This is a Native
American folktale:
The origin of fire
Long, long
ago, animals and trees talked with each other, but there was no fire at that
time. Fox was most clever and he tried to think of a way to create fire for the
world.
One day, he
decided to visit the Geese, whose cry he wished to learn how to imitate. They
promised to teach him if he would fly with them. So they contrived a way to
attach wings to Fox, but cautioned him never to open his eyes while flying.
Whenever the
Geese arose in flight, Fox also flew along with them to practice their cry. On
one such adventure, darkness descended suddenly as they flew over the village
of the fireflies. In mid-flight, the glare from the flickering fireflies caused
Fox to forget and he opened his eyes--instantly his wings collapsed! His fall
was uncontrollable. He landed within the walled area of the firefly village,
where a fire constantly burned in the center.
Two kind
fireflies came to see fallen Fox, who gave each one a necklace of juniper
berries.
Fox hoped to
persuade the two fireflies to tell him where he could find a way over the wall
to the outside. They led him to a cedar tree, which they explained would bend
down upon command and catapult him over the wall if he so desired.
That
evening, Fox found the spring where fireflies obtained their water. There also,
he discovered colored Earth, which when mixed with water made paint. He decided
to give himself a coat of white. Upon returning to the village, Fox suggested
to the fireflies, "Let's have a festival where we can dance and I will
produce the music."
They all
agreed that would be fun and helped to gather wood to build up a greater fire.
Secretly, Fox tied a piece of cedar bark to his tail. Then he made a drum,
probably the first one ever constructed, and beat it vigorously with a stick
for the dancing fireflies. Gradually, he moved closer and closer to the fire.
Fox pretended
to tire from beating the drum. He gave it to some fireflies who wanted to help
make the music. Fox quickly thrust his tail into the fire, lighting the bark,
and exclaimed, "It is too warm here for me, I must find a cooler
place."
Straight to
the cedar tree Fox ran, calling, "Bend down to me, my cedar tree, bend
down!
Down bent
the cedar tree for Fox to catch hold, then up it carried him far over the wall.
On and on he ran, with the fireflies in pursuit.
As Fox ran
along, brush and wood on either side of his path were ignited from the sparks
dropping from the burning bark tied to his tail.
Fox finally
tired and gave the burning bark to Hawk, who carried it to brown Crane. He flew
far southward, scattering fire sparks everywhere. This is how fire first spread
over the Earth.
Fireflies
continued chasing Fox all the way to his burrow and declared, "Forever
after, Wily Fox, your punishment for stealing our fire will be that you can
never make use of it for yourself.
This is an
African folktale:
The Story of the Lightning and the
Thunder
In the olden
days the thunder and lightning lived on the earth amongst all the other people,
but the king made them live at the far end of the town, as far as possible from
other people's houses.
The thunder
was an old mother sheep, and the lightning was her son, a ram. Whenever the ram
got angry he used to go about and burn houses and knock down trees; he even did
damage on the farms, and sometimes killed people. Whenever the lightning did
these things, his mother used to call out to him in a very loud voice to stop
and not to do any more damage; but the lightning did not care in the least for
what his mother said, and when he was in a bad temper used to do a very large
amount of damage. At last the people could not stand it any longer, and
complained to the king.
So the king
made a special order that the sheep (Thunder) and her son, the ram (Lightning),
should leave the town and live in the far bush. This did not do much good, as
when the ram got angry he still burnt the forest, and the flames sometimes
spread to the farms and consumed them.
So the
people complained again, and the king banished both the lightning and the
thunder from the earth and made them live in the sky, where they could not
cause so much destruction. Ever since, when the lightning is angry, he commits
damage as before, but you can hear his mother, the thunder, rebuking him and
telling him to stop. Sometimes, however, when the mother has gone away some
distance from her naughty son, you can still see that he is angry and is doing
damage, but his mother's voice cannot be heard.
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Comparison:
Both stories
have animals as characters. In the story “the origin of fire” there was a fox,
geese, fireflies and hawks. In the story of the lightning and thunder there was
a sheep, and a ram. The morals for both stories are very similar. The moral is
to not be selfish, and greedy. The format for both stories is a folktale, or a
fable. Both hold some elements of nature.
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