h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This story is told best as I can recall it. It was said first by my Grandmother when I was small and I do not know where she received it from. I have worked to make it in good English and hope it is enjoyed and that it is remembered and told as stories are meant to be shared and not held as the property of just one but belong to all. This story I told also to my children and I hope they will say it to theirs.
JR

Otter Woman had a great heart it was filled with all manner of good things and no evil was found in it. For this reason she was much loved by many people and hated by some. All people said she made a warm lodge and she had powerful magic for good. If a person was hungry she would not let them pass but fed them. If a person was cold she would not let them pass without sitting by the fire covered with an elk robe to warm their bones. If a person was weary they slept upon soft furs and fresh cedar boughs. Otter Woman made medicines and was a healer to her people and false things were not found in her.

One day Otter Woman was in the forest to gather herbs for healing and berries and nuts for pemmican for the comming Winter. As she walked in her path she heard a quiet voice. "Otter Woman, come heal me, a man has struck me with his club and I am near death." Otter Woman sought out the voice but found nothing. Otter Woman listened but heard nothing. Then the voice mixed with the shivvering of leaves in the breeze. "Otter woman, come down from the high land to where the river is shallow and men cross upon the stones, there I will be found, broken and perhaps dead." Otter Woman went to the place where the river was shallow and men crossed upon the stones and upon a great blue stone she saw Gi'inebeg the serpent.

"What have I to do with you?", she said to him. "You are with a bad heart and it is right that you go to your fathers broken and torn." "Oh no!" says Gi'inebeg, "I have done harm to no man and I eat only frogs and mice and such as I need to live, I am not like those of my fathers lodge, beside this you yourself do the same for you also must eat and so cannot judge me in the council lodge of your heart." "I have called for you, Otter Woman, because you are known to all the children of the Great Spirit and I knew that only Otter Woman would have compassion upon a humble creature such as me, knowing that I too am a son of The Creator. The wisdom to make healing for wounds that are unto death is only in the hands of Otter Woman, All creatures know this of you."

Otter Woman was honored by the talk of Gi'inebeg as he had hoped. She took the basket from her hip and lay a soft skin over it. "How am I to know you will not harm me?" She asked. "To kill you would be to kill myself would it not?" Otter Woman saw the wisdom in this and gentley lifted the serpent to the doe skin within the basket of herbs and berries that now were the resting bed of Gi'inebeg.

When Otter Woman returned to her lodge she washed the wounds of Gi'inebeg and burned sweet herbs and chanted and prayed and bound his broken bones and dressed his wounds with salve and gave tea of willow bark and winterberry, and rubbed white ashes on his forehead. Gi'inebeg slept.

Otter Woman stayed in this way for many days and caught for him mice to eat and gave him medicine and placed him near the hearth to sleep in comfort as this is the way of serpents even in the warm season. After those days had passed her husband, returned from the hunt with his companions. Entering the lodge Otter Woman brought to him his pipe and tobbaco to smoke. She gave him food and spoke soft words to him. "My husband, I have taken a creature of the forest that has been injured that I may heal him." Her husband nodded and Otter Woman was relieved. After a time her husband spoke to her, "Heal this animal and then release it as your custom is, but remember that you must then begin to care not only for others, but also for yourself for the sake of the son that is in your womb." Otter Woman knew the wisdom of her husbands words and purposed to follow them, and they lay together for the comfort of it.

Next day as she cared for the serpent she said to him, "you are almost well and when you go out from my lodge you must promise that you will do no harm to any of my people." Gi'inebeg looked into her face and said to her, "It is only right that I should repay your kindness". But Otter Woman was uneasy in her heart and said again the same words, Gi'inebeg again looked into her face and spoke softly, "Only the most evil of creatures with the baddest of hearts would repay your kindness with evil, it is because of you I live. So I am in de4bt to your clan and to all your tribe.". Otter Woman was pleased with his words and her spirit was at peace.

The day came soon after, that the serpent was well enough to leave the lodge of Otter Woman and to go about once more in the forest. With great care she removed the splints from his body and the bandages from his wounds. She gave him a frog to eat and said to him, "It is time that you leave my lodge and take yourself from this village. If any man sees you he will kill you, so you must be wise and not linger in the pathways but go directly to the forest". Gi'inebeg replied, "Truly your lodge is a welcome place for all that have need. It is my wish that you be forever honored. I beg you, one last kindness before I go from you. Hold me once more that I may feel the warmth of the heart of Otter Woman and I may remember it to comfort my bones in the cold days. It will be as medicine to me.

Otter Woman hesitated but was filled with pride for the sake of the words of Gi'inebeg and so she lifted Gi'inebeg and held him as an infant close to her. Otter Woman felt a great white fire in her breast and as Gi'inebeg sprang from her arms she saw the mark of his fangs where they had pearced her flesh. Otter Woman looked upon him with great sorrow and said to Gi'inebeg, "Why have you done such an evil thing to the one that returned life to you? I have done only good since first I heard your voice whispering in my heart, having found you to take you into my lodge, how is it that you return so great an evil for good?".

Gi'inebeg hesitated not to speak,"You have done great kindness to me and have given life back to my body just as you have said, even to the comforting of my spirit wich once was heavy for fear of death. All of this you have done and more, before The Great Spirit I declare it is truth. But what you did you did for the sake of your nature and could not do otherwise, likewise what I have done ,I have done for the sake of my nature, how could I have done otherwise? No kindness can make me as Otter Woman and no evil can make Otter Woman as Gi'inebeg for it is not in the nature of us."

Otter Woman understood and went to be with her fathers. Gi'inebeg went out and was not seen again. Only his children were seen and they are killed whenever they are found because they are as he is, for it is in the nature of their tribe and they cannot change.

john

thankyou for telling this story; it is a universal one - and one I am familiar with. I find it wonderful that you tell this particular one.

In the stories of the zodiac,(in European astrology) there is the sign of Scorpio - which is sometimes represented by a serpent, which would be a way of saying that the person born under this sign is the lowest and most base type of personality of this sign. There are other types of scorpion, the best of which is represented by the Phoenix who burns himself and resurrects himself from his own ashes.

There is also the lizard, who doesn't do much harm, but doesn't stretch himself to do much good, either. He just harbours resentment he can neither allow himself to be good OR evil, just ensnared in himself, which is why a lizard regularly sheds his skin - or so it's said.

Its one of the most complicated signs. There are 11 others, but perhaps I am biased, as I was born under the sign of scorpio, and no matter how hard I try, I see too many patterns of the different personality types over and over again, to dismiss the idea that the time of the year we were born does not influence how we are. When I read this story I didn't want to be a scorpion or a serpent; although I am afraid of birds, I aspired to be like the Phoenix.



In the story I read, the scorpion begs a good fox to allow him to sit on his tail(firstly) so that the fox can swim them both across a river to escape from danger. The fox is suspicious, because the scorpion has a bad reputation, but is persuaded, in much the same way as The Otter Woman is persuaded by Gi'inbeg: "To kill you would be to kill myself would it not?"

The river becomes deeper, and the fox is persuaded to take the scorpion onto his back...and finally, at the water's deepest, his head. He is suspicious, but each time the scorpion repeats his assurance, and each time, the fox is reassured.

Just before they reach the other side, and safety for both of them, the scorpion plunges his sting into the fox. The fox says "Why? Not only have you killed me, you've destroyed yourself. Without me you cannot get to the shore"

And the scorpion replies "I cannot help but to follow my nature, even though it destroys me"

How remarkable that there is such a close parallel between a story handed down to you from your Grandmother and one I have read (and remembered all these years) as a young woman.

I honestly do believe that those who have ears do hear the same things, regardless of how the story has been told. They may hear different lessons... but all are valid.

I am in much awe that this is a 'universal' story. The lesso is to be held by all people, it is true, but that the stories would be as such is a wonder.

Does anyone else know of a story like these?
JR

Aesops Fables also tell this story, I'm pretty certain.

And I am sure there are parralells of them in the Norse, Greek and Roman Creation Mythologies. The names are different, but the charactors and the circumstances are very similar.

I think Anhaga would be the best person to ask about other culture's "Learning Stories" I don't know her personally, but she does seem to have an enormous knowledge in that area.