Storytelling Week 7: Watch Over

Hi. My name is Phillip and I belong to a flock of individuals known as the ravens. Every day I go out and find food for my family and look out over the mountains. Each day around noon I fly over the small river runs through a valley. The water in this river is the most appealing water you could imagine. It has the clearest water in the land which draws many people to it. It also has added minerals for flavor. Now these minerals aren't all good minerals. You see, there is a snake at the start of it that pours his venom into the river. The reason for this is a very long story, so I'll have to save it for another day. Just know the snake is punishing anyone that drinks from his river. I have watched many people come to the river to drink after a long day. Most of the animals know not to drink form this evil river. Even the tiniest drop of this water will kill someone but because most of the people that come are very thirsty they drink many cups of water from it. I try to get to the people before they drink to try and save their lives but most people either brush me off or think I'm just a crazed bird.

One day on my normal flyover I came across a man walking in the woods. I had been doing a great job of turning everyone away from the river before they could reach it but somehow this man actually had snuck past me. He looked as if he had been walking a long time and was pretty thirsty. He was headed right for the river! The closer he got to the river and the closer to death I would fly a little closer to swoop in at any time so I could save his life. I knew that once he laid eyes on the river it would be much harder for me to stop him and be would try to kill me for trying to stop him form drinking the water. When he came into eye shot of the river he broke a large leaf off a tree and made it into a cup. Once he had dipped the cup into the poisoned water I knocked it out of his hand and into the river. He became very angry with me and looked like he wanted to kill me. He walked over to the tree again and grabbed another leaf and made it as he did before and walked to the river. He filled the cup once again and as before I knocked it out of his hands and into the river. The man grabbed the nearest rock he could find and sent it flying right at me. He hit my head with the rock. Luckily he didn't kill me. It just hurt really back and made me kind of dizzy. I flew to the near tree the wait out the dizzy spell so that I could warn him again but before I had time to he dipped another cup in the water and drank it. As you might have guessed he didn't make it far from the bank before he dropped dead. I flew home and took my family some food he had in his bag. 

The raven trying to warn the man

Author's Note:

The story that I based this story off of is "How the Raven Saved the Hunter." I changed the story from third person into the first person point of view from the raven. I like stories that are in the first person because it is easier to place yourself into the story and live it like the raven who is telling the story. I changed the story from the raven dying to the man dying at the end because who likes the good guy to die in the end? In the original story the man is a hunter that is on a hunt and goes to a river and a random raven is bothering him as he approaches the river. The hunter kills the raven after the raven knocks three bowls out of his hands. Afterwards the hunter travels upstream and realizes there is a snake a the beginning putting poison in the river and feels terrible about killing the bird that tried to save his life. I changed the ending of the story to make it more of a happy ending because the good character wins instead of being killed. I chose the picture above just because it is a simple picture of what a raven looks like in case someone does not know. 

Bibliography:

"How the Raven Saved the Hunter" by A.L. Shelton, from Tibetan Folk Tales (1925). Web Source: UNtextbook.

Reading Diary B: Tibetan Folklore

"How the Rabbit Killed the Lion": The lion demanded that every animal Kotow to him. One day the rabbit didn't and the lion was angry at the rabbit. The lion asked the rabbit why he hadn't and he told him a witch delayed him. The lion went to the river to find the demon and saw his reflection. Thinking it was the demon, the lion jumped into the river and drowned.

"How the Raven Saved the Hunter": A hunter was very thirsty on a hunt one evening. When he made a cup of water a raven knocked it out of his hand. Thinking the raven did this on accident, he tried to again. The raven knocked the cup out once again. The hunter, angry, killed the raven. He thought to himself, there must be a reason for this. He traveled to the mouth of the river where a snake was poisoning the river.

"How the Scared Duck Got His Yellow Breast": A frog and a rabbit raced to the bottom of a mountain for a pot of gold. The frog had two other frogs help him to trick the rabbit into thinking he was moving faster down the hill. The frog won and recruited the duck to help him carry the gold. The duck thought the gold was so pretty that he smeared it on his chest.

"The Man and the Monkeys": A man went to a place where monkeys lived and thought it was a nice place to move his family. He fell asleep in a tree and asked a money for help. When the monkey became strong enough he helped him out of the water. The man went to sleep on the ground while the monkeys chattered above him. This annoyed him to when the monkeys went to sleep he shook the tree and made them all fall out to their death.

Tibetan Folk Group 

Reading Diary A: Japanese Mythology

"The Tiger and the Frog": The story is similar to the one told in the african unit. The frog tricks the tiger into thinking he is strong and can kill tigers.

"The Cony Who Got into Bad Company": A rabbit was running around with a rat and got him into trouble so they both got their whiskers, ears, and tails cut off.

"The Story of the Donkey and the Rock": A judge tries a rock against a donkey and charged every person own attendance an amount of money because of their curiosity and used that money to pay off a debt.

"How the Fox Fell a Victim to His Own Deceit": The tiger and fox grew up together when they found a new friend, the calf. The fox became jealous of the tiger and calf and tried to make them kill each other. The tiger ended up killing the fox and eating him.

"The Ingratitude of Man": A man helped out a rat, snake, crow, and a man. The man betrayed him and had him sent to prison while the other three helped him be freed and to survive while in prison.

"Covetousness": A fox, elephant, and bear were killed. Seven robbers found them and three split up to find water while the others prepared the food. The first three poisoned the water and the other four poisoned the food so they all died.

"The Wise Carpenter": A painter tried to get the carpenter killed by sending him to heaven. On his return from "heaven", the carpenter tells the kind the painter must now go. The painter is killed and end up with a one way ticket to heaven.

"The Man and the Ghost": A ghost stole the soul of the king's son and gave it to a man. The man dressed as a holy beggar and healed the son by returning his soul. The man was given half of the kid's riches in return.

"The Story of the Two Devils": A fake fortune teller destroyed two devils who were killing off the king's sons and was paid by being given power as string as the king's.

Tibetan Monk