DEN ACTIVITIES
York-Adams Council
Yesteryear's Folk
Heroes
Invite an elderly person to your den meeting (or
your den's adopted grandparent) and talk of the folklore heroes from
his/her childhood.
Folk Songs
Invite a folk guitarist to a den meeting to teach
some new folk songs to the den.
Tall Tales Contest
Have a Tall Tale Contest where each Cub Scout has to
make up his own tall tale character and a story about the
character.
Scholars define folklore as the body of traditional
customs, beliefs, tales, songs and the like that are transmitted by
word of mouth from one generation to the next .The following legends
were sent to me by Earl Bateman.
The Legend of Ging Gang
Gooli
In deepest darkest Africa there is a legend
concerning the Great Gray Ghost. Every year after the rains the
great gray ghost elephant arose from the mists and wandered through
the land at dawn. When he came to a village he would stop and sniff
the air, then he would either go around the village or through it.
If he went around the village, the village would have a prosperous
year; if he went through it there would be hunger and drought. The
village of Wat-cha had been visited three years in a row by the
elephant and things were bad indeed, the village Chief Ging-Ganga,
was very worried, as was the village medicine man Hay-la-shay.
Together they decided to do something about the problem. Now
Ging-Ganga and his warriors were huge men with big shields and
spears and they decided to stand in a path of the elephant and shake
their shields and spears at it to frighten it off.
Hay-la-shay and his followers were going to cast
magic spells to deter the elephant by shaking their medicine bags as
the elephant approached which made the sound shallawally,
shallawally, shallawally. Very early in the morning of the day the
Great Grey Elephant came the villagers gathered at the edge of the
village; on one side Ging-Ganga and his warriors (indicate the right
side of the group); on the other side
Hay-la-shay and his followers (indicate the left
side of the group) As they waited the warriors sang softly about
their leaders: Ging Gang Gooli, Gooli, Gooli Gooli Watcha Ging Gang
Goo Ging Gang Goo Ging Gang Gooli, Gooli, Gooli Gooli
Watcha Ging Gang Goo Ging Gang Goo As they waited the medicine
men say of their leader: Hayla, Hayla Shayla, Hayla, Shayla,
Hayla Ho-o-o Hayla, Hayla Shayla, Hayla, Shayla, Hayla Ho. As
they sang they shook their medicine bags
Shallywally shallywally shallywally
shallywally And from the river came the mighty great grey
elephant's reply Oompha, Oompha, Oompha, Oompha The elephant
was coming closer to the warriors rose and sang louder. Ging Gang
Gooli, Gooli, Gooli Gooli Watcha Ging Gang Goo Ging Gang
Goo Ging Gang Gooli, Gooli, Gooli Gooli Watcha Ging Gang Goo
Ging Gang Goo Then the medicine men rose and sang
louder. Hayla, Hayla Shayla, Hayla, Shayla, Hayla
Ho-o-o Hayla, Hayla Shayla, Hayla, Shayla, Hayla Ho. And shook
their medicine bags Shallywally shallywally shallywally
shallywally And the mighty great grey elephant turned aside and
went around the village saying: Oompha, Oompha, Oompha,
Oompha There was great rejoicing in the village and all the
villagers joined together to sing Ging Gang Gooli. . . . Ellen
Rohr - Southbrook District Tiger Cub Chair, RT Staff, Unit
Commissioner
Northern Lights Ben Kruser
The Leader, February 1992.
Aurora Borealis, the Northern Lights, has been the
subject of speculation, myth, and scientific study throughout
history. Indigenous people in Canada and the northern U.S. had many
legends to explain the lights. One legend says the souls of departed
friends were lighting torches to guide those who followed. Another
describes a great hole in the sky through which souls pass from this
world to the next. Many stories tell of spirits with light bands on
heads and waist playing a lively game of football with a walrus
skull. Although auroras were common occurrences to northern
peoples, the occasional aurora seen in central and southern Europe
created panic. Greek and Roman philosophers believed the sky was
opening and spewing forth flame and smoke. In early times, people
detected major fires by the light reflected from the evening clouds.
When an aurora made an uncommon appearance in southern latitudes,
troops rushed to neighbouring cities to help with what appeared to
be a major conflagration. In the middle ages, Europeans went from
hysteria to hallucination. They saw vast armies of angels clashing
in the sky, and tens of thousands of peasants across Europe joined
pilgrimages in hopes of saving the world from approaching
Armageddon. Science also had its opinions about the aurora. Some
scientists speculated that the force of ice and glaciers produced
flame, while others thought that vast ice belts reflected the sun's
light into the evening sky. Active research began in the 17th
century when Pierre Gassendi, a mathematician and philosopher, named
the lights after Aurora, the Romans' rosy-fingered Goddess of Dawn,
whose job was to usher in the rising sun. Carl Stonner, a
Norwegian physicist, was the first to solve the question of the
aurora's length. He took pictures of two widely separated points and
used triangulation to calculate auroral span. Auroras usually start
around 105 km above the earth and stretch to altitudes over 485 km.
Another question researchers addressed was where auroras occur most
often. After compiling records of auroral activity from northern
expeditions and other accounts, Elias Loomis, a Yale professor,
developed a map of the arctic showing auroras frequency. It has
since been updated by more sophisticated means, such as satellites.
We know that people living on latitude 65 degrees N can expect to
average 243 nights of northern lights a year. Most Canadians live in
an area of 50 to 100 auroras per year But what is an aurora? What
causes the Northern Lights? Using a prism, Norwegian scientists
discovered auroral light was discontinuous; that is, it did not have
all the colours of the rainbow. The only colours produced in an
aurora are deep violet, green-yellow, and red. When atoms become
electrically charged, they emit energy that produces radio waves,
x-rays, and visible light waves. Air consists of nitrogen and oxygen
atoms. When nitrogen atoms become electrically charged, they emit
violet and red colour waves. Charged oxygen atoms produce green
yellow light. Scientists studying the sun discovered that sun spots
produce solar flares, which shoot streams of highly charged
electrons into space. As charged particles reach earth, they are
drawn into the planet's magnetic field, which is heavily
concentrated in northern latitudes. (That's why we have a 'magnetic
north" and "true north" compass readying.) The
collision of forces causes a geomagnetic storm, which we witness as
an aurora. The principle that lights up our sky is the same that
commonly lights neon signs. Electricity charges a gas, which emits
energy as coloured light. We also make an "aurora" when we
turn on a colour television. The only difference is that a real
aurora is more interesting to watch. It's important for Canadians to
continue studying the aurora. Auroral activity can interfere with
the radio and satellite operations that form vital communications
links in northern communities. And, because auroras consist of an
electric current of about one million amps, in intense northern
geomagnetic storms, an aurora can induce electric current along
lengthy conductors such as oil pipelines, power tines, and telephone
cables. The result: transformer malfunction and power
outages. Despite some of the technical headaches auroras can
cause, most of us see them as one of nature's wonders. And some
popular myths persist. For example, some people believe you can
control the behaviour of an aurora by whistling. The better the
whistle, the more the aurora will change and even dance to you.
Others believe you can control the aurora by spitting at it, but I
don't recommend telling this one to a group of small boys. There's
still disagreement about whether the aurora makes a noise. While
some researchers claim no evidence that the lights produce a sound,
there are those who believe they can hear the lights crackling.
While science and philosophers argue over this point and others, I
am happy to believe that the aurora is friends from days gone by
calling me out to enjoy the northern lights and, maybe, a lively
game of walrus skull football. Earl Bateman
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