Amiu - The Wolf and the Scorpion
Mar. 11th, 2005 12:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pauraque_bkLast time around, I mentioned that the star nearest to the brightest star in the sky is called the Wolf's Asshole and that if you look at the Wolf constellation it's not hard to see why. The same star is represented by a scorpion in art, and I said there was a story about that. ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lolaraincoat wanted to hear it.
Unlike the last story, this one is more a folk tale than a mythological episode, and is not considered to be "true", though it does allude to moral and factual truths. It's a just-so story for the entertainment and edification of children, and the themes should be familiar.
While I was thinking about this, I sketched what might be a typical storytelling scene (in my own artistic style, not theirs).
Storybringer performs for children and a mother
The Amiu word "storybringer" could also be translated as "mother of stories"; bringing is the characteristic action of a mother giving birth. This storybringer holds a dried scorpion shell and part of a canine skull, which he uses as puppets of a sort.
And here's the story, as he might tell it:
The Wolf and the Scorpion
Long ago, I've heard, the scorpions had no sting.1 They were still fearsome to small creatures, but had no defense against large predators, so they were often eaten by wolves.
One day, an alpha male wolf was digging up a scorpion's burrow.2 He found the male scorpion and tore off his claws, but just as the wolf was about to kill him, the scorpion said, "Stop! Listen! I'm not an ordinary creature like a gopher or a rabbit. I have the wisdom of the stars, and I'll share it with you if you don't eat me."
The wolf stopped. In truth, scorpions have no real wisdom, only cunning, despite their starlike nature. But the wolf didn't know that -- probably because he'd never listened to his elders when he was a pup. "What wisdom?" the wolf asked suspiciously, still holding his prey down with one paw.
"I know your wife is treacherous," said the scorpion. "She will kill and replace you if you don't mind her. I know this because after we mate with a woman scorpion, she eats us if we don't run away quickly."
The wolf seized the scorpion and ran home to see if he was telling the truth. He saw his wife talking with another male wolf, and said, "The scorpion was right! I'll kill this usurper." And so he did kill the other wolf, even though in truth they were only talking about where they might go hunting later. "Scorpion, you are wise," said the wolf. "I'll keep you forever, and if you ever refuse to share what you know, I'll eat you." And so the scorpion had no choice, but he had a plan of escape.
The next day he said to the wolf, "You shouldn't kill the animals before you eat them, but rather eat them alive, as I do. Surely then you'll be strong like me -- look, even though you tore my claws off, I'm still alive. It's living blood that makes me that way." The wolf agreed, and began eating his prey alive. Rabbits' screams were heard all over the hills.
The day after that, the scorpion said, "The other wolves in your pack have a lot of pups. This is dangerous, and I know because the woman scorpion carries her babies on her back, and if there are too many, her legs will break." The wolf thought this was wise, so he killed many of the pups. The weeping of the mother wolves was so loud as to annoy the South Star.3
And every day the scorpion persuaded the wolf to do bad things, because this was the plan. When the wolf was asleep, he drooled, and his spit was stagnant and poisonous because of the poisonous deeds he had done.4 The scorpion collected the spit as he slept, and kept it in a sharp seed-pod. During the day he left it in the sun to concentrate the poison. When it was full, the scorpion attached the pod to its tail with tree sap.
Meanwhile, the wolf pack and the other animals had gotten angry with the alpha wolf for his bad behavior. They chased him, shouting, and he fled with the scorpion in his mouth. They were chased to the edge of a crevice, and the wolf said, "Help me, scorpion, I need your wisdom!"
The scorpion crawled down behind him and said, "Here is my last piece of wisdom: The bad things you do will come back to sting you." And the scorpion raised his tail with the poisoned seed-pod, and stung the wolf in the asshole. The wolf shrieked and jumped forward, right into the waiting mob of angry animals. As they bit him, the scorpion scurried away.
The wolf got away alive, but the sting made him angry, and that's why wolves act as though a scorpion is stinging their rear end. This is also why scorpions have a sting to this day, and why the star at the Wolf constellation's asshole is a scorpion with no claws.
Notes, for those who want them.
1 Someone telling a story will indicate that they've heard that this happened by using a form of the verb called the quotative evidential. Here it's a formula, like "once upon a time", but it would also be used to report hearsay in everyday conversation.
2 The Luen keep domesticated livestock, so wolves usually appear as villains in their stories. The alpha male wolf is a particular baddie, so right away we should be rooting for the scorpion here. Native scorpions are not poisonous enough to kill anything larger than a sparrow, but their sting is very painful, so the Luen are careful to keep clear of them. The scorpion is something of an anti-hero here: though we admire his cunning, there's also a message to beware of his trickery.
3 The South Star is a very distant being who usually takes no notice of the affairs of living things. To say something is loud enough to annoy the South Star is a stock phrase -- it just means a noisy racket.
4 Bad deeds are commonly said to make one's bodily fluids stagnant and bitter -- only natural, since the Luen believe the soul is literally water.
Other Amiu/Luen stuff is kept here.
lolaraincoat wanted to hear it.Unlike the last story, this one is more a folk tale than a mythological episode, and is not considered to be "true", though it does allude to moral and factual truths. It's a just-so story for the entertainment and edification of children, and the themes should be familiar.
While I was thinking about this, I sketched what might be a typical storytelling scene (in my own artistic style, not theirs).
Storybringer performs for children and a mother
The Amiu word "storybringer" could also be translated as "mother of stories"; bringing is the characteristic action of a mother giving birth. This storybringer holds a dried scorpion shell and part of a canine skull, which he uses as puppets of a sort.
And here's the story, as he might tell it:
The Wolf and the Scorpion
Long ago, I've heard, the scorpions had no sting.1 They were still fearsome to small creatures, but had no defense against large predators, so they were often eaten by wolves.
One day, an alpha male wolf was digging up a scorpion's burrow.2 He found the male scorpion and tore off his claws, but just as the wolf was about to kill him, the scorpion said, "Stop! Listen! I'm not an ordinary creature like a gopher or a rabbit. I have the wisdom of the stars, and I'll share it with you if you don't eat me."
The wolf stopped. In truth, scorpions have no real wisdom, only cunning, despite their starlike nature. But the wolf didn't know that -- probably because he'd never listened to his elders when he was a pup. "What wisdom?" the wolf asked suspiciously, still holding his prey down with one paw.
"I know your wife is treacherous," said the scorpion. "She will kill and replace you if you don't mind her. I know this because after we mate with a woman scorpion, she eats us if we don't run away quickly."
The wolf seized the scorpion and ran home to see if he was telling the truth. He saw his wife talking with another male wolf, and said, "The scorpion was right! I'll kill this usurper." And so he did kill the other wolf, even though in truth they were only talking about where they might go hunting later. "Scorpion, you are wise," said the wolf. "I'll keep you forever, and if you ever refuse to share what you know, I'll eat you." And so the scorpion had no choice, but he had a plan of escape.
The next day he said to the wolf, "You shouldn't kill the animals before you eat them, but rather eat them alive, as I do. Surely then you'll be strong like me -- look, even though you tore my claws off, I'm still alive. It's living blood that makes me that way." The wolf agreed, and began eating his prey alive. Rabbits' screams were heard all over the hills.
The day after that, the scorpion said, "The other wolves in your pack have a lot of pups. This is dangerous, and I know because the woman scorpion carries her babies on her back, and if there are too many, her legs will break." The wolf thought this was wise, so he killed many of the pups. The weeping of the mother wolves was so loud as to annoy the South Star.3
And every day the scorpion persuaded the wolf to do bad things, because this was the plan. When the wolf was asleep, he drooled, and his spit was stagnant and poisonous because of the poisonous deeds he had done.4 The scorpion collected the spit as he slept, and kept it in a sharp seed-pod. During the day he left it in the sun to concentrate the poison. When it was full, the scorpion attached the pod to its tail with tree sap.
Meanwhile, the wolf pack and the other animals had gotten angry with the alpha wolf for his bad behavior. They chased him, shouting, and he fled with the scorpion in his mouth. They were chased to the edge of a crevice, and the wolf said, "Help me, scorpion, I need your wisdom!"
The scorpion crawled down behind him and said, "Here is my last piece of wisdom: The bad things you do will come back to sting you." And the scorpion raised his tail with the poisoned seed-pod, and stung the wolf in the asshole. The wolf shrieked and jumped forward, right into the waiting mob of angry animals. As they bit him, the scorpion scurried away.
The wolf got away alive, but the sting made him angry, and that's why wolves act as though a scorpion is stinging their rear end. This is also why scorpions have a sting to this day, and why the star at the Wolf constellation's asshole is a scorpion with no claws.
Notes, for those who want them.
1 Someone telling a story will indicate that they've heard that this happened by using a form of the verb called the quotative evidential. Here it's a formula, like "once upon a time", but it would also be used to report hearsay in everyday conversation.
2 The Luen keep domesticated livestock, so wolves usually appear as villains in their stories. The alpha male wolf is a particular baddie, so right away we should be rooting for the scorpion here. Native scorpions are not poisonous enough to kill anything larger than a sparrow, but their sting is very painful, so the Luen are careful to keep clear of them. The scorpion is something of an anti-hero here: though we admire his cunning, there's also a message to beware of his trickery.
3 The South Star is a very distant being who usually takes no notice of the affairs of living things. To say something is loud enough to annoy the South Star is a stock phrase -- it just means a noisy racket.
4 Bad deeds are commonly said to make one's bodily fluids stagnant and bitter -- only natural, since the Luen believe the soul is literally water.
Other Amiu/Luen stuff is kept here.
