The Tail Of The Dog

A Mayan Tale

A Retelling by Jeff Sapp

    In the beginning of the world, only the dog could speak.  He went everywhere and found great joy in spreading rumors.

    “Now don’t tell anyone but di you know that Monkey has fleas?” he gossiped.  “I saw Dove sit in someone else’s nest!  Can you imagine someone making themselves so at home without your permission?  Have you noticed that Skunk uses her smell a little too freely?  Or that Alligator just lies around in the mud in the heat of the day doing nothing?  Can you imagine?  In the mud?  I heard Mosquito buzz to Frog that she heard from Fish that Serpent was jealous of Spider because she had eight legs and he didn’t have any.  Poor thing!  You know, the other day I saw Eagle and let me tell you she was not quite so lovely as a child, that’s for sure.”

    Dog thought he was just wonderful because he was the only animal who could speak.  “Did you know that dog is God spelled backward?  Isn’t that marvelous that the great one loves my name so much?  I just think it’s marvelous, don’t you?”

    When the great God realized that the talkative dog could not possibly hold its tongue, the Creator decided to do something.  “Let this talker’s marvelous tongue be taken from his mouth and put behind him and let what is now behind him be attached to his head.”

    So it is now that when the dog wants to speak and gossip that no expression appears on its face but there it is behind him, the waging tail that came from his mouth.

    And so it is that the dog remains with us to this day, he who once talked too much, now moving only his tail when he wants to tell us something.