The Boy Who Was Saved By Thoughts

: Canadian Fairy Tales

A poor widow woman once lived near the sea in Eastern Canada. Her

husband had been drowned catching fish one stormy day far off the

coast, and her little boy was now her only means of support. He had no

brothers or sisters, and he and his mother, because they lived alone,

were always good comrades. Although he was very young and small, he

was very strong, and he could catch fish and game like a man. Every

day he brough home food to his mother, and they were never in want.



Now it happened that the Great Eagle who made the Winds in these parts

became very angry because he was not given enough to eat. He went

screaming through the land in search of food, but no food could he

find. And he said, "If the people will not give me food, I will take

care that they get no food for themselves, and when I grow very hungry

I shall eat up all the little children in the land. For my young ones

must have nourishment too." So he tossed the waters about with the

wind of his great wings, and he bent the trees and flattened the corn,

and for days he made such a hurly-burly on the earth that the people

stayed indoors, and they were afraid to come out in search of food.



At last the boy and his mother became very hungry. And the boy said,

"I must go and find food, for there is not a crumb left in the house.

We cannot wait longer." And he said to his mother, "I know where a fat

young beaver lives in his house of reeds on the bank of the stream

near the sea. I shall go and kill him, and his flesh will feed us for

many days." His mother did not want him to make this hazardous

journey, for the Great Eagle was still in the land. But he said to

her, "You must think of me always when I am gone, and I will think of

you, and while we keep each other in our memories I shall come to no

harm." So, taking his long hunting knife, he set out for the beaver's

home in his house of reeds on the bank of the stream near the sea. He

reached the place without mishap and there he found Beaver fast

asleep. He soon killed him and slung him over his shoulder and started

back to his mother's house. "A good fat load I have here," he said to

himself, "and we shall now have many a good dinner of roast

beaver-meat."



But as he went along with his load on his back the Great Eagle spied

him from a distance and swooped down upon him without warning. Before

he could strike with his knife, the Eagle caught him by the shoulders

and soared away, holding him in a mighty grip with the beaver still

on his back. The boy tried to plunge his knife into the Eagle's

breast, but the feathers were too thick and tough, and he was not

strong enough to drive the knife through them. He could do nothing but

make the best of his sorry plight. "Surely I can think of a way of

escape," he said to himself, "and my mother's thoughts will be with me

to help me." Soon the Eagle arrived at his home. It was built on a

high cliff overlooking the sea, hundreds of feet above the beach,

where even the sound of the surf rolling in from afar could not reach

it. There were many young birds in the nest, all clamouring for food.

Great Eagle threw the boy to the side of the nest and told him to stay

there. And he said, "I shall first eat the beaver, and after he is all

eaten up we shall have a good fat meal from you." Then he picked the

beaver to pieces and fed part of it to his young ones.



For some days the boy lay in terror in the nest, trying to think of a

way of escape. Birds flew high over his head, and far out on the ocean

he could see great ships going by. But no help came to him, and he

thought that death would soon be upon him. And his mother sat at home

waiting for him to return, but day after day passed and still he did

not come. She thought he must surely be in great danger, or that

perhaps he was already dead. One day, as she was weeping, thinking of

her lost boy, an old woman came along. "Why do you cry?" she asked.

And the weeping woman said, "My boy has been away for many days. I

know that harm has come upon him. The men of my tribe have gone in

search of him, and they will kill whatever holds him a prisoner, but I

fear he will never come back alive." And the old woman said, "Little

good the men of your tribe can do you! You must aid him with your

thoughts, for material things are vain. I will help you, for I have

been given great power by the Little People of the Hills." So the

woman used her thoughts and her wishes to bring back her boy.



That night the boy noticed that the beaver had all been eaten up and

that not a morsel remained. He knew that unless he could save himself

at once he would surely die on the morrow. The Great Eagle, he knew,

would swoop down upon him and kill him with a blow of his powerful

beak and claws. But when the boy slept, he saw his mother in his

slumber. And she said to him, "To-morrow when Great Eagle goes from

the nest, brace your knife, point upwards, against the rock. When he

swoops down to kill you his breast will strike the knife, and he will

be pierced to death. You are not strong enough to cut through his

feathers with your knife, but he is powerful enough to destroy

himself." The next morning when Great Eagle went out, the boy did as

the vision of the night had told him. He braced his sharp

hunting-knife, point upwards, against the rock and sat still and

waited. Then he heard the young eagles making a great noise and crying

loudly for their breakfast. He knew that his hour had come. Soon the

Great Eagle, hearing the screams of his young ones, came flying back

to the nest to kill the boy. He circled around above him with loud

cries and then with great force swooped down upon him, hoping to kill

him with his beak and claws. But instead, he struck the blade braced

upwards against the rock. The knife pierced far into his breast, and

with a loud scream he rolled over dead into the nest. The boy then

killed the young eagles, and he knew that now for a time he was safe.



But he did not know how to get down from the Eagle's nest, for it

jutted out like a shelf far over the beach, and behind it was a wall

of rock around which he could not climb. He had no means of making a

ladder, and his cries would not be heard upon the beach because of the

constant roaring of the surf. He thought he would surely starve to

death, and that night he cried himself to sleep. But in the night he

again saw his mother in his slumbers. And she said, "You are a foolish

boy. Why do you not use the thoughts I send you? To-morrow skin the

eagle and crawl inside the skin. If the wide wings can hold the Eagle

in the air they can likewise hold you. Drop off from the cliff and you

will land safely on the beach." The next day the boy did as the vision

of the night had told him. He carefully skinned the Great Eagle. Then

he crawled inside the skin and thrust his arms through the skin just

above the wings, so that his extended arms would hold the wings

straight out beneath them. Then he prepared to drop down. But when he

looked over the cliff, he was very frightened, for the sight made him

dizzy. On the beach, men looked like flies, they were so far away. But

he remembered the promise made to him in his slumbers. So he pushed

himself from the cliff and dropped down. The wings of Great Eagle let

him fall gently through the air and he landed safely and unhurt upon

the beach. He crawled out of the skin and set out for his home. It was

a long journey, for Great Eagle had carried him far away, but towards

evening he reached his home safely, and his mother received him with

great gladness.



The boy began to boast of his adventure, and he told how he had killed

Great Eagle and how he had dropped down unscathed from the cliff. He

spoke of himself with great pride and of his strength and his

shrewdness. But the old woman from the Land of the Little People, the

fairies of the hills, who was still present with his mother, said,

"Oh, vain boy, do not think so highly of yourself. Your strength is

nothing; your shrewdness is nothing. It was not these things that

saved you, but it was the strength of our thoughts. These alone endure

and succeed when all else fails. I have taught you the uselessness of

all material things, which in the end are but as ashes or as dust. Our

thoughts alone can help us in the end, for they alone are eternal."

And the boy listened and wondered at what the old woman from the Land

of Little People had said, but he boasted of his strength no more.