Chapter I: Front Matter

Footnote references are marked with [brackets] and the texts have been placed at the end of each story.

Changes to the original publication (possible typographic errors or inconsistencies) are listed at the end.

Laos Folk-Lore of Farther India

Laos Folk-Lore
of
Farther India

BY
Katherine Neville Fleeson

With Illustrations from Photographs taken by
W. A. Briggs, M. D.

NEW YORK CHICAGO TORONTO
Fleming H. Revell Company
Publishers of Evangelical Literature

Copyright, 1899
by
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY

Introduction

These Folk-Tales from the Laos country, a part of the kingdom of Siam, in addition to their intrinsic merit have the charm of complete novelty. Until the translator of this volume collected these stories, they were even unwritten, with a single exception which was found in a Laos manuscript. They are orally preserved in the provinces which constitute the Laos country, just as they have been handed down from generations of ancestors, with slight variations in words or incidents. The elders among the people tell the stories at their merrymakings around the camp-fires and within their primitive houses, to amuse and instruct the youth and children.

Living among the Laos in the friendly and intimate relation of a missionary, the translator has had the advantage of long residence and unrivalled opportunity for understanding the history, customs, religious ideas and aspirations of this interesting people. Aptness in use of their colloquial speech gave her special facility for gathering the stories with exactness, as they fell from the lips of the narrators in her hearing; and for the delicate additional task of translating them into English. The scholar, who is a student of the world's Folk-Lore, may be assured that he has here, the Laos tales unobscured, just as they are told to-day.

Reflecting, as they do, thoughts, desires and hopes common to our humanity, these stories at the same time exhibit, in a pathetic way, the need in Laos of the uplifting and transforming power of the Christian religion.

Willis G. Craig.

McCormick Theological Seminary,
Chicago.

Contents

PAGE

I. Tales of the Jungle 13
1 A Child of the Woods 15
2 The Enchanted Mountain 17
3 The Spirit-Guarded Cave 20
4 The Mountain Spirits and the Stone Mortars 23

II. Fables from the Forest 25
1 Right and Might 27
2 Why the Lip of the Elephant Droops 29
3 How a Dead Tiger Killed the Princess 32
4 The Monkeys and the Crabs 33

III. Nature's Riddles and their Answers 35
1 The Man in the Moon 37
2 The Origin of Lightning 38
3 Why the Parrot and the Minor Bird but
Echo the Words of Man 41
4 The Fatherless Birds 44

IV. Romance and Tragedy 47
1 The Lovers' Leap 49
2 The Faithful Husband 51
3 The Faithful Wife 57
4 An Unexpected Issue 60

V. Temples and Priests 63
1 The Giants' Mountain and the Temple 65
2 Cheating the Priest 67
3 The Disappointed Priest 69
4 The Greedy Priest 71
5 The Ambitious Priest 73

VI. Moderation and Greed 75
1 The Wizard and the Beggar 77
2 A Covetous Neighbor 80
3 A Lazy Man's Plot 83
4 The Ungrateful Fisherman 84
5 The Legend of the Rice 85

VII. Parables and Proverbs 87
1 "One Woman, in Deceit and Craft,
is More than a Match for Eight Men" 89
2 "The Wisest Man of a Small Village
is Not Equal in Wisdom to a Boy
of the City Streets" 93
3 "To Aid Beast is Merit;
to Aid Man is But Vanity" 95

VIII. The Gods Know and the Gods Reward 99
1 Love's Secrets 101
2 Poison-Mouth 103
3 Strife and Peace 105
4 The Widow's Punishment 107
5 Honesty Rewarded 109
6 The Justice of In Ta Pome 111

IX. Wonders of Wisdom 113
1 The Words of Untold Value 115
2 A Wise Philosopher 119
3 The Boys Who Were Not Appreciated 122
4 The Magic Well 126

X. Strange Fortunes of Strange People 129
1 The Fortunes of Ai Powlo 131
2 The Fortunes of a Lazy Beggar 135
3 The Misfortunes of Paw Yan 139
4 An Unfortunate Shot 141

XI. Stories Gone Astray 143
1 The Blind Man 145
2 "Heads, I Win. Tails, You Lose" 148
3 The Great Boaster 149
4 A Clever Thief 151
5 Eyeless-Needle, Rotten-Egg, Rotten-Banana,
Old-Fish and Broken-Pestle 152

List of Illustrations.

A Group of Laos Girls _Frontispiece_
Types of the Laos People _Facing page_ 15
A Laos Forest-stream " " 28
The Laos Governor's Wife at her Embroidery Frame " " 57
A Group of Buddhist Priests }
The Interior of a Buddhist Temple } " " 66
Monastery Grounds at Chieng Tung, Laos " " 72
At Work in the Rice Fields " " 86
The "Chow" and his Palace " " 96
Laos Feast }
A Street in a Laos Town } " " 136