"We are not strong enough to fight these humans," he said. "We must give my new daughter back to her people."

So they brought the young woman to the trench. Her father and mother saw her and they pulled her out. She was covered with mud and smelled like a frog. One frog leaped out of the water after her. It was the frog who had been her husband. But the people carefully picked him up and dropped him back into the lake.

They took the young woman home. For a long time she could only speak as a frog does, "Huh, Huh, Huh!" Finally she learned to speak like a human again.

"The frogs know our language." she told the people. "We must not talk badly about them."

From that day on, her people showed great respect to the frogs. They learned the songs that the woman brought from the Frog People and they used the frog as an emblem. They had learned a great lesson. They never forgot what happened to that young woman who was too proud. To this day, some people in that village still say when they hear the frogs singing in the lake, the frogs are telling their children this story, too.

This excerpt was taken from Native American Animal Stories by, Joseph Bruchac, with the permission from the publisher, Fulcrum Publishing.