N is for Noses (Body Folktales)

This year, my A to Z Challenge theme is Body Folktales. Enjoy!

Noses are, once again, a pretty common theme in folktales. I have written about them during A to Z multiple times (e.g. here and here). Here are some fun stories to add to the list:

The Princess of Tomboso (Canada)

This is one of those folktales where a princess cheats a man out of various magical items. Eventually, exiled from her kingdom, he finds a tree of apples that make his nose grow long like an elephant's trunk - and another tree with fruit that has the opposite effect. He uses them to blackmail the princess into giving back his treasures. (Find more versions of this tale type here.)

Silver Nose (Italy)

Silver Nose is Bluebeard's Italian version, who also happens to be the Devil himself. If the girls who work for him don't obey his orders, he tosses them into hell. One clever girl, however, manages to rescue her sisters and herself from Silver Nose by trickery. (The mother warns her daughters in advance that the rich man with the silver nose seems suspect).

The magic pipe (Norway)

Three brothers set out to win a princess, and encounter a woman with a yard-long green nose that is stuck in the crack of a log. She begs them to free her, for her nose has been stuck for two hundred years, but only the youngest brother helps her. She rewards him with a magic pipe that he can use to win the princess.

The hyena, the dog, and Nose-of-Mud (Hausa people, Niger)

Nose-of-Mud, a man with a nose made of mud, goes out hunting with the help of Hyena. He makes Hyena rile up a bunch of antelopes by insulting their mother. The antelopes chase Hyena inside the nose of mud, where they die. After the successful hunt, Hyena decides to do the same and makes a mud nose for himself, inviting Dog along to repeat the trick. However, his mud nose breaks, and they both had to flee from the antelopes for their life.

What Spider knows (Ghana)

Anansi the Spider goes out hunting in times of famine, and encounters a strange little old man with a very long nose. He makes Anansi carry his nose around, and they go hunting together. When they want to kill an animal, the man makes Anansi point his nose at it, and the animal falls dead. When he returns home, Anansi makes a long clay nose for himself and tries to hunt with it - without success. The moral, claims the story, is not to be too ashamed to ask, to learn things properly.

Any more morals you can glean from these stories? Or any other nose stories you remember?

H is for Hands, Hair, Hips, Heels (Body Folktales)

This year, my A to Z Challenge theme is Body Folktales. Enjoy!

(Yes, I am aware it's Nails, Hair, Hips, Heels, but it was low hanging fruit.)

HANDS

There were some obvious choices here that I'm omitting, such as Beaumains from Arthurian legends, or the folktale type of the Handless Maiden (which I really hate, except for one Hungarian variant).

Invisible Grandfather (Italy)

A girl sets out to seek her fortune, and ends up in an enchanted castle. She encounters no one except a floating pair of hands that serve her food and make her bed. The hands turn out to belong to Invisible Grandfather, who helps the girl secure a king as a husband - but when she doesn't follow his instructions, he curses her to grow a beard. Unusually for folktales, the curse is lifted by an apology.

The most beautiful hands in the world (Philippines)

A girl is proud of her beautiful, soft hands but refuses to do any work to help others. She mocks another girl for having rough, dirty hands. And yet, when that other girl helps a poor woman, she is rewarded with riches - and told that her hands are the most beautiful.

The legend of St. Kilda (Scotland)

According to legend, people from both Uist and Harris coveted the island of St. Kilda. They decided to have a rowing race, and agreed that whoever lays a hand on the island first will be its owner. As they neared the shore, people from Harris were winning - but the leader of the boat from Uist, Colla MacLeod, chopped off his left hand in the last minute, throwing it to the shore, and thus won the race.

HAIR

Hair is very common in folktales. Think Rapunzel, think the Devil's three golden hairs, think Lady Godiva, or The youth with the golden hair (ATU 314). From mythology, think Sif's golden hair, Sedna's tangled hair, Prince Zal's white hair, or the myth from Guam where women catch a monster fish with their hair. (If any more come to mind, sound off in the comments!)

I picked some lesser known, interesting examples:

The king's daughter who lost her hair (Akamba people, Kenya)

My favorite hair-themed story. A haughty princess goes bald from a curse, and sends people out to find a magic tree that grows hair. A young man travels far and finds the enchanted island where the tree grows; he brings back all kinds of hair for the princess.

The maiden with the red-gold hair (Hungary)

This is a "False bride" folktale where the false bride (forced into pretending by her mother) is treated surprisingly kindly. The story tells about a prince who is looking for a special maiden with red-gold hair, and an evil countess who disguises her own daughter to fit the description.

The raven-haired prince (Slovakia)

In a kingdom where everyone has red hair, a raven-haired prince is born. His parents try everything to change his hair color but nothing succeeds; eventually they send him abroad to try his luck. On his way home his servant blackmails him to swap places. After that, the prince goes through a series of dangerous quests, even dies and is revived, and eventually reclaims his rightful place. And his hair turns red.

The girl who became a bird (Hausa, Niger)

A very beautiful Cinderella variant where the prince falls in love with the girl when he sees her at the party in tattered clothes, and asks about her life. Later, her stepmother braids a charm into her hair and turns her into a bird; she is found and rescued by her brother and her husband.

The dragon prince (Spain)

A girl encounters an injured dragon in the woods, and helps him. Later she discovers he is an enchanted prince who can only be saved if someone creates a suit of golden hair for the giant who cursed him. The girl takes up service as a princess' handmaid, and begs her for her golden hair - but she has to promise her the prince's hand in exchange. Luckily, it turns out the golden-haired beauty is the dragon prince's sister, so our heroic girl gets to marry him in the end.

HIPS

Father and Daughters (Morocco)

This is a "Basil Maiden" type folktale, about a clever girl who saves herself and her sisters from the intrigues of a prince. When he tries to put sleeping powder in their food, she manages to stay awake and kicks the guy out of the house so hard he breaks his hip. Later on, disguised as a doctor, she shows up at court to treat his injury (and get up to more shenanigans). At the end of the story the prince is sentenced to death for trying to harm her, but she commutes his sentence.

The lazy beauty and her aunts (Ireland)

A "Three Spinners" type tale, where a lazy girl is taken to a prince's castle with her mother's promise that she can work miracles in spinning and weaving. Three mysterious old women show up to help her - one with large feet, one with a large nose, and one with wide hips (Cailleach Croman Mór, Woman of the Big Hips). Each in turn tells the prince that their shape is due to the hard work they had done all their life. Alarmed, the prince forbids his bride from working ever again.

HEELS

The most obvious example would be Achilles' heel, but I'm not going to repeat it. If you are curious about a lesser known myth about the same, you can find it in my book.

How mosquitoes came to be (Tlingit)

A giant keeps killing people and devouring their heart. A brave man pretends to be dead, and the giant takes him to his house. There, he discovers that the giant is unkillable because he keeps his own heart in his left heel. As he enters the house again, the hero plunges a knife in his heel, killing him. He then burns the body - and the ashes turn into the first mosquitoes.

How rice came to Earth (Indonesia)

A poor boy walks up to the heavens on the rainbow, following some fairies. There, he encounters rice for the first time, but he is forbidden from taking any of it. When he tries to steal some, he cuts his heel on the rainbow bridge while fleeing and gets caught. The second time, he hides some grains inside the healing wound on his heel, and smuggles them safely down to earth.

The soldier and the wizard (Russia)

The folktale version of a villain being brought down by his own monologuing. A soldier encounters a wizard at night in a cemetery and goes on a clandestine nighttime adventure with him. At one point the wizard takes blood from a young couple, and tells the soldier they can only be revived if someone cuts them on the heel and restores their blood. In the end, the soldier learns all the wizard's secrets, and kills him.

Did you have fun with the stories on this list? Do you have a favorite?

G is for Genitalia (Body Folktales)

This year, my A to Z Challenge theme is Body Folktales. Enjoy!

CW: Adult themes incoming! Obviously.

You didn't really think I was going to do a theme like this without addressing the obvious, did you?

(Note: Some of these tales say 'vagina' instead of 'vulva'. It may be factually incorrect, but I didn't want to mess with the translations.)

Wandering genitalia (Saora people, India)
This story claims that in the old days genitalia could detach themselves and go wandering at night. One evening, the creator Kittung accidentally stepped on a vulva which made a squealing sound. Feeling sorry, he put the small creature into the river, where it turned into a turtle (the head is the clitoris). He then made non-detachable parts for people.

Clitoris legends (India)

This collection from India contains a whole collection of amazing stories about the clitoris. One creation myth claim that lightning was born from Earth Mother's clitoris, therefore it "flashes and sparkles as the clitoris does." Another story says a woman was fishing in a stream one day when a crab pinched her vulva; a deity told her to cut off the claw, and she will have as much pleasure from it as she had pain. A third story tells of a girl who was so busy working that she misplaced her clitoris; she borrowed one from a bird and never gave it back.

My favorite, however, is another tale that claims that body parts used to go wandering on their own. One day, the breasts picked a fight with the vulvas, and chased them all away into the mountains. Dismayed, men set out to bring the vulvas back, but they are skittish creatures and hard to find. By the time they got back, some old women died, and people were left with extra vulvas. They divided them up equally in smaller pieces - creating the clitoris.

The wandering vagina (Mehinaku people, Brazil)

Yet another story that claims that in days of old, genitalia could wander around. A woman named Tukwi had an "especially foolish" vagina that crawled around the floor at night, looking for something to eat. It got into the porridge and started slurping, awakening a man in the house who went to see what it was, and accidentally scorched it with a torch. The vagina fled back to Tukwi, who then warned everyone not to let their vaginas wander around.

Vagina dentata

If there is one folklore trope that a lot of people are (painfully) familiar with, it's this one: vaginas with teeth (F574.1.1). There are entire books written about the folklore and mythology of this trope, so I'm not going to get into it. But I'm going to highlight some favorites. 

One is a Khond legend from India about a woman who used to have shiny, fiery teeth in her vagina until her husband took them out with a cord. After a long life, when their children were grown, she found the teeth again, buried in the garden - and they turned into fireflies. Ever since, they have been allowed to take shelter in people's houses.

The other story is a Mongolian legend about the death of Genghis Khan. It claim that the great khan desired a gorgeous woman named Gürbeljin Ghoa (Lizard Beauty). He put her husband to death and forced her to marry him. On her wedding night, she hid blades in her vagina - and thus murdered Genghis Khan. (Source here.)

An origin story from the Makka people in Paraguay claims that in the beginning, no one could have sex with women because they had piranhas in their vaginas. A wise shaman organized a dance party where he made women dance so much that all the piranhas fell out. Or rather, almost all - the smallest one stayed in and still gnaw, which is why periods exist.

Penis, Vagina and Testicles (Cameroon)

Penis and Testicles are best friends and they go fishing together. On the way back they meet Vagina who asks for some of their fish. Penis is happy to share, but Testicles are stingy. Later on, in the hot season, Vagina happily offers shelter from the sun to Penis, but not Testicles. The latter still try to get as close as possible. (A similar tale is told in Ghana about Penis and Testicles sharing ground nuts with Vagina, and getting shelter from the rain.)

Kwazerema and helpful Ant (Kapsiki people, Cameroon/Nigeria)

A man has two wives, but treats one of them very poorly, making her fetch water from the river every day. The woman meets a Red And who takes pity on her, and gives her medicine to put into her water jar. The husband has a habit of urinating in her jar - but this time, as he does, his penis gets stuck in it. Not only can no one break the jar, it also keeps singing a mocking song. Eventually he begs his wife to undo the curse, and decides to treat her better. She thanks Red Ant for the help.

Kapo-kohe-lele (Hawaii)

In Hawaiian mythology, Kapo of the Flying Vagina is the sister of the volcano goddess Pele. In one legend, the pig-god Kamapua'a pursues Pele and tries to rape her, but Kapo comes to her rescue: she uses her detachable vagina to distract the pig, leading him away from the goddess. (This story is reflected in Hawaiian place names. Other source here.)

The vagina girls (Jicarilla Apache legend)

The hero Killer-of-Enemies goes through many adventures, battling monsters and shaping the world. On his journey he defeats a monster and meets his four daughters in a house full of vaginas. The four girls are themselves vaginas in human form, and they use their teeth to devour people. The hero feeds them medicine, taking the teeth away, and they lay down the ground rules of how vaginas shall work. He picks two from their collection and takes them home to two girls; people experiment with where to put them on the body until they settle on their current placing. The four girls go on to live good lives among the humans.

The three wishes (1001 Nights)

A man earns three wishes - and immediately uses the first one to wish for a larger penis. His penis grows to a gigantic size, at which point he panics and wishes for it to go away. It does, and now he has to use his third wish to get it back.

The four champions (Hausa tale)

Four friends acquire grain together: they break the corn on one's head, thresh it with one's penis, winnow it with one's mighty farts, and carry it home with one's scrotum. The question of the dilemma tale is: who was the most heroic of the four?

(14th century illustration)

I am somewhat worried about the comments section now. Also, my general search history and upcoming Facebook advertisements.

Have a nice Sunday break, everyone!

Hausa tales of wisdom and adventure (Following folktales around the world 104. - Niger)

Today I continue the blog series titled Following folktales around the world! If you would like to know what the series is all about, you can find the introduction post here. You can find all posts here, or you can follow the series on Facebook!

With today's post, the series is going on a shirt spring break: The A to Z Challenge begins next Monday! Come visit any day in April, and read some wonderful Fruit Folktales from around the world :)

Hausa Folktales from Niger
Robert S. Glew, Chaibou Babalé
Ohio University Press, 1993.

The book contains forty Hausa folktales, translated by the author in the late 1980s. They were being broadcast in Hausa on national radio at the time. The tales were told by two storyteller ladies (Hadjia Rahamu and Hadjia Angéle), who at that point had been entertaining the country's children and adults for more than eighteen years on the air. They collected stories for children, especially stories with morals and teachings. The collection features animal tales, wonder tales, trickster tales, lots of monsters and adventures, and a few very bloody incidents. The book comes with a short introduction and a glossary.

Highlights

picture from here

The tale of The girl who turned into a bird was very pretty, and a little similar to both Cinderella and Snow White. The girl was the daughter of a second wife, being abused by the first wife. One day she attended a celebration where she met a king's son, and he asked why she was wearing rags while her sisters were wearing nice dresses. She confided in him, telling him she was being treated badly, so he gave her some money. They fell in love and married, but the stepmother found out, and, braiding an amulet into the girl's hair, turned her into a bird. She was eventually found and rescued by her little brother and her husband.
In the story of The donkey who pretended to have horns, a donkey teamed up with a lion to terrorize animals - until a brave rabbit proved to everyone that the donkey has ears, not horns, and therefore he is harmless.
The boy who married the king's wife was a variant of my favorite superhero team-up folktale type, but it was so much fun that I have to highlight it. The team consisted of Dodger (who dodged everything), Seer-of-Things-in-the-Distance, Doer-of-Things-Quickly, Thief, Bushrat, and Potassium. I was eager to see what Potassium would contribute to the story, but all she did was carry messages between lovers. Bushrat didn't really do anything either.
Gizo, the local spider-trickster was also featured in several stories. The tale of Gizo and the snake, for example, was about trust. Gizo borrowed the snake's skin, but had no intention of giving it back, and so the snake had to live hidden and naked underground. Eventually the snake managed to talk a dove into helping him find Gizo and get the skin back. At first, the dove was scared of the snake, but she learned to trust him along the way. The story ends with a question - what do you think happened? I'd like to believe that the snake got his skin back. A girl named Daya was also saved by a dove from the monster she had been promised to before her birth.

Connections

Since we are in Africa now, of course there were a lot of tricksters. I have encountered the "trickster asks for a boon" tale type in the Caribbean before; here, Jackal asked a malam (wise man) for more cleverness, and the malam made him bring various hard-to-acquire things. When the Jackal managed to get all of them, it became clear that he is already more than clever enough. He also played the role of the judge in the classic "ungrateful rescued animal" story of The man and the crocodile. Next to Jackal, there was the above mentioned Gizo, the spider, who featured into several tales.
Some stories were similar to stories that also exist in Europe. The tale of Hare and the Hyena was like the King and Unkind girls, except here it was Hare who served in a mysterious house, and received a gift for it, while Hyena was punished for his rudeness. Another story, The Fulbe hero and the dodo (dodo is a monster) was of the same type; here the hero went to get his hair braided by the dodo's wife, and got away alive, but others who wanted to copy him failed. There was also an interesting Cinderella-variant, where the father had two wives, and the girl abused by her evil second mother was helped by her half-sibling in marrying the king's son. There was, of course, a Magic Flight story - A girl who married a snake was running from her husband with the help of various items thrown behind her. The girl who saved the king's son was similar to the Italian Canary Prince, and The Arab's daughter and the king was a nice variant of the sassy, dressed-in-men's-clothes mediterranean Basil Girl.

Where to next?
Mali!