Category: Pourquoi Tales

Traditional legends and foundational stories focused on explaining the origins of natural phenomena, animal physical traits, or cultural customs. These narratives serve as ancestral records and cultural adaptations that answer “how” or “why” a specific part of the natural world became the way it is today. (LNA131-POU)

  • How the Alphabet Was Made

    How the Alphabet Was Made

    The week after Taffy and her Daddy, Tegumai, made their picture-letter mistake, they went back to the river to fish. While Tegumai scratched marks on birch bark with a shark’s tooth, Taffy had a new idea. She wanted to make a “secret surprise” using noises.

  • How the First Letter Was Written

    How the First Letter Was Written

    Once upon a very early time, people lived in caves. There was a man named Tegumai. He was a man who never hurried. There was a woman named Teshumai. She was a lady who asked many questions. And there was a little girl named Taffy. She was a small person who sometimes forgot her manners.

  • The Beginning of the Armadillos

    The Beginning of the Armadillos

    Long ago there lived a Stickly-Prickly Hedgehog and a Slow-Solid Tortoise. They lived on the banks of the turbid Amazon river. There also lived a Painted Jaguar. He was young, beautiful, and very hungry.

  • The Sing-Song of Old Man Kangaroo

    The Sing-Song of Old Man Kangaroo

    Long ago, the Kangaroo was not as we see him now. He was a different animal with four short legs. He was grey, he was woolly, and he was very, very proud.

  • The Elephant’s Child

    The Elephant’s Child

    In the High and Far-Off Times, the Elephant, had no trunk. He only had a blackish, bulgy nose, as big as a boot, that he could wriggle about from side to side. He couldn’t pick anything up with it.

  • How the Leopard Got His Spots

    How the Leopard Got His Spots

    In the days when the world was brand new, the Leopard lived in a place called the High Veldt. The Leopard was the sandiest-yellowest-brownest cat you ever did see. He matched the rocks and the grass so well that he could hide just by sitting still.

  • Why the Rhino Wears Wrinkles

    Why the Rhino Wears Wrinkles

    Once upon a time, on a lonely island, there lived a baker who wore a very shiny hat. One day, he made a giant, wonderful cake… But just as he was about to take a bite, a Rhinoceros with very bad manners came out of the jungle.

  • How the Camel Got His Hump

    How the Camel Got His Hump

    A long time ago, when the world was brand new, the animals were just starting to work with the people. But there was one Camel who was very lazy.

  • Why the Whale Eats Small Snacks

    Why the Whale Eats Small Snacks

    Long ago, the Whale ate everything he could find in the sea. He ate the big fish and the small fish.