Storybook - Baba Bukiki's Big Book of Gurriki Folktales
- Gurriki folktales -
To the lovely Ioran: May these
tales bring you joy. -D.
- Greedy Wikkik -
Wikkik was a greedy Gurriki.
When his wife made sweet Ralloc cookies, Wikkik ate and ate until none were left and he was fat and sleepy.
"Careful," sighed his wife. "If you grow too fat the neighbours might mistake you for the wicked Cellatu."
When his wife made a salty Lapia-egg custard, Wikkik ate and ate until none was left and he was fat and sleepy.
"Careful," sighed his wife. "The neighbours said they saw the Cellatu nearby. Don't get so fat you look like him."
One day, Wikkik's wife made something special. She roasted a whole Brax, fried a pile of Caltrops steaks, and made three giant Drupa cakes.
Wikkik ate the cake until there was none left. He ate the Caltrops until there was none left. He tried to eat the Brax, but he was so fat and sleepy he could not finish.
Wikkik fell fast asleep and rolled into the swamp on his big belly. When his wife came out of the kitchen she did not see him.
"Oh no," she said. "Where did Wikkik go? He did not finish his Brax. Maybe the Cellatu got him!"
The neighbours heard and grew frightened. "I see the fat Cellatu!" said one of them.
But it was really just Wikkik, who was so round from his greed that he did not look like himself.
"Quick," said the wife. "Cut the Cellatu open and let my poor husband out!" The neighbours ran and got their kitchen knives while Wikkik slept.
They opened up his belly and found Drupa cakes. They found Caltrops steaks. They found half a roast Brax.
"It's too late," wept Wikkik's wife. "The greedy Cellatu ate my poor husband!"
- Gurrikor and the Fire King -
In the Time Before, the land was dry and the Grotto walls glowed red with liquid fire.
Gurrikor the Trickster saw her brothers and sisters suffer. During the day, lava scorched their skin. At night, monsters crept out of the fire to eat them.
"I must do something," said Gurrikor the Trickster. "Before this fire kills us all."
The Fire King sat on a rock in a sea of lava. He was enormous and golden, with bright burning eyes.
Gurrikor was not afraid.
"I challenge you to a contest," she said.
The Fire King laughed an enormous laugh. "How could you beat me at anything?" he huffed. "I am ten times your size and king of the Grotto!"
"You are big," agreed Gurrikor, "and strong. A tadpole like myself has no chance. So do you accept my challenge?"
"Let us see who can swim the fastest," said Gurrikor the Trickster.
The Fire King laughed his enormous laugh. He had never swum before, but with his long, strong legs he was certain he would win.
"Flood the Grotto!" demanded the King. The King's servants opened the rock walls and water poured in.
The water washed over the fire and soothed the lava.
- The Gurrik Tree -
Once there were a brother and sister who loved each other very much. They played in the Swamp and chased bugs in the Grotto and were happy.
But when Summer Solstice came, Golden Tatar demanded a sacrifice.
Every Solstice, Tatar demanded he be allowed to eat Gurrikor the Trickster. Every Solstice, a young Gurriki would pretend to be the Trickster.
Every Solstice, Tatar gobbled them up. But by the next Solstice, he forgot again.
This Solstice, it was the brother's turn.
"I will die," said he, "so that other Gurriki can live." His family wept, except for his sister. He asked, "Sister, why don't you weep for me?"
"I am too busy making a plan," said the sister, and she hopped away into the Swamp.
She sat on a stump and thought. She thought hard, but could not think of a way to save her brother.
Her brother came to say goodbye. When they embraced, she finally began to cry.
As her tears touched the ground, they sprouted roots and leaves. They grew quickly, wrapping vines around the brother's feet.
The brother shouted in surprise. But the sister saw her chance, and stole his Trickster disguise.
She ran to Tatar's cave and threw herself into the lava. Tatar gulped her down, and that was her end.
The brother's tears fell over the vines that covered his feet. The vines grew again, boulder-thick and taller than a Gurriki could jump.
The tree twisted tall and strong around the brother, and he was never seen again. When the next Solstice came, the Gurriki hid up in the tree where Tatar could not reach.
And even now, on the night of the Solstice, you can still hear the brother and sister calling to each other across the Swamp.
- Here and There -
There once was an old Gurriki who lived in a house made of food.
It was a beautiful house, made of roasts and sweets and carved fruits and vegetables. The old Gurriki nibbled here and there, never eating too much.
But her neighbours grew jealous of the beautiful house. They nibbled here and there, and here and there, until the house began to disappear.
Finally, the neighbours ate the whole house, and the old Gurriki had to live in a leaf-pile.
None of the neighbours offered to help, but sneered at her instead.
Soon the neighbours' children looked sickly. "The children are getting thin," said the neighbours. "We should feed them more."
But no matter how much the children ate, they stayed scrawny and sickly.
