The Wondering Child

Summary

The story is told by followers of the Barki faith to keep young children from misbehaving. Each line is sung in an uneasy manner with abrupt harmony and melodic changes. Traditionally, it is sung by an elderly man in the community as a ghost story around a fire after a group of young children have been speaking full sentences for a year. It tries to scare children into listening to their mother when she scolds them for doing wrong because the instructions she gives are important to keep safe from the gods disciplining them.

The simplest version

Clean your room, says the lovely mother

The child refused and instead went to the oven to try and grab some pie

Stop said the sweet mother, your hand will be burned

The child sat looking angrily at the beautiful mother

The lovely mother walked away and the child went to grab pie.

There was a large crash as the child ate the pie off the floor

What did you do, said the humble mother

It wasn’t me spoke the child

The kind mother walked in and put the child on a chair

She spoke softly, now look at you, I told you not to eat.

Sit here, do not move until I call you for dinner do not speak to anyone

The child sat and pouted

A man walked by and told the child his mother was going to get a stick

The child stood out of the seat and ran away

The child went to his room and wallowed in his toys like a pig

Clear your room echoed the mother's voice

No the child remembered yelling

The child turned to grab a wooden cat but it was gone

The child looked up and saw Fasa, god of stealth, standing in a field

Fasa held up the wooden cat slowly bending trying to snap it

The words of the mother echoed again, If it is not put away, then Fasa can see it

The child ran after Fasa into the woods

Soon the child was alone in the dark forest, lost and cold

The child looked up and saw a shadow in the distance

Mother said the child

I am your mother now said the shadow

The child walked closer

When the child saw the face of the shadow it was Nekros god of the slavery

The child tried to run but the child's belly was sore from too much pie

Nekros then took the child

For the rest of his days the child ate nothing but green leaves and uncooked roots

She cut the hair of the child bold each day

She burned all the child's toys

The child could no longer sing or play in the meadow

All along the sweet mother searched the forest saying

My child my child, come home to me

Variations & Mutation

From time to time the story is changed adding lines about what the children listening to the story did. The mother would tell the singer before hand what their child did and the singer would try to improvise parts of the song to include what the children did wrong and how the gods would punish the children.