Week 6 Reading (extra): Indian Fairy Tales

Better late than never! It's pretty clear that if I don't do my work for this class on the weekends, it's not going to get done. :-)

Joseph Jacobs: Indian Fairy Tales
The Lion and the Crane
This trick of the stick in the mouth would be a fun one to retell with the Aesopic characters! It would be nice to see the helper not be duped, as in Aesop. I also like having the little stanzas for the moral:
His friendship is not won
By the clearest good deed.
Better softly withdraw from him,
Neither envying nor abusing.

The Broken Pot
I love this story; not this particular version (the rice is less fun when it spills than honey or ghee or oil... and I definitely don't like kicking the wife), but just the whole idea of it is so funny. I definitely want to do my story about this one; it's one of the best chain tales.
Svabhavakripana, "a born miser" -- Sanskrit nomen omen!
I do like John Batten's illustration (I always like John Batten...)

The Magic Fiddle
Such a great fairy tale! It would be fun to do an anthology of supernatural creatures, and the bongo would definitely be one of them.
(reminder to self: write up something about ghost-pepper being a word that comes from India: BHOOT)
This one is almost a chain tail with the water rising and rising up her body.
an anthology of instruments made out of body parts would also be so cool! (that Roma story for example: eeeek!)

The Cruel Crane Outwitted
I like that the Buddha is a tree genie; apparently this varana tree is apparently a three-leaved caper tree in English.

The Tiger, The Brahman, and the Jackal
such a classic! maybe I will come back to this one later and write a version with a LOT of judges (I think the one in Faulkner's book has six judges!)

Harisarman
a lucky fool... this could go in an anthology of stories that depend on tricks with names, which would actually be really fun!

The Charmed Ring
an awesome dog-and-cat fairy tale; I wonder how many other dog-and-cat fairy tales I could find if I went looking... the antagonism between them makes it likely I would find a lot! and of course the dogis such a doofus in this one ha ha. It would also be fun to mix this one up with Aladdin, since the charmed-ring and the lamp have a lot in common.