that he lungs felt ready to burst. But she swam deeper still. At last as she was becoming unconscious, she reached out one small paw and grasped at the bottom, barely touching the earth before she floated up, almost dead.

 When the other animals saw her break the surface they thought she had failed. Then they saw her right paw was held tightly shut.

 “She has the earth!” They all shouted with delight. “Now where can we put the earth so the woman can stand?”

 “Place it on my back.” Said a deep voice. It was the great turtle who had come up from the depths.

The brought the muskrat to the great turtle and opened her paw over his back. To this day there are marks at the back of the turtles shell which were made by the muskrats paw. The tiny bit of earth fell on the back of the turtle. Almost immediately, the turtles shell and the earth grew larger and larger until they became the whole world.

 The swans lifted the sky woman and placed her on the earth. She stepped onto the bare soil.  The woman dropped the seeds she held tightly in her hand from the great tree, from which trees and grass sprang up. Earth had begun.