Reading Notes: Folklore of Laos, part A

This week, i am inspiring by the Folklore of Laos by Katherine Neville Fleeson. Reading through part A, i find very interesting with those stories, including The Mountain Spirits and the Stone Mortars, The Man in the Moon, and The Parrot and the Minor Bird.

In the Mountain Spirits and the Stone Mortars, the spirits, who lived in the mountain, wanted money. So they brought some mortars back into the town near them, and forced the residents to buy the mortars back although these mortars had no use to them. Because its big and useless, people in the town just left them scattered over the street.

The Man in the Moon is the story about an blacksmith, who always jealous someone or something are enjoying the life better than him, complains to God about this. First, he wishes he can become a stone,  then a Stonecutter because a stone are being hurt by a stonecutter. He wishes to become a moon, then complains about its coldness. God transforms him into a sun forever.

In the Parrot and the Minor Bird, the Sao bird, which know the language of man, was punished by the owner because of speaking the true that the owner stole his neighbor's buffalo. The Sao bird therefore warned the Parrot and the Minor Bird not to speak other than the owner teaches. Therefore, nowadays, the Parrot and the Minor Bird just echoes the words of man.

The Mynahs bird.