U is for Underarm (Body Folktales)

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

I was having a hard time with this letter, and none of the uvula stories were particularly exciting, so I ended up looking for armpit stories.

The sun and the children (/Xam, South Africa)

In this myth the Sun is an old man who hides light in his armpit. There is only light when he lifts his arm in his sleep, and even then only around his house. Two women send their children to lift him and (politely) throw him into the sky where he turns into the Sun and shares his light with all. (See a longer version here.)

The merchant's slandered daughter (Russia)

A king wants to marry a merchant's daughter, but a jealous general tells him she is immodest, and he has already slept with her multiple times. When the king asks for proof, the general pays a crafty old woman to find out what special mark the girl has. Turns out she has a single golden hair under one armpit. This almost ends the whole issue, except the clever girl finds a way to prove that the accusation was false.

Galngam and Hangsai (Vaiphei / Gangte, India)

In this series of tales the hero Galngam visits the land of Keichalpu, a lion shapeshifter and his people. When his brother Hangsai wants to follow in his footsteps, the villagers kill him and distribute his body parts among themselves. Galngam goes looking, and when they find out the victim was his brother, they put Hangsai's body back together. However, one of his armpits is missing, because an old woman already ate her share of the meat. Galngam fixes up the hole with a bat's wings. However, when Hangsai revives and finds out his armpit was fixed with a bat, he scratches at it, and the wound kills him again. (Read another version here.)

There were also some other legends about heroes being born from a mother's armpit, or only being vulnerable in their armpit. Go figure.

D is for the Digestive System (Body Folktales)

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

For today's topic, I researched folktales that feature the stomach, intestines, and the digestive system in general. Things, as expected, did get delightfully weird.

CW: intestines and bowels and whatnot

Hair's Revenge (Nigeria)

Back in the beginning of time, Hair and Stomach lived in the same town. However, while Hair went on a business trip, Stomach slept with all of his wives. When Hair found out, he started chasing Stomach, who begged a traveler on the road to shelter him inside his body. When Hair caught up, and heard Stomach shivering inside the man, he decided to guard the man's orifices so Stomach could never come out again. Ever since then humans have had hair around all their... exits. And ever since then, swallowing a hair makes our stomach revolt.

Kenkebe and the ant (South Africa)

A man named Kenkebe has an unfortunate habit of exchanging his body parts with animals. Once he exchanges his stomach for the stomach of an ant - which his wife discovers because he spills most of his dinner under the table since the ant stomach can't hold it. The wife orders Kenkebe to get his own body parts back.

A man's stomach (Lithuania)

This is a folktale type marked as 716 in the Lithuanian tale type index. It's about three men who go out into the woods and complain about always being hungry, and having to spend money on food. An old man shows up and offers to take their stomach out, hanging them in a tree. The men go home happily, with their problem solved - but they soon discover that life is no fun at all without eating, and return to the woods. They find their stomachs shriveled up, but the old man helps them undo the damage so they can eat again.

The Taoist in the otherworld (China)

There is an old Chinese legend about a Taoist who travels into the Otherworld and participates in a delicious feast. The fairies living in that world remove all his digestive organs, and that grants him eternal youth - so when he returns into the world of mortals, he finds himself younger than his grandchildren.

The kings of Madur Maskut (Khasi people)

The small but fierce kingdom of Madur Maskut constantly threatens its neighbors with invasion. Its greatest warrior is U Niang Raja, who goes around without bodyguards and is rumored to be impossible to kill. He is attacked and chopped up multiple times, but always returns. Finally, a neighboring king hires a beautiful woman to seduce the raja and find out his secret. It turns out that the prince keeps his soul in his intestines; when he bathes in the river, he takes the intestines out and washes them, then dries them on a rock. She betrays his secret, and the next time he goes swimming, assassins burn his intestines, killing him.

Which story is the weirdest? Did any of them sound familiar?

Don't forget to leave your links in the comments so I can visit back! :)

Diverse tales from a diverse country (Following folktales around the world 129. - South African Republic)

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!

11 ​South African Folk Tales – 11 Official Languages
A Celebration of Democracy and Cultural Diversity
Aré Van Schalkwyk
Zytek Publishing, 2005.

The book, true to its title, contains 11 tales representing the 11 official languages of the country, retold by authors who create in those languages. Each story is presented in the original text and in English translation, and each is prefaced with a short introduction about the language, the culture, the customs, and the traditional dresses that belong to them. The book contains a foreword from the Minister of Art and Culture, and is closed by the lyrics of the South African anthem.

Highlights

The English language was represented by Kwenda and the Tortoise, told by Margaret Kollmer. It was a lovely story about a mean old widower, whom a chief tricked into enjoying life again by sending him on a mission to gather colors along with his tortoise.
In the Xitsonga story a family set out on a journey, and the husband told the wife that if they encounter a wild beast, she should hold it by the tail so that he could kill it. When they were attacked by a lion, the woman grabbed the tail, but the husband got scared and fled, leaving her to wrestle the beast alone. Eventually the wife left in trouble was found and rescued by other people, and the husband was eaten by something in the bush.

Connections

I have encountered a similar story to the Zulu tale before. Here a single mother named Nanana was chased out of her community, and established her own home by the road, signaling that she was not afraid. When an elephant devoured her children, she set out to find it and kill it, saving everyone from the elephant's stomach. The Sesotho language was represented by a Cinderella variant about a girl named Analeti, while siSwati was represented by the tale of kind and unkind girls named Tsandzekile and Tondzekile, where the former was saved and vindicated by the village of her uncle.
Hare appeared as the trickster in the Xhosa story where he tricked King Lion into jumping down a well to fight his own reflection. In the Setswana story Hare, Tortoise, and Jackal all appeared as tricksters. Tortoise trapped Jackal (who was stealing water from the communal dam) by smearing himself in sticky gum - this is the first story I have ever seen where the trickster himself was also the tar baby...

Where to next?
Lesotho!