From 1779 to 1781 and then again in 1801-2, 1816, 1839-40, and 1861-2 the disease smallpox hurt the Kiowa people (Kiowa Oral Tradition, 50.) During each of these epidemic, mortality rates were commonly around 50-90%, however according to an oral tradition, it could have been much worse. A trickster named Saynday was able to convince the devilish smallpox character to go to the Pawnee first, saving lives and making him a hero. This is not always the case, in some occasions Saynday makes things worst by accident. Despite this he is still an essential part of many Kiowa oral tradition. He is a vital recurring character in Kiowa legends. Although he does have small variations like his name, Séndé or Saynday is usually described to have a set appearance…show more content… A very common beginning of a story includes him just wandering around. Of course he then ends up stumbling upon something.
Since Saynday put many rules into motion, he decided to do so with the telling of his own stories. Many of his tales have certain times of day and year for them to be told. If these rules are not met, Saynday himself is said to come to the storyteller and cut off their nose while they sleep. Storytellers are never actually taught when this is because they don’t have any formal training. They pick up the stories and the time to tell them by listening and paying attention to a storyteller. These stories or oral traditions were told to help explain why the world the way it…show more content… The story starts off with “Saynday was coming along, and as he came he saw that all his world had change.” There are a few notable things in this sentence alone. First, this gets the story started in a true Saynday way with him wandering around. This is such a big theme in his stories that it is the standard and the required way to open his story. It is the Kiowa equivalent to the opening “once upon a time.” Next thing to note is that he just happened to stumble upon this new problem with a simple observation of change. The last notable thing is that the world is described as his. This tiny part of the sentences does a great job driving home that Saynday is in many way the creator of the world to the