Reading Notes: Folklore of Laos Part B

Folklore of Laos translated by Katherine Neville Fleeson (1899)

The Wizard and the Beggar

• Lots of dialogue!
• Repetition in threes
• Good guy wins 

The Legend of the Rice

• Personified rice!!!
• Creation tale
• Nameless characters

One Woman

• Flowery language!
• Tricky lady with a lot of power
• Throwing murder around like it's nothing

A Boy of the City Streets

• Old English dialogue
• Old age is valued over youth
• "Surely, I have much boon"

To Aid a Beast

• "To aid a beast is merit; to aid a man is but vanity"
• "benefit" to mean favor, help
• People deceive you, but animals are true to their word
• Trickery doesn't seem to be seen as evil

The Justice of In Ta Pome

• No context given (when, where, etc.)

Laos 2007 by Patrik M. Loeff via Flickr

The Words of Untold Value

• Trading up - hairs to hen to elephant -- not relevant to the rest of the story?
• If you wish to know others, sleep. If you wish to see, go and look

A Wise Philosopher

• Young man accompanies trader, marries his daughter -- trader is sent to be killed and young man takes his place and defeats the enemy
• No visual descriptions at all

The Boys Who Were Not Appreciated

• Lots of emphasis on blind faith in people

The Magic Well

• Long description of path taken to magic well

The Fortunes of Ai Powlo

• Disconnected events
• Unclear setting

The Fortunes of a Lazy Beggar

• I've heard this story before!
• But with a twist
• I am still loving the language but I really don't have that much more to say about the style. 
• Lesson about wealth

The Blind Man

• One event at a time, repetition.
• Lots of dialogue