BETUSA BLOG: January 2013

South American Folktale

Years and years ago at the very beginning of time, when the world had just been made, there was no night. It was day all the time. No one had ever heard of sunrise or sunset, stars or the moon There were no night birds, nor night beasts, nor night flowers. There were no shadows, or soft night.

In those days the daughter of the GREAT SEA SERPENT, who lived deep under the seas, married MAN (a son of the earth). She left her home among the darkness of the deep seas and came to live with her husband in the land of daylight. Her eyes became tired of the bright sunlight and her beauty faded. Her husband watched her with sad eyes, but he did not know what to do to help her.

"O, if night would only come," she moaned as she lay on her couch. "Here it is always day, but in my father's kingdom there are many shadows. O, for a little of the darkness of night!"

Her husband listened to her moanings. "What is night?" he asked her. "Tell me about it and perhaps I can get a little of it for you."

"Night," said the daughter of the GREAT SEA SERPENT, "is the name we give to the heavy shadows that make father's kingdom dark in the depths of the seas. I love the sunlight of your earth land, but I grow very tired of it. If we could have only a little of the darkness of my father's kingdom to rest our eyes from the light."

Her husband at once called his three most faithful slaves. "I am about to send you on a journey," he told them. "You are to go to the kingdom of the GREAT SEA SERPENT who lives deep in the sea and ask him to give you some of the darkness of night, so that his daughter will not die here in the sunlight of our earth land."

The three slaves left for the kingdom of the GREAT SEA SERPENT. After a long dangerous journey they arrived at his home deep in the sea and asked him to give them some of the shadows of night to carry back to the earth land. The GREAT SEA SERPENT gave them a big bag full at once. It was securely fastened and the GREAT SEA SERPENT warned them not to open it until they saw his daughter, their queen.

The three slaves started out, carrying the big bag full of night upon their heads. Soon they heard strange sounds in the bag. It was the sound of the voices of all the night beasts, all the night birds, and all the night insects. If you have ever heard the night song from the jungles on the banks of the rivers you will know how it sounded. The three slaves had never heard sounds like those in all their lives. They were very frightened.

"Let us drop the bag full of night right here where we are and run away as fast as we can," said the first slave.

"We will die. We will die, anyway, whatever we do," cried the second slave.

"If we die or not I am going to open the bag and see what makes all those terrible sounds," said the third slave.

So they laid the bag on the ground and opened it. Out came all the night beasts and all the night birds and all the night insects, and out came the great black cloud of night. The slaves were more frightened than ever at the darkness and escaped to the jungle.

The daughter of the GREAT SEA SERPENT was waiting anxiously for the return of the slaves with the bag full of night. Ever since they had started out on their journey she had looked for their return, shading her eyes with her hand and looking away off at the horizon, hoping with all her heart that they would hurry to bring the night. She was still looking and standing under a royal palm tree, when the three slaves opened the bag and let night escape. "Night comes. Night comes at last," she cried, as she saw the night on the sky. Then she closed her eyes and went to sleep there under the royal palm tree.

When she woke up she felt very rested. She was once more the happy princess who had left her father's kingdom deep in the great seas to come to the earth land. She was now ready to see the day again. She looked up at the bright star shining above the royal palm tree and said, "O, bright beautiful star, you will be called the morning star and you will show that the day is coming. You will be queen of the morning."

Then she called all the birds to her and said to them, "O, wonderful, sweet singing birds, I command you to sing your sweetest songs at this hour show that day is coming." The cock was standing by her side. "You," she said to him, "will be the watchman of the night. Your voice will tell times in the night and will tell the others that the _madrugada_ comes." To this very day in Brazil we call the early morning the _madrugada_. The cock announces its approach to the waiting birds. The birds sing their sweetest songs at that hour and the morning star rises in the sky as queen of the _madrugada_.

When it was daylight again the three slaves snuck home through the forests and jungles with their empty bag.

"O, faithless slaves," said their master, "why did you not obey the voice of the GREAT SEA SERPENT and open the bag only for his daughter, your queen? Because you did not obey, I will change you into monkeys. You will live in the trees. Your lips will always have the mark of the sealing wax which sealed the bag full of night."

To this very day one can see the mark on the monkeys' lips, where they bit off the wax which sealed the bag; and in Brazil night comes out quickly on the earth just as it came quickly out of the bag in those days at the beginning of time. And all the night beasts and night birds and night insects give a sunset song in the jungles at nightfall.

Probable Passage:

This strategy encourages students to make predictions, activate prior knowledge, make inferences, and form images about a text. Before having students read a text, the teacher selects eight to fourteen key words from the text and presents them to the students. Choose words that would have an obvious connection and others that might encourage some disagreement. Model the strategy a few times before having students do complete the activity individually. Tell students that the words will be placed into particular categories based on what is known about the categories, and what they mean to students. As words are put into the various category boxes, the teacher should think aloud his/her reasoning. Model how to create a gist statement. In the “Discover” section, write down some things that one might be curious about. After modeling and during student independent work, and after explaining/discussing the meanings of the words, have students work individually or in groups to arrange the words into categories according to their probable function in the story (such as setting, characters, conflicts, solutions, or endings). After guessing/inferring which words belong to which story function and writing a gist statement (summary of the predicted story), students can read the story and see if their assumptions were correct. After reading the story, discuss together as a whole class the students’ prior story assumptions and gist statements. See how they compare to the true story. Discuss whether or not the predictions made as much sense as the story, and how the probable passage helped students better understand the story.