Tiny Tales: Traditional Stories in 100 Words

How Fox Crossed the Strait

Fox wanted to cross the strait. How could he cross the deep water? He sang his shaman's song to summon the seals and walruses and whales.

"What are you singing about?" they asked.

"I am singing about this: are there more animals on the land or in the sea?"

"In the sea!" they shouted.

"I don't believe you," replied Fox. "Line up from here across the strait so I can count you."

The sea creatures came to the surface and Fox walked across their backs, counting, but when he had crossed over, he just ran off into the woods, laughing.

Inspired by: Myths and Legends of Alaska, edited by Katharine Berry Judson (1911).
Notes: You can read about the Koryak people of the Russian Far East at Wikipedia. In the original story Fox was not trying to get to an island; he was trying to get off an island where Eagle had abandoned him.

Bering Strait

The Fox and the Eagle

Fox took some grass stalks and went to the tree where Eagle nested.

"Throw down an egg," Fox shouted. "Or else I'll knock the tree with this grass!" Then Fox waved the grass stalks menacingly.

The frightened Eagle threw Fox an egg, and he ate it.

"Give me another!"

Eagle threw down another egg.

"Another!"

"No!" groaned Eagle.

"If you don't, I'll knock the tree down and take them all."

So Eagle threw Fox another egg, which he ate.

"You are such a fool, Eagle! Did you really think grass could knock down a tree?"

Fox then ran away, laughing.

Inspired by: Myths and Legends of Alaska, edited by Katharine Berry Judson (1911).
Notes: You can read about the Koryak people of the Russian Far East at Wikipedia. They also inhabit the coastlands of the Bering Sea, which is why their stories appear in Judson's book of Alaska tales. In the original story, Eagle then gets angry, snatches Fox, and drops him on a deserted island.

(Arctic fox)

Marmot and Raven

Marmot was bringing food home, but Raven blocked the way. "I'll eat your food," he said. "Then I'll eat you!"

"Alright," said Marmot. "But I've heard you are the best dancer. Will you dance for me first?"

Raven couldn't resist; he started dancing.

"Wonderful, Raven! You dance beautifully! Can you dance with your eyes closed?"

Raven then closed his eyes and kept dancing.

When Raven wasn't looking, Marmot ran inside.

Then he stuck out his head. "Just look at me, Raven! So fat, so nice to eat! But you'll never eat me now!"

Raven flew away, hungry, angry and ashamed.

Inspired by: Myths and Legends of Alaska, edited by Katharine Berry Judson (1911)
Notes: You can read about the Inuit (Eskimo) people of the Bering Strait at Wikipedia. Raven can be a trickster, but this is a story of the trickster tricked.

(Marmot)

The Guru and the Beggar

A guru traveling in a luxurious palanquin saw a beggar by the roadside.

"O guru, how do I get to heaven?" shouted the beggar.

"Raise your hands and just stand there," the guru snorted. "And don't move."

Many years later, the guru was traveling that same road and saw the beggar: arms lifted, hair grown grey, his clothes in tatters. He hadn't moved!

Then, as the guru watched, the beggar rose in the air, higher and higher.

"Take me with you!" he shouted as he grabbed the beggar's feet.

The guru finally saw this was indeed the way to heaven.

Inspired by: "The Guru and the Idiot" in Folktales from India by A. K. Ramanujan
Notes: You can read about the Telugu people of southern India at Wikipedia. Ramanujan notes: "This bhakti story places faith, evenan idiot's, above worldly success as a guru." You can read more about the devotion of bhakti at Wikipedia. The original story calls the man an idiot, but I opted to make him a beggar.

holy man

The Two Dreams

"I dreamed we were walking on a narrow bridge between two pools," the king said to Tenalirama. "One pool was full of honey, and the other full of shit. I fell in the honey, and you fell in the shit. What a funny dream!"

All the courtiers laughed at the king's words, delighted to see their rival humiliated.

Even Tenalirama laughed, and then he said. "It's miraculous, O king! I also had the same dream, and after we fell in, I had to lick you clean, and then you had to lick me clean."

So the jester got his revenge.

Inspired by: "The Guru and the Idiot" in Folktales from India by A. K. Ramanujan
Notes: You can read about the Telugu people of southern India at Wikipedia, and you can also read about the famous jester Tenalirama.

SAB TV: Tenali Rama

The Guru's Next Life

"I will be reborn as a pig in my next life," the guru said to his loyal disciple. "See that pig over there? I will be her piglet. You'll recognize me by a mark on my forehead. Promise you'll kill me and release me from that life."

"I promise," said the disciple.

The guru died and the disciple mourned for thirty days.

Then he took a knife and grabbed the piglet, but the piglet screamed, "Stop! Don't! I didn't know how nice this life would be. Forget what I said: I want to live as a pig."

The disciple obeyed.

Inspired by: "Living Like a Pig" in Folktales from India by A. K. Ramanujan

Notes: You can read about the Telugu people of southern India at Wikipedia. This story shares a theme in common with a story told by the ancient Greek writer Plutarch about one of Odysseus's men who does not want Odysseus to undo Circe's magic spell: Gryllus.

pig farm in India

The Man and his Two Wives

A middle-aged man had two wives — one older, one younger — and they were rivals, deeply jealous of one another.

When he spent time with his younger wife, she would pluck the gray hairs from his head; she wanted to spite the older wife, making him look young, not old.

When he spent time with his older wife, she would pluck the dark hairs from his head; resentful of the younger wife, she wanted him to look older, not younger.

Thanks to the efforts of his two wives, the man soon had no hairs on his head: he was now bald!

Inspired by: "Between Two Wives" in Folktales from India by A. K. Ramanujan, 1991.
Notes: You can read about the Tamil people of southern India at Wikipedia. This is also found in the fables of Aesop about a man and his two mistresses; here's Caldecott's illustration for the Aesop's fable:

The Fated Tiger

One night in the jungle, a man heard animals predicting the future: his nephew, not yet born, would be killed by a tiger — on his wedding day!

Years later, he came to his nephew's wedding armed with a bow. Sure enough, a tiger pounced on the groom. But the uncle was ready: he shot and killed the tiger.

"Now you are safe!" he proclaimed, as everyone looked on, amazed.

"He's not so scary!" scoffed the groom. But when he kicked the tiger, a fang lodged in his leg.

The bleeding could not be stopped.

He died.

It was his fate.

Inspired by: "Killed by a Tiger," in Folktales from India, by A. K. Ramanujan, 1991.
Notes: You can read about the Santal people of India, Bangladesh and Nepal at Wikipedia.

freerangestock photo

The Two Sisters

Two sisters, Uma and Purnima, were lost in the jungle.

A tiger attacked; he devoured Uma, but Purnima escaped. A man later rescued her, and they married.

A bamboo grove grew from Uma's bones, and shepherds made flutes from the bamboo. When the shepherds played these flutes, a mysterious woman would emerge; she sang sadly and cooked and cleaned for them, and then disappeared back into the flute.

"That must be my sister!" exclaimed Purnima. She waited at a shepherd's house, and when Uma emerged from the flute, they embraced, and Uma did not go back into the flute again.

Inspired by: "Two Sisters," in Folktales from India, by A. K. Ramanujan, who heard the story from Sitakant Mahapatra.
Notes: You can read about the Santal people of India, Bangladesh and Nepal at Wikipedia. The original version of this story is much more elaborate, and it contains the words of the song that the dying and then dead woman sings. I added the names to make the story easier to tell. Similar legends of "singing bones" are found all over the world.

bamboo flute by nevskysun (abedabun.com)

A Jar of Persian

A village had come under Persian rule, but nobody there spoke Persian. This made doing business difficult, so they sent a man to buy some Persian.

"Do you have Persian for sale?" he asked, but everyone just laughed at him.

Finally, someone said, "I'll sell you a jar of Persian! But don't open it until you get home, or the Persian will escape."

He sold the foolish villager a jar full of wasps.

"Come look!" he shouted when he got back home. "A jar of Persian!" But when he opened the jar, wasps flew out and stung all the villagers.

Inspired by: "Two Jars of Persian," in Folktales from India, by A. K. Ramanujan.
Notes: You can read about the Punjab region, now divided between India and Pakistan, at Wikipedia. The story is specifically about the people of Durrani Pashtun rule of the Punjab, and the jars of Persian come from Jalalabad in what is now Afghanistan. (Hamid Karzai, the former president of Afghanistan, is a Durrani Pashtun.)

jar with cloth lid at picryl