Читать книгу The First Americans: Legends, Folklore & Myths Across the U.S.A. - Phyllis Ph.D. Goldman - Страница 6

In the forests of Maine, there lived two old blind men. Every week, the women of the tribe would come down to the river give them food to eat. To get water, the men sat at the edge of the riverbank and threw two roped pails into the river. When they felt a slight pull from the rushing waters, the men would pull the pails up to the riverbank.

One warm Spring afternoon, while the men were collecting their water for the day, Mika, a small raccoon was playing nearby. Throughout the forest, Mika was known to be mischievous and sneaky. Everyone in the forest knew that whenever Mika was close by trouble would soon follow. Unfortunately the blind men did not see Mika playing across the river as they continued to collect water.

After chasing a small chipmunk around, Mika soon discovered the two blind men sitting on the riverbank. The raccoon, being so crafty, decided to play a trick on them. Mika quietly swam right up to them and poured the water out of their pails. He then crept back into the forest to watch the blind men. When they pulled the pails up to drink, nothing came out. In shock one replied, "The river has dried up! What are we going to do for water?" The other replied, "We need to go back to the village and tell the others. But because it is so late, we will start our journey back to the tribe tomorrow."

As the two men began to cook their food, one exclaimed, "We only need to eat four pieces of meat tonight so we can save the rest for tomorrow's trip." The two men put the remaining food in their pockets.

During this time, Mika, the raccoon realized he had not eaten and was very hungry when he smelled the meat cooking on the open fire. He then began to creep towards the men. With his tiny paws, Mika snatched the four pieces of meat and scurried back into the forest.

The men soon realized that the meat was gone and their stomachs were rumbling with hunger. So they had to ended up eating the food that they had saved for the next day. The sun was beginning to set and the night air began to cool. The two decided to go to bed early and start their journey in the morning.

Shortly after eating the stolen food, Mika went back down to the river to clean up. As the raccoon was washing his hands and face, he felt a freezing wind on his back. Mika turned around and saw a beautiful woman standing over him. The raccoon immediately recognized the woman as the Earth spirit.

She reached down and rubbed his two eyes with black coal explaining to him, "This is for the two pails of water that you poured out." Then she grabbed his tail and smeared four black rings around it and said, "And this is for the four pieces of meat you stole."

When Mika saw his reflection in the river, he was ashamed and tried to wash the black coal off of his eyes and tail but they remained dark. The Earth spirit replied, "From now on, these black rings will let everyone know what a little thief you are."

Since then, raccoon have had rings around their eyes and tails that make them look like bandits.