This original and informative collection features animal figures from thirty Hopi tales. Field Mouse, Coyote the Trickster, Cicada and his flute, Medicine Man Badger, the Chipmunk Girls and Antelope Kids, and other manifestations of serpents, insects, and birds appear in these ancient folk tales, traditionally told in mid-winter, when the nights are long and cold and all the crops are in. Highly entertaining, the narratives reveal attitudes toward important aspects of Hopi culture, such as courtship, relations between the sexes, friendship, courage, industry, healing, and the treatment of children. Ekkehart Malotki has compiled and meticulously edited Hopi and English versions of the tales in this bilingual edition. An introduction by the distinguished folklore scholar Barre Toelken examines the cultural relevance of Hopi oral narratives and draws upon recent scholarly perspectives on folktales to place the tales within a wider, comparative context.
