Essay: Week 13

This week I once again chose to do the untextbook reading, however, unlike last week I didn't enjoy this set of readings as much. They were very disconnected and unrelated to one another which made them a bit of a struggle to get through. However, each of the stories focused on an internal theme or message that usually came out by the end of the short tale. I read through all of the stories and then picked a few of them to write key points about for my reading diary. Since there were over 20 stories I didn't feel that it was necessary to summarize all of them. Basically the stories were very short fables that each told of a relationship and the actions between characters. Had I known that all of the stories were going to be very close to one another I probably would have chose a different reading, this one dragged on as I got about half way through. Although I didn't enjoy this set of readings as much as the first ones, I do still love this unit and the freedom that it provides us. It is great to get a new set of characters each week and have various new story lines and plots to follow. The untextbook version is definitely the way that I will continue to read because it keeps me on my toes, never growing stagnate.

My favorite story of this set was the crow and the egret. Basically a crow switches its babies with and egret's and tries to play it off like nothing happened. The crow does this because she is jealous of the white and beautiful babies that the egret has while her's are black and unattractive. The egret and crow ask a man to decide which babies belong to which mother and his greed drives him to agree with the crow. The egret is distraught over this and discusses her problem with the jackal who oversees everything. The man overhears their conversation and realizes that he has done wrong in taking the side of the crow and realizes he must right his wrong. He goes back and gets the babies switched back to their rightful mothers so he doesn't have to deal with the jackal. This tale discusses the greed that people have for one another and what it can cause people to do.

Santal Folklore

Crow and an Egret

Prashant

Reading Diary B: Week 13

The Jackal Punished-

• A jackal and hen were friends and decided to have a feast, both making beer for the occasion
• They first drank the jackal's beer, the hen couldn't stand the smell so the jackal drank it all
• Then the drank the hens and she became very drunk 
• The jackal thought the hen must be good to eat since she made such good beer
• The jackal eats the hen and plans to eat her chickens tomorrow 
• The chickens try to devise a plan to not be eaten
• They use an egg in the fire to distract the jackal
• Hit him over the head and use axes to chop him into pieces and avenge their mother's death

The Jackal Punished

The Elephant and the Ants-

• Two ants are talking to an elephant who believes he is much superior to such little creatures
• The ants challenge the elephant to race
• The elephant ran as hard as he could but each time he looked down the two ants were right next to him
• He does this over and over and always the two are right there
• He drops dead from exhaustion
• The two original ants didn't run at all
• There are so many ants on earth that every time the elephant looked down he happened to see two ants thinking that they were the first two ants
• Lesson: do not despise the poor man because he may one day be able to put us to shame

The Elephant and the Ants

The Jackal and the Hare-

• A jackal and hare were friends and wanted to make a meal of rice and milk one day
• They went to the road to market and the hare distracted the men while the jackal took all that they needed from the men's cart'
• The jackal asks a women for a light for their fire and offers to crush her meal while she gets it
• While she is gone the jackal spoils all of her meal
• The jackal and hare bathe, the jackal returning first and eating his fill of the meal and spoiling the rest
• The hare yells at the jackal and throws the pot at him causing him to run off
• The jackal makes a drum and plays it everyday
• One day the hare decides to ask the jackal to play the drum
• He plays it so hard that he breaks it then runs away

The Jackal and the Hare

The Brave Jackal-

• He-goat is scared of being killed so he hides in a leopard's cave
• The leopard asks for a jackal's help 
• The two tie their tails together and go back into the cave
• The he-goat talks to them and scares the two away
• As the attempt to run out their tails come apart and the leopard pulls off the hair of the jackals tail

The Brave Jackal

The Crow and the Egret-

• A crow and an egret made their nests in the same tree
• The crow thought the young egrets were much prettier than her own young and one day switched them
• When the egret returned she obviously noticed the switch and began to fight with the crow
• They asked a money-lender who lived below them to handle their problem
• The egret promised to give him a fish and the crow promised a gold necklace which she took from the Raja
• He decided that the birds should stay in they nests they are currently in
• As a jackal came by the egret told him what had happened
• The jackal promises to come back tomorrow and handle the issue
• The money-lender overheard the conversation and was shamed for his decision
• He righted his wrongs before the jackal had to return tomorrow 

The Crow and the Egret

Santal Folklore: All Stories

Reading Diary A: Week 13

Lehda and the Leopard-

• Lehda is a lame village boy who the other boys pick on
• Leopard and a lizard are playing hide and seek one day
• The leopard sits on the lizard accidentally because he cannot find where he is hiding
• The lizard bites the leopard on the butt and won't let go
• The leopard gets Lehda to help remove the lizard and promises not to eat him
• The leopard told Lehda that if he told anyone about what happened he would eat him
• That night his sister coaxed the story out of him and the leopard heard him tell her, he carried off Lehda in his bed
• Lehda wakes up in the jungle and jumps into a tree to escape, the leopard gets him down by promising not to eat him (lie)
• Lehda agrees to being eaten but request one last chew of tobacco first, as he digs in his bag he convinces the leopard that he has the lizard from yesterday and is going to let him loose
• The leopard runs away
• Lehda befriends the buffalos and becomes their servant
• Lehda sends hairs down the river and a princess requests that her father find this man and until he did she would not eat
• After men had failed a crow ends up being able to lure Lehda to the city 
• He marries the princess and returns to care for the buffalo creating a great palace in the jungle 

Lehda and the Leopard

The Tiger's Bride-

• A woman is cutting grass, cuts too much and can't carry the load. 
• She asks for help and when no one responds promises her daughter's hand to whoever helps
• A tiger comes to help as long as he actually gets her daughter
• 3 days later the two are married and head to the tiger's home
• The tiger tells he to cook a feast for him and his friends, she acts like she is cooking buts sneaks back to her mothers house and climbs a large tree
• The tiger and his friends grow impatient and they realize she isn't there
• The friends attack the tiger until he runs away and is never seen again

The Tiger's Bride

The Killing of the Tiger-

• At one time all animals and men could communicate, during that time there was a man-eating tiger
• The tiger fed upon men crossing a bridge into the city
• Finally everyone got together requesting that the Raja gather his soldiers to kill the tiger
• He promises half his kingdom to whoever can kill the beast
• A shikari (hunter) offers to go and kill the tiger, the Raja assumes he will be killed and promises him the offer
• The shikari hides in a tree by the bridge for the night seeing the tiger the next morning
• The two begin to talk and the tiger wonders why the man has been looking for him
• The shikari tells the tiger that he has captured 3 of the tigers kind and will show him when he comes down
• He fools the tiger by showing him pictures through a looking glass making it look like he has them captured within
• He told the tiger that if he stopped killing the people on the bridge he would let him go and not trap him within
• The shikari also requested a claw from each foot, the tip of the tiger's ears and tounge
• The tiger agreed
• The shikari presented all of this to the Raja and he got his promised reward
• The tip of the tigers tounge got infected and he died

The Killing of the Tiger

The Tiger Cub and the Calf-

• A tiger and cow are friends and agree to marry their children
• The tiger has a she-cub and the cow a bull-calf
• The tiger and cow would eat together, drink from a river and then head back to their young
• The tiger always drank upstream from the cow except for one day
• That day she tasted the cows froth and liked it, assuming that her flesh must also taste good, deciding she would eat the cow one day
• The cow told her son what the tiger had in store and left a bowl of milk telling the cow that when it turned red she would have been killed by the tiger
• The mother tiger returned to feed her cub and was covered in blood
• The cub told her to wash herself before she would suckle and while the mother went away the cub and bull ran away together

The Tiger Cub and the Calf

Santal Folklore: All Stories