Week 11 Reading Notes: Fairytales B

Photo by Selvan B on Unsplash

Story source: American Indian Fairy Tales by W.T. Larned, with illustrations by John Rae (1921).

Inside old Iagoo's teepee it was warm and cheerful, even though it was cold in the forest. Iagoo broke the silence to tell a story to Eagle Feather and Morning Glory. 

He told them a story of a boy who never grew to be more than three feet high. He had a sister who was much taller and stronger than him, and so she would collect food for both of them and care for him in every way. She did not realize how strange of a boy he was, and how mischievous he could be. She made her brother a bow so he could care for himself. 

Winter was coming and to keep himself from freezing he needed to find a warmer garment. He tried to pluck the feathers off of birds to make a coat and keep warm, but as he shot at the birds they got scared and flew away. Each day he tried again, and when he shot 10 birds he knew he had enough. He showed his sister, proud of himself, and so the sister sewed the skins together to make a coat. It was the first winter coat he had ever had. He wanted to travel the world but his legs were too short. He walked but could not go very far. 

He lay and the sun played a trick on him, the bird skins of the coat were fresh and so under the sun they shrunk. He felt his coat tightening and realized that the sun had shrunk his new coat. He was so upset and wanted revenge on the sun. So he decided to catch the sun in a noose. He went to a hill in the middle of the night and fixed the noose where the sun would rise. The sun rose and it was caught fast in the noose and stayed. 

All of the creatures noticed that the sun had not risen. Ken-eu the war eagle soared to the sky and looked to see what happened. The thunder was the only thing that could wake the dormouse, the coyote tried but to no avail. Thunder woke him up, and it worked so he was wide awake. The Coyote said to the dormouse that he had to free the sun. The dormouse was stupid and so he made himself up to where the boy had trapped the sun. He nibbled at the noose, but his back began to burn. He cut through and set the sun free, but all that was left of him was no larger than an ordinary mouse.