Reading Notes: Folklore of Laos, Part B

The Legend of Rice
Source: Laos Folk-Lore by Katherine Neville Fleeson, with photographs by W.A. Briggs (1899).


Back in the day when the earth was young and all things were great and when rice was a very large grain. One man was only able to eat one grain of rice because it was so large. The people of the village never had to toil gathering the rice because when it was ripe it just fell from the stalks and rolled into the villages. One widow decided that they should build bigger granaries so that they would collect more rice when it was ripe. The old granaries were taken down and the new ones were not yet put up and the rice was ripe and began to fall. The rice came rolling down into the village but there were no granaries to collect the rice. The rice broke into a thousand pieces and said "From this time forth, we will wait in the fields until we are wanted." And form that time and for the rest of eternity, rice has been a very small grain and must be harvested from the field each and every year. 


Source: Laos Folk-Lore by Katherine Neville Fleeson, with photographs by W.A. Briggs (1899).

There was an old man who was very sick and begged to see the doctor. He was brought into the presence of the prince and the old man explained that last night he had a vision that a spirit came and touched him and lead him to a river bank. There he entered a boat that had been prepared for him and rowed it swiftly down the stream. It stopped at the foot of a mountain and a spirit lead me up the mountain without a path. When we reached the top of the mountain there were two great rock walls and between the rock walls was a gate that looked like it was leading into a city. The spirit lead him to the other side of the mountain and insisted that he stepped where a man has never stepped before. He failed to reach where he was supposed to get to. He then held a cup tied to a stick and dipped it in the pure water form the well. The spirit explained that the water alone would heal his sickness. The prince did not doubt the sick mans story but did command that boats be prepared for his use. The prince and a large retinue of servants departed to the mountain. The aged sick man was leading them. After making just the journey in which the  old man described in his visions, they made it to the top of the mountain and saw the gate. The aged man went to the well and dipped the cup into the well and retrieved the water. The chow drank the water and poured it upon himself and was healed of sickness for the rest of his life and almost became a new man. Now the water is used to heal people all over the world day after day. 

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