Reading Notes: Filipino tales, Part B

The Greedy Cow: I enjoy reading stories with nice morale lessons. This story is about a crow who found a piece of meat to feast on. As the crow climbed to the top of the tree, the crow saw a small bird with a full rat. The crow wanted to take the rat from the small bird, so he chased the bird leaving his piece of meat behind. The bird being smaller was more agile and could fly faster. The crow wasn’t able to catch the bird and returned to find his meat taken. The hawk was responsible for taking the crow’s meat. The crow learned that one should not be greedy and instead be content with what you have. I feel this a great story to re tell with different characters, maybe a child in a school type of scenario where the child feels ungrateful for what his poor parents are offering him but later learns a lesson.

The Lost Necklace: The crow bought a fine necklace from a merchant. He was very proud with it and boasted around other animals with this necklace. One day he saw the Hen who asked to borrow the necklace. The crow gave the Hen the necklace, trusting that the hen would return the necklace the next day. The next day the crow went to gather his necklace, the hen did not have it and claimed that one of her chicks had lost the necklace and could not find it. The crow threatened to go to the king and tell him about the Hen losing his necklace. The hen was frightened and then agreed to give the crow a chick every day until she retrieves his necklace. The necklace was never retrieved and the crow ate a chick every day.  

Hen and Chicks 

Reading Notes: Filipino Popular Tales, Part A

Don Juan and his monkey wife

Chonguita: A king that had three sons went out on a journey to seek their fortunes. Pedro, Diego and Juan were the names of the three sons. The brothers decided to split up into different paths and meet again at a certain place and time. Don Juan met an old man that gave him bread and told him to go to into a village full of monkeys. So Don Juan went on an adventure to the palace. When he entered he was surprised and felt indifferent by the sight of monkeys around him. He was about to leave until he was called by one monkey who knew the purpose of Don Juan’s arrival. He offered him his daughter Chonguita as a wife. He felt obligated to marry her, so he did but was ashamed that he was marrying a monkey. When he went back to meet with his brothers, Juan was embarrassed. When they returned to the kingdom, his father passed out from shock and embarrassment of his sons new wife. The King’s goal was to try to get rid of the monkey wife. So he set up a series of challenges between the son’s wives where the worst of the challenge will die. Chonguita excelled in all the challenges set by the king and was able to prove otherwise. One of the challenges Chonguita one gave Juan the throne to become king. At the ceremony of his initiation, Chonguita insisted that they have a first dance but Juan was ashamed. Juan was not too fond of that and hurled her on to the wall and suddenly the hall became dark. When it became bright again, she transformed into a beautiful woman. This story is great to use as a storytelling source as the characters could be adjusted or also the continuation could produce a great moral lesson.





Cochinango: I enjoyed reading this story a lot. A son of a farmer called Cochinango always believed that one day he will dine with the king and his future wife, the princess. He was ridiculed for his foolish dreams but he promised that he would do it. One day an opportunity came to Cochinango’s attention, a questionnaire competition made by the princess where the winner would become her husband. On the journey to the king’s palace Cochinango faith was tested by god in many forms. Being the generous and faithful person Cochinango was, he successfully passed all of god’s tests. As a prize he earned many items that would grant him food, money and ability to make everyone dance. Finally, Cochinango reached the palace and took part in the competition. He looked very warned out and the queen was denying his right answers because of how he looked. When he entered prison, Cochinango started using his earned powers which caught the attention of the princess. After displaying many tricks the king gave up on imprisoning Cochinango and the other prisoners because of how all the disturbance caused by Cochinango. Cochinango demanded that he would marry the princess in return of stopping his actions. The king agreed and they got married. This story is great to use to story tell because the journeys of Cochinango can be modified and changed. Also the reaction of the princess can be changed to where she uses his powers against him but God intervenes in some way to avoid Cochinango for getting unrightfully hurt.

Reading Notes: African Stories, Part B

Why dead people are buried: This story had an interesting title. The creator felt sorry when everyone was dying. He decided to bring back to life everyone that dies, and used the dog as a messenger. The dog had a mission to deliver the message but got too caught up with a bone he found and forgot to mention the message to the people of the town. The creator then sent the sheep but also the sheep got distracted and started eating grass. After his distraction, the sheep was not able to accurately remember what the message from the creator was and instead told the people to bury the dead instead. Days later, the dog remembered that he was on a mission to give out a message by the creator but it was too late. Everyone already believed the sheep and were burying the dead.

Of the Fat Woman who Melted Away: This story starts with a fat woman made out of oil that was very beautiful. Her parents received many men that wanted to marry her but rejected since none promised that she would not be exposed to the sun. Finally, one man came and promised her parents that he would not expose their daughter to the sun. The man had another wife that was jealous of how the fat beautiful wife would only stay inside and not go outside and help in the farm. One day, the man left the house for the whole day and the jealous kept on abusing the fat wife until she took her outside. Being pressured she went outside and sat under a tree. Of course she kept on pressuring her even more until she went under the sun and started working, she then started melting. What remained of her was only her big toe that was covered with a leaf. The daughter of the jealous wife, covered up the toe and returned it into the house preserving it in a pot with clay. The husband new of the incident and returned his jealous wife to her parents whom was sold as a slave later. He collected back his dowry and his fat wife build back up to her fat beautiful self.

(Photo by Leeshypooh)

Reading Notes: African Stories, Part A

Motikatika: The woman in the story was ill and her thoughtful husband went on four journeys to get Honey till she finally ate the honey. Later on, he felt ill and sent her on a journey to get some water. During her fourth journey she encountered an Ogre while trying to get some water. The Ogre was furious as he caught the lady red handed. So he said he will eat her, but she offered him her son Motikatika as a sacrifice. Motikatika was a magician and knew all along what his mother has chosen his fate to be. Therefore, Motikatika ended up setting up the father claiming that he was the one responsible for the water. The story is nice, but the father is not one to be punished. The mother should be held responsibility for her own actions, there are many different sources of water however she chose to go to the one with the Ogre.

The woman and the Ogre

Ofthe Pretty Stranger who killed the King: This story talks about the Nigerian tribes which is always an interesting read. Mbotu was the king of Old town, Calabar. He was loved by some but had many enemies. The people of Itu were one of the people that were considered enemies. Itu tribe had a witch that offered to transform herself into a young girl to try to get with Mbotu. Mbotu was known as a womanizer and someone that finds young charming girls appealing. The witch took advantage of that and was directly able to get into his chamber and cook his dinner. She made him dinner that he ate and went to sleep after. She silently cut his head off and took it back to the Itu people. The moral of the story is to never marry a stranger, no matter how pretty she may be.

Week 5 Story: Sindbad's Fifth Voyage

Another day and another opportunity for Sindbad and Zoey to set sail on a voyage to the unknown. Sindbad decided to gather a set of sailors from neighboring states as well as take Zoey his best friend on board. Zoey was Sindbad's companion since day one. She helps in protecting the boat from invaders as well as retrieving items for Sindbad. Traditionally, taking people from different states was frowned upon but Sindbad explained to the Caliph that his motive for such a decision was to motivate more people to go on merchant voyages as there were many opportunities to find valuable treasure.

They set sail on a boat and drifted with the direction of the wind hoping that they would stumble upon an island. For hours, they sailed on to the ocean until the saw the shadow of an island at the end of the horizon. As they approached the island, the tall palm trees were the only thing visible. The island seemed to be filled with valleys of diamonds but there were eggs planted that were double the amount of diamonds there. The eggs belonged to the roc, which is a big aggressive bird. Sindbad directly warned the people on the ship to not approach the eggs when collecting diamonds upon arrival. Till this point, Sindbad had full control of the ship but the diamonds were too much of a temptation for other sailors. Sindbad and Zoey had a lot of experiences on their voyages and had seen much more valuable things than that valley of diamond. So they were not tempted to take any hasty decisions. The sailors on the ship but were mostly first time goers on a voyage and have not seen beyond the horizon of Baghdad. Sindbad would get sailors in such condition because he would want to train them himself. 

As they hit the shores of the islands, the sailors broke the word of Sindbad and ran to the valleys eager to gather as many diamonds as possible. As the sailors eagerly reached the valleys, they ran to the diamonds while stumbling near the eggs. Before the sailors gathered any diamonds, the rocs viciously flew into the valley and outnumbering the sailors they gathered around them and beat them to death. Sindbad could only sit back and watch as Zeoy was alert and warned them by barking but they were too naïve to listen to his expertise. Sindbad, being the lone survivor with Zoey on the ship, just waited and planned the safest way to gather all the eggs. To scare off the birds he thought to take Zoey and go down to the valley. Birds are intimidated by other animals and as long as they avoided the eggs, they would be able to gather the diamonds.

Sindbad and Zoey

As they left the ship into the valley, Sindbad and Zoey had to be extremely cautious as there were a lot of eggs scattered everywhere. They succeeded in gathering a bagful of diamonds and directly returned to the ship after that. They then continued to sail until they reached Serendib. They were welcomed by the King of India and awarded for their achievements. Zoey was given an honorary collar for her efforts, as well as unlimited steak treats and thick bones. They were able to sell all the diamonds to the king which made Sindbad extremely rich as he returned to back to Baghdad. The news of the deaths of the sailors saddened everyone and Sindbad felt guilty as he was responsible for the ship. As a gesture, Sindbad donated a large portion of the trip’s profit to the families of the victims and was loved and appreciated for his good deed. Sindbad learned his lesson but was looking forward to setting sail on his next voyage into the ocean.

Author's Note: This is a rewrite of Sindbad's fifth journey voyage. The story explains how Sindbad set sail to India and gathered sailors from different countries. As they reached an island, the valleys were full of diamonds but were surrounded with roc eggs. The sailors on the ship decided to take the eggs and cook the meat from them which pissed off the parents. They then dropped rocks on the sailors and killed them. Sindbad then met the Old Man of the Sea who gripped onto him for days. He then got him drunk to loosen up his grip and killed him.  After he left and met with other merchants who were able to gather coconuts. They then sold them and made enough money to make Sindbad rich. As he returned he gave back to the improvished porter as usual and waited until his next voyage. I chose to use a picture of Sindbad and Zoey his best friend Labrador that helped him distract the birds to gather the diamonds. Instead of making himself rich, this story focuses on the good deeds Sindbad is known for.

Bibliography: The Arabian Nights' Entertainments by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1898).

Image Information: I cropped Zoey from an existing picture of her and then used snapchat to insert her on the original photo of Sindbad.