Glooskap and the Great Wind-Bird Passamaquoddy People – Canada & USA The Passamaquoddies believe in a great bird called by them Wochowsen or Wuchowsen, meaning Wind-Blow or the Wind-Blower, who lives far to the North, and sits upon a great rock at the end of the sky. And it is because whenever he moves…
Tortoise and the World’s Wisdom Yoruba People – Nigeria, Benin and Togo When the world was young, Tortoise was busy for quite a long time collecting wisdom. His task took him a number of years, but at last, looking through all that he had gathered together, he discovered that he had all the world’s…
Why We Can’t See Them Icelandic Christianity Not many years after the world was created, God returned to Paradise to pay a visit to Adam and Eve. They were sincerely glad to see him, which pleased the Supreme Maker, but he also noticed a faint shadow of concern and uneasiness on their faces. He…
The Dragon’s Tears Scotland Once, the ancient land of Alba had just three aspects. There was the sky with its wheeling stars and galaxies, the ever-restless sea, and the dense evergreen forest that spread from coast to coast. And the people of Alba lived within the forest, except for the Watcher, who lived like…
Why Are Bronze Drums Buried? Mo Tradition and Zhuang People – China Before the first human being emerged, the universe was divided into three parts: the upper part, which became heaven; the middle part, which became earth; and the lower part, which became water. And the three primordial brothers took possession of the three…
A Frog Inside the House Turkish Sufism A guest of Nasruddin Hodja farted in the parlour where the latter had welcomed him to offer him some tea, but the man tried to hide the bellow of release from the unwelcome intruder by flexing his foot in such a way that the leather of his…
The Goblin Tree Japan A Samurai dwelt in the Oni province and his name was Satsuma Shichizaemon. He had a garden, the most beautiful of any in the village. It was filled with flowering plants, and the shrubs had a delicious fragrance which filled the air. Golden-hearted lilies floated upon the tiny lake, dwarf…
The Blacksmith Brothers Lhoba People – Tibet, China Long, long ago, in the region of Lhoyü, on the sunny slopes at the foot of the Himalayas, there lived two brothers who were sons of Shijin, the Earth. Their names were Pusudadong and Luomadadang. The brothers barely survived with the little they could grow in…
The Caribou and the Wolf are One Inuit People – Canada, Alaska and Greenland In the beginning there was a Woman and a Man, and nothing else walked or swam or flew in the world until one day the Woman dug a great hole in the ground and began fishing in it. One by…
The Birds of Axing Shui People – China Axing was a xiannü, an immortal woman, a resident of Heaven, who was in charge of the care of the multicoloured celestial birds. One day, following the trail of one of her birds, which she had not seen for days, she descended to earth and came…