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| The Screech Owl Once upon a time there was a beautiful young woman. Every day she would collect hemlock branches and bind them together using strings made of red cedar bark. This made a sort of a blanket. She would take this to a place called Herring Rock and lay it down flat. When the tide came in the blanket would trap loads of herring and the beautiful young woman would take them home. Now this beautiful young woman lived with her ugly older sister. "What are you cooking" her sister would ask her, "I'm very hungry". "I'm only cooking some clams" she would reply. "But I'm very hungry, can't I have some,"' she said, holding out her hand asked her ugly older sister. As the ugly older sister turned her head the beautiful younger sister placed a hot rock in her hand. The older ugly sister cried out in pain but her sister did not feel sorry for her. Soon their tribe's very wise medicine woman passed by and the ugly older sister told her about what her beautiful younger sister had done. The next day the beautiful younger sister went back to Herring Rock. This time the wise medicine woman was waiting there with a canoe filled with fish. "Come here," said the medicine woman, "I have loads of fish". The beautiful young woman ran to the canoe and became so excited she did not notice the medicine woman walking off. "Bring your basket!" the young woman cried. She cried over and over and louder and louder. The entire village heard her but no one would help such a selfish girl. Soon her voice began to sound strange; her words confused sounding like a hoot of an owl. Her words became less and less and the hoots more and more until she had become a screech owl. Now days when a beautiful young girl is selfish we will turn her into a screech owl. Bibliography (The Screech Owl is a modification of its original source. All the characters were made female. And in keeping with mythological style the young woman was made beautiful and the older woman ugly). Bemister, Margaret, Indian Legends Stories of America Before Columbus, 1914, The MacMillian Company, "The Screech Owl" p 65-68. |