Latest / Old Native American Legends / 011 - The Toad And The Boy

Transcript

011 - The Toad And The Boy · Old Native American Legends

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Old Indian Legends by Zitkala Shah, Section eleven. This is
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Old Indian Legends. The toad and the Boy. The water
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: fowls were flying over the marshy lakes. It was now
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: the hunting season. Indian men with bows and arrows were
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: wading waist deep amid the wild rice. Near by, within
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: their wigwams. The wives were roasting wild duck and making
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: down pillows. In the largest teepee sat a young mother
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: wrapping red porcupine quills about the long fringes of a
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: buckskin cushion. Beside her lay a black eyed baby boy,
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: cooing and laughing, reaching and kicking upward with his tiny
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: hands and feet. He played with the dangling strings of
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: his heavy beaded bonnet, hanging empty on a tent pole
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: above him. At length. The mother laid aside her red
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: quills and white sinew threads. The babe fell fast asleep,
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: leaning on one hand and softly whispering a little lullaby.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: She threw a light cover over her baby. It was
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: almost time for the return of her husband. Remembering there
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: were no willow sticks for the fire, she quickly girdled
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: her blanket tight about her waist, and with a short
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: handled axe slipped through her belt, she hurried away toward
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: the wood ravine. She was strong and swung an axe
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: as skillfully as any man. Her loose buckskin dress was
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: made for such freedom. Soon, carrying easily a bundle of
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: long willows on her back, with a loop of rope
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: over both her shoulders, she came striding homeward near the
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: entrance way. She stooped low at once, shifting the bundle
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: to the right with both hands, lifting the noose from
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: over her head. Having thus dropped the wood to the ground,
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: she disappeared into her teepee. In a moment, she came
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: running out again, crying, my son, My little son is gone.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: Her keen eyes swept east and west all around her.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: There was nowhere any sign of the child. Running with
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: clinched fists to the nearest teepees, she called, has any
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: one seen my baby? He is gone? My little son
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: is gone. Hin Nu hin Nu, exclaimed The women, rising
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: to their feet and rushing out of their wigwams. We
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: have not seen your child. What has happened? Queried the women,
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: with great tears in her eyes. The mother told her story.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: We will search with you, they said to her. As
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: she started off, they met the returning husbands, who turned
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: about and joined in the hunt for the missing child.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: Along the shore of the lakes, among the high grown reeds,
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: they looked in vain. He was nowhere to be found.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: After many days and nights, the search was given up.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: It was sad, indeed, to hear the mother wailing aloud
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: for her little son. It was growing late in the autumn.
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: The birds were flying high toward the south. The teepees
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: around the lakes were gone, save one lonely dwelling till
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: the winter. Snow covered the ground and ice covered the lakes.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: The wailing woman's voice was heard from that solitary wigwam
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: for some far distance. Was also the sound of the
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: father's voice, singing a sad song. Thus, ten summers and
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: as many winters have come and gone since the strange
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: disappearance of the little child. Every autumn, with the hunter
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: came the unhappy parents of the lost baby to search
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: again for him. Toward the latter part of the tenth season,
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: when one by one the teepees were folded and the
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: families went away from the lake region. The mother walked
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: again along the lake shore, weeping. One evening. Across the
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: lake from where the crying woman stood, a pair of
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: bright black eyes peered at her through the tall reeds
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: and wild rice. The little wild boy stopped his playing
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: among the tall grasses. His long loose hair hanging down
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: his brown back and shoulders, was carelessly tossed from his
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: round face. He wore a loincloth of woven sweet grass.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: Crouching low to the marshy ground, he listened to the
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: wailing voice as the woman grew hoarse, and only sobs
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: shook the slender figure of the woman. The eyes of
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: the wild boy grew dim and wet. At length. When
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: the moaning ceased, he sprang to his feet and ran
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: like a nymph. With swift outstretched toes. He rushed into
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: a small hut of reeds and grasses. Mother, Mother, tell
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: me what voice it was I heard which pleased my
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: ears but made my eyes grow wet, said he breathless. Han,
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: my son grunted a big, ugly toad. It was the
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: voice of a weeping woman. You've heard my son. Do
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: not say you like it. Do not tell me it
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: brought tears to your eyes. You have never heard me weep.
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: I can please your ear and break your heart. Listen,
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: replied the great old toad, stepping outside. She stood by
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: the entrance way. She was old and badly puffed out.
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: She had reared a large family of little toads, but
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: none of them had aroused her love, nor ever grieved her.
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: She had heard the wailing human voice and marveled at
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: the throat which produced the strange sound. Now, in her
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: great desire to keep the stolen boy awhile longer, she
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: ventured to cry, as the Dakota woman does, in a gruff,
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: coarse voice. She broke forth hin hin doe, skin, hin
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: hin er, mine er, mine hin hin, red blanket with
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: white border, Not knowing that the syllables of a Dakota's
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: cry are the names of loved ones gone, the ugly
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: toad mother sought to please the boy's ear with the
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: names of valuable articles. Having shrieked in a torturing voice
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: and mouthed extravagant names, the old toad rolled her tearless
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: eyes with great satisfaction, Hopping back into her dwelling, she asked,
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: my son, did my voice bring tears to your eyes?
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: Did my words bring gladness to your ears? Do you
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: not like my wailing better? No? No, pouted the boy
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: with some impatience. I want to hear the woman's voice.
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: Tell me, mother, why the human voice stirs all my feelings?
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: The toad mother said within her breast, the human child
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: has heard and seen his real mother. I cannot keep
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: him longer, I fear. Oh no, I cannot give away
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: the pretty creature I have taught to call me mother
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: all these many winters. Mother went on the child voice,
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: tell me one thing. Tell me why my little brothers
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: and sisters are all unlike me. The big ugly toad,
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: looking at her pudgy children, said, the eldest is always best.
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: This reply quieted the boy for a while. Very closely
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: watched the old toad mother her stolen human son. When
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: by chance he started off alone, she shoved out one
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: of her own children after him, saying, do not come
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: back without your big brother. Thus, the wild boy with
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: the long loose hair sits every day on a marshy island,
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: hid among the tall reeds, But he is not alone.
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: Always at his feet hops a little toad brother. One day,
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: an Indian hunter waiting in the deep waters spied the boy.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: He had heard of the baby stolen long ago. This
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: is he murmured the hunter to himself, as he ran
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: to his Wigwam, I saw among the tall reeds a
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: black haired boy at play. Shouted he to the people.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: At once the unhappy father and mother cried out, tis
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: he our boy? Quickly he led them to the lake.
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: Peeping through the wild rice, he pointed with unsteady finger
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: toward the boy playing all unawares. Tis he tis, he
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: cried the mother, for she knew him. In silence, the
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: hunter stood aside while the happy father and mother caressed
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: their baby boy grown tall and of Section eleven, recording
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: by Robert Scott, August, the first, two thousand and seven