Deer woman
A deer spirit of the eastern Woodlands and Central Plains tribes, associated with fertility and love. Like many Native American animal spirits, Deer Woman is sometimes depicted in animal form, other times in human form, and sometimes as a mixture between the two. Although Deer Woman was usually considered a benign spirit who might help women conceive children, some stories portray her as a more dangerous being who might seduce men, especially adulterous or promiscuous men, and either lead them to their deaths or leave them to pine away from lovesickness.
Among contemporary Native American people of Oklahoma, Deer Woman often plays a “bogeyman” sort of role, said to trample incautious people to death, especially girl-crazy young men or disobedient children. Some people say that this more violent version of Deer Woman is actually a human woman who either turned into a deer after being raped, or was brought back to life.
The Lion and the Mouse
Once when a Lion was asleep a little Mouse began running up and down upon him; this soon wakened the Lion, who placed his huge paw upon him, and opened his big jaws to swallow him. “Pardon, O King,” cried the little Mouse: “forgive me this time, I shall never forget it: who knows but what I may be able to do you a turn some of these days?” The Lion was so tickled at the idea of the Mouse being able to help him, that he lifted up his paw and let him go. Some time after the Lion was caught in a trap, and the hunters who desired to carry him alive to the King, tied him to a tree while they went in search of a wagon to carry him on. Just then the little Mouse happened to pass by, and seeing the sad plight in which the Lion was, went up to him and soon gnawed away the ropes that bound the King of the Beasts. “Was I not right?” said the little Mouse.
Moral of Aesops Fable: Little friends may prove great friends
The Dog and His Reflection
It happened that a Dog had got a piece of bone and was carrying it home in his mouth to eat it in peace. Now on his way home he had to cross a plank lying across a running brook. As he crossed, he looked down and saw his own shadow reflected in the water beneath. Thinking it was another dog with another bone, he made up his mind to have that also. So he made a snap at the shadow in the water, but as he opened his mouth the bone fell out, dropped into the water and was never seen again.
Moral of Aesops Fable: Beware lest you lose the substance by grasping at the shadow
The Hare and the Frogs
The Hares were so persecuted by the other beasts, they did not know where to go. As soon as they saw a single animal approach them, off they used to run. One day they saw a troop of wild Horses stampeding about, and in quite a panic all the Hares scuttled off to a lake hard by, determined to drown themselves rather than live in such a continual state of fear. But just as they got near the bank of the lake, a troop of Frogs, frightened in their turn by the approach of the Hares scuttled off, and jumped into the water. “Truly,” said one of the Hares, “things are not so bad as they seem:
Moral of Aesops Fable: There is always someone worse off than yourself