Reading Notes: Folklore of Laos, Part B

Follow up part A, part B contains a selection of Laos Folk-Lore from Katherine Neville Fleeson.

In the story of The Wizard and the Beggar, the poor man insisted to the wizard, the dog and the buffalo along the road that he would not forget the merit of the person who helped him today. The wizard then gave him the "wishing jewel", so the poor man could have everything he wanted. However, because of his greedy, he and his neighbor intended to kill to wizard and took the "flying jewel", which enabled a person to fly. As a result, the wizard took back the wishing jewel flying away, leaving the two poor mans.

The Legend of the Rice explains why people today must gather the rice from the field. Long time ago, when the rice and every grain were larger, the rice ripen and fell from the stalks, rolled into the villages to the granaries. One day, a widow got mad the the rice because it ripen and rolled to the granaries, which were not ready for use yet. Then the rice swore from this day on, it would waited on the field for people to come and harvested if needed. The giant rice then broke into many thousand small grains.
Rice Field


 The Blind Man, who pretends himself normal, deceived and married the girl. Although many things happened, the wife still didn't suspect the true. However, the father suspected through how he could't find a door to run in the fire, how he couldn't know he touched the ground when climbed out of the well. The father came and tested him by asked him to find the buffalo, but he couldn't. He then ran away. He associated with a palsied man, so one would be the eyes and one would be the feet.  One day, suddenly a venom of a snake dropped to his eyes, and he restored his eyesight. Running to the home, his wife was so happy.

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