Week 10 Reading Diary: Tales of the North American Indians

Tales of the North American Indians by Stith Thompson (1929)

Headdress of the Matoki Society, image by Edward Curtis

"The man stood perfectly still, and at the fourth time, as the cow ran forward to hook at him, she became a woman"

"The bears agreed and the fawns went in there first."
"Here is a skunk we killed in the log."
"Very well." said the bear mother.
This is an interesting storytelling technique using animals and giving them voices and considering them as humans

Splinter Foot Girl is a tale about a person who got a wound from a thorn plant while hunting and became unable to hunt. The leg swelled and eventually opened and then a child was issued from the leg. Yes, a child. Definitely not what I was expecting. This was a very intriguing tale.
"They climbed the three, each one of the men sitting on one of the branches, and the girl getting into the nest. So they waited for the bull who would pursue them."

"Thou mayst rejoice that thou hast already got a husband. I will have a while for mine."
"The Eagle and the Whale Husbands" was a very unique tale about eagles and whales who are husband and wife.

"After a while he saw a fox enter. He suspected that the fox was after food. He quietly slipped up to the house and on entering saw a most beautiful woman dressed in skin clothing of wondrous make. Within the house, on a line, hung the skin of a fox."

"As soon as she put her hands into the water, something seized them and pulled her underneath the sea. She had been taken by the Killer-Whales..."
This just gave me the chills reading this. One of my biggest fears is getting in water that I can't see through and being pulled under or something touching my feet. I think this part of the tale gave great suspense to the tale.

I find a lot of these tales very intriguing because they are about animals in which I fear but find very interesting. For example, I HATE snakes but it is interesting when you make a snake sound as if they were a human character.

"I will paint your face like that of a bear, with black marks across the eyes and at the corners of the mouth; then no one will touch you."

I love animals so these tales were really fun to read and they were told in a more simple style. The only thing I did not like was they were not as detailed as the Tejas Legends tales I read last week. I love imagery in stories and wish there was a little more in these tales.