| n l971 I was on a music tour of the Far East for the U.S. State Department. We spent several days in Chiang Mai, Thailand performing and meeting the people. At this time the Thai people were afraid the Vietnamese were going to overrun their country and everyone was on edge. I heard this simple yet powerful story from a young boy who was our unofficial guide around Chiang Mai. He said, “The story gives us courage.” The song in this tale is a melody the children in Thailand use to taunt one another. Since that time this story has found a life of its own in the storytelling community. I am glad to see it is being told.
Once a long time ago there was a hunter walking through the woods. Far off in the forest he heard the faint sound of a bird singing a very strange song:
“Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah.”
(audience repeats nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah)
The hunter walked and walked until at last he came to a tree with a beautiful golden bird sitting in the top.
He said, “Why does such a beautiful bird like you have such an ugly song?”
The bird looked down at the hunter and sang:
“Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah.”
(audience repeats: nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah)
The hunter said, “If you don’t stop singing, I’m going to shoot you with my bow and arrow!”
The bird just looked down and sang again in a mocking voice:
“Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah.”
(audience repeats: nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah)
The hunter put an arrow in his bow and shot…..and he missed. The golden bird sang again:
“Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah.”
(audience repeats: nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah.)
The hunter put another arrow in his bow and shot again. The arrow went right through the bird’s heart. As the bird began to fall, the hunter rushed under the tree and caught it in his sack. He pulled the sack tight and started to walk home. But from down inside the bag, he heard the muffled singing of the bird:
(Storyteller keeps mouth closed and hums)
“Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah.”
(audience mimics and repeats: nah, nah, nah, nah,nah,nah,nah).
The hunter took the bird home, pulled it out of the sack, put it on the chopping block and plucked all the feathers from it. When he turned around to get a knife to cut the bird up, he heard over on the chopping block:
(Teller and audience fold their arms and shiver when they sing this line.)
“Brr, brr, brr, brr, brr, brr, brr.”
(audience repeats: brr, brr, brr, brr, brr, brr, brr)
The hunter took the knife and cut the bird up into a hundred small pieces, and then scraped them into a large pot full of water and put it on the stove to boil. When the water began to boil, he heard from down inside the pot, the bird singing:
(Teller and audience make a gurgling type sound when they sing the song.)
“Gurgh, Gurgh, Gurgh, Gurgh, Gurgh, Gurgh, Gurgh.”
(audience repeats: Gurgh, Gurgh, Gurgh, Gurgh, Gurgh, Gurgh, Gurgh)
Now the hunter was starting to get mad. He took the pot outside and put it on the ground and found himself a shovel and started to dig a deep, deep hole. When the hole was way over his head, he climbed out and poured all the parts of the bird into the hole and covered it with dirt. And as he turned to go back into the house, he heard from deep down in the ground the bird singing:
(Teller and audience sing song with hand over mouth to give muffled sound).
“Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah.”
(audience repeats: nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah)
Now the hunter was furious. He grabbed his shovel and dug up every piece of the bird and put them in a little wooden box, and tied a large rock across the box with some rope. He went down to the river and threw the box as far as he could out into the water. It splashed and went straight to the bottom. He stood on the bank waiting to hear the sound of the bird. He heard nothing, so he went home. At the bottom of the river, the water loosened the rope around the box. The rock fell off and the box floated to the top of the water. It drifted along the river for three days. On the third day, the box floated by some children who were playing on the banks of the river. They saw this beautiful wooden box passing by and they wanted to know what was in it. They waded into the water and brought the box to shore.
When they opened it, out flew a hundred golden birds all singing in a full voice:
“Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah.”
(audience repeats: nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah)
About a year later, the very same hunter was walking through the woods. And far off in the distance, he heard the strange sound of the bird singing. He walked and walked until at last he came to the same tree where he had first seen the strange bird. But this time when he looked up in the tree, instead of seeing one bird, he saw a hundred golden birds. He raised his hands and hollered out, “I know who you are now. You’re the Freedom Bird, for you cannot be killed.”
And all the birds looked down and sang to him at the same time:
“Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah.”
(audience repeats: nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah)
Telling tips: This story is easy to tell and always works. Although the tale is aimed at children, adults respond to the powerful ending. I usually start out by reminding the audience of our own cultural taunting song. Then I demonstrate how the Thai people sing their tune and get the audience to sing along. You could then mention where you got the story and then launch into it.
Throughout the story when the bird sings his song I usually sing the tune first and then motion to the audience to sing it again with me. Some of the singing has a gesture with it, such as shivering or covering your mouth. The audience will quickly catch on and follow your lead.
Classical composer Carl Orff has arranged a version of this story for the Orff insturments. He added the clap at the end of the tune which I have included in my version as it rounds out the melodic timing and brings the audience together. |
