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Indigenous Stories

The Great Father Mosquito

Categories : Tuscarora , Tuscarora Stories

One time there lived a giant Mosquito. He was bigger than a bear and more terrifying. When he flew through the air, the Sun couldn't be seen and it became dark as night. The zooming of his wings was wilder than a storm. And when he was hungry, he would fly into a camp and carry off an person or two and pick their bones clean.

Again and again the warriors tried to destroy the wild beast but their arrows fell off him like dew drops off a leaf. They did not know what to do.

So the chief and the medicine men in the tribe ordered a big meeting to pray to the creator to help them destroy the monster Mosquito. They burned great fires and they sang, and they danced and they prayed.

Bat and spider heard their loud cry for help and decided to see what they could do. bat came down from the sky, looking for the monster to do battle with him and destroy him. And spider spun a huge web to try and catch him.

The great Mosquito heard this and he knew he could not beat bat, so he decided to run away. He flew and he flew and he flew so fast no one could see him. He was faster than lightning. The only sound was the wild zooming of his wings through the air. But bat was after him just as fast.

The giant monster flew around lakes, over rivers and over mountains toward the East. Bat kept after him, never tiring.

Swiftly and wildly, at the speed of eagles, the monster flew towards the ocean and there bat reached him.

When Sun was going down in a red mist at the end of the sky, the great monster came to the large lakes of the East. He turned to look and saw the bat was coming nearer and as he did this he flew right into spiders huge web.

The battle was short and the monster Mosquito was destroyed. His blood spattered and flew in all directions. And... a strange thing happened. From the blood were born small mosquitoes with sharp stingers.

No sooner were they born than they flew in all directions and they attack all animals without prejudice. These small mosquitoes with the sharp stingers multiplied a thousand fold.

It happened long ago, but to this day we have thousands of mosquitoes with sharp stingers. Bat still hunts them every night, and spider still spins a web to catch them.

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