Reading Diary Week 14: Fables of La Fontaine

Fables of La Fontaine by Jean de La Fontaine

Rats hatch a plan to outsmart the cat, but none of the rats will actually carry it out. They are all too afraid. Turtle makes joke about bird, the bird picks the turtle up, flies high in the air, drops the turtle. A kite swoops down and catches a meal of flesh and fish.


I did not really enjoy the stories in this section, I don't plan to use any for my storytelling on Thursday. Which is why I did not take many notes.

The Cock, Cat, and Mouse

Source: UnTextbook

Reading Diary Week 14: Fables of La Fontaine

Fables of La Fontaine by Jean de La Fontaine

Donkey tricks everyone into think that he is a lion just because he is wearing lion skin. Man figures out, is not afraid. Frog tries to inflate himself to the size of an ox fails and blows himself up. Fox tries to get some grapes, fails, and decides he did not want the grapes anyway because he says that they are sour. Hen lays golden eggs, farmer gets greedy, wants all of the egg. Kills the hen, surprise surprise it is not full of gold.

The Hare and the Tortoise 

Source: UnTextbook

Reading Diary Week 13 Continued: Russian Folktales

Russian Folktales by Ralston

Cossack cuts off a woman's arm, because she is a witch. He then proves who the witch is by finding a woman missing an arm. Cossack is rewarded. Father-in-law is strangling his daughter-in-laws, one of the daughters finally outsmarts him, gets his money. Man has a drink with his dead friend, three hundred years pass by, he then comes out and his bride is gone, everything has changed. God saves a man from two corpses that are fighting over him.

Monte Rio

Source: Flickr

Reading Diary Week 13: Russian Folktales

Russian Folktales by Ralston

Dead mother is taking care of child in the middle of the night. Upon discovery, she kills the baby and flees. Marko the Rich will not pay back his copek to the poor man, goes to crazy lengths to do so. Do not dishonor Mother Friday or she will put things in your eyes so that you cannot see. Flow of one river is faster than the others because of the determination of that brother to find his missing sisters. 

St. Basil's Cathedral

Source: Flickr

Reading Diary Week 12 Continued: Aesop's Fables

Aesop's Fables by Sir Roger L'Estrange

Sheep tricks both a lamb and wolf. Wolf dresses up like a Shepard, is very crafty but eventually caught. Whenever he is caught, he is punished. A pack of dogs is undone by their own hunger and greed. Dog does not trust the felon who has food, he instead guards and does not fall for his tricks. An old weasel that does not have the energy to chase mice any longer instead uses tricks to catch them. Hawk feels bad and tries to repent for his sins. Gnat is afraid that it's weight is fatiguing the ox, however the ox did not even realize that the gnat was there. Fly thinks that the wind that is kicking up dust is actually him. Cautious frog saves the reckless one.

Wolves

Source: UnTextbook

Reading Diary Week 12: Aesop's Fables

Aesop's Fables by Sir Roger L'Estrange

Venus turns woman into cat so that she can marry a man. Peacock is jealous of nightingale because it can sing, expresses jealousy to Philomela. The man and the goose that lays golden eggs. Socrates builds a small house. Quaker displays hypocrisy by striking a dog. Apples make apes go wild and lose their composure. Fox really wants grapes, but the grapes that he wants are too high. So, the fox decides that the grapes were sour anyway. Lions can talk to people but cannot make sculptures. Ass thinks that people are kneeling to him, but they are actually kneeling to the relics on it's back.

Jupiter and the Monkey by Osius

Source: UnTextbook

Reading Diary Week 11 Continued: Nursery Rhymes: Tales

Nursery Rhymes: Tales out of The Nursery Rhyme Book

Rhyme about buying big pigs and fat hogs. Three men in a tub of different professions. Jack and Jill rhyme. Rhyme about spices. Boy is in a barn laying down hay whenever an owl comes in and scares the boy away. Dog is running to Dover. Farmer has a rat. Willy boy is mowing a pasture. Whenever Hannah is alone, she goes to town on bones. Husband and wife get divorce due to financial problems.

A boy with a candle

Source: UnTextbook

Reading Diary Week 11: Nursery Rhymes: Tales

Nursery Rhymes: Tales out of The Nursery Rhyme Book

Crooked man has everything that is crooked. Cat, mouse, house. Lion and unicorn fight, everyone gives them bread. Punch and Judy fight for pie, punch punches Judy. Ironically. Watches and Turnips with horses. Kitchen door with the answer being sunshine. Long legs, crooked thighs (tongs). Peter will never go right, because he follows his nose, and his nose is crooked to the left. Charm and lullaby for making cow give up her milk. Another charm for making the hiccups go away. Jack and Jill the two blackbirds.

The Crooked Man 

Source: UnTextbook

Week 10 Reading Diary Continued: American Indian Fairy Tales

American Indian Fairy Tales from American Indian Fairy Tales

Lagoo is still the one telling the stories. The mouse used to be huge, and Lagoo is going to tell the story of how. Man used to not have fire, ate everything raw. Mostly fruits and veggies. Boy shoots tons of birds so that he can wear their feathers. Sun ruins the boys new coat by tanning the birds hides. Boy vows revenge. His plan is to lasso the run with his sisters hair. Mouse nibbles away the lasso, the sun burns him down. This is why he is so small today. Girl seeks out happy land, a place without worry or care. Mother wants this girl to get married, girl does not want to. Instead of marrying the hunter, she marries a fairy in the grove.

An Indian from How the Summer Came

Source: UnTextbook

Week 10 Reading Diary: American Indian Fairy Tales

American Indian Fairy Tales from American Indian Fairy Tales

Lagoo is the one telling the stories. The north wind story. Picky Oweenee has a hard time finding a husband. She has a problem with every man that courts her. She chose to marry a man that had a heart of gold and would take care of her even though he was ugly and poor. Oesso has curse on him that gets put on Oweenee, making her old and feeble and him young and strong. All of the sisters and their wives are turned into birds for mocking Oesso. Oesso shoots a bird with a bow which you are not supposed to do, apparently.

The north wind

Source: UnTextbook

Week 9 Reading Diary Continued: Tejas Legends

Tejas Legends stories from Tejas Indians

Humming bird drinks dew because he made a bet with a crane that he could swim across the lake faster than he, and lost. Purple sage is in the desert because a woman fell in love with a star, had a witch turn her into a bush, and then the star fell on her, giving her the ashy appearance. Sickness did not exist in the world until two Indians killed a messenger from the Great Spirit. The rainbow got heavy with water, fell onto a cactus, the cactus thorns caught it, and kept the colors, that is why the cactus flower has so many colors. Dogs ears are floppy because they are ashamed of letting the wolves steal their meat. 

Humming bird from Why Humming Birds only Drink Dew

Source: UnTextbook

Week 9 Reading Diary: Tejas Legends

Tejas Legends stories from Tejas Indians

Storm god created the islands in the gulf of mexico. Comes in the shape of hurricanes. He built the islands to protect the birds from the indians of the north, so that they would have a sanctuary. Mistletoe grows on trees because the thunder bird felt sorry for it. Woodpeckers have short tails because a fish bit off the end of it. Flowers that have soft colors got them from a cloud that wandered away and got lost from the other clouds, and settled down on the ground. River saves the small fish by flooding itself and trapping the gars that ate the small fish in pools that were not connected to the river.

Storm God from When the Storm God Rides

Source: UnTextbook

Week 7 Reading Diary Continued: Nigerian Folk Stories

Nigerian Folk Stories by Elphinstone Dayrell

Mother and son are lighting and thunder, Kind banishes them to the sky where the son still causes havoc. Ama, for no reason at all, starts a war between two brothers, is found out, then flogged. Then law is passed for no pet cocks. Never find a hippo on land because the turtle was able to figure out his name, and so the hippo and his wives were ashamed. Dogs cannot be trusted with messages and dead people are buried because the dog ate the bones of the dead people. King marries hi daughter and Adit.

Bush Cow Mask

Source: UnTextbook

Week 7 Reading Diary: Nigerian Folk Stories

Nigerian Folk Stories by Elphinstone Dayrell

Witch kills rival towns king by seducing him and then cutting off his head. King was a bad person, so witch is revered. Bats go do not come out during the daytime because one bat tricked a friend into boiling himself, so he had to hide from the whole town and kind who were coming for him. Fish cannot come onto land because he kept having sex with the leopards wife, betraying the leopard. So the kind banished the fish to the water. Ants and worms get into a fight, ants win by landslide. So, Kind banishes worms to the ground for the rest of existence. Hawks kill chickens to repay unpaid dowry. Water forced sun and moon into sky.

Calabar Nigeria 

Source: UnTextbook

Week 6 Reading Diary: Filipino Popular Tales Continued

Filipino Tales by Dean Fansler

Iguana and turtle are friends, iguana tricks turtle into taking his place several times. Sherrif wonders why people are laughing outside of his house at night. Do not be greedy, crow loses his meat whenever trying to chase a small bird that he cannot catch. Hummingbird tricks water buffalo into thinking that he can drink more water than him. God makes the ants bite not as poisonous as snake as punishment for disobedience. God makes two jewels in the sky. The reason hens peck at the ground is searching for the cows necklace that the other hens lost. The ocean is salty because of the broken salt blocks.

Land crab from "Why the Mosquitos Hum"

Source: UnTextbook

Week 6 Reading Diary: Filipino Popular Tales

Filipino Tales by Dean Fansler

Monkey tricks man into getting bees to attack him, and wearing a boa constrictor as a belt. Suan unites the women who has been split into three and makes her his wife moving forward. Chonguita transforms into a women after Don Juan throws her into a wall, which does not make sense. Chochinango marries the kings daughter after being tested by god and passing. God tested his character, and gave him rewards each time he passed. He ended up needed all of the rewards in order to convince the kings daughter to marry him. Man is turned into a monkey in punishment, has to find lover. He does after five centuries, then marries her. Brothers select right place to trade, all make good fortunes. Dragon flies trick monkeys into hitting themselves on the head, beating them in a battle.

Carabao in the Philippines

Source: UnTextbook

Week 5 Reading Diary Continued: Jataka Tales

Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbit

Greedy mother steals all of the gooses feathers, they turn white if plucked against gooses will. The monkey uproot all of the trees in an attempt to make sure they have enough water. Wolf outsmarts man and does not fall for his tricks. Figures out that he is actually alive. Wolf tries to kill an elephant for the lion, is unsuccessful, and dies. It is what the lion predicted. Man says mice ate another mans plow, this man then says that birds carried off his boy. Both were lying, and got their things back. Story about an elephant and dog becoming friends, playing and eating with each other.

A goose from the story The Golden Goose

Source: UnTextbook

Week 5 Reading Diary: Jataka Tales

Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbit

Monkey is tricked into riding on crocodiles back, tricks the croc into taking him back to his tree. The croc then tries to catch him again by cutting off his path to the fruit, but the monkey does not fall for his tricks. Turtle tricks men into throwing him back into the lake instead of smashing him. Quail are able to lift the net of the fowler until they begin to quarrel, at which point they are taken in and sold. King of the Banyan deer sacrifices his life for another deer mother, and the kind ends up granting both their life, and the life of every deer. Odd story about white elephant and carpenters, ends up being sold to a king. Pig eats good food, and cows are filled with envy until the pig is slaughtered, then they are content with their wheat. Very-thoughtful fish tricks the fisherman into thinking that his net has broken in order to save his two friends.

The monkey and the Crocodile

Source: UnTextbook

Week 4 Reading Diary Continued: Bidpai

Fables of Bidpai by Bidpai

Fox tricks hare and wolf into a trap. Bird tricks a man into killing a snake because the snake at his babies. Man his whip envy which is actually a snake. Snake then bites and kills him. A fox tricks an adder to crawl back into a bag instead of biting anyone. Tortoise is holding onto stick with his mouth between two geese, people make fun of him, he opens his mouth to retort and dies from the fall. Old crane carries fish to another pond, but actually eats them. Crab strangles the crane upon learning this. Lean cat dies whenever he tries to eat from the kings table. Crow forgets how to walk when trying to learn how to walk like a partridge.

An image from the Tortoise and the Geese

Source: UnTextbook

Week 4 Reading Diary: Bidpai

Fables of Bidpai by Bidpai

Nightingale reveals pot of gold to man who rescues him. King is trying to drink out of a stream, falcon knocks cup out of his hand twice, so the kind kills the falcon. Dead dragon at the top of the stream, poisoned entire stream, falcon was saving him. Man does what stone tells him to do, is made kind of the city. Man envies to be a raven and have someone feed him. Merchant holds a boy hostage in exchange for the iron that the friend stole from him. It is better to have a wise enemy than a foolish friend, as the bear kills the man. Prince is crowned king after living as a hermit. Ape tries to split wood, gets it's tail caught. Man makes a trap for a fox, actually catches a leopard, which then kills him.

Maharaja of Indore

Source: UnTextbook