Reading Notes: Week 14, Part A (Iagoo, the Story-Teller)

While the story I am going to focus on for these notes is the introduction into the stories that follow, I really likes the style of writing and tone that this introduction to Iagoo the Story-Teller had.

There was never anyone as wise as old Iagoo – no Indian had heard or seen as much as him. Somehow, Iagoo understood language of animals and birds, and he knew the secrets of the fields and birds. He lived his life roaming around the forests. Besides the things he learned himself, Iagoo knew so much more. He knew the fairy tales and the wonder stories that his grandfather told him, who had heard them from his grandfather, and so on – way back to the time when the world was young and strange, and there was magic in almost everything. He was also a hit with the children of the tribe. No one else knew where to find the colored shells that he strung into necklaces for the little girls, and for the boys, he made bows and arrows. No one could teach them where to look for the grasses that they would use to weave baskets. Despite all of that, Iagoo won the children's hearts with his stories. Where did the robin get his red breast? How did fire find its way into the wood, so that an Indian can get it out again by rubbing two sticks together? Why was the Coyote so much more clever than the other animals, and why was he always looking behind him when he ran? It was Iagoo who could tell you where and why. Winter was the prime time to tell stories, when the snow covered the ground and when fires would be made. Iagoo would sit around the fire and tell stories to the children of the tribe. The first story talked about is how the Shin-ge-bis fooled the North Wind. 

Picture of a camp fire

(Taken by Wes Hicks on Unsplash)

"Iagoo, the Story-Teller," American Indian Fairy Tales by W.T. Larned