Latest / Sandman Stories Presents / EP 340: Laos- Right and Might; Why the Lip of the Elephant Droops; How a Dead Tiger Killed the Princess; The Monkeys and the Crabs (Fleeson)

Transcript

EP 340: Laos- Right and Might; Why the Lip of the Elephant Droops; How a Dead Tiger Killed the Princess; The Monkeys and the Crabs (Fleeson) · Sandman Stories Presents

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  Welcome back, listeners to Sandman Stories Presents, a folk
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  tale podcast where I read you to sleep or until the next story.
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  I'm your host, Austin, and if you would like more stories that
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  are too spicy for the main feed, go on over to Patreon.
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  And you can pay nothing a month. I'm fine with that.
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  And you can get all the stories that are way too spicy for the
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  main feed. And I'd like to thank Farrah and
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  Mike Jones for signing up. I'm going to pretend that it is
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  the hip hop legend Mike Jones listening to these stories.
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  And today we are back in the book of Lao folklore written
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  down by Kathleen Fleeson. Today we are covering the Jungle
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  Tales. There's a lot more story to
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  these tales than the previous ones.
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  OK, let's begin. Right and might.
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  While a deer was eating wild fruit, he heard an owl call
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  hawk, hawk and a cricket cry. What?
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  And frightened, he fled. In his flight he ran through the
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  trees, into the mountains and into the streams.
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  In one of the streams, deer stepped upon a small fish and
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  crushed it almost to death. Then the fish complained to the
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  court, and the deer, owl, cricket and fish had a lawsuit.
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  In the trial came out this evidence.
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  As the deer fled, he ran into some dry grass and the seed fell
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  into the eye of the wild chicken, and the pain of the
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  seed in the eye of the chicken caused it to fly up against a
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  nest of red ants. Alarmed, the red ants flew out
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  to do battle and in their haste bit a Mongoose.
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  The Mongoose ran into a vine of wild fruit and shook several
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  pieces of it onto the heads of the hermit, who sat there under
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  the tree thinking, Oh, why did you, O fruit, fall on my head,
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  Cried the hermit. The fruit answered, We did not
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  wish to fall. A Mongoose ran against our vine
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  and threw us down. And the hermit asked, O
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  Mongoose, why did you throw the fruit?
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  The Mongoose answered, I did not wish to throw down the fruit,
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  but the red ants bit me and I ran against the vine.
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  The hermit asked, Oh ants, why did you bite the Mongoose?
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  The red ants replied, The hen flew against our nest and
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  anchored us. The hermit asked, Oh hen, why
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  did you fly against the red ants nest?
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  And the hen replied, The seed fell into my eyes and it hurt
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  me. And the hermit asked, Oh seed,
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  why did you fall into the hen's eyes?
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  And the seed replied, The deer shook me down.
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  The hermit said unto the deer, Oh dear, why did you shake the
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  seed? The deer answered, I did not
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  wish to do it, but the owl called, frightened me, and I
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  ran. O owl asked the hermit, why did
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  you frighten the deer? The owl replied, I called, but
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  as I am accustomed to call, the cricket too called.
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  Having heard the evidence, the judge said the cricket must
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  replace the crushed parts of the fish and make it well as he.
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  The cricket had called and frightened the deer.
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  The end. OK and story #2 Why the lip of
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  the elephant droops? In the days when the earth was
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  young, there lived a poor man and his wife, who had twelve
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  daughters, whom they no longer loved and no longer desired.
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  Day after day the father and mother planned to be free of
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  them. One day the father made a
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  basket. In the bottom of it he placed
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  ashes, but on the top of it he spread rice.
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  Taking this basket with him, he called his daughters to go to
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  the jungle to hunt for game. When the heat of the day came,
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  they all sat down to eat, and after they had eaten, the father
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  gave each daughter a bamboo joint and asked her to get water
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  for him. The joints were made so that
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  they would not hold water, and while the maidens endeavoured to
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  make them so that they would, the father returned home.
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  In vain the maidens tried to make joints and hold the water,
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  and after a while they sought their father.
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  But lo, the father was gone and only the basket remained.
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  Examining the basket, they found rice on top, but on the inside
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  it was filled with ashes, so that they knew their parents
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  sought to be free of them by leaving them in the trackless
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  jungle. Unable to find their way out
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  there they slept peacefully, for the wild beasts did not bother
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  those who fearlessly stay with them.
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  As the eye of day opened in the east, the forlorn maidens beheld
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  as they awakened a beautiful woman standing near, and they
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  sought her help. Come with me and be companions
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  to my little daughter. Often I am away from home and
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  she is lonely. Come home with me, play with my
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  daughter and exchange. I will give you a home, said the
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  beautiful woman. Gladly the maidens consented and
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  went with the woman to her home far in the jungle.
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  All places save one small garden, they were free to enter,
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  and upon a day the fair woman said, I will go into the jungle,
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  and I will not return until the eye of day is closed.
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  Do not play in the small garden. Scarcely had she gone before she
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  returned, but the maidens had not looked in the garden again.
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  After a day the fair woman said, I go to the jungle, but for a
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  short time do not go play in the small garden.
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  Thinking this time she would be gone all day the maidens crept
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  into the small garden, and lo, it was strewn with human bones.
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  Then they knew the fair woman was a cannibal.
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  Full of fear they fled, and as they fled they met a cow.
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  Protect us, they cried. The cow opened its mouth and the
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  maidens jumped in. And so they journeyed from the
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  cannibal's home. As the cow returned, met the
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  fair woman seeking the maidens. Have you seen 12 maidens pass
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  this way, She asked. No, answered the cow, if you do
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  not speak the truth, I will kill you and eat you, she cried.
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  I saw them as they made haste in that way, replied the cow.
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  The cannibal woman ran that way. After the cow left them, the
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  maidens hastened on, and as they hastened on they met an
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  elephant, and they begged it to save them from the cannibal.
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  The elephant opened its mouth, and the maidens jumped in, but
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  so slowly did 1 jump in that the edge of her garment hung out of
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  the mouth. As they journeyed, the cannibal
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  overtook them. Did you see 12 maidens hastening
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  towards the city as the cannibal?
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  No, said the elephant. From this time forth, forever
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  the lip of your mouth shall hang down like a garment, cursed the
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  cannibal. For she had seen the edge of the
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  maiden's garment hanging out of the elephant's mouth and knew it
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  was protecting the 12 maidens. And to this day, the lip of the
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  elephant hangs down like a garment.
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  The end. OK, And the next story, how a
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  dead tiger killed the Princess. There once was a king who had a
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  daughter at whose birth a wise man foretold that she would be
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  killed by a tiger when she was a grown maiden.
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  In order that no animal might approach her, the king built her
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  a house set upon a huge pillar, and there she and her attendants
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  dwelt. And it fell upon a day when the
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  daughter was well grown, that one of the hunters, whose labor
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  it was to kill the tigers of the country, brought a dead 1 to the
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  palace of the king. The Princess, seeing her dead
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  enemy, came down from her tower and plucked A whisker from the
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  tiger. And as she blew her breath on
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  it, she cried. I do not fear thee, O my enemy,
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  for thou art dead. But the poison which is in the
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  whiskers of a tiger entered into the blood of the Princess, and
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  she died. Then the king made a
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  proclamation and sent messengers throughout his realm, commanding
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  that all when a tiger is killed, all his whiskers were to be
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  immediately pulled out and burned, that a tiger may not be
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  able to slay when it is dead. And until this day the people
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  obey the command of the king. The end.
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  OK, and the next story. The monkeys and the crabs.
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  All the monkeys which live in the forest near the great sea in
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  the South watch the tide running out, hoping to catch the sea
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  crabs which are left in the soft earth.
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  If they can find a crab above ground, they immediately catch
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  it and eat it. Sometimes crabs bury themselves
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  in the mud, and the monkeys, seeing the tunnels they have
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  made, reach down into them with their long tails and torment the
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  crabs until they, in anger seizing the tormenting tail, are
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  drawn out and devoured by the cunning foes.
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  But sometimes, alas, the crab fails to come out.
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  No matter with what strength the monkey pulls and tugs, the crabs
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  do not appear, and the poor monkey is held fast while the
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  tide comes in and drowns it. When the tide goes out again,
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  leaving the luckless monkey on the beach, the crabs come out of
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  their strongholds and feast on the dead enemy.
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  The End. I like the chain story in the
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  first one, it reminds me of the story of why mosquitoes buzz in
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  people's ears, and the second one was nice because it shows
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  why the elephant's lip droops. And the third one surprised me a
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  little. I had never heard of a tiger
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  whisker in poison and the final story was a bit rough, but I
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  understand why crabs and monkeys don't get along.
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  And the podcast shout out is to Tales from the Enchanted Forest.
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  Fox and Sparrow, not their real names cover folklore just like I
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  do, but with two hosts and more discussions.
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  Go check them out for some amazing tales.
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  And the listener shout out is to Hageza, Somaliland.
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  The capital of this partially recognized state was built on a
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  watering hole halfway between the coast and the interior
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  regions. And if I get a chance to visit
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  such an awesome city, I would love to go see the Solano
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  National Library. And so I say to my listener and
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  higher guests, Mahad Sanid, Iyo Habin Wenagsan, thank you and
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  good night.