Little Burnt Face

Story

Little Burnt Face is treated badly by her sisters. The Great Chief, who is invisible, makes it known that he will marry the woman who can see him. They girls are asked whether they can see what his bowstring is made of and with what does he draw his sledge - and they all guess until it's the turn of Little Burnt Face. She alone can see that his bowstring is a rainbow and he pulls his sledge with the stars of the Milky Way.

Why we chose it

A Cinderella type story. Cinderella stories are found all over the world and this is a great example of the story of a younger sister rewarded for her good heart.

Where it came from

The story was originally told by the Mi’kmaq people, the earliest inhabitants of land that now covers parts of the modern Atlantic provinces of Canada and US states of Maine and Massachusetts. They had a strong oral storytelling tradition and many stories were passed down the generations

Where it went next

A version can be found in Ready to Tell Tales edited by David Holt and Bill Mooney.

Associated stories

The story is very similar to Charles Perrault’s Cinderella in that the mistreated but good hearted youngest sister is the one who wins the bridegroom. Cinderella stories can be found all over the world. Our 1001 collection also includes Aschenputtel, the Brothers Grimm version, Chinye from West Africa and the Kashmiri Cinderella from India.

In our programme

Little Burnt Face was one of our Stories from the Woodshed, chosen and told by Nell Phoenix.