The Storyteller or ‘Mercury Ali the Trickster’: “When I travelled in the land of Bolivia, where there are white lakes and red lakes and green, and geysers that smell like bad eggs. There on the massive salt lakes which stretch as far as the eye can see, and are so bright that you must always squint, I was lost and thirsty. At that moment I would have sold my legs for a glass of water, even if after I could not have escaped from the plains. When I felt I was at my last and could feel no hope of survival, I saw a woman. She was old, hunched, and was chased by unnatural flames. Every time she slowed they scorched her heels, which were already cracked and blackened and blistered. And she slowed often, for she staggered and slipped, and the salt stung with each step for she winced repeatedly. As she passed me she fell down in a dead faint, then the flames caught her and she woke and tried to stand. I couldn’t just watch, and not knowing who or what she was, I, feeling a second wind, picked her up and ran. The flames followed us, and eventually I began to tire, so I asked the woman on my back, ‘why are these flames after you?’ Her throat was so parched she whispered in my ear, ‘I did not teach my grandchildren good manners and habits, therefore all of them grew to be thieves and murderers. So when I died I was cursed to wander the plains, followed by fire.’ ‘That seems unreasonable, I’m sure there were other contributory factors,’ I said, but the old woman shook her head. I walked on, my shoes smouldering from the heat.
“When I had walked another hour I knew that I could not carry on much further, and I wracked my brains for a solution. It began to get dark and in the distance I saw a house, hewn from the salt and next to it I saw a pool cut into the ground, in the centre was a tiny island with an offering on it to the gods. In a flash I began to run, leaving the fire behind, and at the pool’s edge I leapt and landed slap bang in the middle of the shrine. The woman woke and screamed, ‘What are you doing?’ I turned this way and that as the flames surrounded the pool, cutting off all escape. ‘You are not doing your job!’ I yelled, ‘if you are a just fire you will find the grandfather, mother and father and anyone else who had a hand in bringing up those children and scorch them too.’ The flames seemed to flicker in confusion, parting in places as if considering what I had to say. ‘If those children were bad, it was not one single person who made them so. I think you have been tormenting this woman for long enough. Go!’ As I said this I used the silver plate from the shrine to splash them with water and they began to disappear, until only embers surrounded us, then ashes and then even those were washed away. It was then I realised the woman was gone, and suddenly feeling tired beyond reason and so thirsty, that I could have drank the salt water at my feet, I walked into the house and found water, food and a bed. It was two days before I awoke and I believed I had dreamt the whole experience, yet when I went to put my shoes on my heels were blistered and burnt.”
Sedna: “That is nothing, when I became a woman the young men of the Inuit village where I lived courted me, for I had beautiful hair and a strong back. Some of them wanted me for a wife, but I could not marry them. They were slow, stupid and smelt of rotten fish. They brought me baby seals they had caught with spears, and I took them and returned them to the ice so the polar bears could eat them, for I had more than I needed. A few years passed and I still did not marry, and the men grew angry. There were not enough women in our village and so many of the men were lonely. They would knock on my door at night and call ‘Sednaaa! Sedna! Let us keep each other warm.’ It got so bad that I had to sleep with my dog and a spear. In the summer when the sun does not set for months one of them broke down the door and tried to undress me. I struck him over the head with the flat side of the spear, as he was dead drunk and not much of a threat. He was livid and he spat at me and ran back to the village were he roused the men and told them that I had married my dog, for no man was good enough for me. The women laughed but their husbands and brothers and fathers grew only angrier. These days when the light lasts forever are worse than the days of darkness in the winter, people get short tempered and violent, whilst in the winter they spend their time in their lover’s arms and with their children. The men stormed my hut and they carried me to the boats and when they were out in the ice flow they tried to push me over board. I kicked and screamed and clawed at their eyes but they would not listen to reason, they got me in the water, which was as cold as nails, and I would not let go of the boat. So the man I had hit pulled out a knife and cut off the fingers on my right hand. They pushed me in the water and paddled away, leaving me to die. Back in the village I became a legend, and the men began to fear me. They would place offerings to me at my house before they sailed, and their children’s children said that the fingers I had lost became whales and dolphins. In reality I climbed a board a piece of ice, bound my hand with cloth and using a paddle discarded in the struggle got to land. There my dog found me and kept me warm until I was strong enough to get home. I stayed secretly for a few weeks, hiding when anyone went past, then I left south to explore the world.”
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These stories are loosely based on folktales and may come to make up a short series of five stories to be performed. They are meant to be read aloud and sound spontaneous, that is why they are quite rough around the edges. They are only first drafts and I am very tired so please forgive any mistakes, I’ll catch the buggers later.
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