That night, they shared the berries and come morning, her mate went back out to hunt and she went back out to gather. In the woods, she came upon the deer again, who this time sniffed at some red berries and then walked away from them. The woman who had harvested behind the deer yesterday, ate a few more berries and then plucked what remained to take back to her mate.
Before she got there, she found herself feeling ill and abandoned all of the berries before making it back to wait for her mate to return. “If you go into the woods, don’t eat the red berries,” she told her mate that night, “Or they will make you sick.”
Her mate nodded, remembering the red berries they’d eaten the night before, and the next day he set out to hunt in the woods. Hungry, he came across some red berries and said to himself, “I ate the red berries before and they didn’t make me sick, so I can eat these red berries too.” He plucked as many berries as he could eat, got sick and died.
The woman then found a new mate who heeded her advice not to eat the red berries if he goes into the woods. Together, they had children who learned not to eat the red berries when they went into the woods.
In time, their children’s children’s children learned which red berries were good to eat, and which weren’t, and then they also learned exactly what was in some red berries that made them good, and what was in some red berries that made them bad. Still, they told their children, ‘If you go into the woods, don’t eat the red berries.’
Moral of the Story: Even if you grew up eating raspberries, strawberries and cranberries, if you find yourself out in the woods armed with nothing but a cell phone with no reception, don’t eat the red berries.