The reading notes are taken from Laos Folk-Lore by Katherine Neville Fleeson.
The first
story that caught my attention was titled Why the Lip of the Elephant Droops.
Elephants are my favorite animal and I want to incorporate a story about them
sometime during the semester. The story starts out by telling of a family with
twelve daughters. The father and mother were poor and no longer wanted their
children, so the father devised a plan. One day the father filled up a basket
with rice but put ashes on the bottom. He asked them to come with him into the
jungle to hunt for game. They all went with him and after the day was at its
peak, they stopped to eat. After they had eaten, the father gave all of the
daughters a bamboo stick. The sticks were made so that they would not hold
water, and that was when the father would make his escape. After the daughters
struggled for some time trying to fill the sticks with water, they went back to
find their father. The only thing that remained was the basket. They discovered
the ashes under the rice and knew that they had been led into the jungle and abandoned.
The daughters slept in the jungle without fear and the wild animals left them
alone because of this. When the sun rose and they woke, a woman was standing
over them and the daughters asked for her help. The woman said they could
follow her to her home and keep her daughter company and she would give them a
home. The daughters happily agreed and went to the home, they were free to roam
with the exception of one garden. The woman warned them that they were not
allowed to go into the garden before she left each day. After the second day
the daughters checked the garden and saw it was full of human bones. Terrified,
they ran away from the house because they did not want to be eaten by the
woman. They came across a cow and begged for protection and the cow opened its
mouth. The cow took them away from the cannibal’s home and on his way back he
met the cannibal. She asked him about the daughter’s whereabouts and threatened
to eat him if he lied; and the cow gave her a vague answer. The daughters still
fleeing the woman came across an elephant and begged for protection. The
daughters jumped in the elephant’s mouth; but the last one had a piece of
garment hanging out of the elephant’s mouth. The cannibal woman came across the
elephant and asked about the daughter’s whereabouts. The elephant replied it
hadn't seen them, but the cannibal woman saw the garment hanging out of its
mouth. She knew it was protecting them and cursed the elephant to always hang
down like a garment.
(Caption: Elephant by Pixbay)
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