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Reading Notes: Folklore of Laos Part A

Folklore of Laos translated by Katherine Neville Fleeson (1899)

A Child of the Woods

  • Descriptions of riches
  • Descriptions of scary things - dark woods and man-eating beasts
  • First person
  • Vivid descriptions of activities!
  • Setting described in detail & very positively
  • "The hunters tell..." rather than "there is..." storyteller gives some context
  • Magic!!!! No plot, just letting us know about the mountain
  • People of the "far north" = northern part of Laos?
  • "toilsome", "secreted"
  • White foreigners exploiting cave
  • No names, no specific characters, no specific places
  • Explains a local phenomenon
Laos landscape scenery by l@mie via Flickr
Why the Lip of the Elephant Droops
  • "the wild beasts molest not those who fearlessly stay with them"
  • Parents just ditched their children!
  • Read this in week 1 :)
  • Reincarnation!!
  • Merit = morality, goodness, earning better afterlife?
  • Why birds don't talk anymore 
  • "...my tongue uttered..." dramatic dialogue
  • Lovers not allowed to be together - they choose death instead
  • Sudden ending!
  • Horse described as "strong" and "young" and then immediately as "jaded"
  • Specific name place Maa Ping
  • Chow Soo Tome marries nymph and tries to keep her - sent to war, ape friend dies, goes with eagle, sends her a ring, picks table, picks finger -- wins
  • Gnarly - fly eats his dead friend
  • Chow = chief/leader?
  • Man doesn't want to marry slave girl - 
  • "Ear that hears well" and "Eye that sees well"
  • Dialogue w/o specific characters (i.e. "the giants said")
  • Explains how a lone mountain got where it is

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