Diving into Mythology

One upon a time there was an old man who was very sick. He went to sleep one night and had a very vivid dream, almost as if the spirits were talking to him. He dreamed that a spirit came and got him from his bed and took him on an adventure. The spirit lead him to a boat which he got in and paddled down a river and ended up at the foot of a mountain. Then the spirit lead him all the way up the mountain without going on one single path. When he reached the top of the mountain there were two huge walls made of rocks which what seemed to be a gate in the middle. The gate looked like it could lead to something very important. From here it was his decision to walk through the gate or go back down the mountain. The old man decided to walk through the gate and was surprised as to what he found on the other side. On the other side of the gate was a large well that was very hard to get to. He tied a cup onto a stick and dipped it into the well and retrieved water from the well. After the long j...

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...

Why the Lip of the Elephant Droops Source: Laos Folk-Lore by Katherine Neville Fleeson, with photographs by W.A. Briggs (1899). This story is very interesting to me because it is another "why" story. I really enjoy these stories because the imagination you can have with these stories are endless. There was a family that consisted of a husband, wife, and their twelve daughters. The family was very poor and the parents no longer desired their children. One day, the dad called his daughters to go into the jungle and hunt for game with him. While out hunting, the father ordered each of the daughters to retrieve water with a bamboo joint in which he gave them. The bamboo joints were made so that they would not hold water and the daughters continued to try and retrieve the water. During this time, the father left the girls in the jungle and headed home. However, he left only a basket filled with mashed and rice in the jungle. The daughters returned to where they had left thei...