In Erinnerung an ‚La Tortuga Feliz‘: A Maidu folktale

In the be­gin­ning there was no light, and ever­yw­he­re there was water.

From the north a raft came, car­ry­ing Turt­le. A fea­ther rope fell down from the sky. Earth Star­ter came down the rope, tied it to the raft, and boar­ded it. He wore a mask, but through it his face shone like the very sun. Earth star­ter sat there quiet­ly, loo­king at Turt­le.

‚Where did you come from?‘ Turt­le asked.

‚From way up there.‘ said Earth Star­ter, poin­ting at the sky.

‚I would like it if you would make me some dry land to stand on now and then,‘ said Turt­le. ‚Will you be put­ting peop­le on the earth?‘

‚Yes, I will.‘ Earth Star­ter re­plied.

‚When will you do that?‘

‚So­me­time. If you want me to make you some dry land, though, you will have to get me some earth.‘

Turt­le got ready to dive under the water to find some earth. Earth Star­ter tied a rock around Turt­le’s wrist and tied the fea­ther rope to Turt­le’s leg.

‚If the rope is not long en­ough, I’ll give it a sin­gle tug.‘ Turt­le said. ‚If it is long en­ough, I’ll get some earth and then tug on the rope twice, and then you can pull me up.‘

Then he dove over the side. But he stay­ed down there under the water for six years. When he came up he was co­ve­r­ed with mud. He had only a litt­le bit of earth, stuck under his claws. Earth Star­ter scra­ped this earth form Turt­le’s claws and rol­led it in his hands. The litt­le ball grew and grew until it was as big as the world.

‚Good‘, said Turt­le. ‚Now can you make some light?‘

So Earth Star­ter cal­led his sis­ter, the Sun, from the east and his bro­ther, the Moon, from the west. And so the earth and its light were crea­ted.

(re­cor­ded in the early 1900s by An­thro­po­lo­gist A. E. Kro­eber: crea­ti­on of the Maidu a na­ti­ve peop­le of cen­tral ca­li­for­nia)

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1 Antwort zu In Erinnerung an ‚La Tortuga Feliz‘: A Maidu folktale

  1. David sagt:

    Genau das habe ich gesucht, und gleich geteilt! Super Beitrag, danke für die Info. Ich lass nochmal nen Gruss da.

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