story STORY – How Corn Came To Be

A long time ago, two boys went hunting with their bows and arrows. They were looking for small animals like squirrels or deer, but they walked for hours without seeing any. They started to get hungry.
Suddenly they saw a blackbird sitting in a tree. They shot the bird with an arrow and then made a fire so they could roast and eat it. They planned to hunt again after they’d eaten. The smell of the roasting meat was delicious and the boys got more and more hungry.
Just as the bird was ready to eat, a woman walked out of the trees towards them. She wore a long, white dress and had flowers in her hair. The boys were startled and a bit frightened of the woman as she walked up to the fire. “I’m very hungry” she said to them.
The boys had been taught to respect women so they took the cooked bird off the fire and offered it to her. The woman took it. “Thank you” she said. “You’re welcome” said the boys. Then the woman sat down near the fire and ate every bit of the meat on the cooked bird. The boys stared at her. By now they were very hungry, but they didn’t say anything.
When the woman had finished eating, she smiled and stood up, ready to leave. “You boys are kind to people, and you share what you have” she said. “So I’m going to give you something in return. Go home now – no more hunting today. Leave the fire to me – I’ll put it out. Come back tomorrow to this spot and see what you find.”
The boys picked up their bows and arrows and walked off, back to their village. They were still hungry and they knew their families would be disappointed that they had no fresh meat from their hunt.
The next day the boys returned, as the woman had told them. They looked at the place where their fire had been, but there were no ashes or burned embers. The ground was covered by strange plants with big yellow stalks growing on them. The boys had never seen anything like it. They pulled off a couple of the stalks and smelled them. They smelled good. They stripped the outer leaves away and ate some of the pieces of the stalk. They were crunchy and tasted good.
“Let’s take some more of this home and ask somebody what it is” they said, as they gathered more stalks in their arms. Their families didn’t know what it was and nor did anyone in the village. But everyone who tasted it enjoyed it.
Everyone wondered what they should call this delicious present. The boys said, “We shall call it Tanchi.”
And that is how Tanchi, or corn, came to be.