Storytelling: Dirty Boy

A large tribe was living together in a region of North America. The chief of the tribe had five daughters. When the daughters reached marriageable age, the chief would inform them that he would be finding husbands for them soon. He would allow each of them one year to find a suitable husband before he would intervene and find a suitor for them. The two youngest daughters were about to reach the age that their father deemed as an appropriate age for marriage. The two youngest daughters had investigated many suitors and had decided none were sufficient for them. The youngest daughter was the most beautiful of all her sisters, but she had yet to find a man who she wished to marry.  The three older sisters were all married. The two oldest had found suitors that they deemed suitable while the chief had found a husband for the middle sister. The chief would hold competitions in order to determine who would marry his daughters. Only men who won the competition could marry them.

Days before the year the chief had allowed both the daughters to find a husband, the youngest daughter, Aiyanna, found a man she wished to marry. He was no ordinary man; he was unkempt and poor. He was unable to leave his bed and required much assistance to achieve everyday tasks. His name was Sike. The youngest daughter could tell he had a pure heart and a kind nature. She knew he was the only man she would want to spend the rest of her life with regardless of his disheveled appearance.

The chief did not approve of her choice. He said she was his most beautiful and prized daughter. For her to marry such a man would be a disgrace. He forbade it and said he would find a more suitable man for her to marry. Heartbroken, she informed the man she loved of what her father had said.

The chief came up with a competition and decided that whoever won the competition would get the honor of marrying both his daughters. The competition to be won was: the man who could set a trap and catch the rare Pygmy rabbit without killing it would win the hand of his two daughters. The chief declared that not only would the men have to catch the rare rabbit, but if they caught nothing on the first day, they would automatically be removed from the competition. All men that caught the rabbit on the first day would have to then set one more trap and capture a different one the next day. The one to catch two first and return to the chief would win his daughters’ hands in marriage.

When Sike heard of the conditions of the competition, he decided he would participate and win the woman he loved. What nobody knew was: Sike had descended from the heavens in order to find the purest human for him to marry. He disguised himself as a man that no woman would love unless the woman was willing to look deeper than appearance and ability. He loved Aiyanna’s pure, kind heart as much as she loved his.

Sike calls to the heavens to help him win the competition because he cannot win in his current state. He goes to sleep and when he wakes up in the morning, he finds a pygmy rabbit trapped in a bush outside his door. The next morning he finds another rabbit in the exact same spot. Sike tells Aiyanna of his victory and she triumphantly takes the rabbits to the chief. The chief was outraged and refused to believe Sike was able to catch the rabbits, and looks for another who was able to capture the rabbits, but no one else has successfully completed the task. At this, the chief decides to hold another competition where the winner will “actually win both the daughters”.

The chief has an eagle in the trees far on the mountain and declares that the man that is able to shot the eagle with only two arrows will win his daughters.

Again, Sike calls to the heavens to provide him with arrows. He aims and prays that the heavens would guide his arrows. Sike successfully shoots the eagle with a single arrow. The chief sees the eagle has been shot and is overjoyed. He seeks out the man who shot it. Once he discovers it was Sike, he is disappointed, but he does not go back on his word.

The chief sends his daughters to Sike to marry. On the way the older daughter finds another man and agrees to marry him; it’s one of her previous interests. She refused to marry the dirty, bed ridden man. The younger daughter is delighted that he has won and she will get to spend the rest of her life with him.

The other sisters make fun of her having to live with a dirty gross man, but she knows in her heart she loves him and any other man could never have been as good as he. Ayianna nurses Sike and takes care of him.

One day she returns to Sike’s home from visiting her father to find the once poor, grungy house is now full of treasures and riches. She does not understand where her house went. She enters the new place to find a beautiful man lying where her husband had lain. Aiyanna is full of confusion. The beautiful man turns over and motions to her. He is Sike, her husband. The heavens had changed him back to his true form which happens to be the most beautiful human with a plethora of riches. The youngest daughter cares for none of this, but her sisters now know the importance of looking further than skin deep.

 

Sike and Aiyanna

Author's Note: I read Native American Hero Tales from Stith Thompson's anthology and really enjoyed the last story in this storybook. I also read American Indian Fairy Tales by W.T. Larned the week before. They both had a story that had a similar theme and moral. I really liked both of the stories about the dirty boy being unloved then loved and becoming beautiful.