Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome back to Sleepy Stories. I'm your host, Lucy,
Speaker 1: and my friends and I will be reading you a
Speaker 1: sleepy bedtime story every week to relax you and to
Speaker 1: help you to drift off into a RESTful sleep. From
Speaker 1: time to time, we will also read you a relaxing,
Speaker 1: peaceful meditation that will take you somewhere beautiful and calming.
Speaker 1: Once we have read the stories, we will then read
Speaker 1: them a second time, but this time they will be
Speaker 1: ready even slower. This will help you to relax even more.
Speaker 1: Before we begin, I would like you to close your
Speaker 1: eyes and breathe in and out nice and deeply. Take
Speaker 1: a few seconds to inhale, and then hold your breath
Speaker 1: for a few seconds more, and then release and breathe out.
Speaker 1: Do this a few times if you need to, while
Speaker 1: you listen to the music and you listen to my voice,
Speaker 1: give yourself time to let your body relax and your
Speaker 1: mind settle. It's important that we allow time for us
Speaker 1: to feel safe, cozy, and completely at ease. And now
Speaker 1: it's time for this week's story.
Speaker 2: Great good luck once happened to a young woman who
Speaker 2: was living all alone in the woods, with nobody near
Speaker 2: her but her little dog, for to her surprise, she
Speaker 2: found fresh meat every morning at her door. She was
Speaker 2: very curious to know who it was that supplied her,
Speaker 2: and watching one just as the sun had risen, she
Speaker 2: saw a handsome young man gliding away into the forest.
Speaker 2: Having seen her, he became her husband, and she had
Speaker 2: a son by him. One day, not long after this,
Speaker 2: he did not return at evening as usual from hunting.
Speaker 2: She waited till late at night, but he came no more.
Speaker 2: The next day, she swung her child to sleep in
Speaker 2: its cradle, and then set to her dog, take care
Speaker 2: of your brother while I am gone, and when he
Speaker 2: cries halloo for me. The cradle was made of the
Speaker 2: finest wampum, and all its and ornaments were of the
Speaker 2: same precious stuff. After a short time, the woman heard
Speaker 2: the cry of the dog, and running home as fast
Speaker 2: as she could, she found her child gone and the
Speaker 2: dog too. On looking around, she saw scattered upon the
Speaker 2: ground pieces of the wampum of her child's cradle, and
Speaker 2: she knew that the dog had been faithful and had
Speaker 2: striven his best to save her child from being carried
Speaker 2: off as he had been by an old woman from
Speaker 2: a distant country called Mukakei Mendy Moeya, or the toad woman.
Speaker 2: The mother hurried off at f speed in pursuit, and
Speaker 2: as she flew along she came from time to time
Speaker 2: to lodges inhabited by old women who told her at
Speaker 2: what time the child thief had passed. They also gave
Speaker 2: her shoes that she might follow on. There was a
Speaker 2: number of these old women who seemed as if they
Speaker 2: were prophetesses and knew what was to come along beforehand.
Speaker 2: Each of them would say to her that when she
Speaker 2: arrived at the next lodge, she must set the toes
Speaker 2: of the moccasins they had given her pointing homeward, and
Speaker 2: that they would return of themselves. The young woman was
Speaker 2: very careful to send back in this manner all the
Speaker 2: shoes she borrowed. She thus followed in the pursuit from
Speaker 2: valley to valley, and streamed to stream for many months
Speaker 2: and years. When she came at length to the lodge
Speaker 2: of the last of the friendly old grandmothers, as they
Speaker 2: were called, who gave her the last instructions how to proceed,
Speaker 2: She told her that she was near the place where
Speaker 2: her son was to be found, and she directed her
Speaker 2: to build a lodge of cedar boughs hard by the
Speaker 2: old toad woman's lodge, and to make a little bark dish,
Speaker 2: and to fill it with the juice of the wild grape.
Speaker 2: Then she said, your first child, meaning the dog, will
Speaker 2: come and find you. Out these directions, the young woman
Speaker 2: followed just as they had been given to her, and
Speaker 2: in a short time she heard her son, now grown up,
Speaker 2: going out to hunt with his dog, calling out to him,
Speaker 2: piewaubeck Spirit Iron twea twe. The dog soon came into
Speaker 2: the lodge, and she sat before him the dish of
Speaker 2: grape juice. See, my child, she said, addressing him the
Speaker 2: pretty drink your mother gives you. Spirit Iron took a
Speaker 2: long troft and immediately left the lodge with his eyes
Speaker 2: wide open, for it was the drink which teaches one
Speaker 2: to see the truth of things as they are. He
Speaker 2: rose up when he got into the open air, stood
Speaker 2: upon his hind legs, and looked about. I see how
Speaker 2: it is, he said, and marching off erect like a man,
Speaker 2: he sought out his young master. Approaching him in great confidence,
Speaker 2: he bent down and whispered in his ear, having first
Speaker 2: looked cautiously around to see that no one was listening.
Speaker 2: This old woman here in the lodge is no mother
Speaker 2: of yours. I have found your real mother, and she
Speaker 2: is worth looking at. When we come back from our
Speaker 2: day's sport, i'll prove it to you. They went out
Speaker 2: into the woods, and at the close of the afternoon
Speaker 2: they brought back a great spoil of meat of all kinds.
Speaker 2: The young man, as soon as he had laid aside
Speaker 2: his weapons, said to the old toad woman, send some
Speaker 2: of the best of this meat to the stranger who
Speaker 2: arrived lately. The toad woman answered, no, why should I
Speaker 2: send it to her, the poor widow. The young man
Speaker 2: would not be refused, and at last the old toad
Speaker 2: woman consented to take something and throw it down the door.
Speaker 2: She called out, my son gives you this, but being
Speaker 2: bewitched by Mukaki mende moya. It was so bitter and
Speaker 2: distasteful that the young woman immediately cast it out of
Speaker 2: the lodge after her. In the evening, the young man
Speaker 2: paid the stranger a visit at her lodge of cedar boughs.
Speaker 2: She then told him that she was his real mother,
Speaker 2: and that he had been stolen away from her by
Speaker 2: the old toad woman, who was a child thief and
Speaker 2: a witch. As the young man appeared to doubt, she added,
Speaker 2: feign yourself sick when you go home to her lodge.
Speaker 2: And when the toad woman asks what ails you, say
Speaker 2: that you wish to see your cradle, For your cradle
Speaker 2: was of wampum, and your faithful brother, the dog, and
Speaker 2: striving to save you, tore off these pieces, which I
Speaker 2: show you. They were real wampum, white and blue, shining
Speaker 2: and beautiful. And the young man, placing them in his bosom,
Speaker 2: set off. But as he did not seem quite steady
Speaker 2: in his belief of the strange woman's story, the dog
Speaker 2: Spirit Iron, taking his arm, kept close by his side
Speaker 2: and gave him many words of encouragement as they went along.
Speaker 2: They entered the lodge together, and the old toad woman
Speaker 2: saw from something in the dog's eye that trouble was coming. Mother,
Speaker 2: said the young man, placing his hand to his hat
Speaker 2: and leaning heavily upon Spirit Iron, as if a sudden
Speaker 2: faintness had come upon him. Why am I so different
Speaker 2: in looks from the rest of your children, Oh, she answered,
Speaker 2: it was a very bright, clear blue sky when you
Speaker 2: were born. That is the reason. He seemed to be
Speaker 2: so very ill that the toad woman at length asked
Speaker 2: what she could do for him. He said, nothing could
Speaker 2: do him good but the sight of his cradle. She
Speaker 2: ran immediately and brought a cedar cradle, but he said,
Speaker 2: that is not my cradle. She went and got another
Speaker 2: of her own children's cradles, of which there were four,
Speaker 2: But he turned his head and said, that is not mine.
Speaker 2: I am as sick as ever. When she had shown
Speaker 2: the four and they had been all rejected, she at
Speaker 2: last produced the real cradle. The young man saw that
Speaker 2: it was made of the same stuff as the wampum
Speaker 2: which he had in his bosom. He could even see
Speaker 2: the marks of the teeth of Spirit Iron left upon
Speaker 2: the edges where he had taken hold striving to hold
Speaker 2: it back. He had no doubt now which was his mother.
Speaker 2: To get free of the old toad woman, it was
Speaker 2: necessary that the young man should kill a fat bear, and,
Speaker 2: being directed by Spirit Iron, who was very wise in
Speaker 2: such a matter, he secured the fattest in all that country.
Speaker 2: In having stripped a tall pine of all its barks
Speaker 2: and branches, he perched the carcass in the top with
Speaker 2: its head to the yeast and its tail due west.
Speaker 2: Returning to the lodge, he informed the old toad woman
Speaker 2: that the fat bear was ready for her, but that
Speaker 2: she would have to go very far, even to the
Speaker 2: end of the earth, to get it. She answered, it
Speaker 2: is not so far, but that I can get it.
Speaker 2: For all things in the world a fat bear was
Speaker 2: the delight of the old toad woman. She at once
Speaker 2: set forth, and she was no sooner out of sight
Speaker 2: than the young man and his dog, spirit Iron. Blowing
Speaker 2: a strong breath in the face of the toad woman's
Speaker 2: four children, who were all bad spirits or bare fiends,
Speaker 2: they put out their life. They then set them up
Speaker 2: by the side of the door, having first thrust a
Speaker 2: piece of the white fat in each of their mouths.
Speaker 2: The toad woman spent a long time in finding the
Speaker 2: bear which she had been sent after, and she made
Speaker 2: at least five and twenty attempts before she was able
Speaker 2: to climb to the carcass. She slipped down three times,
Speaker 2: where she went up once. When she returned with the
Speaker 2: great bear on her back. As she drew near her lodge,
Speaker 2: she was astonished to see the four children standing up
Speaker 2: by the doorposts with the fat in their mouths. She
Speaker 2: was angry with them and called out, why do you
Speaker 2: thus insult the pomatum of your brother. She was still
Speaker 2: more angry when they made no answer to her complaint.
Speaker 2: But when she found that they were stark dead and
Speaker 2: placed in this way to mock her, her fury was
Speaker 2: very great. Indeed, she ran after the tracks of the
Speaker 2: young man and his mother as fast as she could,
Speaker 2: so fast indeed that she was on the very point
Speaker 2: of overtaking them, when the dog spirit Iron, coming close
Speaker 2: up to his master, whispered to him, snakeberry. Let the
Speaker 2: snakeberry spring up to detain her, cried out the young man,
Speaker 2: And immediately the berries spread like scarlet all over the
Speaker 2: path for a long distance, and the old toad woman,
Speaker 2: who was almost as fond of these berries as she
Speaker 2: was of fat bears, could not avoid stooping down to
Speaker 2: pick and eat. The old toad woman was very anxious
Speaker 2: to get forward, but the snakeberry vines kept spreading out
Speaker 2: on every side, and they still grow and grow and
Speaker 2: spread and spread. And to this day the wicked old
Speaker 2: toad woman is busy picking the berries, and she will
Speaker 2: never be able to get beyond to the other side.
Speaker 2: To disturb the happiness of the young hunter and his mother,
Speaker 2: who still live with their faithful dog in the shadow
Speaker 2: of the beautiful woodside where they were born. Great good
Speaker 2: luck once happened to a young woman who was living
Speaker 2: all alone in the woods, with nobody near her but
Speaker 2: her little dog four. To her surprise, she found fresh
Speaker 2: meat every morning at her door. She was very curious
Speaker 2: to know who it was that supplied her, and watching.
Speaker 2: One morning, just as the sun had risen, she saw
Speaker 2: a handsome young man gliding away into the forest. Having
Speaker 2: seen her, he became her husband, and she had a
Speaker 2: son by him. One day, not long after this, he
Speaker 2: did not return at evening as usual from hunting. She
Speaker 2: waited till late at night, but he came no more.
Speaker 2: The next day, she swung her child to sleep in
Speaker 2: its cradle, and then set to her dog. Take care
Speaker 2: of your brother while I am gone, and when he
Speaker 2: cries halloo for me. The cradle was made of the
Speaker 2: finest wampum, and all its bandages and ornaments were of
Speaker 2: the same precious stuff. After a short time, the woman
Speaker 2: heard the cry of the dog, and running home as
Speaker 2: fast as she could, she found her child gone and
Speaker 2: the dog too on. Looking around, she saw scattered upon
Speaker 2: the ground pieces of the wampum of her child's cradle,
Speaker 2: and she knew that the dog had been faithful and
Speaker 2: had striven his best to save her child from being
Speaker 2: carried off as he had been by an old woman
Speaker 2: from a distant country called Mukhaki men Moya, or the
Speaker 2: toad woman. The mother hurried off at full speed in pursuit,
Speaker 2: and as she flew along she came from time to
Speaker 2: time to lodges inhabited by old women who told her
Speaker 2: at what time the child thief had passed. They also
Speaker 2: gave her shoes that she might follow on. There was
Speaker 2: a number of these old women who seemed as if
Speaker 2: they were prophetesses and knew what was to come along beforehand.
Speaker 2: Each of them would say to her that when she
Speaker 2: arrived at the next lodge, she must set the toes
Speaker 2: of the moccasins they had given her pointing homeward, and
Speaker 2: that they would return of themselves. The young woman was
Speaker 2: very careful to send back in this manner all the
Speaker 2: shoes she borrowed. She thus followed in the pursuit from
Speaker 2: valley to valley, and streamed to stream for many months
Speaker 2: and years, when she came at length to the lodge
Speaker 2: of the last of the friendly old grandmothers, as they
Speaker 2: were called, who gave her the last instructions how to proceed.
Speaker 2: She told her that she was near the place where
Speaker 2: her son was to be found, and she directed her
Speaker 2: to build a lodge of cedar boughs by the old
Speaker 2: toad woman's lodge, and to make a little bark dish,
Speaker 2: and to fill it with the juice of the wild grape.
Speaker 2: Then she said, your first child, meaning the dog, will
Speaker 2: come and find you. Out these directions, the young woman
Speaker 2: followed just as they had been given to her, and
Speaker 2: in a short time she heard her son, now grown up,
Speaker 2: going out to hunt with his dog, calling out to him,
Speaker 2: Pee Waubeck Spirit Iron twea twea. The dog soon came
Speaker 2: into the lodge, and she sat before him. The dish
Speaker 2: of grape juice, Child, she said, addressing him, the pretty
Speaker 2: drink your mother gives you. Spirit Iron took a long
Speaker 2: draft and immediately left the lodge with his eyes wide open,
Speaker 2: for it was the drink which teaches one to see
Speaker 2: the truth of things as they are. He rose up
Speaker 2: when he got into the open air, stood upon his
Speaker 2: hind legs and looked about. I see how it is,
Speaker 2: he said, and marching off erect like a man, he
Speaker 2: sought out his young master. Approaching him in great confidence,
Speaker 2: he bent down and whispered in his ear, having first
Speaker 2: looked cautiously around to see that no one was listening.
Speaker 2: This old woman here in the lodge is no mother
Speaker 2: of yours. I have found your real mother, and she
Speaker 2: is worth looking at. When we come back from our
Speaker 2: day's sport, i'll prove it to you. They went out
Speaker 2: into the woods, and at the close of the afternoon
Speaker 2: they brought back a great spoil of meat of all kinds.
Speaker 2: The young man, as soon as he had laid aside
Speaker 2: his weapons, said to the old toad woman, send some
Speaker 2: of the best of this meat to the stranger who
Speaker 2: arrived lately. The toad woman answered, no, why should I
Speaker 2: send it to her, the poor widow. The young man
Speaker 2: would not be refused, and at last the old toad
Speaker 2: woman consented to take something and throw it down the door.
Speaker 2: She called out, my son gives you this. But being
Speaker 2: bewitched by Mukaki mendey Moya, it was so bitter and
Speaker 2: distasteful that the young woman immediately cast it out of
Speaker 2: the lodge after her. In the evening, the young man
Speaker 2: paid the stranger a visit at her lodge of cedar boughs.
Speaker 2: She then told him that she was his real mother,
Speaker 2: and that he had been stolen away from her by
Speaker 2: the old toad woman, who was a child thief and
Speaker 2: a witch. As the young man appeared to doubt, she added,
Speaker 2: feign yourself sick when you go home to her lodge,
Speaker 2: and when the toad woman asks what ails you, say
Speaker 2: that you wish to see your cradle, For your cradle
Speaker 2: was of wampum, and your faithful brother, the dog, in
Speaker 2: striving to save you, tore off these pieces, which I
Speaker 2: show you. They were real wampum, white and blue, shining
Speaker 2: and beautiful, and the young man, placing them in his bosom,
Speaker 2: set off. But as he did not seem quite steady
Speaker 2: in his belief of the strange woman's story, the dog
Speaker 2: spirit Iron, taking his arm, kept close by his side
Speaker 2: and gave him many words of encouragement as they went along.
Speaker 2: They entered the lodge together, and the old toad woman
Speaker 2: saw from something in the dog's eye that trouble was coming. Mother,
Speaker 2: said the young man, placing his hand to his hat,
Speaker 2: and leaning heavily upon spirit Iron, as if a sudden
Speaker 2: faintness had come upon him. Why am I so different
Speaker 2: in looks from the rest of your children? Oh, she answered,
Speaker 2: it was a very bright, clear blue sky when you
Speaker 2: were born. That is the reason. He seemed to be
Speaker 2: so very ill that the toad woman at length asked
Speaker 2: what she could do for him. He said nothing could
Speaker 2: do him good but the sight of his cradle. She
Speaker 2: ran immediately and brought a cedar cradle, but he said,
Speaker 2: that is not my cradle. She went and got another
Speaker 2: of her own children's cradles, of which there were four,
Speaker 2: But he turned his head and said that is not mine.
Speaker 2: I am as sick as ever. When she had shown
Speaker 2: the four and they had been all rejected, she at
Speaker 2: last produced the real cradle. The young man saw that
Speaker 2: it was made of the same stuff as the wompum
Speaker 2: which he had in his bosom. He could even see
Speaker 2: the marks of the teeth of spirit Iron left upon
Speaker 2: the edges where he had taken hold striving to hold
Speaker 2: it back. He had no doubt now which was his mother.
Speaker 2: To get free of the old toad woman, it was
Speaker 2: necessary that the young man should kill a fat bear, and,
Speaker 2: being directed by Spirit Iron, who was very wise in
Speaker 2: such a matter, he secured the fattest in all that country, and,
Speaker 2: having stripped a tall pine of all its barks and branches,
Speaker 2: he perched the carcass in the top, with its head
Speaker 2: to the east and its tail due west. Returning to
Speaker 2: the lodge, he informed the old toad woman that the
Speaker 2: fat bear was ready for her, but that she would
Speaker 2: have to go very far, even to the end of
Speaker 2: the earth, to get it. She answered, it is not
Speaker 2: so far, but that I can get it. For all
Speaker 2: things in the world, a fat bear was the delight
Speaker 2: of the old toad woman. She at once set forth,
Speaker 2: and she was no sooner out of sight than the
Speaker 2: young man and his dog, Spirit Iron. Blowing a strong
Speaker 2: breath in the face of the toad woman's four children,
Speaker 2: who were all bad spirits or bare fiends, they put
Speaker 2: out their life. They then set them up by the
Speaker 2: side of the door, having first thrust a piece of
Speaker 2: the white fat in each of their mouths. The toad
Speaker 2: woman spent a long time in finding the bear which
Speaker 2: she had been sent after, and she made at least
Speaker 2: five and twenty attempts before she was able to climb
Speaker 2: to the carcass, she slipped down three times, where she
Speaker 2: went up once. When she returned with the great bear
Speaker 2: on her back. As she drew near her lodge, she
Speaker 2: was astonished to see the four children standing up by
Speaker 2: the doorposts with the fat in their mouths. She was
Speaker 2: angry with them and called out, why do you thus
Speaker 2: insult the pomatum of your brother. She was still more
Speaker 2: angry when they made no answer to her complaint. But
Speaker 2: when she found that they were stark dead and placed
Speaker 2: in this way to mock her, her fury was very great.
Speaker 2: Indeed she ran after the tracks of the young man
Speaker 2: and his mother as fast as she could, so so
Speaker 2: fast indeed that she was on the very point of
Speaker 2: overtaking them, when the dog spirit Iron, coming close up
Speaker 2: to his master, whispered to him, snakeberry. Let the snakeberry
Speaker 2: spring up to detain her, cried out the young man.
Speaker 2: And immediately the berry spread like scarlet all over the
Speaker 2: path for a long distance, and the old toad woman,
Speaker 2: who was almost as fond of these berries as she
Speaker 2: was of fat bears, could not avoid stooping down to
Speaker 2: pick and eat. The old toad woman was very anxious
Speaker 2: to get forward, but the snakeberry vine kept spreading out
Speaker 2: on every side. And they still grow and grow and
Speaker 2: spread and spread. And to this day the wicked old
Speaker 2: toad woman is busy picking the berries, and she will
Speaker 2: never be able to get beyond to the other side
Speaker 2: to disturb the happiness of the young hunter and his mother,
Speaker 2: who still live with their faithful dog in the shadow
Speaker 2: of the beautiful wood side where they were born.