Favorite Folktales from Around the World

Acknowledgments  /  xiii Introduction  /  1   TELLING TALES  /  17 The Man Who Had No Story (Ireland)  /  20 How Spider Obtained the Sky God’s Stories (Africa)  /  24 Helping to Lie (Germany)  /  27 The Ash Lad Who Made the Princess Say “You’re a Liar” (Norway)  /  28 The Parson and the Sexton (Norway)  /  29 The Tall Tales (Burma)  /  30 Catherine, Sly Country Lass (Italy)  /  33 The Wise Little Girl (Russia)  /  38 Clever Answers (Russia)  /  41 A Dispute in Sign Language (Israel)  /  42 Leopard, Goat, and Yam (Africa)  /  44 An Endless Story (Japan)  /  45   THE VERY YOUNG AND THE VERY OLD  /  47 Glooscap and the Baby (American Indian)  /  49 The Brewery of Eggshells (Ireland)  /  50 Father of Eighteen Elves (Iceland)  /  53 The Fly (Vietnam)  /  55 The Two Pickpockets (England)  /  58 The Seventh Father of the House (Norway)  /  59 The King’s Favorite (China)  /  61 Wagging My Tail in the Mud (China)  /  61 When One Man Has Two Wives (Syria)  /  62 The Old Man and His Grandson (Germany)  /  62 Half a Blanket (Ireland)  /  63   TRUE LOVES AND FALSE  /  65 How Men and Women Got Together (American Indian)  /  68 The Little Old Woman with Five Cows (Siberia)  /  72 The Prayer That Was Answered (Tibet)  /  79 The Merchant’s Daughter and the Slanderer (Russia)  /  82 What Happened to Hadji (Turkey)  /  85 Mr. Fox (England)  /  87 The Waiting Maid’s Parrot (China)  /  90 The White Cat (France)  /  95 Sedna (Eskimo)  /  105 Urashima the Fisherman (Japan)  /  107 The Sprit of the Can (Wales)  /  110 The Toad-Bridegroom (Korea)  /  112 Taken (Ireland)  /  115 The Girl at the Shieling (Iceland)  /  117 Deer Hunter and White Corn Maiden (American Indian)  /  121   TRICKSTERS, ROGUES, AND CHEATS  /  125 Tyll Ulenspiegel’s Merry Prank (Germany)  /  128 The Hodja and the Cauldron (Turkey)  /  129 Being Greedy Chokes Anansi (Jamaica)  /  130 Quevedo and the King (Mexico)  /  131 Why the Hare Runs Away (Africa)  /  132 Coyote Fights a Lump of Pitch (American Indian)  /  134 Crack and Crook (Italy)  /  136 The Master Thief (Germany)  /  138 Peik (Norway)  /  144 The Monkey and the Crocodile (India)  /  151 The Race Between Toad and Donkey (Jamaica)  /  152 The King’s Son Goes Bear Hunting (Finland)  /  155 John Brodison and the Policeman (Ireland)  /  156 The Rabbi and the Inquisitor (Jewish)  /  157 The Ugly Son (Japan)  /  158 Dividing the Goose (Russia)  /  160 The Men Who Wouldn’t Stay Dead (France)  /  161 The Story of Campriano (Italy)  /  163   THE FOOL: NUMBSKULLS AND NOODLEHEADS  /  167 The Three Sillies (England)  /  170 Nasr-ed-Din Hodja in the Pulpit (Turkey)  /  173 Lazy Jack (England)  /  174 Chelm Justice (Jewish)  /  176 Those Stubborn Souls, the Biellese (Italy)  /  176 The Drovers Who Lost Their Feet (Mexico)  /  177 The Old Man and Woman Who Switched Jobs (Sweden)  /  178 The Two Old Women’s Bet (United States)  /  181 A Stroke of Luck (Hungary)  /  183 The Sausage (Sweden)  /  185 Nail Soup (Sweden)  /  187 Old Dry Frye (United States)  /  191 “Bye-bye” (Haiti)  /  194 The Barn is Burning (Afro-American)  /  195   HEROES: LIKELY AND UNLIKELY  /  199 The Birth of Finn MacCumhail (Ireland)  /  202 Li Chi Slays the Serpent (China)  /  210 The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs (Germany)  /  212 The Longwitton Dragon (England)  /  218 The Orphan Boy and the Elk Dog (American Indian)  /  220 Molly Whuppie (England)  /  228 The Beginning of the Narran Lake (Australian Aboriginal)  /  231 The Flying Head (American Indian)  /  233 The Story of the Youth Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was (Germany)  /  235   WONDER TALES, TALL TALES, AND BRAG  /  243 Talk (Africa)  /  246 The King of Ireland’s Son (Ireland)  /  248 The Goose Girl (Germany)  /  254 The Princess on the Glass Hill (Norway)  /  260 The Promises of the Three Sisters (Egypt)  /  268 The Magic Mirror of Rabbi Adam (Jewish)  /  276 The Old Woman Who Lived in a Vinegar Bottle (England)  /  283 The Magic Pear Tree (China)  /  286 Faithful John (Germany)  /  287 Four Hound-Dog Stories (Ireland and United States)  /  294   SHAPE SHIFTERS  /  297 The Doctor and His Pupil (France)  /  300 The Swan-Maiden (Sweden)  /  303 Sister Alionushka, Brother Ivanushka (Russia)  /  305 The Blacksmith’s Wife of Yarrowfoot (Scotland)  /  308 The Seal’s Skin (Ireland)  /  310 The Wounded Seal (Scotland)  /  311 The Cat-Woman (France)  /  313 The Serpent-Woman (Spain)  /  315 The Snake’s Lover (Peru)  /  323   NOT QUITE HUMAN  /  329 The Well-Baked Man (American Indian)  /  331 The Finn Messenger (Norway)  /  333 Vasilisa the Beautiful (Russia)  /  335 Bridget and the Lurikeen (Ireland)  /  342 The Two Hunchbacks (Italy)  /  343 Then the Merman Laughed (Iceland)  /  346 Peregrin and the Mermaid (Wales)  /  347 The Ash Lad Who Had an Eating Match with the Troll (Norway)  /  348 How Mosquitoes Came to Be (American Indian)  /  350 The Departure of the Giants (Africa)  /  352   FOOLING THE DEVIL  /  355 The Peasant and the Devil (Germany)  /  358 Wicked John and the Devil (United States)  /  359 The Bad Wife (Russia)  /  367 Katcha and the Devil (Czechoslovakia)  /  369 The Lawyer and the Devil (Ireland)  /  375 Coals on the Devil’s Hearth (Ireland)  /  376 The Devil’s Hide (Finland)  /  378 How El Bizarrón Fooled the Devil (Cuba)  /  386 Bearskin (Germany)  /  389 The Lad and the Devil (Norway)  /  394 Wiley and the Hairy Man (United States)  /  395   THE GETTING OF WISDOM  /  401 Truth and Falsehood (Greece)  /  403 Getting Common Sense (Jamaica)  /  405 Rich Man, Poor Man (Africa)  /  406 The Lost Horse (China)  /  407 It Could Always Be Worse (Jewish)  /  408 His Just Reward (Sweden)  /  409 Djuha’s Sleeve (Syria)  /  411 King Mátyás and His Scholars (Hungary)  /  412 The Missing Axe (China)  /  412 What Melody Is the Sweetest? (Afghanistan)  /  413 The Peddler of Swaffham (England)  /  414 The Beduin’s Gazelle (Saudi Arabia)  /  415 The Happy Man’s Shirt (Italy)  /  417   GHOSTS AND REVENANTS  /  419 Orpheus and Eurydice (Greece)  /  422 The Spirit-Wife (American Indian)  /  423 One Night in Paradise (Italy)  /  428 A Pretty Girl in the Road (United States)  /  430 The Dream House (Ireland)  /  432 The Peasant and the Fiend (Estonia)  /  433 The Tinker and the Ghost (Spain)  /  435 Hold Him, Tabb (Afro-American)  /  439 Drinking Companions (China)  /  440 The Ostler and the Grave Robbers (Scotland)  /  444   DEATH AND THE WORLD’S END  /  445 The Duration of Life (Germany)  /  448 Woman Chooses Death (American Indian)   /  449 Jump into My Sack (Italy)  /  451 Youth Without Age and Life Without Death (Turkey)  /  457 Goha on the Deathbed (Egypt)  /  465 Death of a Miser (Russia)  /  466 Godfather Death (Germany)  /  466 The Hungry Peasant, God, and Death (Mexico)  /  469 The Word the Devil Made Up (Afro-American)  /  471 A Paddock in Heaven (England)  /  472 How a Man Found His Wife in the Land of the Dead (Papua)  /  472 The End of the World (American Indian)  /  474   Notes  /  477 Permissions Acknowledgments  /  495   /