"Once upon a time, a father had three sons. Two brothers were smart, the third was stupid," he says. The boys' father tasked them with finding a scarf; whoever brought back the most beautiful one would receive their father's inheritance. The three siblings left to retrieve the scarves and arrived at a crossroad in the forest, where a sign read: "Go left, you will find the fortune. Go right, your horse will be eaten by a wolf."
The two smart brothers went left, says Vidugiris. The third and youngest brother took a right, lost his horse to the wolf, and found himself at an old witch's house. If he worked there for one year straight, the witch promised he'd receive the prized scarf.
"All the brothers came back, but the youngest brought the most beautiful scarf," Vidugiris says, noting he uses this story to prompt fireside introspection and conversation among young Whatansu participants.
A Rider on the Mountain: Baqueano Zamora | Chile
The soaring granite spires of Patagonia's Torres del Paine National Park allure intrepid outdoor travelers. The peaks, known as Los Cuernos, also set the scene for one of the region's most iconic campfire legends. A variation in rock color on Los Cuernos' eastern side creates the shape of a gaucho, or horseback rider, according to Claudio Silva, a longtime guide for , a sustainable geodesic dome hotel in Torres del Paine. To locals, this silhouette represents a regional icon.
"For many, the horseback rider on Los Cuernos has a name: , the most legendary gaucho in the history of Patagonia," says Silva, who first heard the tale while sipping mate, a traditional South American drink, with gauchos in Torres del Paine.
Zamora was a Patagonian trailblazer in the 1800s. He wandered through the untamed southern Chilean wilderness for months, seeking cows, hunting guanaco (a relative of the llama), and corralling wild horses. He was considered a baqueano, an honorable title given to those who'd developed a rare fluency amid local terrain through hard-earned experience. Explorers like Tomás Rogers and Agustín del Castillo turned to the wise Zamora for his Patagonian savvy. Del Castillo him as "the best baqueano that has ever existed" and noted that "his arm alone has captured hundreds of wild cows and mares."
Zamora continued wandering and corralling throughout his life, but his final years weren't kind to him. He nearly went blind after a mare kicked him in the left eye. He also cut off his own hand with a machete after it became infected, following a lassoing accident. Zamora ultimately passed away in November 1892, but his "spirit still guides local gauchos through Patagonia's vastness," says Silva, who shares Zamora's story and the silhouette of Los Cuernos with travelers.
The Girl and the Ghoul | Egypt
Egyptian documentary filmmaker and photographer , cofounder of , heard her favorite traditional story at one of the country's most spiritual places: Mount Sinai. She was deep in the desert filming an upcoming documentary about Egypt's Bedouin tribes, and her Bedouin guide, Mohammed Abou Salama from the Jabaleya tribe, shared this cultural tale by firelight, just 330 feet from Sinai's summit.
"Years ago, there was a beautiful Bedouin nomadic girl who lived with her tribe," Mansour says, recounting her guide's story. A ghoul impersonating a human fell in love with the girl. "He followed her everywhere, then the girl noticed he was a ghoul and not a human."
The girl's aunt, highly influential in their tribe, convinced the group leaders to move to keep her niece safe. "In the middle of the night, the girl and her aunt left with the first group of Bedouins." The next morning, the Bedouins in the second group realized the ghoul had followed the girl; he was hiding in a wood pile. The girl tried to run from him and even threw her belongings at him in defense.
