Walton Burns - The Freedom Bird

2021 Alphabet Publishing.

All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-956159-06-6 (print)

978-1-956159-07-3 (ebook)

Illustrations by arctina2059.gmail.com/Depositphotos

Cover Illustration by rytova.maria.yandex.ru

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Before You Read

I do not know where this story came from. I have only heard from story tellers. I have read that the story came from Thailand but I cannot find it in any books of Thai folk stories. I once told this story to a group of people from all over Europe. Many said this story had an important message for their countries. So maybe this is an international folk tale. This is probably true because it is about something that is international: freedom.

There are many kinds of freedom: freedom to say what you want, freedom to chose your leaders, freedom to travel, freedom to be yourself, freedom of religion, freedom to create art or tell stories, freedom from work or chores, freedom to love who you want, freedom to run, freedom to stay alive! And everyone wants some kind of freedom.

The story of the freedom bird reminds us that people try to take away freedom. However, freedom cannot be taken away forever. It cannot be killed. It will always come back. Most importantly, freedom can be really really silly!

T he bird in this story has a strange song. In English, Nyah Nyah is a sound that children use to teach each other. So I wrote the song that way. It is a lot of fun to sing out loud. You can also tell the story to a partner and make the partner say the birds song out loud! You can also change the sound of the song. You can make it sound like a teasing sound in your language!

The Freedom Bird

O nce upon a time, there was a hunter and he was out hunting in the woods.

Like many hunters, he took hunting very seriously. Some hunters liked being outside. Some hunters liked to learn about animals. They killed only what they needed. This hunter was different. He thought it was important to kill lots of birds. If he killed lots of birds, he could sell them and make money. He thought nature should be useful!

On this day, the hunter wasn't having much luck, so he went deep into the forest. Soon he was in a part of the forest he had never been in before. He stopped to look around and get his bearings, when he saw a beautiful golden bird sitting on the top of a tree. As he looked at the bird, it sang

NYAH NYAH NYAH NYAH NYAH NYAH NYAH!

It sounded like the bird was making fun of him. So he said to the bird, "You are very beautiful, but your song is so ugly!

T he bird looked at the hunter and sang

NYAH NYAH NYAH NYAH NYAH NYAH NYAH!

This made the hunter mad so he said, "If you sing that song one more time, I'll shoot you with my arrow!"

The bird sang again,

NYAH NYAH NYAH NYAH NYAH NYAH NYAH!

S o the hunter took out an arrow, put it in his bow, and fired. The bird jumped to one side, the arrow flew past him, and the bird looked at him and sang

NYAH NYAH NYAH NYAH NYAH NYAH NYAH!

Now the hunter was really mad. And sometime when you get mad, really really mad inside, you can focus. So the hunter shot another arrow and it hit the bird right in the heart.

T he bird's body fell to the ground. The hunter picked it up, and put it in his sack. He tied a knot on the top of the sack. And he started to walk back home. But as he walked, he heard a sound from inside the bag.

nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah!

T he hunter was very upset and a little scared. He ran home. He went in and slammed the door closed behind him. He rushed to the kitchen. He pulled the bird out of the bag, put it on the table, and plucked the feathers out. He turned to get a knife when he heard behind his back

Brrr! Brr Brr Brr Brr Brr Brr!

T he hunter picked up a big knife. He chopped that bird up into a hundred pieces! He took a big pot, filled it up with water, and put it on the fire. He put the pieces of bird into the water. As the water boiled, he heard a strange sound

Glub Glub Glub Glub Glub Glub Gulb

N ow the hunter was really mad. So he grabbed the pot from off the fire. He grabbed a shovel and ran outside. He went deep into the forest, dug a deep hole, and poured the pieces of the bird into the hole! Then he covered it up with dirt. And as he started to walk away, he heard from deep in the ground,

nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah!

I n a rage, the hunter dug the pieces up. He put them in a strong wooden box. He ran to the river. He tied ropes around the box. He put some heavy rocks on top of it and tied it all up with strong ropes. He threw the box in. and sank to the bottom. The hunter waited for a minute, but he heard nothing. He said, "I stopped it! I stopped the bird." And so he went home and had a good night's sleep.

N ow that box sat at the bottom of the river for some time. But water is a funny thing. It can look very still on top. But underneath things are always moving. Water changes things. Slowly, the river pushed against the rocks. Slowly the water loosened the ropes. No one could see it, but change was happening below. And one year later, the ropes got very loose, the rocks fell off the top, and the box floated to the top of the river.

T he box drifted for days on top of the river. Then some children playing in the river saw it. They swam out, took the box, and brought it to the bank of the river. When they opened it, one hundred golden birds flew out.