Archives of Short Stories of Legends

Legends of the world are persons who are admired for their great determination, hard work and efforts they put in to make the world a better place. Some of the legends are Mother Teresa, Rabindranath Tagore, and Indira Nooyi (she is known for the outstanding company she keeps), life stories of each of these teach us a lifelong lesson and we respect and admire them for their beliefs. Now, how we understand the right paths and follow them in our real lives is a question in everyone’s mind.

So, here on this page, you will learn two stories - One of a determined caterpillar and another is an Old spiritual leader of the Lakota who spreads his good ideas in the world that people keep in their homes to have a good life.

The Story of a Determined Caterpillar

Long years back, a caterpillar crawled inside a hare's (an animal-like rabbit) house while the hare was away, he sat comfortably. When the hare came back home, he noticed a few marks on the floor heading to the cave. He called, "Who's in my house?

A Mighty Caterpillar Teaches us to Never Lose Hope

The caterpillar boomed out in a noisy voice, "It is I! Yes, I who crushes rhinos to the earth and tramples elephants into dust!" The hare hopped about, crying, "What can a small animal like me do with a creature who crushes rhinos and tramples elephants?"

He eventually found a jackal and asked him to speak with the terrifying beast who'd already seized over his residence and encouraged him to leave. The jackal agreed, and once they reached the place, he barked loudly and stated, "Who is in the house of my friend the hare?"

In a roar that shook the land, the caterpillar replied, "It is I! Yes, I who crushes rhinos to the earth, and tramples elephants into dust!" On listening to this the jackal thought, "Certainly I can do nothing against any such creature," and he quickly left.

"Who is in the house of my buddy the hare?"

The hare subsequently went to find a leopard and persuaded him to help him. The leopard was convinced that the hare would have no trouble.

On reaching the spot, the leopard bared his claws and growled, "Who is in the house of my buddy the hare?" The caterpillar responded in the same way as he had finished before.

The leopard was alarmed and thought, "If he crushes rhinos and elephants, I do not even need to think about what he could do to me!"

Next, the hare sought out the rhinoceros. "No doubt, I am the most frightful of beasts," grunted the rhino. The rhino marched to the hare's cave, wherein he snorted and pawed the floor with his large feet. But while the rhino asked who was inside and heard the caterpillar's booming response, "What, he says he can smash me to the ground?" he wondered. And the rhino bolted away, crashing into the trees.

As the hare became increasingly agitated, he approached the elephant and demanded that he come to his aid. But just like the others, on listening to what the caterpillar needed to say, the elephant knew that he had no desire to be trampled underfoot like dust, and stomped off.

In despair by this point, the hare requested a frog to pass by if he may want to likely make the creature who had frightened all the other animals depart his house. The frog went to the cave door and requested who was inside. He acquired the same reply as had been given to the others. Then the frog went closer and shouted,"I, who am the strongest of all, have come at last. I am the only one who crushes those who crush the rhinos! I am the only one who tramples underfoot those who trample the elephants!"

"I, who am the strongest of all, have come at last!"

The bug within the hare's tunnel was frightened as he overheard something. "Admittedly, I am a caterpillar!" he thought as he sensed the frog's silhouette approaching. And the caterpillar crept out of the hare's burrow all along the rim, hoping not to be seen.

The animals who had amassed around the hare's house seized the caterpillar and dragged him out. "What, you?" they all cried in disbelief.

"I might by no means dream of staying in that cave!" stated the caterpillar with his nostril in the air. "An echo like this is way too crude for a cultured creature like myself!" As he sniffed away, all of the other animals laughed at the problem he had given them.

Legend Story in English 2 - The Legend of The Dream

Many years ago, when the world was young, an old spiritual leader of the Lakota sitting high in the mountain had a vision. In his vision, Ikomi, the great trickster and the teacher of wisdom appeared in the world as a spider.

Ikomi had a word with this old man in a sacred (pure) language that only the spiritual leaders of the Lakota could understand.

As he spoke with Ikomi, the spider took the elder’s willow hoop that had feathers, beads, and offerings on it and commenced to spin a web.

He showed the leader about the cycle of life and how we begin our life as an infant and move to childhood, then to adulthood. Eventually, we reach the old age where we are taken care of as a baby by our kids (as we did for them, we get in return), and hence we complete the cycle of life in this manner.

Leader said - But Ikomi (while spinning the web), in each time of life, there are many universal forces - some are good and some bad, if we listen to the good, we will street in the right direction and when we hear the bad forces, we steer in the wrong path.

Yes, there are many forces that lead us to varying directions, some of them help us and some interfere with the harmony of nature and with a great spirit, we get to acquire wonderful lessons. 

All the while, the spider interrupted and he continued to spin his web from outside towards the center.

When Ikomi was done with his speaking, he gave the Lakota elder the web and said - The web is a perfect circle but there is a hole in its center, do you know why?

He said - Use this web to help yourself and your people to reach your respective goals and make good use of people’s ideas, visions, and dreams.

If you believe in the greatness of spiritual powers, the web will reach you to the path of goodness and the bad ones will throw you out via this hole.

The old leader passed on his vision (he had for the world) to his people and now people use the dream catcher as the web of their lives.

It hangs over their bed to bring their hopes and ambitions to fruition. Everything positive in their visions is trapped in the web of life, while the bad flee through the hole in the middle and disappear.

From the above legend story in English, we conclude that the determination of a caterpillar moved the strengths of each creature who tried to crush it. However, in the second story, people have hung a web of spirit, which helps you reach the goal (when you have good ideas) and to the evil path, when you have bad ideas.