Tiny Tales: Traditional Stories in 100 Words: not in book

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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

The Scholar and his Beard

A scholar was studying by lamplight late into the night. In one of his books he read: "Men with long beards are fools."

The scholar's beard was quite long. "Alas!" he sighed. "Is it really true? Are men with long beards fools?"

Then he glanced at the lamp and thought to himself, "I just need to burn off my beard!"

So he held his beard over the flame. It caught fire immediately. Then the fire burned his mustache! His eyebrows! All the hair on his head!

Thus he discovered that what he had read in the book was indeed true.

Inspired by: "A Qazi with a Long Beard" in Folktales from India by A. K. Ramanujan, 1991
Notes: You can read about the Marathi people of western India at Wikipedia.

pixlhive: oil lamp

picture

The Tortoise, the Fox, and the Leopard

Tortoise and his friend Fox lived near a pond.

One day Leopard showed up: Fox ran, but Tortoise was trapped.

"What a nice snack!" Leopard exclaimed, but he couldn't eat the tortoise because of the shell.

Fox then came back and said politely, "Good sir, just put that shell into the water. It will get soft, and then you can eat the meat inside."

"Thank you, my friend!" said Leopard. "How kind of you!"

But when Leopard put the shell into the water, Tortoise wriggled free and swam away.

Fox also ran away again.

So Leopard ended up with nothing!

Inspired by: "A Friend in Need" in Folktales from India by A. K. Ramanujan, 1991. The storyteller is M. G. Shashibhooshan.

Notes: You can read about the Malayalam language spoken in Kerala and elsewhere in southern India at Wikipedia.

Indian leopard

Walnuts and Pumpkins

A grumpy man sat under a walnut tree, staring up at the tiny nuts growing on the enormous tree. Then he glanced over to his garden where he saw enormous pumpkins growing on a scrawny vine.

"How foolish God is!" he exclaimed. "The pumpkins obviously belong on the tree and the walnuts on the ground. I'd arrange things differently if I were in charge!"

Then, without warning, a walnut fell down on the man's head.

"Dear God!" he exclaimed. "If that had been a pumpkin, it might have killed me. God really does know best how everything should be arranged!"

Inspired by: "A Malcontent Cured" in Folktales from India by A. K. Ramanujan, 1991.
Notes: You can read about the state of Kashmir in northern India at Wikipedia. This story is also well known in the Middle East, and thanks to La Fontaine, it has also become part of the fable tradition in Europe as well.

pxhere photo

The Tiger's Son

A tiger found an abandoned baby and raised him.

When he was grown, he said, "Father, I need a wife."

The tiger caught a woman for him but nibbled her ear.

"No!" he protested. "I want a whole woman!"

The tiger couldn't help himself: he nibbled every woman he found.

Finally, he succeeded: he brought home a woman untouched.

As she prepared the wedding feast, however, she nicked her finger.

Smelling blood, the tiger pounced, but the man stabbed and killed him.

Then he took his bride back home.

"You're alive!" shouted her happy parents, and the whole village celebrated.

Inspired by: "The Tiger's Adopted Son" in Folktales from India by A. K. Ramanujan, 1991.
Notes: You can read about the Didayi people of Odisha in eastern India at Wikipedia.

freerange photos

The Tiger and the Lamb

A tiger and a lamb drank from the same stream; the tiger upstream, the lamb downstream.

"Why are you muddying my water?" shouted the tiger.

"That couldn't be me," explained the lamb. "I'm downstream."

"And you did it yesterday too!"

"But I wasn't here yesterday," the lamb replied.

"Then it must have been your mother."

"My mother's dead."

"Your father then!"

"I don't know my father."

"So your grandfather's the guilty one!" yelled the exasperated tiger. "And now I'm going to eat you as punishment."

Then the tiger seized the innocent lamb and ate him up.

That's what tigers do.

Inspired by: "If It Isn't You, It Must Be Your Father" in Folktales from India by A. K. Ramanujan 1991.
Notes: Ramanujan reports hearing this story told to him in Kannada when he was a child. You can read about the Kannada language spoken in Karnataka and elsewhere in southern India at Wikipedia. This is an ancient story, found both in the ancient Buddhist jatakas (panther and goat) and also in the Aesop's fables of Greece and Rome (wolf and lamb).

tiger in water

The Mouse and the Magician

There was a mouse who lived in the house of a magician.

"Help me, magician!" said the mouse. "I'm tired of being a mouse. I want to be a cat instead!"

"A cat....?" muttered the magician, rummaging in his magic books. "I don't have a spell to turn you into a cat. Would you like to be a dog?"

The mouse shook his head no.

"A human?"

No.

"A tiger?"

"Oh yes!" squeaked the mouse. "Turn me into a tiger."

So the magician turned the mouse into a tiger.

"Thank you!" roared the tiger, and then he ate the magician.

Inspired by: "With a Wave of the Wand" in A Twist in the Tale by Aditi De, 2005.
Notes: You can read about the state of Maharashtra in western India at Wikipedia. Aditi De's version is more elaborate: after the mouse becomes a tiger, the villagers mock him for having the heart of a mouse; thinking the magician betrayed his secret, the tiger-mouse goes to confront him, and the magician turns him back into a mouse. My story is quite different, but it is the only way I could fit it into 100 words. Compare the story of the brahmins and the tiger bones.

ucumari photography at Flickr

The Old Man and His Sons

An old man was living in poverty: his clothes in tatters, no food to eat.

The man's sons did nothing to help him.

Then a friendly merchant brought him three large, heavy sacks. "Show these to your sons," the merchant said, "but don't open them."

"An investment has brought unexpected returns," the man told his sons. "I wonder who'll inherit all this wealth."

So the sons vied for his favor, bringing him fine food, expensive clothing, every possible luxury.

The old man enjoyed his final years.

Then, when he died, his sons tore the sacks open.

They found only stones.

Inspired by: "The Bag of Fortune" in A Twist in the Tale by Aditi De, 2005.
Notes: You can read about the state of Kashmir in northern India at Wikipedia. Aditi De's version is more elaborate: the story starts with the father revealing the terms of his will to his sons, which is when they start to neglect him.

Kashmiri man

Building the First House

Long ago, people got wet in the rain because they didn't know how to build houses.

"The animals are wise," the people said. "Let's ask them how to build houses."

"You'll need posts," Elephant told them. "Big and strong like my legs."

"And you'll need poles," added Snake. "Long and straight, just like me!"

Buffalo, mourning her husband, showed them his skeleton. "Your house must fit together like these bones."

Then Fish said, "Make layers of leaves like our scales. They will keep you dry."

So that is how people learned to build houses and stay dry in the rain.

Inspired by: "How the First House Was Built" in A Twist in the Tale by Aditi De, 2005.
Notes: The Singphos are a people who live in what is now the border of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh; they also live in Myanmar and in China. Find out more at Wikipedia.

Singpho people of India

The Painter and Tenali Rama

The royal painter had decorated the palace walls with Ramayana murals.

Tenalirama scoffed. "Where's the rest of Rama?" he asked, pointing to one figure.

"That's a profile!" the painter explained. "You have to imagine the rest."

"I can do better than that!" declared Tenalirama. "I will paint the walls with Mahabharata murals!"

When the king came to see Tenalirama's paintings, the walls were covered with noses. Nothing but noses!

"What is this?" he shouted angrily.

"Well, this is Yudhishhtira, of course. This is Arjuna. Here's Draupadi..." Tenalirama pointed out each nose one by one. "You have to imagine the rest."

Inspired by: "Tenali Rama the Painter" in A Twist in the Tale by Aditi De, 2005.
Notes: Tenali Rama was a poet and jester in the court of King Krishnadevaraya of the Vijayanagara Empire, circa 1500; find out more at Wikipedia. The Ramayana and the Mahabharata are the two great epics of ancient India. In Aditi De's version, the story is about Ramayana figures and also about a cow in the grass; I made it a story about the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.

statue of Tenali Rama

Think Before You Act

Four brahmins were traveling together. Along the road, they found some tiger bones.

The first brahmin boasted, "My mantra can reassemble the skeleton!"

"I can give the bones flesh and blood!" boasted the second.

"And I'll bring it to life!" boasted the third.

"Wait!" shouted the fourth as he clambered up a tree. "That sounds dangerous!"

But the brahmins didn't wait.

"Let there be a skeleton!" intoned the first.

"Let there be flesh and blood!" intoned the second.

"Let there be a living tiger!" intoned the third.

Then the living tiger ate the three brahmins.

Only the fourth brahmin survived.

Inspired by: "A Twist in the Tale" in A Twist in the Tale by Aditi De, 2005.
Notes: This version is from Karnataka; the story is also found in the Panchatantra.

tiger at pxhere