Into the Woods, 18: Following the Deer (Part III)

In the earliest time,

when both people and animals lived on the earth,

a person could become an animal if he wanted to

and an animal could become a human being.

Sometimes they were people

and sometimes animals

and there was no difference.

All spoke the same language.

That was the time when words were like magic.

The human mind had mysterious powers.

A word spoken by chance

might have strange consequences.

It would suddenly come alive

and what people wanted to happen could happen -

all you had to do was to say it.

Nobody can explain this:

That's the way it was.

- after Nalugiaq (from Magic Words: Songs and Stories of the Netsilik Eskimos by Edward Field)

Ceremonial deer vessels from Chimbote, Santa Valley, Peru (100 BC-500 AD)

Iranian deer vessel, used for holding wine (1000-550 BC)

Native American olla from Acoma Pueblo, New Mexico. The exact date is unknown, but it's believed to be old, and the traditional "heartline deer" design even older.

A ceramic deer vessel from the Hunal Tomb, Copan, Honduras (circa 437 AD)

Enchanted is what they were

in the old stories, or if not that,

they were guides and rescuers of the lost,

the lonely, needy young men and women

in the forest we call the world.

That was back in a time

when we all had a common language.

- Lisel Mueller (from "Animals Are Entering Our Lives")

Doe and Deer Jars, made of blown glass, by American glass artist William Morris , based in the Pacific Northwest.

Deer in Trees bowl by American ceramicist C. Bacon , based in New England.

Deer and Doe porcelain boxes by English ceramicist Eleanor Bartleman , based in Devon.

Long ago the trees thought they were people.

Long ago the mountains thought they were people.
Long ago the animals
thought they were people.
Someday they will say, long ago the humans
thought they were people.

- from a Native American (Tulalip) story recounted by Johnny Moses

The deer photographs above are: young fallow deer (by UK photographer Josh Smythe);  a deer buck at Dunham Massey Deer Park, in north-west England, during the rutting season (rubbing antlers in grass is a common rutting behaviour); an early morning doe and deer encounter; and two white-tailed deer-people.