Cliff,
The
Travelling Talesman,
shared with us a pick'n'mix selection from his storybag. First came
some tales from his Oy!
Sunshine!
tour, including Torch-Woman looking for her baby, as she also goes
looking for food; the Inuit custom of 'dousing the lights', with all
that implies, especially the male moon forgetting to eat as he
pursues the female sun, and thus getting thin and pale as he crosses
the sky. Then there were the rival sisters, one of whom fools the
other into eating her own children. After that came the jakata tale
which shows how we are all the instruments of karma, because it has
no hands, and teaches us not to mess with quail, because they have
long memories and many favours to call in. In the story of The Girl
[headgear unspecified] Cliff is still looking for an ending that he
finds both convincing and satisfying [though he did give us one].
Everybody loves Skeleton-Woman [especially with Cliff playing the
drum], and nobody could resist the story of Amaterasu, which you can
read here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amaterasu
.
The third
session saw Nicole make her debut as a storyteller, in a way which
made everyone think she'd been telling for years. We were quite
prepared to believe she was an old man from the Appalachians who
wished he'd been stolen away by the Nunnehi when he'd been young [he
had the chance...] and then he wouldn't have been old and creaky and
cranky. You can read about the Nennehi here
No one could
have followed that, but Maddie had to, and resorted to three Hodja
tales [they always go round in threes, for self-protection] including
The Washing of the Cat, the Bath-House, and the Sausage after which
Raph told us how Coyote persuaded Mouse to exchange certain
body-parts with him, and the consequences. Mike closed with Little
Dog Turpie and the Hobiyahs, in Leila Berg's version, which you can
find here:
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