This week I chose to read Asian Folktales, called Laos. The first part of this collection of stories was interesting. I read about a lot of things including mystical spirits, giants and cannibals which I was definitely not expecting. The story in this part that I found most interesting was called Why the Lip of the Elephant Droops. There are 12 girls, whose parents abandon them in the woods (this part reminded me of Hansel and Gretel). A women finds them and says she will give them a home, if they will only play with her daughter. For a while they all lived in harmony until the women begins to go into the woods for a short time. She tells the girls not to go into the garden and they obey the first time. The second time they walk into the garden and see human bones. They ran away and climbed into an elephants mouth to hide from the women. When the girls climbed into its mouth however, part of one's dress hung out, and the women saw and cursed the elephant to have a trunk for the rest of its life. A trunk that looked like a garment. I just really like elephants, so to hear this folktale from a different country about why they have trunks was interesting. If I choose this story to rewrite however, I will not be making the woman a cannibal.
Bibliography: Laos Folklore by Katherine Neville Fleeson
Link to the reading
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