Week 10 Storytelling: The Red-Eyed Duck

There once was an old man that was going on a long journey. Old Man walked past a pond that was full of ducks. There were so many different types of ducks, but the man did not stop to talk to them because he was in a hurry to get where he was going.  He was on his way to a far off land to play music. He was a musician by trade and traveled from place to place in order to perform. The ducks started chattering amongst each other wondering who the man was. Finally one duck spoke up and said, “That’s Old Man.”  The duck that knew Old Man yelled at him and asked where he was going. Angrily, Old Man told them that he was in a hurry and had no time to talk to them. The ducks kept yelling at him to come over and sing them a song and he finally came over to the pond, but not just to sing them a song.

Old Man told the ducks that he was off to play music in a far off place. The ducks asked Old Man to sing them a song while he was at the pond. He agreed, but instead of pulling out an instrument from the bag, he pulled out a magical staff. Old Man was a wizard, and because all of the ducks had stopped him on his journey, he was going to make them pay. With his magic, he forced all of the ducks to collect lumber for him. He made them do chores for him the rest of the night until the ducks couldn’t do anything more. Old Man had left his mark an all of the ducks though. They now all had bright red eyes, the mark that magic had left on them. They all now acted like zombies as well. They could no longer talk and could hardly swim anymore. All of the hard work they had gone through had made the ducks different. The ducks lives had changed for the worse.

(horned grebe)

Having done his damage, Old Man went off on his way. Shortly after Old Man left, a coyote came and greeted the ducks. The coyote was a good friend of all the ducks and was surprised to see what had happened to all of his friends. He had immediately noticed that the ducks were no longer the same, and that they had bright red eyes. Luckily, the coyote knew of a magical cow that could cure the ducks. He immediately ran off to go fetch the cow. After a short while, the coyote came back with the cow and the cow conducted a magical spell on the ducks that would cure them. Once they were all cured, the ducks went off to get back at the old man. The found him very quickly and picked him up. They tied him from the tallest tree in the forest and left him there to die. The ducks always had the red eyes, which helped them remember what had happened that horrid day.

Author’s Note

I wrote this based upon The Red-Eyed Duck. In the original story, the man was a journey to go play music. The ducks pestered him to come over and after much pestering, the man finally came over to them. The man then told them to close their eyes while he sang a medicine song. He said if they opened their eyes, their eyes would turn red forever. He killed the ducks one by one while their eyes were closed. One duck opened its eyes and flew off just after trying to warn all of the others of the old man’s plan. The duck that tried to warn everyone had red eyes the rest of its life. The man tried to cook the ducks that he killed, but a coyote stole them all. I decided to make this story a little less violent. I like ducks a lot so I didn't want them all to die. Instead in this story, the old man ended up not making it. I wanted the ducks to get back at him for what he had done. I thought this was the best way for it to end. 

This story can be found here: Blackfeet Indian Stories by George Bird Grinnell (1915).

Extra Reading Diary: Blackfoot

The Theft from the Sun: This is about a old man who was going to kill a deer. I really enjoyed this story and thought it was really well written. I really liked the end of this story because it brought it all together. This has definitely been my favorite story so far in this unit. I look forward to reading the rest of the unit and hope that there is another story that is as good as this one.

The Smart Woman Chief: This talks about how a long time ago, men and women lived in different places and didn’t know each other.  It says that they made women weak and men strong. They found each other and the chief woman went to go select the chief man to marry, but he denied her cause she was covered in blood. Now all women came back dressed nicely and picked everyone except for the man chief. The woman chief then turned him into a pine tree. I really enjoyed this story and thought it very smart of the woman to do what she did.

(horned grebe)

The Red-Eyed Duck: An old man went to a pond and many ducks were swimming. He did not make eye contact with the ducks. The ducks tried to get the old man to stop and sing them a song. He said no because he was in a hurry.  The duck finally persuaded the man to sing to him. He said he was going to sing a medicine and if you opened your eyes, they would turn red. The old man killed the ducks while they danced and a little one opened his eyes and told the rest to run. His eyes turned red forever.  A coyote than ate all the ducks and tricked the old man to eat an ash filled duck. I liked this story. It was all about trickery and those are some of my favorite myths.

Reading Diary A: Blackfoot

Two Fast Runners: An antelope and a deer met on the prairie. They talked about how fast they could run and ended up deciding that they would race. The antelope won and got the deer’s gall, but the deer said it would be a better race if they raced in the timber. Then they raced in the timber and the deer won the antelope’s dewclaw. I honestly have no clue what a gall or a dewclaw is. But I thought this was a cool story. It kind of reminds me of having home field advantage in sports. Usually people are better on their home turf where they feel comfortable.

The Buffalo Stone: I really enjoyed this story. It was my favorite one that I have read so far. It was about a powerful stone and what they prayed, happened. I liked it because something like a stone is usually seen as very useless, but in this story it was useful. It shows that even something as small as a stone can be very important to everyone and everything else around it.

The Rolling Rock: This is about an old man on a journey. He first rested on a rock, then gave his robe to the rock and told the rock to keep it. It started raining and he sent a coyote to go get the robe from the rock to hide under it. The rock didn’t give it up so the old man went back to the rock to take it back. The rock almost killed the man and killed many animals in the valley. Finally some nighthawks saved the man and he made them queer-looking. This was a very interesting story. He should have just never given a robe to a rock. 

(nighthawk)