Week 11: Reading Diary A: British Tales

British Nursery Rhymes

 

Tales:

·      There’s a man in the moon

·      Wanted to know which way Norwich was

·      He headed south then burn this mouth of some soup

~~~

·      Two children were kidnapped on a summer day and left in the woods

·      When night came, they didn’t know what to do so they cried then died

·      Red robins spread strawberry leaves all over them and sang…

·      “Poor babes in the wood! Poor babes in the wood! And don’t you remember the babes in the wood?”

~~~

·      mean crooked man that went a mile to find a sixpence

·      bought a cat and caught a mouse

·      all lived together in a house

~~~

·      simon met a made who made pie

·      simon wanted to taste it

·      pieman wanted to see his money but he didn’t have any

·      so he went fishing to catch a whale but ended up with nothing

~~~

·      story about jack and nory and the story has just begun

·      then a story about jack and his brother and now his story is done

~~~

·      there was a man that was robbed

·      climbed up the chimney and they thought they had him

·      he went down the other side and they couldn’t find him

·      ran 14 miles in 15 days

·      and never went back

~~~

·      lion and unicorn fought

·      lion beat the unicorn and wanted everyone to know

·      got white bread, brown bread, and plum-cake then sent them away

~~~

·      fat man who lvied in Bombay was smoking

·      a snipe bird flew up his pipe and killed him

~~~

·      the piper’s son named Tom stole a pig and ran

·      he ate the pig and tom was tired so he roared down the street

~~~

·      there was a little man with a little gun with lead bullets

·      he went to the creek and saw a duck and shot it

·      he took his home to his wife and cooked him

·      roasted the duck he shot

~~~

·      mother goose was old and she went on a fly

·      she flew very well

·      had a house made of wood with an owl at the door

·      her son jack was very average

·      sent him to the market to buy a goose

·      goose and gander became good friends. They ate or swam

·      goose laid a golden egg

·      mother was proud for the first time

·      sold it to a jew that jipped him

·      but he found a woman that was happy, fair, and sweet

·      the jew and squire were mean to Jack

·      old mother goose came in and turned her son into a harlequin

·      turned his woman into a sweet columbine

·      egg was thrown in the sea but jack jumped in and got it

·      jew got the goose to make more money

·      jack’s mother dove in and caught the goose and took it back and went to the moon

[Source]

Week 10 Storytelling: The Brave Old Man's Gift

The Brave Old Man’s Gift: from the Original Old Quanah's Gift

There once was a village very far north that stayed cold 10 months out of the year.  With snow covering the ground and ice all around them, the people in the village were at a high demand for coats and other things ways to stay warm.   You see, in this village, it was much like any other village where the women stayed home and cleaned and made the clothes while the men were out defending the land and fighting for new lands. 

All the men were great fighters because they grew up hunting and were surrounded by strong, brave men throughout their entire life.  The strongest and the bravest of them all was a man named Henry.  Henry, more than anything, wanted to give his whole life back to the village and he would work harder than any other fighter out there because he was so passionate about keeping the people in the village safe and making the village a better place to live. 

It was a dark and dreary day and other tribes came to invade the village.  Henry was the first to respond and like always, he fought harder than anyone.  With a great fight, comes great risk.  Henry was shot by a poisonous bow and arrow in the leg and all went down.  Many tried to help him but nothing could save his leg.  He could no longer fight and do what he had always done best.

Henry was desolate that he could no longer fight and he still wanted to help out the village, so Henry began making coats to keep the people in the village warm.   It is not like Henry to just made plain and regular coats, he wanted to make something that would portray how he felt about the village and the people.  So, he set out to find the most beautiful colors from herbs, plants, and berries that he possible could to dye the threads that he made into the coats.  Each and every coat was full of the most beautiful colors and patterns. 

He found yellow plants to reveal the beauty of the sun and blue berries to show the magnificent waters that surround the village.  He put so much time and effort into every single jacket he made because he truly believed the people in his village deserved the very best. 

After making hundreds of coats, Henry became very sick.  He was working on one last coat that was more majestic and stunning than any other coat.  He worked on that coat for longer than any other coat and he explain to the people that he wanted that coat to go to the person in the tribe that is the most worthy.  Upon finishing the coat, Henry laid there on the ground, still and cold.  He has passed away but it was the duty of the chief of the village to figure out who this coat was going to be presented to. 

After hour of contemplation and fighting within the village, it dawned on the people in the village that the person most worthy is the person that took so much pride in the village and showed so much passion for the people.  There was no other person that showed those characteristics than Henry himself.  They put the magnificent coat on Henry as they buried him in the ground.  It was bitter sweet because no one could make as beautiful of coats as he, but now he can die with the legend.  

[Source]

Author's Note:

This was one of my favorite stories that I have read this week.  I took the original story and just changed what he made and a few of the characters.  I focused on his pride and passion for the village and when he could no longer fight, he began to make coats.  In the original story, he began making the most beautiful blankets for the village.  It ended very similar to the original story, too, where the village people saw him as the most worthy person to have the beautiful masterpiece that the main character worked on for so long.

Reading Diary B: Tejas Legends

Native American Unit: Tejas Legends

Why Hummingbirds Drink Only Dew

·      Hummingbirds only drink dew, not water. Why?

·      Hummingbird and blue heron owned a lake together

·      Big lake and hummingbird hovered over cool water

·      Habit of gambling

·      Bet on who could get to the other side faster

·      It got dark and the hummingbird couldn’t fly at night

·      Hummingbirds had to stop but the blue heron could fly through the night

·      Since the hummingbird lost the race, he could never drink from the lake or any other lake or river ever again

·      That’s why he can only drink the dew

The Maiden Who Loved a Star

·      Indian girl that wen into the desert to find a purple ripe prickly pear

·      Set off for home at night and watched the stars

·      Bright stars and thought one was winking at her

·      Home of handsome sky dweller?

·      She did it again and the sky winking at her again so she knew

·      She visited him for seven days

·      She couldn’t visit him, he couldn’t visit her

·      Full of love but sad because she couldn’t be with her love

·      She wanted to die so she cold live with her love in the sky

·      Visited an old witch woman in her tribe

·      Wouldn’t give her a way to die because she said life was too great

·      Changed her into a form that would allow her to live in the desert under her love

·      Old witch turned her into a tree

·      The star in the sky fell out of the sky and turned into blossoms on the tree

·      Now they can be together

·      This is how this bush, the purple sage, came to the desert

Old Quanah’s Gift

·      Love of blankets with beauty and color with form

·      Quanah was a brave warrior that took pride in bow and arrow

·      Stayed at home with the women in the tribe because he got hit by a poison arrow

·      Hurt him to not do anything

·      Began to make blankets

·      Searched for different things to make as dyes

·      Each one was different

·      Others came to try to imitate his blanket making

·      No one could compare to his blankets

·      Famous blankets with magic touch

·      Worked on one blanket for years and years

·      Wouldn’t tell anyone what it was or who it was going to until it was done

·      He began to die but he finished the blanket

·      Everyone was sad because there would never be another blanket maker like him

·      Blanket is done. For the most worthy in the tribe.  Man who has done most for the people. Children will see he importance of being a good member

·      Couldn’t agree on one person

·      The chief made it clear that Quanah himself should have the blanket

·      Buried in the ground with him

·      Gave a new flower to the world

[Source]

Reading Diary A: Tejas Legends

Myth-Folklore Unit: Tejas Legends

When the Storm God Rides

·      Shores of Texas along the Gulf of Mexico didn’t used to have islands

·      Old Indians left behind stories

·      A god and his big black-winged thunder bird that he rode

·      This was the storm god

·      God and people didn’t live by each other because the big bird filled people with fear

·      Only saw the god when rode through the skies

·      Flying through the air with white clouds

·      Made the land dark when he came

·      This is where the name hurricane came from

·      Peaceful tribes were driven away from their homes

·      Northern tribes liked to kill

·      Started shooting at the birds

·      Storm god was so angry that thunder broke out

·      Storm god’s thunder bird shot lightning out of his eyes

·      Thunder bird was coming to the Indians that were killing the birds

·      Day was like night cause so dark

·      The gulf pushed them over

·      Gulf flooded the bad indian’s land

·      Crazy water and winds

·      This is how the islands were formed from the build up of sands

How the North Wind Lost His Hair

·      North wind was afraid to come to gulf of mexico

·      Afraid of strong young south wind

·      Moss that grows on the trees was a sign of their fight

·      (natchez and tejas tribes)

·      old north wind, blew cold air everywhere and grey hair would fly

·      the winds would grow angry with each other

·      north wind would come and spread snow for a couple weeks then sosuth wind drives him out

·      one time, it stayed for many weeks

·      spring weather never came because still in june, the north wind was there.

·      South wind gathered all his power to fight away the north wind

·      Indians thought it was the storm god

·      Messed up everything on land from the trees to the waters

·      South wind flung him into the air

·      When south wind overcame north wind, he threw him hair all over the ground and that was Spanish moss that hangs from the trees.

·      North wind never came back