JOURNEYS TO THE SKELETON HOUSE - Two variations on an American Indian Hopi legend E-Book

Anon E. Mouse

• Herausgeber: Abela Publishing
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

ISSN: 2397-9607 Issue 63In Issue 63 of the Baba Indaba Children's Stories, Baba Indaba narrates two variations of the same story about a Hopi youth who was curious about the Skeleton House - where the dead Hopi were buried. He wondered if anyone lived there. Seeking an answer he began to fast and pray and after a few days received his answer. But what was the answer and what did he do next…? Well you’ll have to download and read the stories to find out what it was.Baba Indaba is a fictitious Zulu storyteller who narrates children's stories from around the world. Baba Indaba translates as "Father of Stories".Each issue also has a "WHERE IN THE WORLD - LOOK IT UP" section, where young readers are challenged to look up a place on a map somewhere in the world. The place, town or city is relevant to the story. HINT - use Google maps.BUY ANY 4 BABA INDABA CHILDREN’S STORIES FOR ONLY $133% of the profit from the sale of this book will be donated to charities.INCLUDES LINKS TO DOWNLOAD 8 FREE STORIES

Leseprobe

Journeys to the Skeleton House

Two versions of a Hopi Legend

Baba Indaba Children’s Stories

Published By

Abela Publishing, London

2016

Journeys to the Skeleton House

Typographical arrangement of this edition

©Abela Publishing 2016

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Abela Publishing,

London, United Kingdom

2016

ISSN: 2397-9607

Issue 63

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Introduction

Baba Indaba, pronounced Baaba Indaaba, lived in Africa a long-long time ago. Indeed, this story was first told by Baba Indaba to the British settlers over 250 years ago in a place on the South East Coast of Africa called Zululand, which is now in a country now called South Africa.

In turn the British settlers wrote these stories down and they were brought back to England on sailing ships. From England they were in turn spread to all corners of the old British Empire, and then to the world.

In olden times the Zulu’s did not have computers, or iPhones, or paper, or even pens and pencils. So, someone was assigned to be the Wenxoxi Indaba (Wensosi Indaaba) – the Storyteller. It was his, or her, job to memorise all the tribe’s history, stories and folklore, which had been passed down from generation to generation for thousands of years. So, from the time he was a young boy, Baba Indaba had been apprenticed to the tribe’s Wenxoxi Indaba to learn the stories. Every day the Wenxoxi Indaba would narrate the stories and Baba Indaba would have to recite the story back to the Wenxoxi Indaba, word for word. In this manner he learned the stories of the Zulu nation.

In time the Wenxoxi Indaba grew old and when he could no longer see or hear, Baba Indaba became the next in a long line of Wenxoxi Indabas. So fond were the children of him that they continued to call him Baba Indaba – the Father of Stories.

When the British arrived in South Africa, he made it his job to also learn their stories. He did this by going to work at the docks at the Point in Port Natal at a place the Zulu people call Ethekwene (Eh-tek-weh-nee). Here he spoke to many sailors and ships captains. Captains of ships that sailed to the far reaches of the British Empire – Canada, Australia, India, Mauritius, the Caribbean and beyond.

He became so well known that ship’s crew would bring him a story every time they visited Port Natal. If they couldn’t, they would arrange to have someone bring it to him. This way his library of stories grew and grew until he was known far and wide as the keeper of stories – a true Wenxoxi Indaba of the world.

Baba Indaba believes the tale he is about to tell in this little book, and all the others he has learned, are the common property of Umntwana (Children) of every nation in the world - and so they are and have been ever since men and women began telling stories, thousands and thousands of years ago.

Where in the World – Look it Up!

This next story was told to him by a sailor who said he heard it told by a man from Yuma. Can you find Yuma on a map? What country is it in?

A Journey to the Skeleton House - Version 1

A Hopi Legend

A story, a story

Let it come, let it go

A story, a story

From long, long ago!

Umntwana Izwa! Children Listen! FAR, FAR away and long, long ago, in Oraíbi the people were living, and over there at Hónletsnöma's house there lived a youth. He was always sitting at the edge of the mesa early in the morning; He was always thinking about that graveyard there. "Is it true that someone is really living there?" he thought. "Is it true that if someone dies he goes somewhere?" thus he was thinking. ''If only someone would tell me whether these that are buried here are living somewhere." Now, at last he got some corn meal, then he went to the edge again, and then he prayed with it to the Sun and said: "Now then, have you perhaps seen anywhere these that are buried here?" Thus he prayed. "Now, if you have seen them somewhere, inform me." Having thus prayed he returned. And then after that he thus continued to pray. After having thus prayed for four days he sat down there and someone came ascending the mesa. The one that ascended asked him: "Now, why do you want me?" "Yes," said the one that was sitting there, "I am always thinking about those who are buried there, whether it is true that they are living in some other life." "Now," he, the Sun, said, yes, they are living. Are you really anxious to see them?" Now the young man answered. ''Yes," he said. "Very well," answered the Sun, "I shall then give you this here." He handed him something. "When you will sleep in the evening, eat a little of this, but you tell your mother and them all about it." "Very well," the youth said. "I shall leave," said the Sun.

The young man now went home to his house. He arrived there. His mother was preparing food. When they had eaten he said to his father: "My father," he said, "is it really true that if someone die he remains somewhere? I want to find out about it." Now, hereupon the mother said to him: "You must not do that way; yet it is for you (to say)." "Yes," said the young man, "yes, as soon as I shall sleep in the night I shall not wake up quickly; hence, as soon as the sun is risen and is high up, you must work on me and then maybe I shall return and wake up." Now the father said, "Very well." It now was evening. He now ate a little of the medicine. Upon that he slept. He was entirely dead and he went to the Skeleton House. He came to Apóhnivi. There was a plain trail. On the north side he descended and there somebody was sitting, but that one had died long ago and (behold!) it was that one. He recognized him.