the freedom song

I am going to show you a story.  Yes, you heard right.  Show.

This is what is called a ‘storyboard’.  It is a series of drawings that remind the storyteller of the main parts of a story.

And the story goes something like this.

There was once a proud hunter.  One day he was walking through the forest when in the middle of a clearing, he saw a most beautiful bird perched high in a tree.  The bird had a golden beak, green wings and a red tail.

“What a beautiful bird,” thought the hunter.  “I shall leave it alone.”

But as he continued on his way, the bird sang to the hunter.  “Na, na, na-na na.”

It sounded to the hunter as if the bird was laughing at him.  Which made the hunter angry.

“Don’t sing that song again or you will be sorry,” shouted the hunter.

“Na, na, na-na na,” the bird stuck out its beak and sang.

So the hunter put an arrow in his bow and shot the bird, right through the heart.  (That’s the first picture.)

He put the dead bird into a sack and continued on his way.  (That’s the second picture.)  And as he walked, a muffled sound came from inside the sack.

“Na, na, na-na na.”

So the hunter took the bird home, popped him onto the table and plucked out all the feathers.

But then he heard a shivering voice singing, “Na, na, na-na na.”

Furious, the hunter took a sharp knife and chopped the bird into one hundred pieces and threw them into a pot of boiling water.

“That will show him,” he said. 

But then, from inside the pot he heard a bubbling, gurgling sound.  “Na, na, na-na na.”

By now the hunter was quite wild with rage.  He took the pot, the bones, the feathers into the garden, dug a deep hole, and put everything inside.  He patted down the soil with his spade.  And as he did so he heard a quiet sound coming up from the earth below.  “Na, na, na-na na.”

The hunter furiously dug the bits up and tipped everything into a box.  He tied the box with string and then threw it with all his might into the river.  And then he went home to bed.

Some few days later, a group of fishermen spotted a box floating in the water.  They caught it in their net and pulled it to the riverbank.  One of the fishermen carefully opened the top of the box…..

and out flew 100 beautiful but tiny birds, each one with a golden beak, green wings and a red tail.

The next day the hunter set off hunting as usual.  And as he got to the clearing in the forest he saw a most beautiful sight.  For there, sitting in the topmost tree, were 100 beautiful but tiny birds with golden beaks, green wings and red tails. 

And each of them was singing at the top of his tiny voice, “Na, na, na-na na.”

“You are the freedom bird,” sighed the hunter, “and that is your song.”

And from that day on the freedom bird and the hunter have lived peacefully side by side.