Caribbean Folklore

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Once Upon A Time

Retellings and stories focused on the folklore of the first peoples of the region.

The Medicine Man's Daughter

Friday, 25 March 2011 12:30 Andrew Munroe

Once upon a time in the Bush, there lived a beautiful girl who was the daughter of a Piaiman. The girl fell in love with a brave and strong hunter, but the hunter did not seem to notice her when she tried to get his attention. He only seemed interested in hunting, and his hunting dogs followed him wherever he went. After a time, the girl felt that there wasn’t much more that she could do to get the hunter to notice her, so she went to her father and asked him to use his magical powers to help her win the hunter’s heart.

Now, the Piaiman was very powerful, his powers know far and wide; and he was known to have no weakness, but save that of his love for his daughter. But even though he loved his daughter with all his heart, the Piaiman told her that he couldn’t help her win the hunter’s heart because his duty and obligation was to all of the People, and not just to her. He would do nothing, he said, to make the hunter love her against the hunter's own purpose.

But the girl begged and begged her father so that he would relent. She finally lamented that she would even be glad to be close to the hunter and always be with him even as one of his hunting dogs. She did not like to hunt, but she would do anything to be close to the hunter, she said. When the Piaiman heard this he looked down at her and nodded in agreement. His daughter stopped crying, and his heart was again without the strong grief that he had felt at not being able to help her.

So, the Piaiman put a magic skin over the shoulders of his daughter and she transformed into one of the hunter’s hunting dogs. The Piaiman himself went about replacing the hunter’s own hunting dog with his daughter in her new form so that the hunter would not suspect that he now had a new companion in the form of one of his dogs.

The girl now had her wish, and she especially looked forward to the time when the hunter and his dogs would be home from the hunt. Soon, it came about that each time that the hunter went out hunting with his four dogs, one always ran back home and would never join in the hunting. More than this, the hunter found that whenever he got home from the hunt, there was the fire burning, food cooked, and all his hut was neat and clean. At first, the hunter was only a little suspicious, but it seemed to him that he was being helped by some of his neighbors who appreciated that he was out at the hunt and was without a wife.

Eventually the hunter went to thank his neighbors, but it was soon clear that his neighbors were not the ones behind the help that he had been receiving. The hunter then became very suspicious and set out to understand what was happening.

On the next occasion, then, as soon as he missed one of his dogs, the hunter tied the other three up to a tree, and returned home without making the slightest sound. Taking a good position, he saw a lovely girl in his hut making Pepper Pot, and bustling around doing other things, while at one side there hung the charmed skin. The hunter swiftly rushed in, seized the skin, and threw it on the already lighted fire. He then claimed the girl from her father for his wife, with both daughter and father very happy to oblige.

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Last Updated on Friday, 25 March 2011 13:00

The Legend of Bat Mountain

Wednesday, 16 March 2011 12:56 Andrew Munroe

Once upon a time in the Bush, there was a giant Bat that lived on the mountain and spread fear and terror among the People.  At night, as soon as the Sun sunk in the west, the huge creature left its unknown dwelling, swept down upon the happy homes, and, swift as an arrow, pounced upon and carried off anyone found outdoors. Unlucky victims were carried off in the Bat’s powerful claws up to its nest and devoured with no mercy.

The sounds of wailing and grieving and lamentation filled the air. And throughout the settlements and in the huts, the People were afraid. Not a night passed when loved ones would not turn up missing: often two, sometimes three, and at times more. The People numbered less and less, and all hope seemed lost.

The giant Bat seemed to the People not of flesh and blood, and so the medicine man called on all his magic to be rid of the giant Bat that must surely be Spirit. But the giant Bat returned again and again. And so the People knew that to survive they had to discover the dwelling place of the murderous creature because maybe then they could destroy it in the flesh. The warriors went out and searched and searched, but they could not find the giant Bat’s dwelling place. God seemed not to be with the People.

But even as all seemed lost, and to prevent total destruction of the People, an old woman arose and declared that she would sacrifice herself for the good of all. When night fell, she stationed herself, with a covered fire stick, in the middle of the village while the remainder of the People crouched in terror within their houses.  She would show the way to the dwelling of the cursed creature even as she herself would face certain doom.

Even the brave heroine shook with resigned fear at the fearsome fluttering of giant wings was heard as the Bat approached. The creature seized her in its frightful claws and carried her off. As she is transported, the heroine now uncovers the fire stick, which showed the way like the Fire Cloud that throws its rays behind. The direction to the creature’s place of death and destruction was shown to the People, and the People fell upon the fearsome creature and destroyed it. Because of the heroic sacrifice of the old woman, the People were saved.

And the story is still told and passed on, and the sacrifice of the woman not forgotten. And all are still shocked and cringe in horror to hear of the immense heaps of bleached bones of missing brethren picked clean of flesh that were found in the creature’s dwelling.

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