Learning from Licorice Fern as told by Roger Fernandes (Lower Elwha Klallam)

A long time ago, ʔal tudiʔ tuhakʷ, the People had very small voices. They could barely hear each other when they talked. When the People spoke to each other, they couldn’t hear one another. Their voices were so quiet and so small they couldn’t always understand one another.

One day, a woman in the village was walking through the woods. As she was walking, she heard a voice that said “Come here” and the woman asked, “Who is that?”

“Over here” the voice said. The woman went towards the voice and there before her was licorice fern.

The licorice fern said “Chop up my roots and taste them.” So the woman did as the licorice fern said, she chopped up licorice fern’s roots and tasted them and (in a big voice) she said “Oh, that tastes really good!”

The woman now had a big voice. She returned back to the village and (in a big voice) said, “Hello!” Everyone in the village was amazed and they asked how did you get this big voice. The woman told the People about the licorice fern and instructed that everyone go to the forest. So the People all went to the forest, they gathered the licorice fern, they chopped up the roots, and they tasted them. And that is how the People got big voices. And that is all.