T is for Tongues (Body Folktales)

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

Meat of the tongue (Swahili)

A king's wife is sad and bored, and he doesn't know how to help her. He seeks advice from a poor man whose wife is happy. The poor man says the secret is "meat of the tongue." The king starts feeding tongue meat to his wife, and yet she doesn't improve, so he decides to exchange wives with the poor man. After a few weeks, the queen appears happy and healthy. It turns out, "meat of the tongue" was metaphor for having conversations, sharing stories, and communicating. (And no, that's not where my mind went at first either, but that just gives the story an extra kick when you tell it.)

The yam farm and the problem tongue (Ghana)

Anansi the Spider works on a yam field for mysterious people whose names he can't find out. Eventually manages to outwit them, and when they are called by their true name they die. Anansi, not content with winning the yam field, also eats the people, and his tongue swells up. So, being the trickster he is, he convinces everyone to take out their tongues when they go swimming in the sea - and he steals a new one for himself.

The mallet of wealth (Korea)

A boy spies on a group of goblins, and wins a mallet from them that can perform miracles and summon wealth. When a selfish boy tries to do the same, the goblins catch him, and stretch his tongue a hundred feet long. Shamed, the boy decides to make up for his selfishness by using his tongue as a bridge over the river for others. When he eventually falls into the water, the other boy shows up with his mallet, saves him, and fixes his tongue.

The origin on wasps (Dagomba, Togo)

A girl calls her mother a witch, and the old woman starts chasing her, trying to eat her. Various animals offer protection but they all bail at the sight of the witch. Eventually the wasp decides to help. He swallows the old woman head first, and tells his sons to tie his waist, so she can't go forward or backward through him. This is why wasps have a tiny waist - and this is why they have a stinger, which used to be the witch's sharp tongue.

The great debate (Jewish story)

This is another version of the "arguing body parts" tale type we started the challenge with back at A. Here, the tongue claims to be the most powerful. When the other body parts don't agree, tongue intentionally misspeaks and gets its owner into mortal danger... then immediately finds the words to get him out of it. Proving the tongue is indeed the most powerful.

Do you know other stories where speaking gets someone into trouble? Or where tongues play an important part? :)