{"collection":"ETC Sacred Texts","page":1,"pages":[{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_etc_xmas_acc_index_htm","collection":"ETC Sacred Texts","id":"sacred_texts_v1_etc_xmas_acc_index_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"| | A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens [1843] | \nThis is a new scan of A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens' best-loved book, one that continues to be popular today, over a century and half later. It was created from a photographic facsimile of an early printing of the first edition of 1843, published by K.S. Giniger Company in 1956.","title":"A Christmas Carol Index","word_count":398},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_etc_xmas_acc_acc08_htm","collection":"ETC Sacred Texts","id":"sacred_texts_v1_etc_xmas_acc_acc08_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"[These two pages of advertisements appeared at the end of the original book, published in 1843. They are included for completeness.\u2014JBH]\nNos. I.","title":"A Christmas Carol: Advertisements","word_count":148},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_etc_xmas_acc_acc02_htm","collection":"ETC Sacred Texts","id":"sacred_texts_v1_etc_xmas_acc_acc02_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"","title":"A Christmas Carol: Contents","word_count":76},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_etc_xmas_acc_pageidx_htm","collection":"ETC Sacred Texts","id":"sacred_texts_v1_etc_xmas_acc_pageidx_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"Index\n A Christmas Carol: Page Index\n \n page 1\n page 2\n page 3\n page 4\n page 5\n page 6\n page 7\n page 8\n page 9\n page 10\n page 11\n page 12\n page 13\n page 14\n page 15\n page 16\n page 17\n page 18\n page 19\n page 20\n page 21\n page 22\n page 23\n page 24\n page 25\n page 26\n page 27\n page 28\n page 29\n page 30\n page 31\n page 32\n page 33\n page 34\n page 35\n page 36\n page 37\n page 38\n \n page 39\n page 40\n page 41\n page 42\n page 43\n page 44\n page 45\n page 46\n page 47\n page 48\n page 49\n page 50\n page 51\n page\u2026","title":"A Christmas Carol: Page Index","word_count":342},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_etc_xmas_acc_acc01_htm","collection":"ETC Sacred Texts","id":"sacred_texts_v1_etc_xmas_acc_acc01_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"I HAVE endeavoured in this Ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me. May it haunt their houses pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it. Their faithful Friend and Servant,\nC.","title":"A Christmas Carol: Preface","word_count":64},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_etc_xmas_acc_acc07_htm","collection":"ETC Sacred Texts","id":"sacred_texts_v1_etc_xmas_acc_acc07_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"Yes! and the bedpost was his own. The bed was his own, the room was his own.","title":"A Christmas Carol: Stave Five. The End of It","word_count":2313},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_etc_xmas_acc_acc06_htm","collection":"ETC Sacred Texts","id":"sacred_texts_v1_etc_xmas_acc_acc06_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"The Phantom slowly, gravely, silently, approached. When it came near him, Scrooge bent down upon his knee; for in the very air through which this Spirit moved it seemed to scatter gloom and mystery. It was shrouded in a deep black garment, which concealed its head, its face, its form, and left nothing of it visible save one outstretched hand.","title":"A Christmas Carol: Stave Four. The Last of the Spirits","word_count":5363},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_etc_xmas_acc_acc03_htm","collection":"ETC Sacred Texts","id":"sacred_texts_v1_etc_xmas_acc_acc03_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner.","title":"A Christmas Carol: Stave I. Marley's Ghost","word_count":6412},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_etc_xmas_acc_acc05_htm","collection":"ETC Sacred Texts","id":"sacred_texts_v1_etc_xmas_acc_acc05_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"Awaking in the middle of a prodigiously tough snore, and sitting up in bed to get his thoughts together, Scrooge had no occasion to be told that the bell was again upon the stroke of One. He felt that he was restored to consciousness in the right nick of time, for the especial purpose of holding a conference with the second messenger despatched to him through Jacob Marley's intervention. But finding that he turned uncomfortably cold when he began to wonder which of his curtains this new spectre\u2026","title":"A Christmas Carol: Stave Three. The Second of the Three Spirits","word_count":8222},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_etc_xmas_acc_acc04_htm","collection":"ETC Sacred Texts","id":"sacred_texts_v1_etc_xmas_acc_acc04_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"When Scrooge awoke, it was so dark, that looking out of bed, he could scarcely distinguish the transparent window from the opaque walls of his chamber. He was endeavouring to pierce the darkness with his ferret eyes, when the chimes of a neighbouring church struck the four quarters. So he listened for the hour.","title":"A Christmas Carol: Stave Two. The First of the Three Spirits","word_count":6152},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_etc_xmas_acc_acc00_htm","collection":"ETC Sacred Texts","id":"sacred_texts_v1_etc_xmas_acc_acc00_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"","title":"A Christmas Carol: Title Page","word_count":65},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_etc_sft_sft04_htm","collection":"ETC Sacred Texts","id":"sacred_texts_v1_etc_sft_sft04_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"In olde dayes of the kyng Arthour,\n Of which that Britouns speken gret honour,\n Al was this lond fulfilled of fayrie;\n The elf-queen, with hir joly compaignye,\n Daunced ful oft in many a grene mede. CHAUCER\nI. TWO PUBLIC TRIBUTES\nONLY a few years ago, in the gardens of the Tuileries, in Paris, a statue was erected in memory of Charles Perrault, to be placed there among the sculptures of the never-to-be-forgotten fairy tales he had created,--Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty, Puss-in-Boots\u2026","title":"A Study of Fairy Tales: Chapter I. The Worth of Fairy Tales","word_count":2577},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_etc_sft_sft05_htm","collection":"ETC Sacred Texts","id":"sacred_texts_v1_etc_sft_sft05_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"All our troubles come from doing that in which we have no interest.--EPICTETUS. That is useful for every man which is conformable to his own constitution and nature.--MARCUS AURELIUS. Genuine interest means that a person has identified himself with, or found himself in, a certain course of activity.","title":"A Study of Fairy Tales: Chapter II. Principles of Selection for Fairy Tales","word_count":19891},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_etc_sft_sft06_htm","collection":"ETC Sacred Texts","id":"sacred_texts_v1_etc_sft_sft06_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"The telling of stories refreshes the mind as a bath refreshes the body. It gives exercise to the intellect and its powers. It tests the judgments and feelings.","title":"A Study of Fairy Tales: Chapter III. The Telling of Fairy Tales","word_count":17337},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_etc_sft_sft07_htm","collection":"ETC Sacred Texts","id":"sacred_texts_v1_etc_sft_sft07_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"The gods of ancient mythology were changed into the demi-gods and heroes of ancient poetry, and these demi-gods again became, at a later age, the principal characters of our nursery tales.--MAX MULLER\nStories originally told tbout the characters of savage tales, were finally attracted into the legends of the gods of ancient mythology, or were attributed to demi-gods and heroes.--ANDREW LANG. I. THE ORIGIN OF FAIRY TALES\nNow that we have indicated the worth of fairy tales, have observed those\u2026","title":"A Study of Fairy Tales: Chapter IV. The History of Fairy Tales","word_count":11216},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_etc_sft_sft08_htm","collection":"ETC Sacred Texts","id":"sacred_texts_v1_etc_sft_sft08_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"But the fact that after having been repeated for two thousand years, a story still possesses a perfectly fresh attraction for a child of to-day, does indeed prove that there is in it something of imperishable worth.--FELIX ADLER. Whatever has, at any time, appealed to the best emotions and moved the heart of a people, must have for their children's children, political, historical, and cultural value. This is especially true of folk-tales and folk-songs.--P.","title":"A Study of Fairy Tales: Chapter V. Classes of Fairy Tales","word_count":10225},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_etc_sft_sft09_htm","collection":"ETC Sacred Texts","id":"sacred_texts_v1_etc_sft_sft09_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"Shall we permit our children, without scruple, to hear any fables composed by any authors indifferently, and so to receive into their minds opinions generally the reverse of those which, when they are grown to manhood, we shall think they ought to entertain? -- PLATO, in The Republic. ANY list of fairy tales for little children must be selected from those books which, as we have noted, contain the best collections of folk-lore, and from books which contain tales that rank as classics.","title":"A Study of Fairy Tales: Chapter VI. Sources of Material f...","word_count":4311},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_etc_sft_sft02_htm","collection":"ETC Sacred Texts","id":"sacred_texts_v1_etc_sft_sft02_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"","title":"A Study of Fairy Tales: Contents","word_count":41},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_etc_sft_sft03_htm","collection":"ETC Sacred Texts","id":"sacred_texts_v1_etc_sft_sft03_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"THE fairy tale has a place in the training of children which common sense and a sympathetic attitude toward childhood will not deny. Some rigid philosophers, who see no more of life than is to be found in logical science, condemn the imaginative tale. They regard the teaching of myths and stories as the telling of pleasant lies, which, if harmless, are wasteful.","title":"A Study of Fairy Tales: Introduction","word_count":601},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_etc_sft_sft01_htm","collection":"ETC Sacred Texts","id":"sacred_texts_v1_etc_sft_sft01_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"ONE of the problems of present-day education is to secure for the entire school system, from the kindergarten to the university, a curriculum which shall have a proved and permanent value. In this curriculum literature has established itself as a subject of unquestioned worth. But children's literature, as that distinct portion of the subject literature written especially for children or especially suited to them, is only beginning to take shape and form.","title":"A Study of Fairy Tales: Preface","word_count":1784},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_etc_sft_sft00_htm","collection":"ETC Sacred Texts","id":"sacred_texts_v1_etc_sft_sft00_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"","title":"A Study of Fairy Tales: Title Page","word_count":84},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_etc_xmas_vsn_index_htm","collection":"ETC Sacred Texts","id":"sacred_texts_v1_etc_xmas_vsn_index_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"| | A Visit From St. Nicholas by Clement C. Moore [1823] | \nThis is a collection of 19th century editions of the Christmas classic poem, A Visit from St.","title":"A Visit from St. Nick Index","word_count":531},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_etc_xmas_vsn_vsn03_htm","collection":"ETC Sacred Texts","id":"sacred_texts_v1_etc_xmas_vsn_vsn03_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"This is a parallel presentation of the three texts of the poem A Visit from St. Nicholas. It will be seen that aside from minor punctuation and spelling differences, the texts are exactly the same.","title":"A Visit from St. Nick: Comparison","word_count":1916},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_etc_xmas_vsn_vsn02_htm","collection":"ETC Sacred Texts","id":"sacred_texts_v1_etc_xmas_vsn_vsn02_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"","title":"A Visit from St. Nick: First Book Publication","word_count":622},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_etc_xmas_vsn_vsn01_htm","collection":"ETC Sacred Texts","id":"sacred_texts_v1_etc_xmas_vsn_vsn01_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"","title":"A Visit from St. Nick: First Newspaper Publication","word_count":823},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_etc_xmas_vsn_vsn00_htm","collection":"ETC Sacred Texts","id":"sacred_texts_v1_etc_xmas_vsn_vsn00_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"A Visit from St. Nicholas, from a manuscript copy written by Clement C. Moore in 1862.","title":"A Visit from St. Nick: Manuscript","word_count":593},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_etc_bnm_bnm02_htm","collection":"ETC Sacred Texts","id":"sacred_texts_v1_etc_bnm_bnm02_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"","title":"Book of Nature Myths: Contents.","word_count":395},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_etc_bnm_bnm12_htm","collection":"ETC Sacred Texts","id":"sacred_texts_v1_etc_bnm_bnm12_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"","title":"Book of Nature Myths: How Fire Was Brought To The Indians.","word_count":1012},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_etc_bnm_bnm38_htm","collection":"ETC Sacred Texts","id":"sacred_texts_v1_etc_bnm_bnm38_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"\"You have been on the mountain a long time,\" said the wife of the hunter. \"Yes, wife, and I have seen the most marvelous sight in all the world,\" replied the hunter. \"What was that?\"\n\"I came to a place on the mountain where I had been many and many a time before, but a great hole had been made in the rock, and through the hole I saw--oh, wife, it was indeed a wonderful sight!\"\n\"But what was it, my hunter?\"\n\"There was a great hall, all shining and sparkling with precious stones.","title":"Book of Nature Myths: How Flax Was Given To Men.","word_count":628},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_etc_bnm_bnm48_htm","collection":"ETC Sacred Texts","id":"sacred_texts_v1_etc_bnm_bnm48_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"This is a Native American origin myth \u2014 likely from the Ojibwe or a related Algonquian tradition, given the name Adjidaumo (the Ojibwe word for squirrel) \u2014 explaining how summer first came to the earth. A boy who has lived only in a world of perpetual ice and snow is told by a squirrel to cry and beg his father, a hunter called the Fisher, to fetch him summer. The Fisher assembles a party of animals \u2014 otter, lynx, badger, and wolverine \u2014 who travel to a great mountain and attempt to leap through the floor of the sky into the heavenly land where summer is kept. Only the wolverine breaks through, and the Fisher follows; summer then pours down through the hole in the form of warm air, birds, and flowers, reaching the earth for the first time. The heavenly people shoot arrows at the intruders to stop them; the wolverine escapes, but the Fisher is caught and transformed by the Great Spirit into a constellation \u2014 the fish-shape visible in the stars \u2014 as partial recompense, while summer is granted to the earth for half of each year. The story is distinctive in framing a cosmological event (the origin of seasons) through the intimate emotional logic of a father's love for a suffering child, and in casting the wolverine \u2014 typically a trickster or destructive figure in many traditions \u2014 as the crucial hero of the skyward leap.","title":"Book of Nature Myths: How Summer Came To The Earth.","word_count":1236},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_etc_bnm_bnm37_htm","collection":"ETC Sacred Texts","id":"sacred_texts_v1_etc_bnm_bnm37_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"ONLY a little while after the earth was made, the trees and plants came to live on it. They were happy and contented. The lily was glad because her flowers were white.","title":"Book of Nature Myths: How The Blossoms Came To The Heather.","word_count":521},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_etc_bnm_bnm13_htm","collection":"ETC Sacred Texts","id":"sacred_texts_v1_etc_bnm_bnm13_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"\"IT is lonely living in this great tree far away from the other birds,\" said the owl to herself. \"I will get some one to come and live with me. The quail has many children, and I will ask her for one of them.\"\nThe owl went to the quail and said, \"Will you let me have one of your children to come and live with me?","title":"Book of Nature Myths: How The Quail Became A Snipe.","word_count":716},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_etc_bnm_bnm46_htm","collection":"ETC Sacred Texts","id":"sacred_texts_v1_etc_bnm_bnm46_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"This is a Native American-style pourquoi tale \u2014 an origin story explaining how natural phenomena came to be \u2014 told in the tradition of trickster/benefactor myths common across Indigenous North American oral literature. The story centers on a debate between an eagle and a raven over whether humans deserve help: the eagle argues men are lazy, incapable, and not worth assisting, while the raven insists their limitations are precisely why birds, with superior knowledge, should aid them. Through an alliance with the eagle's daughter, the raven gains access to the eagle's lodge and, using a stolen magic cloak, takes the sun, moon, stars, rivers, and fire \u2014 gifts that humans had been living without. He then distributes these elements into the world: placing the sun and moon in the sky, setting stars in their places, sending rivers down the mountains, and hiding fire in rocks for humans to eventually discover. The story's most distinctive move is framing human civilization's foundational gifts not as divine grants but as acts of compassionate theft, won through friendship and cunning rather than strength. It implicitly validates the raven's position in the opening debate by showing that human progress \u2014 knowing day from night, using fire \u2014 vindicates his belief in human potential.","title":"Book of Nature Myths: How The Raven Helped Men.","word_count":721},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_etc_bnm_bnm01_htm","collection":"ETC Sacred Texts","id":"sacred_texts_v1_etc_bnm_bnm01_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"IN preparing the Book of Nature Myths the desire has been to make a second reader which would be adapted to the child's interest, ability, and progress. The subject-matter is of permanent value, culled from the folk-lore of the primitive races; the vocabulary, based upon that of the Hiawatha Primer, is increased gradually, and the new words and phrases will add to the child's power of expression. The naive explanations of the phenomena of nature given by the primitive races appeal to the\u2026","title":"Book of Nature Myths: Preface","word_count":157},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_etc_bnm_bnm53_htm","collection":"ETC Sacred Texts","id":"sacred_texts_v1_etc_bnm_bnm53_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"This is a short fantasy story in the fairy-tale tradition, functioning as an origin myth and literary expansion of the \"Jack and Jill\" nursery rhyme. Two children of unknown origin live on a hill under the care of what they believe is an old man, compelled daily to haul water up the hill \u2014 a chore that frustrates them because it interrupts their play. The familiar tumble occurs one moonlit night, but the story reframes it: the \"old man's\" voice was actually the sound of water flowing around a rock, and the water-carrying was secretly sustaining a hillside stream. The moon, personified as a gentle maternal figure, reveals these truths, claims the children as her own, and invites them to live with her \u2014 explaining the folk-belief that figures can be seen on the moon's surface. The story's distinctive move is treating the nursery rhyme's nonsense details (the crown, the tumbling) as clues to a hidden natural allegory about the water cycle, where sun and clouds, not children, are the true water-carriers. It reads as a piece of late Victorian or Edwardian children's literature, blending nature myth with the cozy whimsy typical of that era's retellings of traditional verse.","title":"Book of Nature Myths: The Children In The Moon.","word_count":631},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_etc_bnm_bnm31_htm","collection":"ETC Sacred Texts","id":"sacred_texts_v1_etc_bnm_bnm31_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"MANY years ago the manito of the Indians lived in the sun. Every morning the wise men of the tribe went to the top of a mountain, and as the sun rose in the east, they sang, \"We praise thee, O sun! From thee come fire and light.","title":"Book of Nature Myths: The Face Of The Manito.","word_count":674},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_etc_bnm_bnm56_htm","collection":"ETC Sacred Texts","id":"sacred_texts_v1_etc_bnm_bnm56_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"This is a Japanese folktale in the riddle-task tradition, where a clever challenge drives the plot toward a warm domestic resolution. A father-in-law, suspicious of his daughters-in-law's desire to visit their old homes, sets them seemingly impossible conditions for their return: one must bring \"fire wrapped in paper,\" the other \"wind wrapped in paper.\" After consulting wise men who declare no such things exist, the two women despair in a forest until a disembodied voice solves both riddles by conjuring a paper lantern (fire in paper) and a folding fan (wind in paper). The tale's distinctive move is treating everyday objects \u2014 lantern and fan \u2014 as hidden marvels that only need to be recognized as such, giving the story a quality of elegant revelation rather than magic transgression. It closes with the father-in-law's declaration that his daughters are more precious than the ingenious gifts themselves, reframing the whole test as a roundabout expression of love rather than cruelty. Short and simply told, it would appeal to readers interested in East Asian folk narrative, riddle tales, or stories about domestic relationships and filial duty.","title":"Book of Nature Myths: The Lantern And The Fan.","word_count":852},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_etc_bnm_bnm28_htm","collection":"ETC Sacred Texts","id":"sacred_texts_v1_etc_bnm_bnm28_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"THERE were once two tribes of little people who lived near together. They were not at all alike, for one of the tribes looked for food and carried it away to put it up safely for winter, while the other played and sang and danced all day long. \"Come and play with us,\" said the lazy people, but the busy workers answered, \"No, come and work with us.","title":"Book of Nature Myths: The Story Of The Bees And The Flies.","word_count":404},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_etc_bnm_bnm47_htm","collection":"ETC Sacred Texts","id":"sacred_texts_v1_etc_bnm_bnm47_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"This is a creation myth or etiological folktale in the tradition of origin stories found across many oral cultures. It explains how the sky came to be separated from the earth, and why the world has sunlight, plant life, color, and weather. The central figure, the Shining One \u2014 a son born of Sky and Earth \u2014 dreams of a better world and, against the protests of both parents, forcibly lifts the sky upward, triggering a transformation: warmth, light, flowers, birdsong, and beauty emerge on earth, while the sky receives cloaks of stars by night and blue by day. The tale takes a notably optimistic view of disruption, framing the Shining One's defiance of his parents' complacency as an act of love rather than rebellion. It closes with a charming mutual exchange of affection between sky and earth \u2014 rain falling as a message from sky, morning mist rising as earth's reply \u2014 grounding meteorological phenomena in tender relationship. Someone drawn to short, lyrical mythic prose with a gentle cosmological sweep and a theme of transformation-through-vision would find this rewarding.","title":"Book of Nature Myths: The Story Of The Earth And The Sky.","word_count":678},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_etc_bnm_bnm30_htm","collection":"ETC Sacred Texts","id":"sacred_texts_v1_etc_bnm_bnm30_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"\"THIS jar is full of smoked flesh,\" said one voice. \"This has fish, this is full of honey, and that one is almost running over with oil,\" said another voice. \"We shall have all that we need to eat for many days to come.\"\nThese are the words that a villager coming home from his work heard his mother and his sister say.","title":"Book of Nature Myths: The Story Of The First Ants.","word_count":670},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_etc_bnm_bnm04_htm","collection":"ETC Sacred Texts","id":"sacred_texts_v1_etc_bnm_bnm04_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"THE Great Spirit thought, \"By and by I will make men, but first I will make a home for them. It shall be very bright and beautiful. There shall be mountains and prairies and forests, and about it all shall be the blue waters of the sea.\"\nAs the Great Spirit had thought, so he did.","title":"Book of Nature Myths: The Story Of The First Butterflies.","word_count":435},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_etc_bnm_bnm32_htm","collection":"ETC Sacred Texts","id":"sacred_texts_v1_etc_bnm_bnm32_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"THE chief of an Indian tribe had two sons whom he loved very dearly. This chief was at war with another tribe, and one dark night two of his enemies crept softly through the trees till they came to where the two boys lay sound asleep. The warriors caught the younger boy up gently, and carried him far away from his home and his friends.","title":"Book of Nature Myths: The Story Of The First Diamonds.","word_count":554},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_etc_bnm_bnm34_htm","collection":"ETC Sacred Texts","id":"sacred_texts_v1_etc_bnm_bnm34_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"IN the days of long ago there was a time when there were no emeralds on the earth. Men knew where to find other precious stones. They could get pearls and diamonds, but no one had ever seen an emerald, because the emeralds were hidden away in the bed of the sea, far down below the waves.","title":"Book of Nature Myths: The Story Of The First Emeralds.","word_count":616},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_etc_bnm_bnm19_htm","collection":"ETC Sacred Texts","id":"sacred_texts_v1_etc_bnm_bnm19_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"This is a Native American origin story \u2014 a pourquoi tale in the folk tradition \u2014 explaining why frogs cry in marshes on summer nights. Two children, Wah-wah-hoo and Hah-hah, flee their abusive father into the forest, where animals they once helped (a wolf, a mosquito) refuse to betray their hiding place, demonstrating that kindness to creatures earns loyalty in return. The children find peace in the forest until a brutal winter kills Hah-hah and drives her brother to throw himself from a mountain in grief. Their repentant father, a magician, cannot undo his cruelty \u2014 he can revive his son but only as a frog condemned to wail forever in the marsh for his lost sister, while the father joins him once a month in mourning. The story's distinctive moral weight falls not on redemption but on irreversibility: remorse comes too late to restore what cruelty destroyed, and the father's punishment is to live alone with that knowledge. It is a brief, stark text suitable for readers interested in indigenous North American folklore, animal-helper motifs, or myth-as-natural-explanation narratives.","title":"Book of Nature Myths: The Story Of The First Frog.","word_count":537},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_etc_bnm_bnm25_htm","collection":"ETC Sacred Texts","id":"sacred_texts_v1_etc_bnm_bnm25_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"IN a country that is far away there once lived a young man called Tithonus. He was strong and beautiful. Light of heart and light of foot, he hunted the deer or danced and sang the livelong day.","title":"Book of Nature Myths: The Story Of The First Grasshopper.","word_count":603},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_etc_bnm_bnm03_htm","collection":"ETC Sacred Texts","id":"sacred_texts_v1_etc_bnm_bnm03_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"PART I. THE GREAT FIRE-MOUNTAIN. LONG, long ago, when the earth was very young, two hunters were traveling through the forest.","title":"Book of Nature Myths: The Story Of The First Hummingbird.","word_count":1319},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_etc_bnm_bnm17_htm","collection":"ETC Sacred Texts","id":"sacred_texts_v1_etc_bnm_bnm17_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"FAR away in the forest there once lived the most cruel man on all the earth. He did not like the Indians, and he said to himself, \"Some day I will be ruler of them all.\" Then he thought, \"There are many brave warriors among the Indians, and I must first put them to death.\"\nHe was cunning as well as cruel, and he soon found a way to kill the warriors. He built some wigwams and made fires before them as if people lived in each one.","title":"Book of Nature Myths: The Story Of The First Mockingbird.","word_count":560},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_etc_bnm_bnm29_htm","collection":"ETC Sacred Texts","id":"sacred_texts_v1_etc_bnm_bnm29_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"A RICH man and a poor man once owned a field together. The rich man owned the northern half, and the poor man owned the southern half. Each man sowed his ground with seed.","title":"Book of Nature Myths: The Story Of The First Moles.","word_count":359},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_etc_bnm_bnm33_htm","collection":"ETC Sacred Texts","id":"sacred_texts_v1_etc_bnm_bnm33_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"THERE was once a man named Runoia, and when he walked along the pathways of the forest, the children would say shyly to one another, \"Look, there is the man who always hears music.\"\nIt was really true that wherever he went he could hear sweet music. There are some kinds of music that every one can hear, but Runoia heard sweet sounds where others heard nothing. When the lilies sang their evening song to the stars, he could hear it, and when the mother tree whispered \"Goodnight\" to the little\u2026","title":"Book of Nature Myths: The Story Of The First Pearls.","word_count":508},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_etc_bnm_bnm49_htm","collection":"ETC Sacred Texts","id":"sacred_texts_v1_etc_bnm_bnm49_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"This is a short allegorical prose tale in the tradition of personified-nature mythology, likely drawing on Native American or general folkloric storytelling conventions. It depicts a contest between Winter \u2014 an old man brooding alone in a dark house, cataloguing his powers over ice, snow, silence, and fleeing birds \u2014 and Spring, a cheerful youth who arrives uninvited and matches each of Winter's boasts with the opposite power: thawing rivers, summoning birdsong, restoring leaves. The exchange is structured as a dueling monologue where each figure one-ups the other, making the piece less a narrative than a staged argument that embodies the seasonal cycle. The tale's most distinctive move is its ending: as morning light grows and Spring turns to leave, Winter has not been defeated so much as transformed \u2014 he dissolves into snowflakes that become snowdrops, the first flowers of spring, described as \"the only flowers that can remember the winter.\" That closing image reframes the opposition as continuity rather than conquest, suggesting Winter is not vanquished but absorbed into Spring's arrival. The piece is brief and fable-like, suited to readers interested in nature allegory, myth, or the literary tradition of personifying seasons.","title":"Book of Nature Myths: The Story Of The First Snowdrops.","word_count":624}],"sort":"title","tag":null,"total":565}