Tag Archives: oxen

Two Oxen

CONTEXT: DM is a current USC student who attended a North Carolina Christian sleep-away camp in the summer of 2011. This is a story that she heard from an elderly woman named Libby. Libby had been raised at the camp, was head of camp for a number of years, and taught Bible Study and Devotional at the camp. DM interprets this story as a warning to choose obedience over freedom. She does not agree with the moral and does not think this was a good story to tell the children at camp.

TEXT:
Okay, this is a story of two oxen. It starts out with two brothers, and they are two wild
oxen that live in the plains a long, long time ago. These two oxen were living happily.
They were brothers, and they lived with their mom, and they had plenty of free space to
roam, and places to explore, and water and food. And then one day, they started seeing
these creatures and objects they had never seen before, because the railroad had been
being built in their area. And these big heavy machines are coming in, and all these
workers and things. And these carriages were coming by and there was a sudden influx
of people and the land around them was being torn up. And one day while the brothers
are out grazing on the field, this carriage comes by, and they get snatched up by the
carriage and are kidnapped into a working ranch that had just been set up nearby. And
the two oxen were basically prisoners. They had to be worked, and whipped, and made
to wear really uncomfortable saddles and people were always trying to ride them or put
yokes on them. So, they’re being put to work, and they have to pull these heavy carts in
the hot sun and are supposed to be really well-behaved, like sharp, come when they’re
called kind of oxen. And one day, one of the brothers while they’re carrying a load, sees
a hole in the side of the fence. And he goes “oh my gosh, now’s our chance, let’s go
escape.” And the other brother goes “No, I want to stay. I’m really proud of all these
beautiful saddles I can wear now, and how strong I’ve gotten, and all these things I
would’ve never been able to do, but I can do now.” And the other brother is like, “You’re
crazy, I’m leaving. I’m out of here. I don’t want to be a prisoner anymore.” And so, he
leaves, and he goes back to the wild. And at first everything is really lovely, and
beautiful and he has plenty of food to eat and water to drink and everything. And then a
couple years down the line a drought comes across the entire land. Everything is
decimated in the wild. The only people who have water are humans ‘cause they knew
how to collect it, and the only people who have food are humans ‘cause the railroad is
bringing stuff through. And so that meant that the other brother who had stayed had
gotten all this food, while the other brother was thirsty and starving and couldn’t find anything. And one day as he was wallowing around in the dust, he looks up and sees
his other brother carrying a whole carriage with this beautiful saddle and bells and
whistles and tassels on him and everything. He’s looking really strong, and his coat is
gleaming, and he just looks at the other brother and then he just keeps on walking.
Because the other one left the path.

ANALYSIS: This story seems to serve as warning to be obedient or suffer the consequences. Since this story was told in the context of a bible study and devotional, it seems that the working ranch may have been meant to represent the challenges of keeping the laws of the religion and remaining faithful even in difficult times, or through trials and tribulations. The suffering of the ox that chose freedom is potentially meant to represent what may happen, or what someone may feel, when they stray from God, or from their religion. This story was told to ten-year-olds who were likely meant to draw a moral from the story, and be like the ox that chose to stay and gained benefits as a result.

The Oxen and The Tiger

Context: J is a 21 year old Filipino American college student who grew up in California, who was regularly visited by her Grandparents who shared stories from their childhood. The piece was collected during a discord audio call. 

Intv: “Hey! I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind telling me the story that your grandmother told you about.”

J: “ Yeah sure! So There’s a story my grandma used to tell, she heard while growing up in cambodia! Just a little outside of the capital of Phnom penh. It’s about the origin of tiger stripes and why ox have no upper front teeth.”

Intv: “Okay sounds great! I’d love to hear it!”

J: “So basically this tiger was stalking these oxen getting beaten around by a man while working the farm fields, full of curiosity, the tiger approached the oxen after the man walks away and asks “my ox brethren, why do you let the weak man beat away at you and make you work for him when you could easily kick him down and be free like me?” and the ox replies “it’s because the man has intelligence that makes us listen to him” the tiger then asks, “what is intelligence?” and the ox replies ‘go ask him yourself’ which the tiger does but approaches the human arrogantly because the tiger thinks he is the most powerful being in the world and demands that the human man show the tiger what intelligence was or the tiger would maul the human. the human responds ‘ah, i left my intelligence at home so i would have to go retrieve it but i don’t trust you around my livestock’ and while the tiger insisted that he’d wait for the man, they came to an agreement where the man would tie up the tiger to prevent him from potentially attacking his oxen. However, after tying the tiger very tightly to a tree the human placed a bunch of leaves and branches on the tiger and lit him on fire. The oxen began to laugh at the tiger while pointing at him with their front legs and they laughed so hard that they fell on their front two teeth and broke them and they never grew back. while the tiger screamed in agony until the rope tying him to the tree burned away and he fled back into the forest, with the black stripes being his burned flesh for forever”

Analysis: As a first time listener to this story the main thing that stands out to me is the human animal relations. Humans are depicted at the top of the food chain, not because of power but because of our wit. The unnamed human in this story even acts like a common trickster character, by pretending intelligence is a physical object. Also through the oxen we see another aspect of human capability and intelligence, through just how the oxen says “intelligence makes us listen to him.”

Rosary in the Oxen’s Horns to Protect Against Witches in Rural Slovakia

Nationality: Slovak, American
Age: 65
Occupation: Nanny
Residence: Willowbrook, Illinois
Performance Date: 3/20/2016
Primary Language: Slovak
Language: English, Russian

Background: A.J. is a 65-year-old woman who was born and raised in Poprad, Slovakia. She relocated to the United States from Slovakia 20 years ago, while her son was attending University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. A.J. holds a degree in child development and since coming to the United States has worked as a nanny. She is married to her lifelong sweetheart and has one son and three grandchildren. She often talks about her home and family in Slovakia – about the beautiful mountains and the culture. Although she is now a US citizen, she incorporates many Slovak traditions into everyday life, and enjoys telling stories about her family and her family traditions.

 

Main piece:

A.J.: So with the cows, owner were protecting about which all your animals like cow they make hole to the horn and put inside rosary – protect them because witch was scary from “saint” stuff and they have like blessing water – they always take some branches – nice young branches from tree and they like make cross with this sand water in the stable – protect this stable from witch.  And when sometimes happen like a animal’s broke horn and they lost this rosary when they no more protect.  Yeah.   And this happen in my Dad family, they animal broke leg cause they were on the field and more cows together and they start fighting and they broke the horn off that had the rosary in it and until they come home they broke leg and this cow die on the field.  This was like true story what Dad told me.  He was very sad but they said this was like witches in the religion.  The witches broke the horn which was this protection – the rosary.  They were out and no more this cow was protect they when she was walking then on the way she broke leg and they cannot fix this time and she died.

 

Q: So when do witches come?

 

A.J.: All the time they were. Witches come all the time.

 

Q: Could you see the witches?

 

A.J.: They think this was like one lady but they were not sure but once this was happen they saw in stable frog and Grandpa take this pitch fork and he was stick this frog and this frog was like make sound like a hurt people – when you hurt somebody they was making sound and was hopping away and next day or couple days later he saw one lady she was hurt – she was like some wound from this – like it was from the pitch fork – she was the frog and they said this is the witch

 

Q: How can you tell who’s a witch?

 

A.J.: You cannot tell but always something happened when this lady was around.

 

Q: Just one lady in your village?

 

A.J.: Not my village, my Dad village.

 

Q: There was only one?

 

A.J. They know about this only one lady but maybe is more.

 

Q: Do you know what she looked like?

 

A.J.: She was a regular lady but she had power what she can make bad stuff.

 

Q: And how did you know that she was the witch?  Did she go up to people and say something like “I’m going to curse you” or something like that?

 

A.J.: No, no, no, no when she was walking around, there always something bad happened to you. But she was just choosing people. Not all people make something bad but some, some people what she doesn’t like maybe.

 

Q: Is there a way to get rid of the witches’ curses?

 

A.J.: People usually with the “saint” stuff protect their self – like blessing water, praying, um carrying rosary with you, just maybe like that.

 

Performance Context: A rosary would typically be put into an ox’s horn in rural farms of Slovakia to protect the ox from being hurt by the witch’s magic.

 

My Thoughts: I think it is interesting how a rosary, a strong symbol of Christianity, would protect against the evil magic of witches, who are typically known to be part of a pagan religion. Christianity and Roman Catholicism is the most prominent religion in Slovakia. It is possible that the rosary’s ability to protect the oxen symbolizes the importance of Christianity in Slovakian culture, and the idea that Christianity is able to protect against all evil of the world, including witches’ magic.