Reading Diary B: English Fairy Tales

English Fairy Tales

The Master and His Pupil: When I read this story I immediately thought of the Sorcerer and the Apprentice. The master went out one day and left the pupil alone. The Pupil grew curious and tried to change an apparatus into gold and silver but couldn't. He realized that the master's book was unlocked. The pupil went over and pointed to some of the words and summoned a demon. The demon threatened the pupil to give him an order or he would be killed. The pupil told the demon to water the plant and the demon obeyed. He kept bringing water in though. The water was as high as his chest when the master returned home. The master was able to send the demon back to where it came from.

(Master and the Pupil, Source:UnTextbook)

Johnny Cake: This story is just like the Gingerbread Man. Johnny Cake outran an old man, woman, and child. It outran some diggers, a bear, and a wolf. It stopped by a fox to tease it and the fox tricked the Johnny Cake and ate it.

Mr. Miacca: A little boy ran off alone and was caught by Mr. Miacca. He called his wife to watch the boy while he went off to get some herbs to cook the boy with. The boy tricked the wife into letting him ago. A while later, the boy runs off and is caught by Mr. Miacca again. This time, Mr. Miacca watches the boy. The pot takes too long to boil though so Mr. Miacca asks for the boy's leg and chops it off and goes off to look for his wife. The boy gave Mr. Miacca the leg of the chair and that was what was chopped up. The boy runs home and never runs off again.

Reading Diary A: English Fairy Tales

English Fairy Tales

Tom Tit Tot: This story is almost exactly like Rumplestiltskin. In this story, a woman is married off to the king because he thinks she can spin five skeins in a day. For eleven months, she gets whatever she wants, but in the last month, she will be locked in a room and have to spin five skeins a day or she will be killed. A black impish person comes to her window and offers a her a deal saying that he will spin her skeins everyday and she will have three attempts to guess his name every night. If she doesn't guess his name by the end of the month, she will be his. On the last day, the king visits her in the room and tells her about a funny black imp singing a silly song with his name. The woman is thrilled and tells the imp his name and the imp runs off.

The Old Woman and the Pig: A woman found some money and went to buy a pig. The pig wouldn't climb over the stile, so the woman couldn't get home. She found a dog who refused to bite the pig to get it to jump over. She found a stick who refused to beat the dog and a fire who refused to burn the stick. Water refused to extinguish the fire and a cow refused to drink the water. A butcher refused to kill the cow and a rope refused to hang the butcher. A rat refused to gnaw the rope but a cat bargained that if the woman brought it a saucer of milk, it would kill the rat. The woman went to the cow and it asked for hay. The woman grabbed the hay and gave it to the cow. The cat was given the milk and it tried killing the rat and the cycle went down and the pig jumped over the fence and the woman was able to go home.

(The Woman and the Pig, Source:UnTextbook)

The Three Little Pigs: There were three little pigs who made their houses with different supplies. The first pig built his house with straw and the wolf blew his house down and ate the pig. The second little pig built his house with a bundle of furze and the wolf blew down his house and ate the pig also. The third little pig built his house with bricks but the wold couldn't blow that house down, so he tried tricking the third little pig. The pig didn't fall for any of the wolf's tricks so the wolf tried coming in through the pig's chimney. The pig saw what the wolf was doing and set a pot of water and a fire in the fireplace and boiled the wolf. The pig ate him for supper and lived happily ever after.

Extra Reading Diary: Alaskan Legends

Alaskan Legends

Raven's Creation: A man came out of a pea pod and was greeted by Raven. Raven transformed into a man and greeted him. Raven took him to a better location and took off to find food. Four days later, Raven returned with berries for the man to eat. Raven took the man to a creek and formed a pair of sheep in the clay. He waved his wings over the clay and they became actual sheep. He also did this with reindeer and caribou. He also created a woman so that man would not be lonely.

(Raven, Source:All About Birds)

The Flood: Raven was angry with people so he caused a flood. Raven put on his jointed hat and water started flowing from it. Raven and his mother started climbing up when the water rose. Raven's mother got in a skin of cax. Raven flew up and hung in the clouds for a few days but his tail was in the water. He fell down onto a piece of kelp and had an eagle keep watch of the tide. Raven ran into a woman and grew angry with her. Raven had told the water to go down and it did. The water got so low that the sea creatures laid on the sand. The people now had food. The people went back to their old ways and were dancing and feasting, but the invited Raven this time.

Reading Diary B: Apache Tales

Apache Tales

The Supernatural Person in the Lake: An old woman gave her son a gift, hoping he would become a medicine man. He gave the gift to the supernatural one so as to provide food for his people. He went back to his country and lived in the lake. His people searched but could not find him. The people went to war a dew later and ran into the man. He smoked with them and gave them buffalo. The people were in search of horses to bring back. The supernatural one asked them to brink back a black horse and to smoke a pipe in the direction of Sheep Horn Mountain if they were in need. The people went to fight and gathered the horses. They took the black horse to his home and it ran to the lake.

Coyote Steals A Man's Wife: A man was sitting on a rock when it was lifted to the sky. A coyote came by and stole his wife and the camp moved. Eventually, the man made it down and followed the tracks to the new camp. He came to the camp and saw that they had left again. He continued to follow the tracks until he came upon the camp where his wife was. The coyote was out hunting and he returned with a deer. The man had the coyote put stones into the fire, wrap them in fat, and swallow them. After the fourth stone, the coyote died. The man ordered his wife to bathe and had the camp move again.

Coyote Tries To Make His Children Spotted: A coyote found a deer and her fawns and asked how she got them spotted. She said they were born that way, but he didn't believe her. So she lied and told them to put them in a hole and to start a fire at the ridge. The wolf took his children and tried, but his kids were burnt. He tried pulling them out, but realized that they had been cooked. He went after the deer and set her willows on fire, but she escaped. The coyote went on his way.

(Fawns, Source: UnTextbook)

Reading Diary A: Apache Tales

Apache Tales

The First War: This story was very odd. There was a big feast and someone didn't attend and was shot in the arm with an arrow. The arrow was pulled out of his arm by the man who shot him and he gathered an army to fight the enemy. The chief jumped from horse to horse to fight and his men were all being killed. He was the last survivor and the enemy pulled him off his horse and killed him. Word was sent back to his people that everybody was dead.

Culture Heroes and Owls: Two children went to their father, the Sun, and asked for toys to play with. He gave them a hoop and pole game to play with and warned them not to roll the hoop to the north. After playing awhile, the hoop rolled to the north. They went to fetch the hoop and an owl and his wife tried to cook the children. After many failed attempts, they gave the children the toys back and the children went back to their family, where they played until sundown.

(Barn Owl, Source:UnTextbook)

Naiyenesgani Rescues the Taos Indians: Naiyenesgani proved himself to be a medicine man by changing corn into snakes. He was asked by the people to help others who have fallen into the sink hole. He took off all his clothes and asked for them to be covered in turquoise. He made some hoops and did magic with them and a ladder appeared. He climbed into the sink hole and kicked the monster and set free all of the people that the monster had held as captives.

Google Timer Tech Tip

I set up the Google Timer and I love it! When I bake something, I always set the timer on my oven, but sometimes I can't hear the timer go off if I'm in my room. Using the Google Timer has been great.  I always set the timer on the oven and also on Google. I haven't burnt or overcooked anything since then.

I don't use a timer solution, but I should probably start. I always say that I'm going to start my homework in like 20 minutes but then I end up doing it way later than I wanted to. Procrastination at it's finest... Using the timer might help me start assignments when I want to.

Extra Reading Diary: Cherokee Stories

Cherokee Stories

The First Fire: The world was a dark place when the Thunders set fire to a a tree on Earth. The animals held a council in order for them to find out how to bring the fire back to them. Many animals volunteered to bring it back. But one after one, they failed to bring the fire back. Pretty soon, the rest of the animals were making excuses to not fetch the fire. A water spider volunteered and wove a little bowl from its thread and brought a piece of burning coal back to the others. Ever since, there has been fire.

(Water Spider, Source:UnTextbook)

The Moon and The Thunders: This story has a bunch of mini stories about the sun and the moon. Every culture seems to have a different idea of how the sun and moon came to be. My favorite was the one where the sun and moon are siblings and the moon acts as the sun's lover. The moon doesn't show his face or reveal his name, so the sun rubs ash on the moon's face and the next day when the moon rises, the sun sees the ash and knows that her brother was her lover. From then on, the moon always avoided the sun, but on rare occasions when they had to be near, the moon would always make himself small as a crescent so it would be hard for him to be seen.

Tobacco and Strawberries: A tobacco plant was stolen by a goose and all the people and animals were upset. One woman was close to dying due to not having any tobacco. All sorts of animals tried retrieving the plant, but the goose kept killing them. A hummingbird volunteered and was able to bring back some tobacco leaves and keep the woman alive. In the strawberry story, a woman left her husband and he mourned for her. The Sun pitied him and set traps for the woman by placing beautiful fruits on the side of the road. It all failed until she came to strawberries, fruit that she has never seen before. She looked back and felt an overwhelming memory of her husband and decided to go back to him.

Reading Dairy B: Marriage Tales

Marriage Tales

Woman Stolen By Killer Whales: A man and woman were out fishing one day and caught a strange looking fish. The woman cut the fish up and went to wash her hands in the water. When she put her hands in the water, killer whales had dragged her into the water for killing their friend. The man followed the trail to find his wife. He got the help of Shark to find his wife. Shark distracted the killer whales and got the woman and swam away. The man and woman looked back to see Shark fighting of the killer whales.

The Rolling Head: A man lived with his wife and two kids in a small tent. Every day he would go hunting, but before he left, he would paint his wife's face and body. When the man would leave, the wife would go to the lake and have an affair with a snake. The man was curious as to how the woman got the paint off and decided to hide by the lake. He saw that his wife was cheating and killed her and the snake. He cut up the wife and cooked her for the children and left. The wife's head rolled in and scared the children. The children ran off and hid in the woods protected by bears and panthers. Villagers heard that the children had plenty of food so they went to live with them. The father eventually showed up and the children set a lion on him.

(Snake, Source: UnTextbook)

The Dog-Husband: A young girl slept with her dog at the foot of her bed. At night, the dog would turn into a human and by morning, transform back into a dog. When the girl became pregnant, her parents knew that it was the dog. The village people burnt the house to the ground, killed the dog, and left the girl. The girl gave birth to pups and provided for them. The girl found out that the pups could turn into humans and made them help provide for the family. The boy-pups became very good whale hunters and a crow came over to see what the smell was. The crow saw that there was plenty of food and tricked the villagers into coming back. The boy-pups became the chief of tribe.

Reading Diary A: Marriage Tales

Native American Marriage Tales

The Piqued Buffalo Wife: A man took advatange of a buffalo-cow and she gave birth to his son. The son grew up and would play with the children in the Indian camps and disappear at night. He wanted to find his father so he went to the chief and picked out his father in a group of men. The child took the man to his mother and they lived happily for several years. The man got angry with his wife and struck her with a hot stick. The wife and son turned into buffalo and ran away. The man was upset and went to find his family. He found the buffalo chief and was told that he had to identify his son four times in order to get his family back. On the last time, the man got it wrong and was trampled by the herd. The wife, the son, and an old bull stayed behind and found a bone that wasn't trampled and brought the man back to life.

(Headdress, Source:UnTextbook)

Bear-Woman and Deer-Woman: Grizzly Bear and Doe were both married to Chickenhawk. When they went to the river to make food, they decided to hunt each other's head for lice. Grizzly Bear said she found lice and bit Doe's head off. She went home with the head and food and cooked the head in the oven. Doe's children knew something had happened so they killed Grizzly Bear's children when they were playing. Bear-Woman found out that her children were killed and went after the fawns. Crane was fishing and let the fawns use his neck as a bridge to cross safely. Grizzly Bear followed and when she went across, Crane twisted his neck and Grizzly Bear fell in the water and drifted away.

Splinter-Foot-Girl: A group of men were out camping when one scratched his leg on a thorny plant. His leg swelled and out came a baby girl. The men loved the girl very much. A bull heard that there was a young girl and sent a magpie to the men for her hand in marriage. The men refused and the bull tried and tried again. The third time he sent a red bird and the men finally consented. The girl went to the bull and they lived together with the herd. The men wanted the girl back and had a mole and a badger steal the girl back. A tree hid the men and the girl in its branches. The buffalo herd went searching and found them and tried knocking the tree over. The buffalo got his horn stuck in the tree and the men killed him. A rock then wanted to take the girl as his wife. But because he abused his previous wives, the animals begged them to run. They tried outrunning the rock, but he overcame them. The girl told him that he was to leave people alone and to be found where the hills are. Her and the men went to the sky peacefully.

Commenting Review Week

I feel like I'm making pretty good connections with the class.  I think that talking about what you have in common with your classmates is a good common ground to start a connection. The comments that have really helped me improve my storytelling posts have been very helpful. I don't do any commenting in any of my other classes. My major isn't one that peer comments are generally important.

(A little motivation, Source: Meme Generator)

Writing Review Week

I think my best writing this semester have been my storytelling posts. I feel that some of the stories are written pretty well. My goal for the rest of the semester is to simply improve my writing. I think a good strategy is to think of what you're passionate about and to apply it to your story. Or think of something completely silly and make it work (that's always more fun and creative anyways). The feedback that I have received has been helping me improve my writing. Anything really helps! SO keep sending it! I chose this picture because it comes from the story that I think I did the best on.

(Bully, Source:Vegan Bits) 

Reading Review Week

My favorite readings so far have probably been from The Persian Tales. I really liked the stories. They were very interesting and I like how a lot of them included some type of animal. The story from that unit that caught my attention was "Susku and Mushu." It was very odd... The strategies that worked best for me was to go through and read the stories from the unit and when I found one that I really enjoyed, I would immediately go and write about it in my reading diary. I use the reading diaries when I do the storytelling assignment. I love to read in my spare time, but since class is going on, I really haven't had as much time to read as I'd like. I don't think there is an overlap in the things that I read in class and out of class. There aren't any connections from the readings to any other classes that I'm taking. My advice for future students is to GET AHEAD. Whenever you have any free time, get some reading done. I would take my iPad to class and whenever I had some free time between classes, I would always read some stories. I chose this picture because it came from one of my favorite stories from The Persian Unit. 

(Wolf, source: UnTextbook)

Extra Reading Diary: South African Folktales

South African Folktales

The Lost Message: The ants are prey to may different creatures. The different varieties of ants decided to make their homes in different places. The red ants made their home on the ground and the rice-ants lived under ground, but anteater ate them anyways. The Wagtail ants lived in trees but birds and centipede ate them. The gray ants tried flying away but birds and insects were much faster. The king ant sent a message for all the ants to unify again but the message was lost because a beetle failed to deliver.

The Monkey's Fiddle: Monkey went to work for his uncle because food was scarce. After a while, Monkey wanted to return home and his uncle thanked him with a bow and arrow that could kill anything and a fiddle that will make anybody dance. He shot a dear with his bow and arrow and shared the meal with Wolf. Wolf wanted the bow and arrow and accused Monkey of stealing it when Jackal was around. Jackal decided to hold onto until there was a trial. Everybody came to the trial and Jackal lied so that he could keep the bow and arrow for himself. Monkey was to be hung, but he played his fiddle and everybody started dancing. They were all begging him to stop and he did when Wolf admitted that he lied. The animals were afraid that he would start playing again, so they fled.

(Vervet Monkey, Source:UnTextbook)

The Tiger, The Ram, and The Jackal: Tiger was on his way home when he ran into a strange creature named, Ram. He ran all the way home in fright and told Jackal. Jackal thought he was foolish and decided that they would go eat Ram the next day. Ram saw them and went to his wife and she said to take the child and pinch him and make cry like he is hungry. Jackal tied himself to Tiger so Tiger wouldn't run away. Ram said that Jackal did a good job in bringing food home for his child. Tiger was so frightened that he ran away and dragged Jackal along with him.

Week 7 Storytelling: Anansi and Nothing

Author's Note: In the original story of "Anansi and Nothing," Anansi and Nothing were on their way to town to find wives. Anansi persuaded Nothing to change clothes. Now that Anansi was dressed in fine clothes, he found many wives while Nothing only found a wife because a woman felt bad for him. They all walked back home and when the wives saw Anansi's shack they were all disappointed. They decided to live with Nothing and his wife. Anansi was furious and decided to kill Nothing. After many attempts, Anansi finally succeeded. I decided to rewrite it because I didn't like the character Anansi or how the story ended. I don't like how Anansi took advantage of his friend and then got mad at him and tried killing him multiple times.

Anansi and Nothing
Anansi was a very poor man. He lived in a little run down shack while his friend, Nothing, lived in a lovely palace nearby. One day, they decided to go a few towns over to find some wives.

Nothing was dressed in a very nice, velvet jacket while Anansi wore a ragged cotton one. On the way to town, Anansi asked, "Do you mind if we switch clothes for a bit? I'm starting to feel a bit chilly."

"Well of course!" replied Nothing. "You don't want to catch a cold on the way to meet our future wives." So they switched clothes and on they went, continuing their journey.

As they were nearing the town, Nothing asked to switch clothing again. Anansi evaded the question and said "Actually, I'm still a little cold..." Nothing felt sorry for him and let him continue wearing the jacket.

By the time they got to town, it was too late to trade clothes. Anansi was dressed magnificently and didn't have any troubles finding a wife. In fact, he found multiple wives to take home with him.

Poor Nothing was stuck in the ragged jacket and was being overlooked. Until a sweet woman came towards him and started talking to him. They talked for ages and she decided to be his wife. She didn't care that he looked poor. She liked him for him.

So Nothing and his wife and Anansi and all of his wives all walked back home together. At the split of the road, where Nothing and Anansi would part, Anansi took off the jacket and said, "Thanks for the jacket Nothing! I really owe you one!"

Anansi continued walking but instead of going towards the palace, he walked straight to the run down shack. Nothing and his wife walked hand-in-hand towards the palace. Anansi's wives were furious.

They went with Anansi anyways, but the six wives and Anansi had to share one small bedroom and they barely had anything to eat. Nothing's wife felt sorry for her friends and invited them over for dinner.

The wives joined Nothing and his wife for dinner and saw how great he treated her. He surprised her with flowers, pulled her chair out for her at dinner, and looked at her adoringly.

The wives realized that Anansi didn't treat any of them like that and that they deserved better. After dinner, they marched back to the hut and told him that they were all leaving him.

Anansi was furious. He thought of many ideas to kill Nothing, but none of his plans worked. He decided to dig a hole in front of Nothing's door and fill it with sharp knives.

He banged on the door and shouted for Nothing to come out. But Nothing's wife begged him to stay inside.

After a few minutes, Anansi grew impatient. He was so frustrated that he started pacing and mistakenly walked right into the hole. He was so wounded that he died almost immediately.

(Velvet Jacket, Source:Dark Brown Hairs) 

Bibliography: "Anansi and Nothing" from West African Folktales by William H. Barker and Cecilia Sinclair (1917).

Reading Diary B: West African Folk Tales

West African Folk Tales

How The Tortoise Got Its Shell: The chief Mauri decided to have a huge yam festival. He sent all of his servants to gather supplies for the festival and sent Mr. Klo, the tortoise to buy palm wine. Mr. Klo was very fast and a strong traveller so he made it to the palm fields of Koklovi, the chicken. Koklovi refused to sell his palm wine and said that Mr. Klo could have all the wine and pine trees if he could beat him in a fight. Both were very strong fighters, so the fight lasted for hours before Mr. Klo finally won. He filled his pot with the wine, drank all the rest, and went on his way with the palm trees on his back. The wine made him sleepy so he could not walk fast with his load. When he reached the palace, the gates were already closed. For the next two months, rain kept falling so everybody stayed in the palace. By the time the gates opened, Mr. Klo had died. He was restored back to life, but the pot and dust were caked together forming a shell. 

Elephant and Wren: There was a tree in the palace courtyard and because it was starting to overshadow the nearby fields, the king ordered it to be cut down. He offered the payment of an elephant to whoever could cut it down. Spider was very cunning and wanted the elephant for himself. A servant was ordered to stay with spider to ensure that he only use the wooden axe. He hid in his bag a steel axe and tricked the servant to run off and used the steel axe as often as he could. Finally, the tree was cut down and Spider was able to take the elephant home. He was very greedy and decided to hide it from his family. He saw a wren in a tree and decided to take that home for his children and to keep the elephant for himself. He tied the elephant to the tree and climbed up but the wren flew away. He climbed back down and saw that the elephant had escaped. He had to come home empty-handed. 

How Mushrooms First Grew: Two brothers were in debt and were tired of running so they decided to make a farm and settle their debt. They had a very nice field of freshly sowed corn seeds when a batfowl came by and ate all the seeds. The debt was then transferred over to it. He tried laying eggs to  hatch and sell for money, but a storm came and a branch from the silk tree broke off and landed on the eggs. The debt was then transferred to the tree. The tree made silk cotton to pay off its debt but an elephant came by and plucked all the cotton. The debt was continually transferred until it came upon a group of ants. They discussed together and contributed all their money and sent one of the men to go and buy linen thread. They would then weave it and sell it to repay the debt. They would often spread it out in sunshine to keep it nice. Men would often see these and call them "mushrooms" and pick them for food. 

(Mushrooms, Source: UnTextbook)

Reading Diary A: West African Folktales

West African Folktales

How We Got the Name "Spider Tales": A spider was very jealous that all of the stories told were about Nyankupon, the chief of gods. So the spider went to the god and asked if future stories could be told about spiders. Nyankupon agreed but only if the spider could bring back a jar full of live bees, a boa constrictor, and a tiger. So off the spider went and he tricked a hive of bees to go into the jar, tricked a boa constrictor and tied it to a long stick, and tricked a tiger and sewed its eyes shut and let them all to Nyankupon. He was so impressed of how the spider fulfilled the conditions that he allowed all the stories to be Anansi tales.

Anansi and Nothing: Anansi lived next to a very wealthy man named Nothing. One day, they agreed to go into town and find wives. On the way, Anansi convinced Nothing to trade clothes on the way to town. Anansi kept putting off switching clothes until they got to town. When they arrived at their destination, all the women saw the velvet coat on Anansi and flocked to him. Poor Nothing couldn't get any wives. One woman felt bad and gave him her daughter. They all walked back to the houses together and saw that Nothing was actually the wealthy one. Anansi's wives had to survive off of unripe bananas. Nothing's wife felt bad for her friends and invited them over for a feast. They were so happy that they decided to stay. Anansi was so mad that he tried to kill Nothing multiple times. He succeeded one night and Nothing's wife was so upset that she made food and took it around the district and told children "to cry for Nothing."

Thunder and Anansi: Anansi and his family were very poor and had nothing to eat. Anansi was out searching for food when he saw a tree that he could possibly get nuts from. He had to steer an old boat out to it though. He climbed the tree and dropped the nuts one by one hoping they would land in the boat, sadly they all fell into the water. He threw himself into the water and instead of drowning he came upon Thunder's cottage. He told him of his troubles and Thunder gave him a pot and said that he would always have enough food for him and his family. But he was very greedy and decided to hide it from his family. His family found out and his wife had the pot cook for everybody in the town, but under the stress, the pot melted. Announce couldn't find the pot and immediately thought of his family as the culprits. He went back to Thunder and told him of his problems and was given a stick. When Anansi asked the stick to do what it does for Thunder, the stick began beating him. Announce jumped out of the boat and had to swim all the way back to shore.

(Snake Beach, Source: UnTextbook)

Extra Reading Diary: Folktales of Laos

Folktales of Laos

A Child of the Woods: A woman went out to the forest when she was tired of mankind. When she was sleeping, she awoke to a tiger who was watching her sleep. She wasn't scared though. She continued on her journey and became one with the creatures. She ate the wild fruit and was watched over the creatures of the forest. She found a village of people who were curious about her coming from the forest and when she told them her story, they gave her riches. She lived there for a year and the village cattle were no longer being eaten. The people led her back to her people where they worshipped her.

The Spirit Guarded Cave: The people of the far north were tired of losing to their enemies so they decided that it would be better to go south and be slaves than to die. So they packed up all of their belongings and traveled south. They ate all of their food before they reached their destination and were scared that they would be killed for their valuables. One man suggested to leave all of their valuables in a cave and to come back and retrieve them when they were settled. They all agreed and had the spirits watch over their treasures. The people continued their journey to the south and became slaves, but weren't able to reclaim their possessions. Word spread of the unclaimed treasures and many people traveled from all over to try and claim it for themselves. The spirits always kept the treasure safe though.

(Forest in Laos, Source: UnTextbook)

Why The Lip of The Elephant Droops: A poor man and his wife wanted to rid of their twelve daughters, so one day he took his daughters out hunting with him. He filled a basket with ashes and covered the top in rice and set off with his daughters. He asked them to fetch water with bamboo joints and when they went, he returned home. The bamboo joints wouldn't hold the water and when they went back to their father, he was nowhere to be found. They had no idea how to get out of the forest, so they went to sleep. When they awoke, there was a woman standing over them who offered them a place to stay if they kept her daughter company. They went home with her but were told not to enter the small garden. When the woman went out for the day, the twelve girl went into the garden and saw that their were human bones. They fled and ran into a cow whom they asked to protect them. They all jumped into the cow's mouth and when the woman asked the cow if he saw the maidens he lied. The maidens went on their way and ran into an elephant who also protected them. The last maiden's clothes hung out of the elephant's mouth and when the woman caught up and questioned the elephant, she saw the garment. She then cursed the elephant's lip to forever hang down like the garment. To this day, the elephants lip hangs down.

Week 6 Storytelling: The Wittiest Wins

Author's Note: I wanted to rewrite "The Tiger and The Frog. I thought that the story was very interesting. I really liked how the frog was able to outsmart the tiger in multiple ways. The tiger was looking for a meal and found a frog, but the frog tricked the tiger into thinking that he had eaten a tiger the day before. The tiger became spooked and ran away. He ran into a fox who laughed at the thought of a tiger running from a frog. So they tied their tails together and went back to the frog. The frog once again tricked the tiger and the tiger went running again with the fox dragging behind.

The Wittiest Wins
There once was a bully who ruled the school. His followers worshipped him and everybody else feared him. Since he first started going to the school, not a day went by that he didn't bully somebody. All of the kids cowered in terror when he passed by.

He bullied two or three kids a day. Whether it was giving them swirlies or taking their lunch money, he enjoyed every minute of it. But one day he became extremely bored. He had already bullied the entire student body more than once.

He felt that it was starting to become boring. He hadn't had any 'fresh meat' in a long time. He fell into a slump. He decided to stay home from school for a couple days.

A few days later, a new kid enrolled at school. The other kids looked at him with pity. "Another kid that gets to be bullied," whispered a girl. "At least, we'll get a break for a little bit..." retorted a boy. "I think we should warn him though."

They walked over to the boy and introduced themselves. "This is Mary and I'm Luke," said the boy. "Hey, I'm Jake," replied the new kid. They filled Jake in about the bully and how he loves it when a new student comes because he has a 'new toy' to play with.

"Hm... Thanks for the warning, but I'll think of something," replied Jake. Word spread that there was a new kid at school. All the kids were secretly happy about there being another kid for him to bully.

When his followers heard of the new kid, they immediately went and told the bully. He was ecstatic when he heard the news. He had been thinking of new ideas to do to the kids at school.

The next day at school, the bully finally returned. He searched everywhere for the new kid. He didn't find Jake until lunch time.

He marched into the cafeteria and spotted the new kid. He stormed over but when he neared Jake, he could hear him yelling at Luke. "You stupid kid! You made me drop my tray!" Jake then punched Luke in the face.

"Ahhh!" yelled Luke clutching his face. Luke pulled his hands away and saw that his nose was bleeding. "You broke my nose!" The bully was surprised.

Jake turned around and saw the bully standing right behind him. "What're you looking at?" snapped Jake.

The bully not knowing what to think, took a few steps back. He didn't want to mess with another bully. While walking backwards, he tripped over a chair and fell on the ground.

The kids in the cafeteria who witnessed the altercation started laughing. The bully was so embarrassed that he ran out of the gym with his followers running behind him.

All the kids cheered when he ran out! Luke wiped his nose and said, "Yuck, I think there's some ketchup in my nose still." Mary giggled, still holding the empty ketchup packets that she had squeezed into Luke's hands earlier.

Rumors have it that the bully transferred schools and never bullied anybody again.

(Bully, Source:Vegan Bits)

Bibliography: The Tiger and the Frog from Tibetan Folktales by A.L. Shelton (1925).

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Reading Diary B: Tibetan Folktales

Tibetan Folktales

The Story of the Three Hunters: There were three hunters who lived with their wives and their sister. When they came back from a hunting trip, they brought a deer back with them. They all split the deer and the sister got part of the marrow from the deer and cooked it up nicely. The two older wives were very jealous and angry because they thought that their husbands preferred their sister, so they devised a plan to kill the sister. The younger wife wanted nothing to do with it though. So on the next hunting trip, the older wives killed the sister. There was a bird who kept chirping at the brothers. They thought it was weird and one of the brothers went to the bird and asked for a sign if it was their sister. When the bird hopped into his hand, they knew that their sister was dead. They went home and found the younger wife crying and she told them what had happened. The three hunters then killed the older wives and shared the younger wife.

The Golden Squash: There were two old men who were very good friends. One of the men was content with what he had, but the other was very greedy and wanted to be rich. One day the first man went out to his garden and found a bird who was injured. He felt bad for the bird and nursed it back to health. When it was able to fly, it brought the man back a seed and told him to take care of it. The man planted the seed and grew a very large squash. It was so big that five men had to help carry it in. When he cut into it, it turned out to be solid gold. The man was rich and he gave to the less fortunate. His neighbor was greedy and asked how he came of the seed. So he went out to the garden and found a bird and purposely shot it and broke its leg. He pretended to care for the bird and in return got a seed. He grew the seed and out came another squash. When he cut into it, an old man sent from the king of the lower regions popped out to weigh the man. The man didn't weigh enough so the fierce man cut off his head.

The Two Little Cats: There were two little cats who were going to fetch some salt for their tea. On their way home, they ran into a scary Handre. They ran and met a cow who offered to help protect them. They all ran until they met a dog who also offered to protect them. They then met a crow who also offered to help. A snake and peas also offered their assistance to protect the cats. So on they went home and each of the animals hid in a different spot. The Handre eventually arrived and went to every spot that an animal was hiding and was attacked by each one. He then fell into the cows horns who tossed him to the dog, who gobbled the Handre right up. The cats were then able to eat their meal in peace.

(Yak Butter Tea, Source: UnTextbook)