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Children and the Forest in Kichwa Stories
18. Eulodia Dagua, "Red Mushroom Woman Give a Rash." Youtube Video. 2:33. December 19, 2016. https://youtu.be/-Xb6XEZn-po
A mother leaves a child home alone to bring the child food from her garden. But when she returns to feed the child the baby is not hungry. "A grandma came to feed me mushrooms the baby girl would say. This happened over and over. The child also developed a diaper rash. So the mother pretended to go out to her garden. Instead she hid in the bushes to watch. After a little while she saw a small old lady red with rash come scratching herself all over. The woman opened a leaf packet of tiny red mushrooms that resembled the rash on the old lady's skin. After opening the packet she sat the child on top of the small red mushrooms . The baby began to scratch all over. Then the mother knew why the baby was never hungry and why she had the rash. It was the Forest Spirit Mushroom who came to her as the old lady.
Bélgica Dagua, "Deer Papaya: A Deceased Grandfather Returns as a Deer." Youtube video. 3:12. March 26, 2016.
Bélgica Dagua tells the story of a deceased man who returns to his grandchildren as a deer. When the children are left home alone the deer comes out of the forest as a man and gives them what appears to be papaya. He tells them he has much more out in his forest garden. He lays down to take a nap and sends them off to look. But when they go look there is no cultivated garden but only wild forest variant of domestic papaya that deer eat. When the return to question their sleeping grandfather they cannot find him. But someone runs off as a deer.
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