Week 8: Commenting Review Week

Do you feel like you are making good connections with other students in the class at the blogs?

Yes. I have really liked being able to go back and read some of the people's writings that I have liked before.

What kinds of interactions do you think are most helpful in creating good connections online in a class like this? 

I think the "forced" interactions between students so far have been a good way to interact.

What kinds of comments have been most useful to you so far on your blog posts?
If you have received Project comments, have those been useful so far?

Yes and Yes. I have gotten really useful comments and critiques from multiple people on what would make my stories more readable.

When you are leaving a short comment, what do you usually focus on?

For short comments, I tend to focus on the story at a whole and any obvious mistakes.

When you are leaving a long comment on a Project, what is your focus?

For long comments, I tend to focus on the story as a whole, specific pieces of the story, the design and flow.

What is the easiest part for you about writing comments? What is the hardest part?

The hardest part is finding something to critique. The easiest is revealing the parts that I liked best.

Do you do a lot of commenting on other students' work in your other classes? Is your major one in which peer comments are generally an important part of the classes you take?

I do not take any classes that have peer reviews like this.

How do you make use of comments when you revise your writing?

I usually read the comments and first fix grammatical or spelling mistakes and then I see if any of the other suggestions could be useful.

Week 8: Writing Review Week

What have been your greatest writing successes in the class so far this semester?

My two best stories, I think, are the two stories I have chosen for my portfolio. I have had a little writers block the last couple of week, but I feel like those have been my most creative.

What writing goals do you have for yourself in the second half of the semester?

I hope to keep doing a good job and hope that I start getting back to the creative imaginative stories like I wrote in the beginning of this class.

As you look at your Storytelling posts, what do you think are some good strategies for coming up with good stories?

The strategy I have used so far is to look for key sentences that get me wondering and thinking about a story so much that I can't focus on the rest of the reading.

Have you been able to get some good writing ideas from looking at the writing other students are doing?

Not really. For some reason it doesn't help me.

Is the feedback you are getting from me and from other students helping you to improve your writing?

YES, it has been extremely helpful, especially with my punctuation.

What kind of feedback is most helpful for you in your writing?

All the feedback that I have gotten has been extremely helpful.

Have you learned anything useful about yourself as a writer, about the writing process, about writing techniques, etc. from your work in this class so far?

I have found that I like creative writing more than I thought I would. When I first found out that the main point of this class was going to be writing, I almost dropped it, but I'm really glad I didn't since it has been so much fun!

Week 8: Reading Review Week

What readings in the class have you enjoyed most/least?

I have enjoyed all of the stories that I have read so far. Each one has been interesting. I really enjoy that we have a different "region" that we have to choose from each week as it forces you out of your comfort zone.

What reading and note-taking strategies have you found that work best for you?

I usually copy the text from the online Un-textbook and paste it into a word document. I then delete all the pictures (since I've already seen them) and print out the texts in half sections. It's a lot easier for me to make notes and to go back to when I am doing my diary post.

Do you use your Reading Diary in connection with the Storytelling assignment?

I would say this is probably half and half. If I come up with a story while I'm reading, I don't need to go back to my Diary. If I still haven't had an idea by the time I'm done reading, I will go back to my Diary and even go back to the readings themselves.

When you look back at your old Reading Diaries from early in the semester, do they help you to recall the reading in a useful way?

Yes, although my Diaries have gotten more concise as the semester has progressed.

Do you read a lot for pleasure? Is there any overlap between the reading in this class and the kinds of things you usually like to read?

I do read outside of class. I usually read Stephen King books, but have recently ventured out of that genre and author. I recently read the A Discovery of Witches Trilogy by Deborah Harkness which is about a witch and vampire and alchemy and history and centers around a missing book from Elias Ashmole's collection. Since starting school for anthropology, I have had some classes overlap in reading, however, I have not had the joy of reading mythology before and I am loving it.

Portrait of Elias Ashmole by John Riley. Source: Wikemedia Commons.

Do you see any good connections between the reading you are doing for this class and any other class(es) you are taking?

Not really, I wish my other classes were as fun as this one. They are interesting and I love them since it is what I want to do for the rest of my life, but it would be very cool to just immerse myself in mythology.

Do you have any suggestions for me to use in improving the reading component of this class?

One thing I think would be helpful is making the readings available in a downloadable PDF format. I don't know if this would violate any trademarks but if it was already done, it would be awesome since I can't read on the computer very well.

Do you have suggestions I can share with future students about the reading?

As with past students ... get ahead. I haven't stayed that far ahead, but I in the beginning I was a week ahead and it has helped that I can just spend Friday night and Saturday morning doing the work from last week that I couldn't do last weekend (like commenting) and them doing my writing and reading for the next week. It frees up a lot of study time during the week and gives me a chance to spend time with my family.

Week 7, Storytelling: Mama Bob White's Song

My story starts when mama, Missus Bob White, left me and my brothers under the care of Mr. Br'er Rabbit while she went and washed her dress. Poor mama just cried and cried to us every night, but we can't answer her anymore. You see, Br'er Rabbit, who was supposed to be watchin' us, decided that he was gonna take us home and give us to his ol' lady to cook up for supper. She had already put the grease in the pan and had the fire stoked and ready, but when she broke open my egg, she realized I wasn't an "egg" anymore--I was already a bob white, and was gettin' ready to hatch. Well, Missus Rabbit, being a mama herself, she didn't have the heart to kill me and my brothers. (Between you an' me, I think we just wasn't big enough to get a good bite of meat out of.) Anyway, after she figured she couldn't cook us, she decided to put us in the chicken pin with their other chickens until Mr. Rabbit got back. Me and my brothers didn't speak "chicken" so we didn't know what was going on or where our mama was. When Mr. Rabbit got back, Missus Rabbit told him what had happened with us and oooohh, he was as mad as a wet hen! He sure thought he was gonna get a good meal out of us eggs. Mr. Rabbit told the Missus that he couldn't take us back to our mama 'cause he done told her we had ran away and didn't know where we had run off to. 

After talking for awhile, Mr. and Missus Rabbit decided they was gonna let us go, but told us that we couldn't go back to our mama. They said we had to go in to the big city and live so that she wouldn't know what had happened to us. We was young, just hatched in fact, so we didn't know no better, so we did what we was told. Me and my brothers marched in to Atlanta all by ourselves and met a bunch of pigeons. They were a weird bunch, but they took us in and taught us how to get somethin' to eat and how to stay warm and how to just get by. We growed up with those pigeons as our family and every now and then one of us would think about mama and how lonely she probably was. After a couple of years, when we was old enough to start thinkin' for ourselves, we decided we was gonna go back to that forest and find our mama. It wasn't easy to find her, but we met up with Br'er Fox, who said he knew Br'er Rabbit and how nasty he could be, and he helped us find our mama. Mama still cries every night, but now it's with joy that we are finally home.

Bobwhite Egg. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Author's Note: This story is based off of the story "Br'er Rabbit and the Partridge Nest" from the Br'er Rabbit II Unit. I had a really hard time finding something to write about this week, but I finally looked over the readings again and the end of this story started me thinking about if Miss Bob White's eggs had not actually been eaten, which is what is assumed in the story, at least by me. I decided to write this like I was telling the story to someone at home. Being from the south myself, sometimes I will lapse back into aint's and gone's with a lot of contractions and dropping the "g"s off of words, so I thought it would be fun to tell this in the style of talking my grandma does when she tells stories.

Bibliography: Story source: Uncle Remus and Br'er Rabbit by Joel Chandler Harris, with illustrations (1906).

Week 7, Extra Reading Diary: Grimm (Crane) (Second Half)

Grimm (Crane) 2nd Half

This half was really fun to read!

The Six Swans
This story is about a King that get's lost in the woods. A witch helps him get out of the woods, but only if he promises to marry her daughter. The King does, but he is scare for his children's life so he hides his six boys and girl in the woods. He visits them often and his wife starts wondering what is going on, she finds out about the boys and turns them into swans. She doesn't know about the daughter, so she is left human. The girl is found by another King and is married to him. She can't talk for six years while making shirts for her brothers to turn them back into humans. She is set to be burned at the stake on the very day that she is finally allowed to speak so that she can finally defend herself against her husbands mother.

Snow White
This version of Snow White is similar to the Disney movie, but there are some differences. In this version, the Queen tries and succeeds to "kill" Snow White 3 different times before she gets to the apple. By this point you kind of stop feeling bad for Snow White. You would think she would have learned her lesson by now! Snow White is also awoken when the prince is having her coffin moved and the piece of apple is knocked out of her mouth and she wakes up. I will give Disney props for making that part more romantic :)

Illustration from Sneewittchen, Scholz' Künstler-Bilderbücher, Mainz 1905.

By Franz Jüttner. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Week 7, Reading Diary B: Br'er Rabbit II

Br'er Rabbit II

Brer Rabbit and Partridge Nest
This is a story about a Whipperwill and Bob White birds and how sad their songs are. Miss Bob White left her eggs with Brer Rabbit and he took them to his house to eat. When Miss Bob White got back from washing her dress Rabbit said that her eggs had got up and walked away, so every night she sings good night to her lost children.

Female Northern Bobwhite. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

The Fate of Mr. Jack Sparrow
Unfortunately, this is not a story about Johnny Depp :) This is a story start with Mr. Sparrow that overheard Brer Rabbit talking about how he was going to pull a good one over on Brer Fox. Mr. Sparrow decided he was going to run and go tell on Rabbit, so Rabbit ran ahead of him and told Fox that Sparrow was the one that was going to try and pull something on Fox. After Mr. Sparrow showed up, Fox told him that he couldn't hear what he was saying and to get closer. Mr. Sparrow ended up in Fox's mouth.

Week 7, Reading Diary A: Br'er Rabbit II

This week I am reading Br'er Rabbit II. The first half was a little ... weird. 

Brer Rabbit Finds the Moon in the Mill Pond
In this story, Brer Rabbit tricks his friends into thinking the moon is stuck in a pond because of it's reflection. He tells them that they have to "rescue" the moon so that it can be put back in the sky and so they all dive in on the moon, which is just a reflection.

How Mr. Lion Lost his Wool
This story is about how the Lion ended up with just hair on his head and the end of his tail. Brer Rabbit is watching man get ready to cook some hogs and sees how they put coals in a barrel full of water and then dip the hogs in so that they can get the hair off of them. Brer Lion walks up along with a couple of other animals and Rabbit asks if they want to take a warm bath with him in the barrel. No one takes him up on his offer except the Lion. After Lion got in, all of his hair came off except for the tip of his tail that had went through the bung-hole in the barrel and his head that was above water.

The Cowardly Lion. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Week 6, Extra Reading Diary: Brothers Grimm (Crane) (First Half)

In the first half of the Brothers Grim (Crane), there were only three stories. They were all very interesting, especially Aschenputtel, which was the story of Cinderella, but a lot more "grimm". 

The Fisherman and His Wife
This story is about a fisherman and his wife, who lived in a hovel. One day he caught a flounder and as he pulled him up, the flounder told the fisherman that he was an enchanted prince and to let him go. The fisherman then let him go and when he got home he told his wife about it. She, being the greedy English woman in almost every mythology story I've read so far, wants him to go back to the flounder and ask to give them a cottage. The fisherman did, and they got their cottage. She wasn't happy with the cottage, so they got a castle. She wasn't happy with the castle, so she wanted to be king. She wasn't happy with being king, she wanted to be emperor. She wasn't happy with being emperor she wanted to be pope. She wasn't happy with being the pope, she wanted to be in control of the sun and moon. The fish apparently had had enough and put them back in their hovel.

Lady Jane's Cottage. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

The Robber Bridegroom
This story is about a girl whose father gives her hand in marriage to basically the first person who asks. The man wants her to come see him at his house and says that he will leave a trail of ashes for her to find him. Her being a smart girl, brought her own peas and lentils to leave a trail. When she got to the cottage, it was empty except for one old lady. The old lady told the girl that she was in trouble, that the men that lived there were cannibals and would chop her up and eat her. The old lady hid her and as she was hiding, they brought another girl in and ate her. They had chopped off her finger, which landed in the girls lap. When they had the chance, the old lady and girl escaped. Luckily the peas and lentils had started growing so they could find their way out of the woods. The girl told her dad the story. On the day that they were to be married, they were telling stories and the girl decided to tell her story, the one where the men chopped up a girl and cut her finger off. As she finished her story, she threw the finger on the table and the men were arrested. The end.

Week 6, Storytelling: The Grave-Yard

One night a gentleman named Leander was walking home from a bar. Between the bar and his house stood a very old cemetery, with big above-ground tombs much like the ones in New Orleans, and it was over a block wide. He usually didn’t mind the extra walking he had to do to go around it, but tonight, he had had a little too much to drink. “I really need to find a bar that’s more convenient,” he thought as he came upon the cemetery. Even though the gates were closed after sundown, they were never locked. Leander wasn’t a suspicious guy but there was a saying that his grandmother used to always tell him -- “Ghosts don’t bother honest people, but it’s still safer to go around the graveyard.”

Cemetery Photo by: Alexandria. Source: Pixabay.

Leander was an honest man he thought. He was raised by a good family, he was smart, had graduated from college, and was an honest, hard worker. Again, he wasn’t a suspicious person, but he still avoided going through the cemetery...period. Against his better judgement, this night he decided to go through the cemetery anyway. About half-way through, he started feeling like someone was watching him. He quickened his steps as he looked over his shoulders. He couldn’t see anyone, but it didn’t stop the feeling that someone was watching him.

About three-quarters of the way through the cemetery, he started hearing footsteps. They were faint, but he could hear them in the echo against the tombs. Every now and then he would hear a shuffle, a stone being kicked, the crunch of a leaf. The faster he walked, the faster the footsteps became. He was making his last turn before coming to the gate that would lead to his house. As he rounded the corner he saw a shadow retreat between the mausoleums. He was now positive that someone was following him. He was scared, but he stopped anyway.

"Who's there?" he said out loud as he turned around looking in every direction.

When he received no answer, he asked again, but louder. He was getting ready to start walking again when the shadow that he saw retreat now emerged into the pathway. The figure was still in the shadows of the tombs, but he could make out the height. It was a short figure, he thought, maybe a woman.

What would a woman be doing in a cemetery by herself, at night? He had no idea, but he was anxious to find out.

"What is your name?" he called out as she began walking out of the shadows.

"Nancy," she said softly.

As he walked forward to meet her, he noticed that she had a glow about her that would appear if he looked at her for too long, but that would disappear when he blinked. Even though she was now in front of him, he still felt like someone was watching him. As they finally met, she told him that she was there to protect him and that he was an honest person, but that some things in his past could be manipulated by the ghosts so that they could achieve their goals. He decided he knew enough to know what their goals were and wanted to get the hell out of there fast. He and Nancy walked to the gate and she told him he would be safe as soon as he was out. Leander thanked her and turned around to walk out. He looked back to ask if she was coming, but when he turned around, she was no longer there.

A Slave Cabin in Barbour County Near Eufaula. Source: Library of Congress.

Author's Note: This story is based on the proverb "Ha'nts don't bodder longer hones' folks, but you better go 'roun' de grave-yard" from the Plantation Proverbs story that is in the Brer Rabbit I unit. To me that translates to: “Ghosts won’t bother honest people. You might think you are an honest person, but just in case, you might want to avoid the graveyard.” I am from Georgia and so writing this story was really fun. I thought since it was rooted in southern culture that I would make it really personal so I decided to name some of the characters after family members. The main character's name is the name of my 6th great-grandfather who was a slave that bought his freedom during the late 1700's in South Carolina. The name of the woman he meets in the cemetery was his wife's name. I thought this would be a great proverb to tell a story about since it had such a spooky flavor to it and included one of my most favorite parts of the south, the graveyard. Southern people are also very superstitious, so the whole proverbs section sounded very familiar to me. In the south, we have little sayings about every kind of situation.

Bibliography: Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings by Joel Chandler Harris (1881).

Week 6, Reading Diary B: Brer Rabbit I

The second half of Brer Rabbit I had a few good stories, but I liked the proverbs the best!

The Story of the Deluge
This story is Uncle Remus's version of a flood story. In this story all the animals in the world got together in an assembly to discuss complaints and straighten out other matters. There was so much ruckus going on that an elephant stepped on a crawdad and killed him. The crawdads got pretty mad and tried to get the attention of the assembly, but went unheard. Not long after, the elephant stepped on another crawdad and killed him too. The crawdads tried again to get the assemblies attention to no end. The finally decided to bore holes in the ground so deep that the waters welled up and flooded the earth. 

Plantation Proverbs
Some of my favorites were:

-Mole don't see w'at his naber doin'.

-Don't fling away de empty wallet.

-W'en coon take water he fixin' fer ter fight.

-Ha'nts don't bodder longer hones' folks, but you better go 'roun' de grave-yard.

And my favorite:

-Licker talks mighty loud w'en it git loose fum de jug.

Antique Liquor Jug. Source: Pixabay.

Week 6, Reading Diary A: Brer Rabbit I

The Brer Rabbit I readings for this week were great! I grew up in Macon Georgia, which is about an hour away from Eatonton Georgia, where the author Joel Chandler Harris is from. When I was younger, about once a year me and my grandma would stop by the Uncle Remus Museum in Eatonton on our way to see her family in South Carolina. I had never read the stories before, so it was nice to read them. I had no trouble reading them since I grew up around white and black people who talked like this. My grandmother still says "chilluns". Although there have been many people who say that the writings were racist, Harris was a big supporter of the African-American community, which was very rare in the south. He retold the stories straight from southern African-American oral stories traditions and wrote them the way they came straight from the source. I honestly think he did that to keep it true to form and although it could go either way on how it is taken, nevertheless, we do have a written copy of the stories that could have otherwise been lost.

On to the stories:

The Wonderful Tar-Baby Story and How Mr. Rabbit Was Too Sharp for Mr. Fox
This story is probably the most famous of the Brer Rabbit stories. Even though I had not read the stories before, I knew the gist of the story. In this story Brer Fox is trying to catch Brer Rabbit because he wants to eat him. B Fox makes a person out of tar and sits it by the road. B Rabbit comes by and thinks that the Tar-Baby is being rude, so he starts touching him, and trying to hit him. Unfortunately he gets stuck. B Fox is sitting near by and is ready to grab B Rabbit and take him to his house to eat him. B Rabbit tricks the fox into throwing him into the briar patch, which B Rabbit was "bred an bawn" in. After B Rabbit was in the briar patch, he worked himself loose from the tar and got away. I thought having the tar-baby actually turn into a real person might be a good story :)

Br'er Rabbit and the Tar-Baby. Drawing by E.W. Kimble. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Mr. Wolf Makes a Failure

In this story, Brer Fox has an accomplice named Brer Wolf. B Wolf tells B Fox that he has a plan to catch Brer Rabbit for him. B Wolf tells B Fox to lay down on his bed and pretend that he is dead. Then B Wolf will go tell B Rabbit that B Fox has died and then B Rabbit will want to go see for himself and, when B Rabbit comes to see him, B Fox can grab him.

The plan goes well until B Rabbit gets to B Fox's house. He figures out it is a trap and pretends to talk to himself out loud about how when dead men have visitors, they will lift their leg up and yell wahoo. When B Fox did just that B Rabbit took off fast!

Week 5, Extra Reading Diary: Welsch (Thomas) (Second Half)

Welsch (Thomas) 2nd Half

Owen Goes a-Wooing
This story is very short, but very interesting. Owen is on his way to see his sweetheart and gets lost and falls into a lake. He can't swim, so he sinks and sinks until he comes to the bottom. He miraculously can breath and when he lands, there is green fields and trees. An old fat man asks him to stay so he does for a couple of hours. He then realizes that his sweetheart will be worried about him since he is a couple of hours late so he asks to leave. When he leaves, he ends up coming out from underneath the hearth of his sweetheart, who is sitting there weeping. He finds out that he had been gone a month.

The Devil's Bridge
In this story, there is an old woman who has lost her only source of income, her cow, to the other side of a very rapid river. Suddenly a monk appears and offers to build a bridge so she can retrieve her cow, on one condition. He says he wants to keep the first living thing to crosses the bridge. The old lady goes home while the monk builds the bridge. After thinking it over, she realizes that the monk is probably the devil trying to steal her soul. She decides to sacrifice her dog so that she and her cow will be okay. She tricks the devil by getting her dog to cross first by throwing some bread on the bridge. The devil is so annoyed that he leaves and never comes back.

Devil's Bridge in Bulgaria. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Week 5, Storytelling: The Oxen Effect

Once upon a time mankind was very wasteful and ignorant of the consequences of their ways. The deities of the universe decided to send the Ox to man to deliver a message that if they did not change their wasteful ways, they would perish from their wants.

Along the way, the Ox was bothered by little bugs and flies that were dining on his hide. Soon a Crow came to eat the bugs that were bothering the Ox. The Crow decided to stay and help the Ox on his journey and started asking questions about where he was going and why. The Ox told him of the message he was sent to deliver to man. This weighed heavy on the Crow’s mind because he and all the other smaller animals and birds of the forest lived heartily off of the excess of man. The Crow begged the Ox to not deliver the message or to at least alter the message so he and the other creatures would not perish. The Ox told the Crow that he would consider his request, but the Ox decided that the gods knew what was best and didn’t want to suffer their wrath.

The Ox arrived to man and told them of the warning from the gods. Man immediately took the warning to heart and began only making what was necessary for them to eat and made sure that all of their food was ate so as not to waste anything. The Crow sat nearby on a tree limb and thought about the Ox and how he had condemned them to death by delivering his message. Slowly the birds and small animals of the world started dying out. Man started noticing that the birds did not sing any more and the little creatures did not come around them like they used to. Man sent their strongest warrior into the woods to find out what was wrong with the animals. The warrior found the Crow sitting at the bottom of a tree, barely alive. He sat down and talked to the Crow and found out what the Ox had done.

American Crow. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

The warrior went back to man and told them what he had learned from the Crow and they decided that they would find the Ox and make him pay for what he made them do. It didn’t take much looking to find the Ox since he was grazing on a field nearby. Man caught the Ox and brought him back to their villages and made him work for penance for what he had done.

Authors Note: This story is about how the Ox was sent to mankind to warn them about their wasteful ways. On the way a Crow convinced the Ox not to warn man because he and the other birds and wildlife fed off of man’s spoils. In the story, the Ox doesn’t tell the humans what he is sent to tell them, but I thought it would be an interesting butterfly effect for the other animals of Earth if he had ignored the Crow and told mankind anyway.

Bibliography: Folk Tales of the Kasis, KU Rafy, 1920. Web Source: Mythology and Folklore UnTextbook

Week 5, Reading Diary B: Khasi Folktales

Khasi Folktales

The Leap of Ka Likai
This story has to be one of the saddest and most horrific myths I have read so far. There was a woman named Ka Likai who had a wonderful husband and beautiful little girl. Ka Likai's husband died and so she ended up marrying another man to help her burden of raising a girl by herself. Her new husband was very selfish and was mean to the girl when Ka Likai was gone. One day she had to go on a long trip for work and left her husband to watch the girl. The husband decided to kill the girl and had chopped her up and cooked her to feed to the girls mother. After dinner, she pulled a bowl of betel nut towards her and saw her daughters severed hand in the bowl. The husband confessed to what he had done and she went and jumped over a waterfall to end her life. 


How the Ox came to be the Servant of Man
Most of the stories in between the first and last of this half seemed to have a laziness theme. Also, most of these stories were about how different animals came to live with man. This one stood out to me because of the warning that is given. It seems to resonate today as well.
Man had become wasteful and ignorant. The god called on the ox to deliver a message to them. The message was to not be so wasteful because they would perish from want at some point. On the way to tell man, the bugs and flies kept bothering the ox. A crow came and took care of the bugs for the ox. The ox then told the crow what he was going to do. The crow became distraught because he lived on the extras from the humans. After some pleading from the crow, the ox mixed the two requests into one to help the humans and the crows and other animals that lived off of mans waste. After the god found out what the ox had done, he knocked his top teeth out and punched a hollow in his waist. Afterwards, the ox was looking for pasture and shelter and offered his help to mankind in return for those things. 

Rekla Race. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Week 5, Reading Diary A: Khasi Folktales

This week I chose to read the Khasi Folktales. The first half is full of stories about animals. Some are sneaky, some are lazy, and some are spoiled.

The Tiger and the Monkeys
The Tiger was once appointed king of everything and was a very self-centered animal. One day he was once taking a nap in the shade and woke up to a beautiful voice singing. He couldn't see where the voice was coming from so he asked the monkeys near by. A monkey, wanting to joke with Tiger because of his ignorance, told him it was their sister, even though it was actually the most famous singing bug in the forest. The Tiger then said he wanted to marry there sister. The poor monkey didn't know what to do since his joke backfired on him. The made up a story about their sister not being ready to meet the king and made a date for a week later for them to meet. The monkeys, not wanting to be torn limb from limb by the Tiger, decided to make a "sister" out of clay. They put all kinds of adornments on her to hide the fact that she was a statue. The Tiger had made a necklace and put it on the statue. When the statue didn't respond, the monkeys told him to pull on the necklace. The statues head fell off since it wasn't attached very good. The poor Tiger was beat up because he dared to "kill" their sister.

How Dog Came to Live With Man
In this story, there was once a fair that was held each year by all the animals in the forest. The Dog, U Ksew, was very lazy and hunted for something to acquire so he could sell it at the fair. He stumbled upon a house where humans were cooking their dinner. They invited the dog to come eat with them. Even though it was stinky, the beans were very good. The dog bought a pot full from the man and went back to the fair. The next day after opening his pot, all the animals made fun of him and broke his pot and stomped on the stinky beans. The dog, being sad about what he thought was going to make him a lot of money, wandered back to the mans house. He lived there with the man and helped him hunt the other animals, which were easy to find since their feet still smelled like stinky beans. One day the man came home and saw the pig and dog being lazy together so he decided to put them to work in the field. The pig spent all day digging while the dog played in the shade. When they were done, the dog walked all over what the pig had done. After a couple of days of dealing with the dog, the pig told the man what was happening. When they went to the field, though, the dogs footprints were everywhere making it look like HE was the one doing all the work. So that's how the dog came to live in the house of the man and not have to do any work.

Pointer Dog with Duck. Source: Wikimedia Commons

Week 4, Storytelling: Thoth's Revenge

Nefer was a good student at Alexandria High and received the highest grades in his class. He had a full ride to Egypt University and the sky was the limit. He was always searching for new knowledge and was always trying to learn. One day, while he was at the Library of Alexandria, he had wandered into an older section of the library. This section contained all of the old magic scrolls that no one really believed in anymore. All of the scrolls were dusty and piled on top of one another haphazardly. As he was walking through the stacks, one caught his eye. It was shoved in the corner of the very bottom shelf. After some tugging and rearranging, he finally pulled out the old papyrus. This was nothing like he had ever seen before, it was The Book of Thoth. The first few pages told him about a way to learn all the spells in the book. First, you had to write down the spells on a piece of papyrus. Second, you had to wash the ink off with beer. Third, you had to drink the beer, and only then would you know the spells by heart. He then started writing everything down and learning it this way.

Book of the Dead Papyrus. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

After doing this with all the spells in the book and all the books in the library, he became a powerful magician. He had stolen The Book of Thoth from the library so no one else would ever have the same power he did. Years later, Thoth went to Ra and asked him for permission to exact his revenge on Nefer for stealing his book. Ra granted him permission and Thoth got his revenge by burning down the Library of Alexandria. This was a devastating blow to the people of Alexandria and everyone else since this was one of the main resources for the culture, arts, and literature of the world. By this time, papyrus had became scarce and so Nefer tried to recreate all of the scrolls on parchment but died before he could finish.

Authors Note: This story is based on the Egypt Mythology story of The Book of Thoth. I thought it was interesting how he learned the spells and I thought Thoth’s revenge would be a good explanation for the destruction of the Library of Alexandria. Story source: Egyptian Myth and Legend by Donald Mackenzie (1907). I have a bad cold, so I feel horrible. This story is lacking creativity but I did the best I could on what I had.

Week 4, Extra Reading Diary: Welsh (Emerson) (Second Half)

Welsh (Emerson) 2nd Half

For this weeks extra reading I read the second half of the Welsh (Emerson) Unit. It was boring at first, but picked up nicely. Most of the stories had no point or meaning, but was just a quick story, but there were a couple that I liked.

Billy Duffy and the Devil
In Billy Duffy and the Devil, Billy is a local blacksmith who seems to be the town drunk. One day when he had ran out of money for a drink, Billy said that he would sell his soul for more drink. Of course, a devil showed up and said he would pay for his soul and would come collect in seven years. Billy was always partying and people would show up at his house randomly. One day a hermit showed up and visited a few times so he gave Billy three wishes. Billy wished for his hammer to keep hammering when used, his purse to never let anything go, and his armchair to hold whoever sat in it. After the first seven years, Billy tricked the devil with the hammer. The second seven years, Billy tricked the devil with the purse. The third seven years, Billy tricked the devil with the chair and bargained for the rest of his life in exchange for the devil to be let go. When Billy died, he went to hell and they wanted no part of him. He then went to heaven but they wouldn't let him in because he was a bad man, so he went back to earth and turned into a will-o-the-wisp.

Mermen. Russian lubok. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

The Fishermen of Shetland
This story is almost like a bad joke. A merman, a witch, and a dwarf walk into a bar... In the story two fisherman brothers are trying to date the rich girls in town. The merman got a belt from a fairy queen to help him, help the fishermen to know where to fish. The witch and dwarf were in cahoots to steal the belt, kidnap the merman, and starve all the fishermen. The dwarf stole the belt, then the fairy queen sent one of the brothers to kill him. He killed him and then she sent him back to kill the witch. After all was done they found the merman and the boys got the girls and all lived happily ever after.