Frizzy Lizzy's Halloween

Hi dear friends and followers. Today, Saturday is, Yes Its Frizzy Lizzy's Halloween time story. Hope you enjoy it.

Frizzy Lizzy moves slowly about the kitchen. The door opens and in walks her neighbor, all smiles and full of pep. Lizzy takes note of her cheerfulness with some disdain.

“My, but you're here early! What do you mean, it's quarter after two in the afternoon? I just got out of bed and I haven't even made the coffee yet! Yes, you're still welcome here, just help me get some coffee on, OK?”

“Where was I last night? Charley and I went to a Halloween party at the country club. Were we in costume? Is a bluebird blue? Sure, we were!

“If Charley had given me a few more days' notice I would have been able to dream up a great costume but I think I did well given the short time that I had to prepare. What did I go as? Well, I took out the best outfit that I used to wear to work and had it dry cleaned, wore it with a nice, white blouse; low, black heels, and a flag pin on the lapel. I carried a small brief case and scared the hell out of everyone. How did I do that? I told them that I was a tax collector!

“Charley? He went as a college professor. For him, all he had to do was to wear a suit and carry a book and no one recognized him!”

“We got there at about seven, well in-time for the cocktail hour. It didn't take very long for that bunch to get loose, let me tell you! Charley and his pals were three sheets to the wind before they served the soup for supper!

“We ate an hour later than we were supposed to because no one wanted to leave the bar! No, no one was wearing a lampshade on their head but one of the men got oiled-up enough to go hang by his heels in the coat room until he collected his bets that he could do it without getting sick. Typical man stuff, right?”

“So we got through supper without any major mishaps. Sure, there were some spilled drinks but nothing catastrophic. We finished eating and then the drinking began again in earnest.

“There was a five-piece band that played music for dancing and the longer we drank, the more of us danced, even Charley. He danced with Joanne before he asked me!

“As if that wasn't bad enough, some fool went into the janitor's closet instead of the men's room and he came out with a mop stick in his hand and wet pants! Well, anyway, he asked the band if they could play some music so we could do the limbo.”

“What? You don't remember the limbo? Oh, you know, it's that dance where you bend over backwards and go under a bar and the one who can go down lowest without falling down on the floor wins the adulation of all lesser mortals!

So I know my limits and there is no way in hell that I am going to bend over backwards in a business outfit, with nylons on, just to get a round of applause and I tell Charley that he's on his own.”

“Now with Charley, when the liquor's in, the common sense is out. He waited for his turn in the line, took off his shoes, and started to move with the music. As he was bending over backwards we heard a snap! It sure wasn't his fingers making that noise! Charley hit the floor, howling like a banshee!

Well, let me tell you, the party carried on. All they did was to call the paramedics because Charley couldn't move without screaming in pain. And they moved the limbo bar about 10 feet to the left so the paramedics could get to Charley.”

“They came and put him on a backboard and hauled him off to the hospital. Not only did he not win the contest, he didn't even get honorable mention for his efforts, but his costume came in as the most original of the night.

Where is he? Last I looked he was in the hospital and as far as I'm concerned Joanne can go visit him first!

I hope that you had a happy Halloween!”

Composed by Cynthia

Thank you again for dropping in to visit with Frizzy Lizzy. I hope you have enjoyed. I would appreciate knowing what your thoughts are on this topic. Thank you and have a wonderful week.

✿ڰۣ❤In Loving Light from the Fairy Lady❤ڰۣ✿

WHY THE INDIANS HAVE SO MANY TRIBES

Hi Dear friends and followers, for today's Native American legend we visit the Powhatan. 

Earlier, we looked at the Iroquois Confederacy and how its Five Nations, the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca, made peace with one another and mutually worked for their prosperity. Their articles of confederation and concepts of self-government are the basis for the United States Constitution.

At about the same time, maybe 250 miles (400 kilometres) to the south, on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay, another confederation was holding sway. It came to be known as the Powhatan Confederacy.  They also controlled what is now known as the Tidewater Area of Virginia, and north to Washington, DC.

Its members were Native North Americans belonging to the Algonquian branch of the Algonquian-Wakashan linguistic stock (see Native American languages). Their area embraced most of tidewater Virginia and the eastern shore of Chesapeake Bay. Wahunsonacock, or Powhatan, as the English called him, was the leader of the confederacy when Jamestown was settled in 1607.

The Powhatan are said to have been driven north to Virginia by the Spanish, where their chief, Powhatan's father, subjugated five other Virginia tribes. With Powhatan's own conquests, the empire included, among some 30 peoples. The Pamunkey, Mattapony, Chickahominy, and others are likewise commemorated in the names of the streams and rivers of eastern Virginia.

The tribes of the confederacy provided mutual military support and paid taxes to Powhatan in the form of food, pelts, copper, and pearls. Many of the confederacy’s villages, which consisted of long dwellings covered with bark or reed mats, were palisaded; they were situated near fields in which women cultivated corn (maize), beans, squash, and other vegetables. Men were occupied with hunting and warfare.

They were a sedentary people, with some 200 settlements, many of them protected by palisades when the English arrived. They cultivated corn, fished, and hunted. Of his many capitals, Powhatan favored Werowocomoco, on the left bank of the York River near modern Purtan Bay, where Capt. John Smith first met him in 1608.

The English soon seized the best lands, and Powhatan quickly retaliated. To appease him, he was given a crown, and a coronation ceremony was formally performed by Christopher Newport in 1609. Peace with Powhatan was secured when his daughter Pocahontas married (1614) John Rolfe.

On Powhatan's death in 1618, Opechancanough, chief of the Pamunkey, became the central power in the confederacy, and he organized the general attack (1622) in which some 350 settlers were killed. English reprisals were equally violent, but there was no further fighting on a large scale until 1644, when Opechancanough led the last uprising, in which he was captured and murdered at Jamestown.

In 1646 the confederacy yielded much of its territory, and beginning in 1665 its chiefs were appointed by the governor of Virginia. After the Iroquois, traditional enemies of the confederacy, agreed to cease their attacks in the Treaty of Albany (1722), the tribes scattered, mixed with the settlers, and all semblance of the confederacy disappeared. In 1990 there were about 800 Powhatan in the United States, most of them in eastern Virginia.

Here is the only legend that I could find that is at all attributable to the Powhatan People:

WHY THE INDIANS HAVE SO MANY TRIBES

So many moons ago that one cannot count them, all of our people lived underground. We lived in total darkness. Our animals lived with us.

One of our animals was very brave! This was a ground mole. One day the mole crawled far, far away from all of us. It crawled up and up. After a long time, it saw a hole. The mole crawled through that hole and saw light! It saw trees and rivers and sky! Here there was no darkness. Here there was beauty and light all around.

The mole crawled back through the hole as fast as it could. The mole told our people of the wonders it had seen. Alas, the light had made it blind. (That is why all moles are blind to this very day.)

Our people were so excited! There was light out there! There was beauty! We could hardly wait to climb out and see for ourselves!

And that is just what we did. Person after person climbed through that hole.

Our people saw the world and all of its beauty for the first time.
More and more people came out of the hole into the wonderful world.

But then a terrible thing happened! A very fat person got stuck in the hole! Our people tried pushing. Our people tried pulling. Push, pull, push, pull-push and pull some more!

But that fat person was stuck for good!

So, all of our people did not leave the darkness. But we who did kept walking on and on.

Soon, we came to a river. A beautiful bird flapped its wings three times. The waters of the river parted. We walked across the dry path of the river.

Many, many of us crossed the river. But lo! After a while the bird flew away. The waters came back together. Some of our people could not get across.

After several moons, we came to a very high mountain. Some kindly deer led us across the rocky, high mountain. But pretty soon, some eagles chased the deer away. Many of my people did not cross the mountain.

Those of us who did make it across the mountain soon found ourselves in the thickest forest in the world! We could not even see each other because of all the trees! We tried to stay together, but we could not. A few of us went this way. A few of us went that way. All over the 

place we were scattered. And that is why to this very day we all live in different places.

Copyright 1983, Commonwealth Studies Program, Virginia Department of Education

Thank you again for dropping in to read this Native American legend. I hope you have enjoyed it. I would appreciate knowing what your thoughts are on this topic. Thank you and have a wonderful week.

✿ڰۣ❤In Loving Light from the Fairy Lady❤ڰۣ✿

The Nanticoke People's legend.

The Nanticoke People's legend.

Hi dear friends and followers, we begin another Native American legend as told by the Nanticoke People.  

The Nanticoke People were the original inhabitants of the western shore of the Delaware Bay and that part of the State of Maryland known as the Eastern Shore. 

They lived off the land as hunters, fishermen, trappers and, to some extent, farmers.

The Nanticoke enjoyed the best of native lifestyles. They were proficient farmers, planting corn and beans, and drying them for later use. Women and children cared for lush gardens of corn, beans, squash, pumpkins, sunflowers, and tobacco. They gathered nuts, berries, birds' eggs, and edible plants in season. As they lived close to the rivers, in warmer months, they dined on delicious seafood, including clams, oysters, mussels, crabs, eels, and fish. Nets, snares, baskets, weirs, and spears were fashioned by the men to harvest the water's bounty. The men hunted the forests and meadows of the Eastern Shore for squirrels, turkeys, deer, opossums, rabbits, bear, partridges, ducks and geese.

Food was roasted over open fires or boiled in clay pots as a stew. Bows, arrows, and spears were used for larger game and snares or traps were set for smaller animals. All parts of the animals and sea creatures were utilized. Shells were used for spoons, bowls, wampum, and ornate decorations. Porcupine quills, furs, skins, sinew, and bones were used for clothing and tool implements.

Nanticoke housing was a wigwam that was made very much like those made by the Iroquois or other northeastern peoples. Groups lived in a longhouse. They established villages as well.

I searched many sources for legends told by the Nanticoke People, and found but one that was called “reliable” by its source. It is a Creation Mythology that might seem familiar to you. I can only guess that there was some sort of Great Flood and Native American diaspora because of the similarity of creation myths.
This retelling, which is one of the versions currently told among the Nanticoke-Lenape tribal communities of the Delaware Bay region, also includes the role of Muskrat, which is recorded to have traditionally been an animal of some mythological significance among the Nanticoke, as documented by James Athearn Jones [Traditions of the North American Indians: Tales of an Indian Camp, vol.II. London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, 1830. pp. 49-91].

After the Great Spirit and creator of all, “He-Who-Creates-Us-By-Thought,” brought the world into being, there came a time very long ago when the animals were living in deep water with no dry land. They grew weary of being wet and wanted to find a way to bring up the mud from under the water.

From the greatest to the least, each one dove under the water. One by one they tried to dive deep enough to bring up some of the mud. And, one by one, they failed, being unable to dive so deep and so long. It seemed as though none could bring up the mud from the bottom. All came back to the surface, gasping for air. It seemed an impossible task, for none was willing to risk their life to bring up the mud.

Finally, after all the others had tried and failed, humble Muskrat took his turn. Muskrat dove deep and was under the water for a very long, long time. The other animals feared that Muskrat had drowned, for he stayed below the water much longer than any of them had. When Muskrat finally came back up to the surface, he was exhausted and close to death. The animals saw that there was a clump of mud scraped from the bottom in Muskrat’s paw. Humble Muskrat had risked his life to dive deeper than any of them had in order to bring the mud up from the bottom.

“He-Who-Creates-Us-By-Thought” summoned Turtle to the surface of the water and placed the mud from Muskrat’s paw upon the back of Turtle. “He-Who-Creates-Us-By-Thought” caused the mud to grow, covering Turtle’s back. As Turtle continued to raise his back, more water drained off and the mud that grew and grew became dry, becoming the land. And the animals had dry land to live upon.

One day, in the middle of the land upon Turtle’s back, there grew a tree. From that tree grew a shoot. And, from that shoot sprouted a man. The man would have been all alone, but then the tree grew another shoot. And, from that shoot sprouted a woman. This was the first man and the first woman. They are the ancestors of us all.

Thank you again for dropping in to read this Native American legend. I hope you have enjoyed. I would appreciate knowing what your thoughts are on this topic. Thank you and have a wonderful week.

✿ڰۣ❤In Loving Light from the Fairy Lady❤ڰۣ✿

Realities Without End

Hi dear friends and followers. Today I wish to introduce you to another one of poems, a poem about the realities without end, a short journey into my concept of the infinities. Hope you enjoy it.

Realities Without End

Through endless void, not of darkness but of spiraling colors,

a place where there is no concept of time;

and the mind, or consciousness is part of but not,

of the whirling void all about, with consciousness at it's center;

A place where true reality is never changing,

but in layers like ripples created, when one drops a stone

on the surface of a lake with no shores, no land,

a continuous flow, undulating into infinity itself.

The consciousness has not lived, nor does it die.

No coming or going;

a grain of sand in a sea of sand.

Nothing is gained nor is there loss,

only being.

It isn’t black or white,

malevolent or benevolent;

nor is it in past, present, or future;

it is the one pulse, one beat in infinity.

It is not masculine or feminine,

black or white, not clear or opaque, not sharp or dull;

not dense or light, intelligible or unintelligible.

It is where boundaries cease and dualities merge;

Laws of physics inverted as they are as irrelevant here

as time has no substantial cause and effect,

only irrelevant as infinite space, in no time itself.

Time and distance do not apply, for like space, it has no form.

Nothing stands in your way, because you are the way.

You are part of each part that make the whole.

All about you converges to one then expands again.

Great flames lick at you, but do not consume you.

Massive objects grow and diminish but do not impede.

Its concept lost in the void of consciousness,

that can only know it is, and not when or where;

without the concept of time and distance, all is here,

and all is there at the same time

in the shades of light and dark.

Great walls of dust you enter;

a form begins to shape around you

as you fall into the darkness below.

Below? What is below?

Below is under.

Memories return

as you feel the building pressure around you,

and as you glow cherry red, the shell around you shatters

in a loud explosion and falls to the ground below,

in a million smoldering shards scattered over a field.

What is around you is different from whence you came.

There was distance, space and proportions

within a given area, which is a byproduct of time.

There was movement, constant movement,

but in a restricted manner, unlike where all was all,

and now is what is, what it is, a space within space,

where dust became light, and light is the absence of dark.

A place where there was a pattern governed by laws;

the law of light was love and the dark was the opposite.

Within the spark of love is the essence of love.

The dust falls, and through the light life is born.

Life is the essence of love.

This process is repeated on myriads of other worlds,

layers upon layers of worlds,

like multiple ripples on a pond when on a rainy day;

ripples within ripples.

Brilliant sparks afloat in a void of darkness;

a planet breaths and new life is born.

Be still and quiet the mind, and you may truly see

you don't own it, you only occupy part of it.

Love is no slave to anyone in particular;

It is born of universe and is therefore universal.

Composed by Cynthia ©

Thank you again for dropping in to read my mid week poetry. I hope you have enjoyed. I would appreciate knowing what your thoughts are on this topic. Thank you and have a wonderful week.

✿ڰۣ❤In Loving Light from the Fairy Lady❤ڰۣ✿

HOW STORYTELLING CAME TO THE SENECA

Hi dear friends and followers, welcome to the legends of the Native Americans

To the best of my knowledge, the Native Peoples who lived in the place now called Pennsylvania were the Lenape (Delaware), Susquehannock, Shawnee, Seneca, Erie, Mingo, and Monongahela. Their areas of influence are shown on th emap I have included with today's legend.

It is a sorry thing that no legends or folklore exists for any of these groups other than the Shawnee and the Seneca. Considering that we have already heard legends from the Lenape and that we will hear from the Shawnee later on, I present you with a legend of how storytelling came to the Seneca People.

HOW STORYTELLING CAME TO THE SENECA

In a Seneca village lived a boy whose father and mother died when he was only a few weeks old. The little boy was cared for by a woman, who had known his parents, She gave him the name of Poyeshaon (Orphan).

The boy grew to be a healthy, active little fellow. When he was old enough, his foster mother gave him a bow and arrows, and said "It is time for you to learn to hunt.Tomorrow morning go to the woods and kill all the birds you can find."

Taking cobs of dry corn the woman shelled off the kernels and parched them in hot ashes; and the next morning she gave the boy some of the corn for his breakfast and rolled up some in a piece of buckskin and told him to take it with him, for he would be gone all day and would get hungry.

Poyeshaon started off and was very successful. At noon he sat down and rested and ate some of the parched corn, then he hunted till the middle of the afternoon. When he began to work toward home he had a good string of birds.

The next morning Poyeshaon's foster mother gave him parched corn for breakfast and while he was eating she told him that he must do his best when hunting, for if he became a good hunter he would always be prosperous.

The boy took his bow and arrows and little bundle parched corn and went to the woods; again he found plenty of birds. At midday he ate his corn and thought over what his foster mother had told him. In his mind he said, "I'll do just as my mother tells me, then some time I'll be able to hunt big game."

Poyeshaon hunted till toward evening, then went home with a larger string of birds than he had the previous day. His foster mother thanked him, and said, "Now you have began to help me get food."

Early the next morning the boy's breakfast was ready and as soon as he had eaten it he took his little bundle of parched corn and started off. He went farther into the woods and at night came home with a larger string of birds than he had the second day. His foster mother praised and thanked him.

Each day the boy brought home more birds than the previous day. On the ninth day he killed so many that he brought them home on his back. His foster mother tied the birds in little bundles of three or four and distributed them among her neighbors.

The tenth day the boy started off, as usual, and, as each day he had gone farther for game than on the preceding day, so now he went deeper into the woods than ever. About midday the sinew that held the feathers to his arrow loosened. Looking around for a place where he could sit down while he took the sinew off and wound it on again, he saw a small opening and near the center of the opening a high, smooth, flat-topped, round stone. He went to the stone, sprang up on to it and sat down. He unwound the sinew and put it in his mouth to soften, then he arranged the arrow feathers and was about to fasten them to the arrow when a voice, right there near him, asked, "Shall I tell you stories?"

Poyeshaon looked up expecting to see a man, not seeing any one he looked behind the stone and around it, then he again began to tie the feathers to his arrow.

"Shall I tell you stories?" asked a voice right there by him.

The boy looked in every direction, but saw no one. Then he made up his mind to watch and find out who was trying to fool him. He stopped work and listened and when the voice again asked, "Shall I tell you stories?" he found that it came from the stone, then he asked, "What is that? What does it mean to tell stories?"

"It is telling what happened a long time ago. If you will give me your birds, I'll tell you stories."

"You may have the birds."

As soon as the boy promised to give the birds, the stone began telling what happened long ago. When one story was told, another was begun. The boy sat, with his head down, and listened. Toward night the stone said, "We will rest now. Come againtomorrow. If anyone asks about your birds, say that you have killed so many that they are getting scarce and you have to go a long way to find one."

While going home the boy killed five or six birds. When his foster mother asked why he had so few birds, he said that they were scarce; that he had to go far for them.

The next morning Poyeshaon started off with his bow and arrows and little bundle of parched corn, but he forgot to hunt for birds, he was thinking of the stories the stone had told him. When a bird lighted near him he shot it, but he kept straight on toward the opening in the woods. When he got there he put his birds on the stone, and called out, "I've come! Here are birds. Now tell me stories."

The stone told story after story. Toward night it said "Now we must rest till tomorrow."

On the way home the boy looked for birds, but it was late and he found only a few.

That night the foster mother told her neighbors that when Poyeshaon first began to hunt he had brought home a great many birds, but now he brought only four or five after being in the woods from morning till night. She said there was something strange about it, either he threw the birds away or gave them to some animal, or maybe he idled time away, didn't hunt. She hired a boy to follow Poyeshaon and find out what he was doing.

The next morning the boy took his bow and arrows and followed Poyeshaon, keeping out of his sight and sometimes shooting a bird. Poyeshaon killed a good many birds; then, about the middle of the forenoon, he suddenly started off toward the East, running as fast as he could. The boy followed till he came to an opening in the woods and saw Poyeshaon climb up and sit down on a large round stone; he crept nearer and heard talking. When he couldn't see the person to whom Poyeshaon was talking he went up to the boy, and asked, "What are you doing here?

"Hearing stories."

"What are stories?"

"Telling about things that happened long ago. Put your birds on this stone, and say, 'I've come to hear stories.'"

The boy did as told and straightway the stone began. The boys listened till the sun went down, then the stone said, "We will rest now. Come again tomorrow."

On the way home Poyeshaon killed three or four birds.

When the woman asked the boy she had sent why Poyeshaon killed so few birds, he said, "I followed him for a while, then I spoke to him, and after that we hunted together till it was time to come home. We couldn't find many birds."

The next morning the elder boy said, "I'm going with Poyeshaon to hunt, it's sport." The two started off together. By the middle of the forenoon each boy had a long string of birds. They hurried to the opening, put the birds on the stone, and said, "We have come, Here are the birds! Tell us stories."

They sat on the stone and listened to stories till late in the afternoon, then the stone said, "We'll rest now till tomorrow.

On the way home the boys shot every bird they could find, but it was late and they didn't find many.

Several days went by in this way, then the foster mother said, "Those boys kill more birds than they bring home," and she hired two men to follow them.

The next morning, when Poyeshaon and his friend started for the woods the two men followed. When the boys had a large number of birds they stopped hunting and hurried to the opening. The men followed and, hiding behind trees, saw them put the birds on a large round stone, then jump up and sit there, with their heads down, listening to a man's voice; every little while they said, "Ûn!"

"Let's go there and find out who is talking to those boys," said one man to the other. They walked quickly to the stone, and asked, "What are you doing, boys?"

The boys were startled, but Poyeshaon said, "You must promise not to tell anyone."

They promised, then Poyeshaon said, "Jump up and sit on the stone."

The men seated themselves on the stone, then the boy said, "Go on with the story, we are listening."

The four sat with their heads down and the stone began to tell stories. When it was almost night the Stone said, "Tomorrow all the people in your village must come and listen to my stories. Tell the chief to send every man, and have each man bring something to eat. You must clean the brush away so the people can sit on the ground near me."

That night Poyeshaon told the chief about the story-telling stone, and gave him the stone's message. The chief sent a runner to give the message to each family in the village.

Early the next morning everyone in the village was ready to start. Poyeshaon went ahead and the crowd followed. When they came to the opening each man put what he had brought, meat or bread, on the stone; the brush was cleared away, and every one sat down.

When all was quiet the stone said, "Now I will tell you stories of what happened long ago. There was a world before this. The things that I am going to tell about happened in that world. Some of you will remember every word that I say, some will remember a part of the words, and some will forget them all, I think this will be the way, but each man must do the best he can. Hereafter you must tell these stories to one another, now listen."

Each man bent his head and listened to every word the stone said. Once in a while the boys said "Ûn!" When the sun was almost down the stone said, "We'll rest now. Cometomorrow and bring meat and bread."

The next morning when the people gathered around the stone they found that the meat and bread they had left there the day before was gone. They put the food they had brought on the. stone, then sat in a circle and waited. When all was quiet the stone began. Again it told stories till the sun was almost down, then it said, "Come tomorrow.Tomorrow I will finish the stories of what happened long ago.

Early in the morning the people of the village gathered around the stone and, when all was quiet, the stone began to tell stories, and it told till late in the afternoon, then it said, "I have finished! You must keep these stories as long as the world lasts; tell them to your children and grandchildren, generation after generation. One person will remember them better than another. When you go to a man or a woman to ask for one of these stories, carry something to pay for it, bread or meat, or whatever you have. I know all that happened in the world before this; I have told it to you. When you visit one another, you must tell these things, and keep them up always. I have finished."

And so it has been. From the Stone came all the knowledge the Senecas have of the world before this.

Thank you for taking the time  to this Native Americanlegend, hope you have enjoyed. I would appreciate knowing what your thought. Thank you and have a wonderful week.

✿ڰۣ❤In Loving Light from the Fairy Lady❤ڰۣ✿

Lenape Legends

Lenape Legends

Hi dear friends and welcome again to the Native American legends

Today's legends come to us from the Lenape (Delaware) People, the original inhabitants of what is now the State of New Jersey. There are two legends.

The first is the legend of how the Pleiades came to be, as the Lenape saw it. You can compare it to Onondaga legend or those of the Abenaki on the same subject and see that they had quite a divergent view.

There is also a Vermont Abenaki legend that talks about the maple tree. You might want to have a look at it to learn how they saw the maple tree.

Both legends presented here have been told by the same man. I have included the legend of the maple tree in the Lenape language with English translation.
I am thankful that you share your time with me and these myths and legends. Please tell me what you think about them. Ask me what you will. I might not be able to answer your questions but I sure would love hearing from you!

The Seven Wise Men

Told by Chief Bob Red Hawk

Edited by Louise St. Amour

At one time there were seven wise men who lived among the people. They were so wise that the people would constantly come to them, day and night. It got so bad that the seven men decided, “We have to get away. We need to have some peace. We can’t have people coming to our wikewams everyday and asking us myriads of questions."

So what they did was they decided, "We’ll go away from the village a little up into the mountain and turn ourselves into boulders, big rocks. "

And everything was fine but one day this one young man was out hunting and he happened to see these seven boulders that were a little different than any rocks he had ever seen before. So he started coming back to them every day and eventually he found that if he whispered to the rocks, the rocks would talk back to him. He was shocked. But, the rocks were answering his questions.

Well, it wasn’t long before he went back to thestarted  village and told the people about these seven wonderful stones that they could ask questions to. So the people leaving the village and coming up the mountain to the seven rocks. So soon the seven wise men said, “We’ve got to change. We’ve got to get away. We’ve had no peace here now.

So they went up on top of the mountain and turned themselves into seven beautiful cedar trees. And there they stood and they felt the winds blowing through their needles and just felt at peace. But it wasn’t long before the people started noticing that these seven beautiful trees had beautiful songs coming from them. And it wasn’t long before the people realized that these were the seven wise men that they could go to for their answers. So then the seven wise men said “What do we do? We need some time away from everybody. We need some time in the stillness and peace."

And then they looked up and they thought “Let’s turn into seven stars, so that we can still look down on the people, but the people can’t come and bother us too much.” So they turned themselves into the seven stars that some people call the Pleiades and from there they stand today and look out over our people.

The Story of the Maple Tree

Told by Bob Red Hawk

Transcribed and Translated into Lenape by Amira Silver-Swartz

Edited by Louise St. Amour

Many, many moons ago one of the most beautiful trees around was the maple. And its roots reached deep into the earth and its branches reached high in the heavens. But at one time, a large group of bugs crawled into the maple’s bark. And it was itching the maple. It was driving the maple tree crazy. 'Cause even though the maple tree had many branches and shoots and roots it could not bend down and reach all parts of itself.

So it called out to all its friends in the animal kingdom. It called out and said “Can someone please give me some relief from all this itching?”

So the beaver said “Well, maple tree, I can probably do it, but if I start chewing on your bark it’ll probably kill you. So that would not help you that much.”

And then the little mouse said “Maple tree, I can dig down into your roots and get my brothers the voles and the moles and the gophers but we’ll end up starting to kill your roots and that will kill you.”

So then the bear said “Well, maple tree I have these nice big claws I could start clawing at your bark but that will probably shred you up.”
So then they are all trying to think. Finally one of the birds was flying by and it was a flicker. And the flicker said “Well, maple tree, I have a cousin. How about I get all these cousins to come and their beaks are sharp, and they can dig in you but they won’t hurt you.”

So he called all of his woodpecker friends and they flew over and started pecking at the tree and got all the bugs out of him. The tree was so happy. And everything was going along nicely and all of a sudden for a couple of years

there was very little rain. It got very dry and all of the animals were getting very thirsty. The creeks and rivers had all dried up and they did not know where to go.

They were all bemoaning the fact and the maple tree heard them. And the maple tree said “You know, the animals helped me the time I was suffering from all those bugs biting 

Thank you again for dropping in to read the Native American legends. I hope you have enjoyed. I would appreciate knowing what your thought. Thank you and have a wonderful week.

✿ڰۣ❤In Loving Light from the Fairy Lady❤ڰۣ✿

Lenape language with English translation continued next.