A Folktale Translated from the Saslingua

            Many long moons ago when all the forest and meadows were merry and free, there lived a family apart from others. There were so few of the people that many times no one saw anyone else for long times.
            As is always righteous, there was a papa, a mama, and four little ones of stair-stepped ages. The youngest was still at the breast. Then there was a three year old, a five year old and an eight year old. All were model children.
            Papa was stern and yet kind. He was dark, lanky and very tall. His name meant “In Front.” Whatever came to them, came to him first.
            Mama was shorter and rounder, as is often the case. She was almost a blond. Her name, translated, meant “She is There.” Even the old-timers liked a joke or two, of the mild variety. She certainly was there!
            In those days people often had a name for use in childhood. When they became of marriageable age, a new name was found for them befitting their own nature.
            So, the children were known as “Bud,” “Leaf,” “Lily,” and finally, the oldest was known as “Stalk,” or merely “Son.” All the rest were girls.
            The people in those days ate what the land provided. Each season had its gifts, sometimes shoots, sometimes fruits, and sometimes roots. (That does not rhyme in Saslingua.)
            Also, In Front and Stalk hunted animals for meat. There were two methods In Front was teaching the boy by example. One was to run it down and grab it and break its neck quickly. The papa was faster than a deer and had phenomenal stamina. He could outrun any deer he chose for his family.
            The other method was rock throwing. Women and children were encouraged to practice rock throwing until their aim was useful and sure. Men did this too, especially when hunting birds, or other small things like rabbits.
            She is There was very handy with a handful sized chunk of granite. The three older children were working on it every day. They learned how to live from their parents.
            Surely, in those days, no one would interfere with anyone else’s children. It was not done.
            The children orbited their mother as if they were her moons, and they sat before their father as learners once they were old enough to follow him.
            When they first married, In Front and She is There began building a place of cover to sleep inside of. It was more than a pile of brush! But it wasn’t quite a permanent house either. It was a largish hut made of branches and bark. They added materiel to it every year. It was sturdy and looked like part of the landscape. Plants and grass grew on it, making it more and more water proof as the years went on. She is There filled it with mosses and dry grasses, and changed those frequently, as they got matted down and dirty. It pleased her to keep a pleasant home.
            They didn’t use fire.
            One day, in the summer of the year, She is There took Bud and went to the meadow near her home to see what might be had for the gathering. It was a bit late for shoots and a bit early for fruits, so she was looking pretty hard at some seed heads on grasses. She was just chewing some of these seeds to see how they tasted when she noticed something so frightening that she stopped breathing for a moment. Her hand covered her mouth in horror.
            Surely this creature must be ill she thought. It was almost like a person as it sat there on the ground doing something unheard of by all her people.
            It was as small as a child and had almost no hair. Just a bit on its head and this hair wasn’t loose like hair normally was. It was arranged in some way. She could see that the sick thing must be a female, by its breasts. But then it had some sort of material wrapped around itself. Perhaps because it had lost its hair, she wondered. The female creature’s appearance was horrible!            She is There would have thought this was a Fey, if she had known the concept because the small whitehaired creature had fire on the ground before herself and did not flee it. In fact, she kept putting more little sticks and stuff into it and it kept growing. Then to She is There’s horror and amazement the creature began putting meat over this fire, meat that was threaded onto green twigs and held over the fire by some sort of contrivance to keep it from burning up.
            She is There deeply feared fire, but she held her ground watching from the cover of the underbrush.
            The whitehaired thing began speaking or perhaps chanting, but it didn’t sound like speech to She is There, because her people didn’t speak aloud. It was some sort of outlandish gabbling sound. Another one of these sick looking animals appeared. It was too much.
            She is There fled. Her mind was in turmoil. She didn’t know what she had seen in the meadow, but three seeds had been planted in her mind, and she thought of them all the rest of her life.
            The first was that fire could be kept small and used like a tool.
            The second was that a person might put meat in fire, though she wasn’t aware of why.
            The third was audible speech. The sound of it was terrifying at first, like some animal crying out.
            So, according to the tale, this was how the people first met mankind. And in the times that came later, there were more meetings. Some were pleasant and many were not. But there was a sort tacit knowledge among each group that the other existed.
            Also, some of the people learned to use fire, and to speak aloud, or even sing!

            Ramona was told this old Firekeeper's tale by her mother and her grandmother too.