Little Princess by
Hiatt,
Deborah
The next morning Noah was awakened by a deafening clap of thunder that
woke up the whole of the ark. Noah noticed now that the ark was
on a tilt and that it had moved in the night. Noah got up and
went up to the top deck of the ark. What he saw amazed him.
During the night time hours the waters had began to pour from the
heavens and had actually lifted the ark up above the ground. The
ark was still moored by an anchor so it hadn't strayed far. Noah
now looked to the grounds where the masses had gathered in so many days
past and felt a chill go up his spine. Noah heard something in
the distance calling out to him. Noah neared the railing of the
deck and peered into the early morning raindrops. He could just
make out the person who had hailed him. This person was clinging
to the top most branch of the highest tree around and was begging Noah
for some kind of wisdom out of this situation. The person was not
alone. The whole tree and the trees around it were full of living
breathing people who had not takin heed to his previous
lamentations. He called to them:
In
the world that was lived before this one, the people quit acting human
and forgot how to properly behave, so the creating power was greatly
displeased. The creating power picked up four dry buffalo chips,
three he put under the sacred pipe rack and the fourth he saved to
light the pipe. After this the creating power started
singing. He sang three songs to bring the rains, with the rains
caused the world's rivers to overflow. The creating power sang a
fourth song and stamped his foot against the earth, on occurence the
whold earth split in the center and water flowed throughout all the
cracks and covered the earth from tip to tip. The creating power
survived by floating upon his smoke pipe and pipe bag while the flood
covered the earth. All else perished. No animals were left
to roam the earth save the Kangi, the crow, who soared with the clouds
close to the heavens. The crow had been soaring high ever since
the first song was sang and was now tired he asked the creating power
for a place to rest. The creating power denied Kangi this twice
and on the third time opened his giant pipe bag ,which held all sort of
animals that were to repopulate the earth, and picked the four animals
that had the best diving abilities. The creating power sang a
song and the loon dove deep into the watery abyss to try to bring up
some mud. The loon failed. He next sent the otter, and with
a song the otter disappeared into the oceans only to come back empty
snouted also. The water was too deep for the otter. Thirdly
he sent the beaver which with a twitch of the nose was sank into the
waters in search of mud from the bottom which was once the earth's
soil. The beaver was as unsuccesful as the otter. Beaver
brought no sign of land because it could not hold its air long enough
to reach the bottom. The final animal sent by the creating power
was the turtle. With his fourth and final song the creating power
sent the turtle to the murky bottom of the flood. This time the
animal succeeded in bring back a little mud. The creating power
took the mud, while singing yet another song, and spread the mud on top
of the water. After his fourth song there was enough land for the crow
and the creating power. The creating power waved too long eagle
feathers over this ground which spread until it had replaced the
water. The creating power consecrated the soil and named it
Turtle Continent. The creating power looked upon the land
and realized that there was no water anywhere. He felt sad for
the animals that had survived the flood who would now surely die from
lack of water to drink. At the thought of this the creating power
began to weep. His tears began to flow and created the oceans,
streams, and lakes of the new earth. He then opened his humongous
pipe bag and began to distribute the animals that he had saved across
the continent. These animals had been in a trance-like state
since the beginning of the flood when the creating power had snatched
them up and cast a spell on them. After the animals had been
scattered the creating power stamped upon the ground of the earth and
all the animal instantly woke up as if nothing had happened. The
creating power then created four colors of people from red, white,
black, and yellow earth. He then created the rainbow as a sign
that there would be no more great flood, but warned that he had once
destroyed the original earth with fire and the second with the flood,
and he would destroy this world too if people make uninhabitable, bad,
and ugly. (Erdoes & Ortiz).
Noah concluded his story and it must have served it purpose for the
people who had been listening to the tale had let go of their life
support and were swimming towards the ark pleading for entrance.
Noah hurriedly told his son to take up the anchor and push off.
Noah's journey had begun.
