How The First Letter Was Written (1970)

[Music] once upon a most early time there was a man named Tumi his wife's name was teshumai and his daughter was called taami which means small person with no manners who ought to be spanked but we will call her Taffy for short one day tegumi took Taffy with him and went down to the wagy river to spear cfish for dinner but before he could catch any fish he accidentally broke his spear hey well what do I do now it'll take me half a day to mend this there's your big black spear at home let me run back to the cave and get it no it it's too far for your little legs besides you must fall in the beaver swamp and drown gee I wish there was a way we could tell Mommy to send the other spear yeah never mind uh I'll I'll try to mend this one all right Daddy just then Taffy looked up and saw a stranger man but he belonged to a far distant tribe and he didn't understand one word of Taffy's language come here stranger man do you know where my mommy lives huh oh silly don't bother grown-ups Taffy I'm not I only want him to do what I want him to do and he won't understand well then don't bother him this is a wonderful child she stamps her feet and makes faces must be daughter of that great Chief so great that he pays me no attention now I want you to go to my mommy and ask her for Daddy's black spear very wonderful child must be angry at me I give her piece of white birch bark to show I am good man mean no harm oh you want my mommy's address of course I can't write but I can draw pictures please lend me the black sharks tooth on your necklace you don't mind do you now first I'll draw daddy fishing it isn't very much like him but mommy will know and I'll draw his Bear all broken now I'll draw the other spear that he wants it looks as if it was sticking in Daddy's back but that's because the shark to slip and the piece of B isn't big enough now I'll draw a picture of myself my hair doesn't really stand up like that but it's easier to draw it that way no I'll draw you I can't make you look as nice as you really look so don't be angry there now I'll show you how to find our cave you go along till you come to two trees those are the trees and then you go over a hill that a hill and then you come to a beaver swamp all full of beavers I can't really draw beavers so I'll just draw their heads then our cave is just beyond the beaver swamp I'll draw my mommy standing there outside now you just show this picture to her and she will give you daddy's spear do you understand ah understand great Chief in terrible danger enemies all around wonderful child has drawn picture to show his troubles must get help right away so the stranger man ran for miles till quite by accident he found teshumai at her cave look girls this stranger man has stuck my husband with a spear and frighten poor Taffy so that her hair stands on end and here's another man throwing a spear and here's a whole pack of bad people care wait before you beat the stranger man to a pup let him show us where he's hidden poor Taffy and take my even though the stranger man had a feeling that the names they called him weren't very nice he led them back to the river uh-oh The Stranger man brought company yeah for goodness sakes can a man break his spear without the whole tribe descending on him where are the people who spared you my darling that man came with this horrible picture that CH you with a spear stuck in your back and a lot of bad people looking over the hill um well maybe I better explain I gave the stranger man that picture you explain well I wanted a stranger man to fetch Daddy's spear so I drew it I can't help if it looks as if it's stuck in Daddy's back there wasn't room on the birch bark and those aren't bad people there might be fever and that's mommy holding Daddy's bear and I think you are the stupidest people in the whole world he's a very nice ganger man why have you filled his hair with mud him no no no leaders the mud out of the stranger man's hair because he's really a very nice man let us adopt him into our tribe so they washed up the stranger man and took him back to the Village you know Taffy that was a pretty good idea to send a picture letter only it's too bad I couldn't dress better later much later people figured out that it was better to write with words than pictures but the first letter the very first letter was written by Taffy long ago on the banks of the wagi river [Music]