The Boy In The Water

THE BOY IN THE WATER

There was once a boy who was born under a tide. As the boy grew his

relations would tell him stories of how they came to live under this tide,

but he couldn’t seem to get the whole story of who they were. One of the men

in the tribe was very hard on the boy and mocked after him turning some of

the others against his enquiries. Many in the tribe were turned bitter by

the tide and refused to speak streight words about their people. So the

boy’s questions were not all answered. This bothered the boy so that he

tried to ask Ekuni how he could find the answers he was seeking, and who he

was. The tide was so deep and the sounds of the rushing waters so strong

that Ekuni could not hear his prayers. There was a water spirit, that the

boy’s mother had told him of, and this spirit heard the boy’s cries. The

water spirit was angry for it was the water spirit that had put the people

under the water and set the tide against them to destroy the people for not

honoring the old ways. The spirit thought it had destroyed these people, for

surely they could not have lived under the waters. In hearing the boy’s

cries the water spirit went to investigate. Sure enough the people were

alive and living under the tide and here was this boy praying. The water

spirit grew so angry that these people dared to not die under it’s power

that the tide grew even harsher. The boy’s prayers continued and so the

water spirit went down to the boy. As the water spirit reached the boy it

saw a rope attached from the boy to his relatives and all the people. In the

tide the boy stood strong against the raging current seemingly with no aid

in his support. But still the boy was there praying. The water spirit came

down from the tide and appeared before the boy. When the boy opened his eyes

he saw the spirit. At first he thought Ekuni had heard his prayers, but then

he realized that the water spirit had it’s marks from the eyes and mouth. He

saw the tide in the spirit’s eyes and knew this being was not Ekuni, but was

the water spirit his mother had told him about. The boy was not moved. He

began to pray louder and louder until the water spirit reached out in it’s

boiling anger and smashed the boy into the sand. The boy lay there bleeding

and knew his death was near. The boy began to sing his ancestor song. Rivers

of blood ran from the boy’s broken body. As the blood ran a pebble appeared

in the sands next to him. The pebble grew with each river of blood and each

word of the sacred song. It grew until it lifted the boy from the sands. It

grew even more until it threw the water spirit backward against the tide.

When the water spirit hit the tide the tide rose up into the air like a huge

fountain. The waters raised off the people. They then could see the boy on

the pebble that had become a rock and the struggling water spirit above in

the tide fountain. One by one the people reached the boy that was laying

there on the rock dieing. They began to weep. They were amazed at the

courage of the boy and how he still continued to sing even as his death

approached. With each tear that fell upon the boy, the boy began to glow

like the full moon of blue. Now the boy was still singing and the people

joined the song and prayer to Ekuni. The song was so loud now that all the

ancestors heard it well and clear for the tide was raised into the sky.

Ekuni heard this offering and sweet thankfulness and peaked down upon the

happenings. Ekuni lowered his rattle down and at the top was a hawk so large

it covered the sky above. The hawk swooped down, seeing the rope attached to

the boy on the rock, and grabbed it with her giant talon. The boy flew up

off the rock and just at that moment the water spirit with fierce rage

grabbed the tide and threw it at the people to kill them once and for all.

The boy seemed to be healed as the hawk went higher for life was coming back

into him. The boy saw the others being drawn upwards with him in the hawks

talon on the rope that connected them all. The boy then prayed once more to

ask Ekuni who they were. Being that the tide was lifted Ekuni again heard

the prayer and instantly the boy knew the power of his people. When Ekuni

had finished this revelation he dropped an arrow to the boy. The boy caught

the arrow and it became many. The boy threw an arrow at the tide and the

tide flew backwards and hit the water spirit again. By this time all the

people were lifted out accept one. This one was the man that had been so

cruel to the boy, but the boy knew that no one should be left behind. The

tide came rolling back down and hit the man and the water spirit was heading

upstream for it could not stand against the power of the people. The boy,

seeing that the tide had hit the man, cut his rope and tied it to the hawk.

He jumped down into the tide and struggled fiercely against it to find the

man. The boy took out another arrow and pushed the tide enough to see the

man and grasp the man’s hand. the boy raised the arrow upward and they were

lifted to the edge of the river. When the river fell back the tide was gone.

The waters ran slow and steady never to harm the people again. The people

remembered their story and never forgot the power in it for they are the

people of the gentle flowing waters. SPC