The world used to be a completely flat and dark place. At
first, there was nothing but water in the entire universe until the water
beetle went and brought mud to the surface, which formed the island of Earth.
Now that the animals could live on Earth and a sun had been put in the sky,
they desired something that could produce light and keep them warm during the
darkness. The Thunders in the heavens noticed this and sent lightning, which
then lit a giant tree on fire.
All of the animals noticed the fire and decided together
that they wanted to try to gather it and bring it back to their homes. At first
they sent the raven, but as he got close to the fire he became scorched and his
feathers turned black as the night. A screech owl was then sent to fetch the fire,
but his eyes got burned as he got close to the fire and turned them red.
The hooting owl and the horned owl went next, but the hot
fire burned them as well and made rings around their eyes. This was the end of
the birds trying to fetch the fire and the animals had to find someone else who
could bring the fire back. Looking around, they decide to send the one who they
think is the biggest, toughest, and most resilient among them.
After much debate, they decide to send the rhinoceros to
bring them back the fire. Although he was not fast, he steadily progressed
towards the fire. When he got there, his skin began to char from the fire, but
it was so thick that it did not bother him. He then ducked his head and scooped
up some of the embers with it. Letting the embers sit on his head, he hurried
home and dropped the embers in front of all the other animals, where they each
took some and had fire for the rest of time.
However, they could hardly believe how the rhinoceros had
been changed on his journey. When he returned, his skin was badly wrinkled from
all of the heat and remains that way to this day. This was not even the biggest
change though. Where he had carried the embers on his head, there was now a dip
down to his snout and 2 massive horns had been formed from where his skin was
melted by the fire.
 |
| Rhinoceros. |
Author's Note:
This was a retelling of The First Fire from the Cherokee Myths unit. The beginning of my story is the same as the original, but I changed how the fire was actually brought back. In the original story, a spider is sent to fetch the fire and he does so by spinning a web basket to carry an ember. I wanted to think of a different animal that could bring back a fire and I chose the rhino because some of its distinctive characteristics.
Bibliography:
The First Fire from Myths of the Cherokee by James Mooney (1900).
Image Info: Web Source: Wikipedia.
I love that you incorporated animals in this story. Not only did you include them you also described how they came to look the way they do now. What a unique and clever idea, I personally really enjoyed your story. You were also very descriptive, which is always a plus. I especially liked how you explained how the rhino got his horns!
ReplyDeleteHi Jeremy!
ReplyDeleteSo I decided to pick your Week 10 Storytelling for this week because of the title and the fact that it is based off of a Native American story! I really love Native American stories because of the spirit ideology that runs through them all and they always seem to explain a phenomenon. Like the story you chose! It explains the rings around the birds eyes, why a rhino looks as it does, why a raven is a dark color, and how fire became a part of the world! Just so awesome. I loved your retelling of the story. It was very good. I'm really impressed that you created the rhino situation for how the fire was brought back instead of the spider. That was brilliant! The wrinkled skin and horns are a perfect reasoning for being in contact with fire. Awesome job!
Jeremy, I thought it was so creative that you changed the original animal, a spider, into a totally different one!! It was pretty cool to see how you thought of a way to use this story to explain why a rhinoceros looks the way it does now. I really enjoyed this story, as well as your new take on it! Great job!!
ReplyDeleteThis was really interesting! I thought that there was going to be the rhinoceros that braved the fire in the original story, but when I went back and read it, I realized that you completely made it up. I’ve got to say, coming up with the rhino’s backstory was pretty ingenious! It makes sense as to how the rhinoceros got its shape, considering the prior explanations for the characteristics of the various birds that tried to grab the fire. Anyways, this story was really well done!
ReplyDelete