Julie McGalliard

“In the morning of the world, the Bon Dieu made all the animals and he loved them all very much. But in time he felt lonely, and wanted a man to talk to, a creature more like himself. So he said to all the animals, make me a man. And the animals did as the Bon Dieu asked. Every animal in the green earth came forward to present his man to the Bon Dieu. And every animal had made a man that was much like himself.

“There were rabbit men and skunk men. There were lizard men and lion men. There were fish men and dragonfly men, crab men and eagle men, rat men and horse men, spider men and sheep men. And all of these men were very good, each after his own fashion.

“But the animal that made the very best man for the Bon Dieu was the wolf. Because the wolf is as strong as the bear and as clever as the monkey, as beautiful as the lion and as fast as the cheetah. He has the far-seeing eyes of the raven, and no creature is wiser save the Bon Dieu himself.

“The Bon Dieu was so pleased with the wolf man that he gave him a special boon: that the wolf man and all his descendants might share in the gifts of the wolf and take on his shape when the moon is full.

“For a long time the wolf man was the leader of all the new men, and there was harmony throughout the land, because the wolf man was kind as well as wise. Because he was strong he had no fear, and because he had no fear, he had no evil in his heart.

“But the snake man was the most hated of all the new men, for he was selfish and dishonest. Yet he was also very clever and ambitious and, just like the wolf, he had no fear. But unlike the wolf he had no love either.

“He believed that he should be the one to lead the men. And so he began to sow discord among the other men, and every time, he sought to blame it on the wolf man.

“Finally, when he saw the beautiful daughter of the gazelle man walking alone by the river, and the wolf man sleeping under a tree nearby, he saw his chance.

“Now, the men did not eat each other as the animals who made them did. The lion man did not eat the gazelle man. The eagle man did not eat the rabbit man. The panther man did not eat the rat man. This is because men were very few in those days, so the Bon Dieu declared it should be so. A man might eat another kind of animal, but never another man. And so it is to this day, although men are now very great in number.

“The snake man was swift, and had poison in his mouth, and murdered the gazelle man’s daughter. This was the first murder in all the world. It was silent, and did not wake the wolf man. And the snake man smeared blood around the mouth of the sleeping wolf man and went running through the town crying out that the wolf man had eaten the gazelle man’s daughter.

“The townspeople saw this: the wolf man with blood on his mouth and the gazelle man’s daughter lying dead. And so they believed the snake man, and they drove the wolf man and all his family away from their town and out into the wilderness. Then they made the snake man their leader.
“And so it has been ever since. Men are led by snakes, and they hate wolves beyond all reason.”