Join us at the campfire for tales from around the world, told by storytellers of all backgrounds and creeds. From the heros and heroines of old, let us relearn and rediscover the wisdom of our ancestors. Shhh..the story begins..

Can Nu was the beautiful and faithful daughter of a mortal man. One day, Can Nu's father left home and traveled far away. For an entire year, his daughter pined for him while she took care of the household chores. Then, one day as she was grooming the family horse, she murmured that she would willingly marry anyone who could find her beloved father and bring him home. In that instant, the horse bolted, and Can Nu could do nothing but watch in despair as it galloped away.

Within a week, the resourceful stallion had tracked down the young woman's father. The man was living very comfortably in a distant area without a single thought for the needs of his daughter. The horse approached him and, by stamping its hooves and waving its head, indicated that it wanted to return home at once. The father, wondering if his daughter were in trouble, leapt upon the stallion's back.

Can Nu danced with delight when she saw her father coming. They embraced tenderly, and she told him how much she had missed his company and how the horse, perhaps sensing this, had left one day to bring him home. From then on, the father lavished loving care upon the horse, providing regular grooming and extra hay. But the creature was distressed whenever it saw Can Nu, pawing violently at the ground and neighing as though it were in terrible pain.

After some time, the father asked his daughter if she could explain the stallion's behavior, and she recounted to him the promise that she had made...to marry anyone who brought her father home to her. The father ordered that the affair be kept a secret, and then he shot the horse with an arrow.

Now he thought all his troubles would be over. He skinned the unfortunate beast and laid its hide out to dry. Shortly afterward, the father was obliged to once again leave his home and daughter. The day after his departure, Can Nu was talking to a friend in the yard. Cruelly, she kicked the animal skin and laughed at its misfortune. But, as she turned away still chuckling, the hide rose up like a ghost, wrapped itself around Can Nu, and whipped her off into the countryside.

Terrified, Can Nu's friend chased them, but she could do nothing. When the father returned and learned what had happened, he searched far and wide for many days. Eventually, he found Can Nu, stilled enveloped within the skin, hanging from an unfamiliar tree. The father cried out in sorrow. Can Nu was no longer his fair daughter...she had been changed into a worm. As she wriggled, she moved her head like a horse and a fine thread spewed from her mouth.

Can Nu's friend named the tree "mulberry," which meant "mourning" in her native tongue. Soon, people began to experiment with the delicate thread and found it could be used to make exquisite cloth. They took cuttings from the tree and planted them and, in time, learned how to breed silkworms for the thread.

For hundreds of years, the methods of sericulture...the breeding of worms and production of silk...was kept completely concealed. Then, in the mid-sixth century A.D., two Persian monks smuggled a few silkworms and some mulberry seeds hidden in Bamboo canes to Byzantium. Thus, the entire world learned the secret of the manufacture of the fine, soft cloth...and the story of Lady Silkworm.