Latest / Sandman Stories Presents / EP 334: Canada- The Boy Who Was Called Thick Head (Macmillan)

Transcript

EP 334: Canada- The Boy Who Was Called Thick Head (Macmillan) · Sandman Stories Presents

• 0:30
  Welcome back listeners to Sam Man's stories, Presents of
• 0:33
  Folklore podcast where I read you to sleep or until the next
• 0:35
  story. I'm your host, Dustin.
• 0:38
  And if you'd like more Sandman that's too spicy for the main
• 0:40
  feed, go over to Patreon and check me out.
• 0:43
  You can sign up for free and you get access to everything, both
• 0:47
  my research and other fun stuff I come across.
• 0:52
  And thank you to Frankie, Angie and Missy Fool for signing up
• 0:57
  today. We are back in the book of
• 0:58
  Canadian folk tales written down by Cyrus McMillan.
• 1:02
  In this story, your brother is thought to be foolish, only to
• 1:05
  be the smartest one in the end. OK, let's begin.
• 1:10
  The boy who was called Thick Head.
• 1:14
  Three brothers live with their old Indian mother in the forest
• 1:17
  near the sea. Their father had been dead for a
• 1:20
  long time. When he died, he didn't have a
• 1:24
  penny to his name, so his widow and sons were very poor.
• 1:28
  Where they lived. There wasn't a lot of game to be
• 1:30
  haunted, so they went to bed hungry.
• 1:33
  The youngest boy was smaller and weaker than the others, and when
• 1:36
  the two older sons went our way to hunt, they always left him
• 1:39
  behind. Although he always wanted to go
• 1:42
  with them, they would never let him tag along because he was so
• 1:45
  small and weak. Instead, he had to do all the
• 1:49
  housework. All day long he would gather
• 1:53
  wood in the forest and carry the water from the stream.
• 1:57
  Even in the spring, when his brothers were sent out to draw
• 2:00
  SAP from the Maple trees, he was never permitted to go with them.
• 2:04
  He was always making mistakes and doing foolish things.
• 2:08
  His brothers called him Thick Head and all the people around
• 2:11
  said he was a simpleton because of his slow and strange ways.
• 2:16
  Only his mother was kind to him, and she always said, they may
• 2:20
  laugh at you and call you a fool, but you will prove to be
• 2:23
  wiser than all of them. For it was told to me by a
• 2:26
  forest fairy when you were born. The chief had a beautiful
• 2:32
  daughter who had many suitors, but her father turned them all
• 2:35
  away from his door and said, My daughter is not old enough to
• 2:39
  get married, and when she is, she will only marry a great
• 2:42
  hunter. The two older sons of the old
• 2:46
  woman decided that one of them must marry the girl, so they set
• 2:50
  out on a great hunting expedition far away in the Great
• 2:52
  Northern forest. Because it was autumn and the
• 2:55
  Hunter's moon had come. The youngest wanted to go with
• 2:59
  them, for he had never left home and he wanted to see the world.
• 3:03
  His mother gave him permission to go.
• 3:06
  His brothers were very annoyed when they heard this, and they
• 3:08
  said Thick Head can't help us hunt, he will only bring us bad
• 3:12
  luck. He isn't a hunter, just a
• 3:15
  Scullion and a drudge was only good for tending fires.
• 3:19
  But his mother told them to honor the boys wish and they had
• 3:22
  to obey. So the three brothers set out
• 3:25
  for the north. The two older brothers belly
• 3:27
  yaking loudly because they were accompanied by the boy that they
• 3:30
  thought was a fool. The two older brothers had good
• 3:34
  luck hunting and they killed a lot of game deer and rabbits and
• 3:38
  otters and Beavers, and they came home carrying a lot of
• 3:42
  dried meat and skins. They each thought.
• 3:45
  Now we have begun to prove our skills to the chief, and if we
• 3:48
  do the same next year under the Hunter's moon, one of us will
• 3:51
  win his daughter when she is old enough to marry.
• 3:56
  The only thing the youngest boy brought home from the northern
• 3:58
  forest was a large earthworm as thick as his finger and as long
• 4:03
  as his arm. It was the biggest earthworm he
• 4:06
  had ever seen. He thought it was a great
• 4:08
  curiosity as well as a great discovery, and he was so busy
• 4:12
  watching it each day that he had no time to hunt.
• 4:16
  When he brought it home in a box, his brother said to his
• 4:19
  mother, Well, what did we tell you about Thick Head?
• 4:22
  Surely he has proved himself a fool.
• 4:25
  He has caught only a fat earthworm in all this time.
• 4:29
  And they shouted it everywhere in the village, and all the
• 4:31
  people loudly laughed at the simpleton until Thick Heads Hunt
• 4:35
  became a byword in all the land. But the boy's mother only smiled
• 4:39
  and said He will still surprise them all.
• 4:43
  The boy kept the earthworm in a tiny pen just outside the door
• 4:46
  of his home. One day a large duck came
• 4:49
  waddling along and sticking her bill over the little fence of
• 4:52
  the pen. She quickly gobbled up the worm.
• 4:55
  The boy was very angry and he went to the man who owned the
• 4:58
  duck and said, Your duck ate up my pet worm.
• 5:01
  I want my worm. The man offered to pay him
• 5:04
  whatever he wanted, but the boy said, I do not want your money,
• 5:08
  I want my worm. The man said, How can I give you
• 5:11
  your worm when my duck is eating it up?
• 5:13
  It's gone forever. And the boy said, It's not gone,
• 5:17
  it's in the duck's belly, so I will have the duck.
• 5:21
  Then to avoid further trouble, the man gave the head the duck,
• 5:24
  for he thought to himself, what is the use of arguing with a
• 5:27
  fool? The boy took the duck home and
• 5:31
  kept it in a little pen near his home with a low fence around it,
• 5:34
  and he tied a great weight to its foot so it could not fly
• 5:36
  away. He was quite happy again, for he
• 5:39
  thought, now I have both my worm and the duck.
• 5:43
  But one day a fox came prowling along looking for food.
• 5:47
  He saw the Fat Duck tied by the foot in the little pen, and he
• 5:50
  said, What good fortune, there is a choice meal for me.
• 5:55
  And in the twinkling he was over the fence.
• 5:58
  The duck quacked and made a great noise, but she was soon
• 6:01
  silenced. The fox had just finished eating
• 6:04
  up the duck, and the boy who heard the quacking came running
• 6:07
  out of the house. The fox was smacking his lips
• 6:11
  after his good meal, and he was too slow in getting away.
• 6:15
  The boy fell to beating him with a stout club, and soon killed
• 6:18
  him and threw his body into the yard behind the house.
• 6:21
  And he thought, That is not so bad now I have my worm and the
• 6:25
  duck and the fox. That night an old wolf came
• 6:29
  through the forest in search of food.
• 6:32
  He was very hungry, and in the bright moonlight he saw the dead
• 6:35
  fox lying in the yard. He pounced upon him greedily and
• 6:39
  devoured it until not a trace of it was left.
• 6:43
  But the boy saw him, and before he could get away he came up
• 6:46
  stealthily upon him and killed him with the blow of his axe.
• 6:49
  I am surely in good luck, he thought, for now I have the worm
• 6:52
  and the duck and the fox and the wolf.
• 6:56
  But the next day when he told his brothers about the good
• 6:58
  fortune, they laughed loudly at him and said a lot of good.
• 7:01
  A dead wolf will do you before 2 days have passed.
• 7:05
  It'll be nothing but an evil smelling thing and you'll have
• 7:07
  to bury it deep. You are indeed a great fool.
• 7:12
  The boy pondered for a long time over what they had said and he
• 7:15
  thought perhaps they are right. A dead wolf won't last long.
• 7:19
  I'll save the skin. So he skinned the wolf and dried
• 7:23
  the skin and made a drum from it.
• 7:26
  The drum was one of the few musical instruments of the
• 7:28
  Indians in those old times, and they beat it loudly at all their
• 7:31
  dances and festivals. The boy beat the drum each
• 7:34
  evening and made a great noise, and he was very proud because he
• 7:38
  had the only drum in the whole village.
• 7:41
  One day the chief sent for him and said to him, I want to
• 7:44
  borrow your drum for this evening.
• 7:47
  I'm having a great gathering to announce to all the land that my
• 7:49
  daughter is now of age to marry, and that suitors may now seek
• 7:52
  her hand in marriage. But I have no musical
• 7:55
  instruments, and I want your drum, and I myself will beat it
• 7:58
  at the dance. So thick.
• 8:02
  Head brought his drum to the chief's house, but he was not
• 8:04
  very well pleased because he was not invited to the feast while
• 8:07
  his brothers were among the favored guests.
• 8:10
  And he said to the chief, Be careful, do not tear the skin of
• 8:13
  my drum, for I can never get another drum like it.
• 8:17
  My worm and my duck and my fox and my wolf have all helped to
• 8:20
  make it. The next day he went for his
• 8:23
  drum, but the chief had struck it too hard and had split it
• 8:26
  open so they would make no sound, and it was ruined beyond
• 8:29
  repair. He offered to pay the boy a
• 8:32
  great price for it, but the boy said, I do not want your price.
• 8:36
  I want my drum. Give me back my drum for my worm
• 8:39
  and the duck and the fox and the wolf.
• 8:41
  We're all in it. The chief said, How can I give
• 8:45
  you back your drum? When it is broken?
• 8:47
  It is gone forever. I will give you an exchange,
• 8:50
  anything you desire for it, since you do not like the price.
• 8:54
  Ioffer. Name your own price and you
• 8:56
  shall have it. The boy thought to himself, Here
• 9:00
  is my chance now I'll surprise my brothers.
• 9:04
  And then he said, since you can't give me my drum, I will
• 9:08
  take your daughter in marriage in exchange.
• 9:13
  The chief was very perplexed, but he had given his word and he
• 9:16
  had to stay true to it. So he gave his daughter to Thick
• 9:19
  Head and they were married and the girl brought in much
• 9:22
  treasure and they lived quite happily.
• 9:25
  The brothers were quite amazed and angered because they had
• 9:27
  failed. But his mother said I told you
• 9:31
  he was wiser than you and that he would outwit you even though
• 9:34
  you called him thick head and fool, for the forest fairy told
• 9:37
  me so at his birth. The end.
• 10:06
  Well I like that story. Trading up trope is alive and
• 10:08
  well in folklore. I've seen it in Turkish tales
• 10:11
  and Thai tales and so it's quite widespread and I wish I knew
• 10:15
  more about which tribes McMillan was working with, but I may
• 10:18
  never know. And the podcast Shout Out is to
• 10:21
  the vocal fries Doctor Figueroa and Gillian talk about how
• 10:26
  beautiful language diversity is. They remind us not to be
• 10:29
  linguistic jerks. Go and give them a listen and
• 10:31
  enjoy them. And the listener shout out is to
• 10:34
  Ninben, Vietnam. It is a more rural area of
• 10:38
  Vietnam, but it still has a lot to see.
• 10:40
  And if I get a chance to go back to Vietnam, I would love to see
• 10:43
  the limestone scenery and the temples.
• 10:45
  And so to my listener hanging out the Haulu ancient capital, I
• 10:49
  say, come on, BA Tu Nong Nong. Thank you and good night.