A weaver preparing the warp in a village near Kanchipuram, India.
A weaver preparing the warp in a village near Kanchipuram, India.

 

I know I’m posting a day late, but I just got busy yesterday.

Today’s story is one Amber actually told me the other day when she came home from school. She read it in her World Lit class. She and I talk about what we’re reading fairly often. The story is “Slow, the Weaver.” It’s from India, a part of the The Panchatantra.  The Panchatantra is a collection of fables and  stories from ancient India – five books in one. Some parts are in prose, others in verse. Animals act and talk in some of them, and suggest Indian living, tricks of survival, cunning and idiocy and adaptations.  You can read “Slow, the Weaver” at The Gold Scales, but I’m going to try to retell it like she told me.

Slow is the weaver’s name. One day he goes out to cut a tree down, but the fairy tells him not to. Instead, she’ll grant him a wish. Uh, oh, I think. That’s never a good thing. Anyway, the weaver agrees but says he need to go ask his wife what to wish for. He heads into town and meets the barber first. The weaver tells his story and the barber says he should wish for a kingdom; the weaver could be the king and he, the barber, could be the prime minister and it’d be great. The weaver says maybe, but he has to go ask his wife. The barber tells him his wife’s stupid and not to ask her, but the weaver heads on anyway.

The weaver’s wife tells him that he could produce twice as much cloth in a day if he had two more arms and another head. So, he, of course, goes back to the fairy and asks for two more arms and another head. She grants his wish. He heads back into town, very proud of himself.

And the villagers see him, think he’s a monster, and kill him.

I knew it wasn’t going to end well, but even I didn’t see that coming.

Thursday’s Tales is a weekly event here at Carol’s Notebook. Fairy tales, folktales, tall tales, even re-tellings, I love them all.

If you get a chance, visit Melissa over at Mommy Wants to Read. She’s highlighting a “fixed” version of The Princess and the Pea. And feel free to join in.

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