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.

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.

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.

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.

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)

Reading Diary A: Tibetan Folktales

Tibetan Folktales

The Tiger and The Frog: There was a tiger who hadn't eaten for days. When he went hunting, he found a clever little frog who planned on eating. The frog challenged the tiger to see who could jump farther across the river. When the tiger was preparing to jump the frog grabbed hold of the tiger's tail with its mouth and sailed across with the tiger, letting go and landing further along the bank. The frog challenged the tiger to another challenge to vomit. The tiger could only throw up some water but the frog threw up some tiger hair that it had just swallowed. The frog explained that it had eaten a tiger the day before and the tiger went running. He ran into a fox who coaxed him into going back to the frog. They tied their tales together so that they couldn't run away. The frog asked the fox if he had brought the tiger as an offering and the tiger went running with the fox dragging along.

The Donkey and The Rock: There was king who ruled the land very fairly. There were also two very hardworking men who cared for their mothers. One was going to town selling some oil from a jar. He grew tired and sat down to rest. The other man was taking his donkey and two loads of wood to the market. The donkey was walking too close to the road and accidentally knocked over the jar of oil and broke it. The men quarreled over whose fault it was and took the argument to the king. The king decided to have a ruling and had the donkey chained and sent for the rock who was also to blame. People from all over came to see the case because they thought the king was crazy. When they arrived, he shamed them for coming to see a silly case and had them pay a half-cent before leaving. The money was collected and given to the man with the broken jar.

(Donkey and the Rock, Source: UnTextbook)

Covetousness: A bear was killed by a trap and when a fox was greedy and tried breaking the trap, it was killed too. A bunny was hopping around an elephant and it decided to hop around too. When the elephant was jumping around, a rock fell on it and it died. Seven robbers came by and saw the three dead animals and sat down to eat. Three were sent to get water from over the mountains. The four who remained were greedy and decided to poison the meat so that they could have the meat and ivory for themselves. The three who were fetching the water decided to poison the water because they were doing all the work. When they returned, the four men  gulped down the water and they died. The three men now had everything to themselves and ate the poisoned meat. They soon died as well. Everybody was greedy and ended up dead.

Extra Reading Diary: Turkish Fairy Tales

Turkish Fairy Tales

The Soothsayer: There was word that the chief soothsayer's wife would be coming to the bath. A woman went home and told her husband that she would leave him if he did not become a soothsayer. The man went and pondered his situation and ran into a friend. He told his friend his troubles and the friend, who is intimate with the bath-woman, told him not to worry. The bath woman told the man to scribble words down like a soothsayer at the gate of the bath. The bath-woman took the ring of the soothsayer's wife and told the man where to find it. When the soothsayer's wife realized it she threw a fit and the man acted like a soothsayer and told her where it could be found. Everybody believed him to be a soothsayer and when the Sultana lost her ring, he was brought in again to find it. A slave had stolen it and confessed to the man and he had her feed it to a goose and then break its leg. He had the Sultan gather all of the poultry and chose the goose with the broken leg. He was promoted to chief soothsayer.

(Hodjas, Source:UnTextbook)

The Wizard and His Pupil: A young boy ran away from every school that he attended. He asked his mother to allow him to apprentice for a wizard. The boy eventually learned all that he could from the wizard and the wizard told the boy that he would transform into a ram, sell him at market, but be sure to keep the rope. The boy did as he was told and sold the ram for 500 piastres and the wizard escaped and returned to his human form. The wizard transformed into a horse and told the boy to sell him at market but to keep the rope again. When the horse was sold, the boy went home and told his mother that he would transform into a lavish bath and that she was to sell him but to keep the key. When the wizard returned home and saw the boy was gone, he was furious. He went to the market the next day and saw the lavish bath and realized it was the boy. He bid for the bath and refused to pay the mother if she refused the key. She gave it over, but the boy transformed into a bird and the wizard transformed into a falcon. The wizard chased the boy until eventually the boy killed the wizard. A king witnessed all this and offered the boy his daughter to wed and the position of vizir. 

The Liver: A little girl was to buy a piece of liver from the market, wash it in the pond and take it to her mother. When she washing it in the river, a stork stole the liver and refused to give the liver back unless she got him some barley. So the girl went to the farmer and asked for barley, but he asked her to pray for rain. She then had to go the market and get incense for the prayer. The merchant asked for shoes in exchange for the incense. She went to shoemaker and he asked for ox-leather. The tanner wanted a hide in exchange for the leather. She went to the ox and asked for hide and he wanted a piece of straw. She then went to a peasant for straw and he asked for a kiss. She accepted and gained all the objects. She gets to eat the liver with her mother.

Reading Diary B: Persian Tales

Persian Tales

Story of The Wolf Bride: A man was lucky enough to have had a son. He went to get a horoscope for him and was told that is son would be torn to pieces by a wolf. To be safe, the mad built a chamber and kept his son in it. The man taught his son to read and write and when the son came of age he was to be wed. The man's brother had a daughter and they had chosen her for the son. The wedding celebration had lasted seven days and when it was over, the girl was taken to the chamber. She somehow turned to a wolf and tore the boy to pieces and changed back into a girl not knowing what happened. When a woman came the next morning, the girl explained that she didn't know what had happened. The boy's body was carried away to be buried. "Whatever is willed by fate, that verily comes to pass."

The Man Who Came To Wake His Luck: There were two brothers, one very rich and one poor. The poor brother went to his brother's herd and found a man herding the horses. It turned out to be his brother's luck. He told the brother that his luck was asleep and where to find it. On his way, he ran into a farmer, a King, and a wolf who also had no luck. When he found his luck, he passed along the messages from the people he met. When he returned to the King who was actually a woman, she asked him to marry her and to stay and have her riches. He refused. The farmer was to dig up a jar of coins for his field to yield fruit and he asked he brother to help him and share the coins but he refused. He went to the wolf and said that he was to eat the most foolish man. The wolf then asked the brother a silly question and fooled him. The wolf then ate him.

The Shepherd Who Found a Treasure: There were two shepherds who were watching a herd of sheep. One had fallen asleep and a green fly had flown out oh his nose and settled on the middle of three rocks. The first shepherd had known that the fly was actually other's soul and woken the other and said that he would give the wages of his sheep to him if he would tell him his dream. The other shepherd agreed and told him of a treasure hiding behind a rock but had no idea if he had gotten it or not because he was woken up. So the first shepherd went to town and got his wages and gave it to the other shepherd. The shepherd fell back asleep and the first shepherd looked under the rock and found jewels. He never worked as shepherd again.

(Green Fly, Source:UnTextbook)

Reading Diary A: Persian Tales

Persian Tales

The Wolf and The Goat: This story was very interesting. The wolf stole the goat's babies by tricking them into opening the door. One ran away and hid though, so when the mama goat came back home and saw that there was only one baby goat, she got mad and found the goat and challenged him to a fight. She filled a bag full of nice presents for a man to sharpen her horns. The wolf was too greedy and just blew the bag up to make it seem full and gave it to a dentist. The dentist peeked and saw that it was just air. But instead of sharpening the wolf's teeth, he pulled the teeth out and filled them with cotton twists that looked like sharp teeth. The mama goat easily beat the wolf in a challenge and ripped his stomach open with her sharp horn. The wolf died and she took her babies back home.

Susku and Mushu: A little beetle name Susku and a mouse named Mushu who got married. Sushi fell into a river and was saved by Mushu. A little while later, Mushu asked Susku to make her a pot of soup. When he left she started to make the soup and when the blind blew, it swept her up and dropped her in the soup. When Mushu came home he saw that his wife had drowned. He then poured the ash on top of his head. The crow then shook his feathers out then the tree shook his leaves out and so on. Others pitied Mushu and Susku and injured themselves too. This story was a little weird.

The Wolf Aunt: A man, his wife, and seven daughters were very poor. The man gathered thorns every day and sold them to provide for his family. One day on his way back, he ran into a woman who claimed to be his sister. She said that she was rich and would provide for his family. He ran home and brought his family to live with the newly discovered aunt. Soon, they were well fed and clothed nicely. The wife was so thankful that she decided to cook the aunt a nice liver dish. When the youngest daughter went to deliver the dish, she saw that the aunt was actually a wolf and was eating a man! She ran home and told her mother who tried telling her husband. The husband wouldn't believe his wife and the next morning woke up alone. He told the aunt about what had happened and she turned into a wolf and ate him. If he had listened to his wife, he wouldn't have died.

(Wolf, Source: UnTextbook)

Extra Reading Diary: Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt

Creation: Ra is the divine father and strong ruler of the gods. He had created the first two gods, the god of wind and the god of rain, who became known as the The Twins. He then created Seb and Nut who became parents of Osiris. Ra created the earth and created beings and all the things in the water and on land. Ra became the king of mankind and went among them.

(Ra, Source: UnTextbook)

The Secret Name of Ra: The goddess Isis lived among men and grew tired tired of mankind. She longed for the power of Ra. To be equal, she would need to know the secret name of Ra. She took some of Ra's saliva and baked into the dart and created a venomous serpent. The Serpent bit Ra and Ra was dying because of the venom. He asked for all of his children to come and hear the name. Isis went with his children to see Ra. Ra eventually gave her the secret name and she withdrew the venom from his body.

Ra and Hathor: Ra was growing old and he had heard nasty rumors from his people. He summoned many people to come to his side. He was dying, so Nut took form of a celestial cow and Shu lifted Ra onto his back. They went into battle and slayed his enemies when they felt that he had left them.

Reading Diary B: Arabian Nights

Arabian Nights

Aladdin 1: A tailor had a young son named Aladdin. The boy was lazy and did nothing and the father died of grief. One day a magician came up to Aladdin and told him that he was his long lost uncle and to tell his mother that he would be coming soon. The magician tricked both Aladdin and his mother and pretended to give Aladdin a skill to use. He took Aladdin out into the mountains and did some of his magic and produced a cave. He gave Aladdin a ring for good luck and told Aladdin to go in and bring back a lamp. Aladdin recieved the lamp but refused to give the magician the lamp until he was out of the cave. The magician was furious and sealed the cave and left Persia forever. Aladdin was in the cave by himself for two days. While praying, he accidentally rubbed the ring and a genie came out. 

Aladdin 3: After finding out that the Sultan had forgotten his promise to Aladdin to have him marry the princess, Aladdin had the genie take the groom and the Princess away from the palace every night and returned early in the morning. After a few days, the groom had asked to be separated from the Princess and Aladdin was given another chance to marry the Princess. The Sultan had asked for a huge task in order to insure that Aladdin was worthy enough to marry his daughter. Aladdin went above and beyond to prove to the Sultan with the help of his genie. He had the genie construct two palaces before he would marry the Princess. The vizir was sure that it was the work of magic.

Aladdin 5: The magician had used his magic and found out that Aladdin had not died in the cave but had escaped and married a princess and was living a wealthy life. He carried out a plan where he would beg people to switch their old lamps for brand new ones. While Aladdin was out hunting, the magician came by the palace and the Princess unknowingly gave the magic lamp to the magician. The magician made a wish and had the genie take him, the princess, and the palace to Africa. The Sultan was furious when he went to look out the window and saw that the palace was gone. He threatened to execute Aladdin if he did not bring the princess back within forty days. 

Giving the lamp away, Source:UnTextbook) 

Reading Diary A: Arabian Nights

Arabian Nights

Scheherazade: I understand where the sultan is coming from not being able to trust women and thinking that they're all terrible because of what his wife did. But I don't think it was necessary for him to marry a girl every night and have her killed the next morning. And so did Scheherazade. She took it upon herself to come up with a plan to stop the sultan from killing more girls. She involved her sister and had her wake her an hour before dawn and ask for her to tell a story before she was to be killed.

The Merchant and the Genius: A merchant was sitting down and eating dates when an angry genie appeared and threatened to kill the merchant. The merchant had thrown away a date seed and hit the genie's son in the eye with a seed and had accidentally killed him. The genie gave the merchant a year to live and then he was to come back to the same spot and be killed. Scheherazade stops her story in order for her to live another day because the sultan is curious to hear the end, but she doesn't end her story.

The Husband and the Parrot: There is now a story being told in a story to the sultan. A husband brings home a parrot who knows how to talk and can tell what has happened in front of it. The parrot tells the husband that the wife has been bad and she has some of the slaves trick the parrot into seeing a "thunderstorm". When the husband returns from his trip and asks the parrot what has happened, the parrot says that he didn't see anything because of the storm. The husband knew that it hadn't rained so he took the parrot and threw him so hard that the parrot had died.

(Schererazade telling stories, Source: Female Fortitude)