Mythology and Folklore Fall 2020

"Grandma, the cookies are read--AHHH!" the little girl screamed as a loud bang filled the sky, rushing to her grandmother. "It's okay, dear. I'll get the cookies out of the oven and you can stand right by me." replied the grandmother. Jessie spent one weekend every month with her grandmother, but none that she remembered had been this stormy. The rain was pounding on the roof and the sky kept lighting up, soon followed by a loud crashing noise.  Jessie did not like this and would get really scared every time she heard the loud bang. The grandma had baked cookies as a distraction, but it was not working as she had hoped. Jessie turned to her grandmother and asked, "Why does the sky light up and make a loud bang?" The grandmother smiled. "Here, let's get our cookies and milk, sit by the fire and then I'll tell you." They did as so and sat down by the fire. The grandmother began to tell the story: "Well, Jessie, this is what my ...

  The Story of the Lightning and the Thunder: thunder and lightning live on earth but at far end of town thunder=old mother sheep, lightning=son ram ram got angry--go burn houses and knock down trees, damage farms and kill people mother would call in very loud voice and not stop until damage was done lightning did not care and would do lots of damage when really bad temper people complained to king--king ordered sheep and ram leave town and live in far bush ram still burnt forest and flames would spread to farms still people complained again--king banished both to sky (Photo of lightning storm from Pixabay ) The Affair of the Hippopotamus and the Tortoise: hippo=Isantim--one of biggest kings of land (second to elephant) hippo had 7 fat wives that he loved--threw feast to people but no one knew his name one feast the hippo told the people if you don't know my name then you won't eat--everyone had to leave tortoise asked hippo what would happen if they knew his name before the n...

Why the Bat Flies at Night: rat=Oyot, bat=Emiong bat jealous of rat's soup bat boils self in water--flesh is sweet bat showed rat how to do it rat went home and told wife--boiled wife in water, then he jumped in and died wife rat reported it to the king to arrest bat everyone tried to catch bat but he flew to a bush to hide that's why bat only comes out at night The Fish and the Leopard's Life: fish used to live on land and was good friend to leopard leopards wife and fish fell in love and they would cheat when the leopard was gone old women found out and told leopard leopard came home early to see if it was true and caught them leopard wanted to kill fish but went to court for king king ordered fish to live in water and if they came on land they would die--men and animals could catch and kill them as punishment (Photo of leopard from Wikipedia ) Why Worms Live Underneath the Ground: King Eyo invited subjects to house for feast after feast=speeches head driver ant's spe...