Zuni Folktales · Chapter
The Ugly Wild Boy Who Drove the Bear Away from Southeastern Mesa explained
A frightfully ugly boy, despite his grandmother's warnings, confronts a bear that has been hoarding the resources of the Southeastern Mesa.
What happens
A frightfully ugly boy, despite his grandmother's warnings, confronts a bear that has been hoarding the resources of the Southeastern Mesa. Through a contest of fright and the use of a magic axe, he drives the bear away, freeing the mesa for the people of Kʻiákime to gather food. However, some villagers refuse to believe him because of his appearance.
Themes in this chapter
Folklore vs. Science
The story uses magical elements (the magic axe, the boy's transformation) to explain natural phenomena like the bear's retreat and the abundance of resources.
Transformation and Identity
The ugly boy's appearance is transformed with paint to resemble a demon, enabling him to frighten the bear and assert his identity as a hero.
Nature and the Supernatural
The bear is a supernatural guardian of the mesa, and the boy uses magical tools and rituals to overcome it, blending natural and supernatural realms.
Characters to notice
- The Ugly Wild Boy
The protagonist who confronts and drives away the bear using bravery and a magic axe.
- The Old Grandmother
The boy's grandmother who warns him but later helps by painting his face and giving him a magic axe.
- The Bear
The antagonist who claims the mesa and its resources, ultimately frightened away by the boy.
Key passages
“In the days of the ancients there lived with his old grandmother, not far from Kʻiákime, east, where the sweet wafer-bread is pictured on the rocks, a frightfully ugly boy.”
Long ago, a very ugly boy lived with his grandmother near Kʻiákime, east of the place where wafer-bread is depicted on the rocks.
Sets the scene and introduces the protagonist.
“They could not gather the nuts and the fruit and the seeds, because of the ugly old Bear who claimed the country and its products for his own, and waxed fat thereon.”
The people could not collect the nuts, fruit, and seeds because an ugly old bear claimed the land and its resources for himself, growing fat from them.
Explains the conflict caused by the bear's hoarding.
“A few believed in what the boy said; and some, because he was ugly, would not believe it and would not go; and thus were as much hindered from gathering grass-seed and nuts for daily food as if the Bear had been really there.”
Only a few believed the boy; others, due to his ugliness, refused to believe him and stayed away, remaining as hindered as if the bear were still present.
Highlights the theme of prejudice based on appearance.