We went to an air show last weekend and I'm hoping to pull together some pictures to share Saturday. In the meantime, I thought I'd share a tale about flying. "Why the Bat Flies by Night" was retold by Elphinstone Dayrell in Folk Stories from Southern Nigeria, 1910. I found it at worldoftales.com.
A bush rat called Oyot was a great friend of Emiong, the bat; they always fed together, but the bat was jealous of the bush rat. When the bat cooked the food it was always very good, and the bush rat said, "How is it that when you make the soup it is so tasty?"
The bat replied, "I always boil myself in the water, and my flesh is so sweet, that the soup is good."
He then told the bush rat that he would show him how it was done; so he got a pot of warm water, which he told the bush rat was boiling water, and jumped...
Tulip time has passed here in Ohio, but it is still spring, I can tell by the cool dreary, rainy weather outside today. I though I'd share this short tale from England. It's a bit bittersweet.
Once upon a time there was an old woman who lived by herself in a little house. She grew a bed of beautiful multi-colored tulips in her garden, which she would cut and bring into the house, to cheer herself up.
One night she was woken up by the sounds of sweet singing and of babies laughing. She looked out of the window and the sounds seemed to be coming from the tulip bed, but she couldn't see anything. The next morning she walked among her flowers, but there were no signs of anyone having been there the night before.
On the following night she was woken up again by sweet singing and the sound of babies laughing. She rose and stole softly through her garden. The...
Today's tale is very similar to one I shared a couple of weeks ago, The Rabbit Herd, but it has May in the name, which is how I found it. "The Three May Peaches" was collected by Paul Delarue in The Borzoi Book of French Folk-Tales, 1956.
A king of Ardenne had a beautiful daughter who was sick. A doctor declared that the three finest May peaches would save her, but then she would have to marry within a week or fall sick again. Many men came with peaches, but none saved the princess. A woman had three sons, and the oldest set out with the finest peaches from their orchard. He met an old woman who asked what he had; he claimed rabbit dung, she said that so it was, and when he got the castle, that was what he carried. When will fairy tale characters learn to be nice to old women? His next brother set out next, told the...
David, Amber and I were on our way to a baseball game Tuesday and just chatting. We were talking about the moon landing and Amber mentioned that the Japanese see a rabbit on the moon too. Amber and I had talked about the Mexican tale when I talked about it. She always has to hear about the interesting stories and books I read, but I listen to hers too so it's fair.
I found a Japanese folk tale that talks about how the rabbit ended up on the moon.
One day, Fox, Monkey, and Rabbit met an old beggar who asked them for food. Monkey climbed a tree and brought him some fruit. Fox went to a stream, caught a fish, and brought it back to him. But Rabbit had nothing to offer him but some grass, and he knew people don't eat grass. So he asked the beggar to build a fire. After the beggar started the fire, Rabbit jumped into it and...
Okay, today's tale does not star a rabbit, but there is a herd of them that figure prominently and the story made me laugh. Variations of The Rabbit Herd are found throughout Europe and the Americas, although I have never heard it. This version is retold by D. L. Ashliman on his site, Folklore and Mythology.
Once upon a time there was a king who had a daughter that would not laugh. His jugglers, clowns, and jesters performed for her, but she could not, or would not, even break a smile. Finally the king proclaimed that whatever man -- rich or poor, young or old, strong or frail -- could break his daughter's spell should take her as his wife, and receive half the kingdom as well. Men and boys came from every direction to try their luck but no one was successful.
Finally, the news reached a remote corner of the kingdom where a poor peasant lived with his three sons....
Plateau pikas are underground-dwelling relatives of the rabbit that live at high altitudes in Tibet.Today's Rabbit Story comes from Tibet. It's actually a rather gruesome little tale with several deaths. The story was retold by A. L. Shelton in Tibetan Folk Tales, 1925, but I found it at SacredTexts.com.
Once there were two neighbor families, one an old mother bear and her son and the other of an old mother rabbit and her son. On day, the children stayed at home while the two mothers went out to dig roots. The rabbit's claws were sharp and quick and she got the most, which made the old bear mad so she killed the rabbit and took the dead body and roots home. The little rabbit waited and waited and could not understand why his mother didn't come home. Finally he sneaked over to the bears' house to see what he could discover. He peeped in and saw that the old bear was...