Y is for the Yi (Sani) epic of Ashima (Women's Epics A to Z)

This year my theme for the A to Z Blogging Challenge is Women's Epics. My goal was to read 26 traditional epics from around the world that have women as their heroes. Because epics like this do exist, and they are fascinating! Read the intoduction post here.

Ashima
Sani (Yi)

The Sani are a branch of the Yi people who live in Yunnan province in China. Ashima's story, sung in a long narrative poem and handed down through the oral tradition, is one of their most popular folk epics. Variations of the poem were collected and compiled in 1953 by researchers from Beijing, and published as a composite "most complete" version. It was then translated into English and published in this volume (translated into rhyming verses). The book comes with a short introduction that has an undercurrent of centralized propaganda, so I an not entirely sure whether the "composite version" of the story has been altered or not.

What is it about?

TL;DR: Ashima, a beautiful girl is kidnapped by an evil man as a bride for his son. She resists the marriage, and her brother shows up to rescue her. He succeeds through a series of challenges, but on the way home he loses Ashima anyway.

The story begins with a couple who live a peaceful life with their two children: a brave and strong boy Ahei, and a beautiful, hard-working daughter Ashima. When Ashima grows up, she becomes famous far and wide as the perfect girl. An evil rich man named Rebubala decides to take her as a wife for his son. However, when his messenger comes to ask for the girl, her family squarely refuses - they want Ashima to marry a man she loves. Ashima rejects the rich man's suit. Rebubala, angered, sends people to kidnap her. The girl is snatched away, and the whole community grieves for her. Ahei, who is away pasturing his flocks, has a nightmare and returns home. When he finds out Ashima is gone, he immediately sets out to rescue her.

Ashima is taken to Rebubala's stronghold to wed his son Azhi. But she stands up to her kidnappers, refuses to marry the man, and calls them on their lies and their threats. She is beaten and thrown into a dungeon to break her will. When Ahei arrives, Azhi challenges him to a duel of sung riddles, but Ahei easily outsings him, and answers all the riddles. When he is let inside, Rebubala challenges him to see who can cut down more trees. Ahei easily fulfills the tasks: he chops down more trees than Azhi - and then he has to put them back, and does that faster too. Then he has to sow rice, and then pick it all up, but once again he is better at it than Azhi. Still, he loses three grains. He eventually manages to find them with the help of an old man (birds took them).

The challenges having failed, Rebubala and Azhi decide that they will sic their tigers on Ahei at night. While he sleeps, they send three feroicious tigers up the tower stairs to his room. However, Ashima plays warning music on her flute, and Ahei stands ready. He kills the three tigers, and skins the biggest one, then puts the skin back. In the morning, the villains are shocked to see the dead tigers, but they soon challenge Ahei to skin the largest. Ahei yanks the skin off, winning the challenge.

However, Rebubala still refuses to give up the girl. He locks Ahei out of the fortress. Ahei responds by shooting arrows over the wall with such force that no one can pull them out of where they struck. In the end, Ashima is summoned and she pulls them out with ease; finally, she is given back to her brother.

However, as the siblings ride away, Rebubala summons a storm. As they are crossing a surging river, the waves sweep Ashima away. She reappears to her brother later, standing on a rock in the ravine, and tells him that she had transformed into a spirit: she became the echo, and always answers when her people call.

The highlights

While in this epic Ashima doesn't rescue herself, she is still presented as a very stong and brave character. She rejects the suit, doesn't bow to threats, sees through lies, and states loud and clear that she will only marry a man she loves.

I adored the opening of the story that described how much the parents loved Ashima and how they celebrated her birth. It was similarly touching to read the part where they talked about their love for her to the wily messenger who brought the proposal from Rebubala. They wanted her to be happy, and they described unhappy marriages in great detail, fearing for their daughter's future.

I also liked that Rebubala's wickedness was described by saying that bees didn't visit his flowers, and ants didn't go inside his house.

A GIRL DOESN'T ALWAYS HAVE TO RESCUE HERSELF TO BE A STRONG CHARACTER.

Do you know of other heroines who are strong in different ways?

Goodnight stories for headhunters (Folktales of Asian minorities 24. - Iban / Sea Dyak)

As a sequel to the Following folktales around the world reading challenge, I decided to start reading minority and indigenous folktales. First up are the minority peoples who live in Asia. You can find previous posts here, and you can follow the challenge on Facebook here.

The Girl Sudan Painted Like a Gold Ring
Folktales from the Sea Dyaks of Sarawak, Borneo
Theresa Fuller
Bare Bear Media, 2022.

The Iban (Sea Dyak/Dayak) people number about one million, and live on the island of Borneo in the area of Sarawak, along the seashore and rivers. They live in longhouses that house several families, and until recently they had a tradition of headhunting.

The author, storyteller Theresa Fuller, sent me an ARC copy of this book. I was happy about it, because I like folktales from Borneo and I have not read any from the Dyak tradition before. The book contains ten stories, many of them multiple chapters long; they are interspersed with shorter legends and trickster tales. Each comes with a short cultural introduction, and the re-told texts contain many fascinating details about Dyak everyday life. The author added two parts to two longer stories that came from her own imagination, describing parts of the narrative from the women's point of view. These (carefully noted) sections were more novel-like than the folktales, but very beautiful, and rich in detail. At the end of the book we also get a glossary, and a chapter on Dyak culture.

Highlights

The title story was beautiful and fascinating. The protagonist, Siu, was one of those hunters who accidentally wander into the spirit realm and learn that animals are also human in their own world. He marries the daughter of the king of spirits, and promises never to hunt birds again. When he inevitably breaks his promise, she leaves him. He goes on a  journey, raising their son in the wilderness. After many exciting adventures, they find her again, and the (now grown) son has to prove that, as a half-spirit, he is worthy of being a member of her family. One of the challenges was a spinning top competition, which I especially liked.

Another person who wandered into the spirit realm was Pulang-Gana, who followed a porcupine, and fell in love with another spirit princess. When he returned home, and his brothers treated him badly, he became the god of the earth that everyone has to respect.

Headhunting played an important role in the tale of Danjai and the Were-tiger's Sister. Here the tiger killed a young woman, and her husband, Danjai, set out to take revenge. Entering the tiger's realm he met his sister, who was kind, and helped the hero behead her evil brother. They fell in love, she returned the dead wife's head, and the hero set out to find another head - as a wedding present.

I liked the apocalyptic tale where people tortured a dog, and in punishment a terrible storm turned them all into stone (except for one kind family). In another story, girls made fun of innocent animals, and met the same fate.

Connections

The trickster in residence was our favorite Mouse Deer, here known as Akal Pelandok (Ageless Mouse Deer). He was featured in multiple trickster tales, such as Pelandok and the Giant (where he outwitted a giant that stole fish from the animals), or Pelandok, Sambar and Pig (where the animals fell into a pit, and Pelandok used the others to get free). In the latter, the two outwitted animals tried to hunt him down, but Mouse Deer tricked them with classic tricks he also uses on Tiger in other stories. In a third tale, Pelandok and Kikura the Tortoise mutually played tricks on each other, and also on a monkey and a bear.

Leggings for ants (Following folktales around the world 189. - China)

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!

Full disclosure: So, back when I started this challenge I started with China, but I only began posting in English a few countries later. So these posts, while they are the end of the list, were actually the first ones I made 5 years ago. I'm just translating them now.

I started the challenge with this book because I got it for Christmas and I was intrigued. I am planning on returning to Chinese Han and minority tales after I finish the challenge.

South of the Clouds: Tales from Yunnan

Szerk. Lucien Miller

University of Washington Press, 1994.

The book contains folktales from the twenty-five ethnic minorities of Yunnan Province in Southern China; it contains a total of 54 stories. It's an academic publication, so it comes with a long introduction, a glossary, notes, maps, and other useful resources. It also notes the names and origins of the storytellers, and the names of the collectors and translators. Brownie points for that.

The tales were collected as part of the folklore collection campaign of the Chinese government. The introduction talks about how difficult it is to find original folk texts outside of obscure archives, and how published folktale collections "edit" the tales they include (the American translators hint that "politically incorrect" messages and morals might be left out). This does show in the collection, because all rich people in the tales are evil, and all kings are tyrants. I wonder how many good kings are hidden in the archives... Still, this book is a well edited and fascinating read.

(It also speaks volumes that the American introduction praises the minority policy of China, while the Chinese introduction calls Yunnan minorities "superstitious" and "primitive" a couple of times.)

Highlights

There were multiple myths about why the sky and the earth were pushed apart. According to a Zhuang tale, bamboo is flexible because in the old days it used to grow up to the low-hanging sky and it had to bend. A Derung legend claims the mountain that connected earth and sky disappeared because ants undermined it. They were in the right: they just wanted to ask people to give them leggings, but our ancestors cruelly refused.

I have a soft spot for Zhuang tales. I especially liked the five-story cycle about the fight between a mortal trickster and the God of Thunder. At the high point of the tale the hero, Bubo fought the god while sailing in an upside-down umbrella. 

There were also some beautiful tales in the collection, such as Wild Goose Lake, where a mortal girl befriends a dragon's daughter (and they end up living together), or the girl with tufty eyebrows, whom a boy married despite everyone thinking she was bad luck (moral: don't believe old superstitions when your happiness depends on it). I also loved Gathering of the Birds, about a girl who embroidered 360 different birds who all came to life, and they still gather on the anniversary of her death.

Connections

The Mythology chapter contains a lot of similar flood myths. It was intriguing that many of them addressed the fact that the siblings who survived (brother and sister) would have to commit incest if they wanted to repopulate the earth. In some stories the gods sent them meaningful signs to let them know they were exempt from sin for the sake of humanity. 

Where to next?

Myanmar! 

StorySpotting: Moon Landing Special

StorySpotting is a weekly or kinda-weekly series about folktales, tropes, references, and story motifs that pop up in popular media, from TV shows to video games. Topics are random, depending on what I have watched/played/read recently. Also, THERE WILL BE SPOILERS. Be warned!

Today's post is a little bit different from the usual, but it had too great a topic to miss.

Where was the story spotted?

Today is the 50th anniversary of a human being first setting foot on the Moon.

What happens?

A human being walks on the moon.
Also, a pop culture connection: I am a big fan of the Changeling: The Dreaming role-playing game, where July 20th, 1969 marks the Resurgence, the moment when so many people experienced wonder at the same time that the gates of the Dreaming opened again, and magic and belief returned to our world.

What's the story?

Since the whole Moon Landing is the culmination of millennia of dreams and stories, I decided to celebrate today by spotting some of my favorite tales about people (or, occasionally, animals) visiting the Moon.

The Prince of the Dolomites: A prince, raised by his widow mother, dreams about going to the Moon from an early age. One night he sees a princess in the moonlight and falls in love with her; after that, he becomes Prince Moonstruck, and admires the Moon every night, wishing to travel there to meet the princess. Luckily, he befriends a group of Dwarfs who help him ascend to the Moon - but they warn him that if he stays too long, he will go blind. Prince and princess fall in love, but when the prince starts to lose his sight, they decide to move back to Earth. To ease the princess' homesickness, the Dwarfs paint the Dolomites with the shining colors of the Moon, and they have been like that ever since.

Shooting the Moon: A Yao folktale about how long ago there was a fiery, burning moon in the sky. The archer Ya La and his wife Ni Wo worked together to assemble a magic bow and arrow to shoot it down. When chipping stars off the fiery moon was not enough, they shot up Ni Wo's embroidery that covered the Moon's surface, and cooled it down - but it also sucked the wife herself up to the sky. Not wanting to live apart from his wife, Ya La called to Ni Wo, who let her long braid down so that her husband could climb up to her. Ever since then, they have been living on the Moon in a little hut with a cassia tree and a flock of sheep - all of which you can see in the dark shapes on the surface.

Matanako and the Moon: A folktale from Tuvalu about a boy who has a special connection to the Moon. As a baby, he only sleeps in moonlight, and when he learns to talk, he says he wishes to go to the Moon. He convinces his father to take him, and they board a ship together, sailing for the place in the East where the Moon rises from the sea. On the way they pass various spirit islands, and lose some of their crew to spirit diseases. When they reach the horizon, the father throws Matanako at the Moon, and he has been living up there ever since. The dark shapes on the surface are the shape of his body.

Why the Skunk Lives Underground: A Quechua folktale about a skunk and a fox who are unlikely best friends. Fox's biggest dream is to go to the Moon, while Skunk would like to feast on the worms that live underground. When the Moon lets down two ropes for them, they decide to climb up together. Skunk doesn't really want to go, but he agrees to accompany his friend. In some versions, a guinea pig chews Skunk's rope through and he falls back down; in others, he decides that going to the Moon is not for him after all, and comes back down to live comfortably underground. Fox makes it happily to the Moon, and thus both friends fulfill their own dreams.

The Fox who was in Love with the Moon: Another Quechua story, and a very cute one. A fox falls in love with the Moon, and wants to reach her, but no matter how many mountaintops he climbs, he can't get any closer. Eventually he climbs the highest, most daunting mountain, and from the top, he jumps into Moon's arms. He's been cradled there ever since.

True History: Lucian of Samosata wrote this piece in the 2nd century AD as a parody of the "true stories" of ancient travelers. He claims to have sailed to the Moon on a ship picked up by a whirlwind. The Moon, he says, is inhabited by Vulture Riders, people riding giant vultures into battle, ruled by Endymion, the Moon Goddess' mortal lover. They are waging a war against the Ant Riders of the Sun over who gets to colonize the Morning Star. The Armies of the Moon have 80,000 Vulture Riders, 20,000 Cauliflower Riders, Garlic Warriors and Millet Slingers. They are joined by 30,000 Flea Archers (archers riding giant fleas) and 50,000 Wind Runners. Lucian describes the whole war in great and elaborate detail. He also shares wild tales about the Moon society, including how they harvest babies from trees that grow from men's testicles planted in the ground, how their rich people dress in glass clothes, and how they have honey instead of snot.

Orlando Furioso: In one of my favorite epic moments, the knight Astolfo borrows a hippogriff (and then Elijah's chariot) to fly to the Moon, where all lost things can be found, to search for the wits/sanity of his friend Orlando, who lost them due to his love for a woman. Among the great collection of lost things on the Moon there are such curiosities as lost fame, lost desires, lost tears, lost kingdoms, wasted efforts, lost favors, unhappy marriages, lost charms... and lost time, which is the only thing one cannot claim back. Astolfo is shocked to find a bottle with his own name on it: it contains a portion of his own lost wits, which he never even realized was missing.

Conclusion

There are countless other folktales and legends about traveling to the Moon; most cultures seem to have at least one. This is what made the actual Moon Landing so fascinating in the eyes of the storyteller: Humanity achieved something that it has collectively been dreaming of for millennia.
So, which dream should we tackle next?

J is for Jujube Friendship (A to Z Challenge 2019: Fruit Folktales)

Jujube is a date-like edible fruit that grows on a small tree or shrub. The story I found about it comes from the Hui people, an ethnic minority in northwestern China who are predominantly Muslim.

According to the story, back in the day when the Prophet Muhammad was persecuted by non-Muslims, he fled from a violent attacker into the desert. Eventually, tired of running and dodging attacks, he stopped and sat down on a pile of dirt to take a breath. Soon, the pagan chief caught up to him, but didn't recognize him, so he asked if he had seen a man fleeing. Muhammad pointed him towards the southeast.

While the chief was also taking a breath, Muhammad decided to eat something. Taking a piece of cotton from his clothing, he planted it in the dirt. In front of the chief's amazed eyes, a jujube plant sprouted from the ground immediately, blossomed, and produced two jujube fruits. Muhammad kindly gave one of them to his enemy. The pagan chief admitted that he was a man of great power, worthy of following. After they ate the dates, Muhammad revealed his identity, telling the chief to kill him if he wished. The chief, humbled by his power and kindness, swore to follow him, and converted to Islam with all his people.

Ever since then, claims the story from Ningxia, jujube dates have been precious to Muslims, and their kernels are used to make payer beads.

(You can read the story in this book.)

Have you ever tried jujube? Did you like it?

If you could grow one fruit tree out of the ground immediately, what would it be?

M is for Minority heroes

Welcome to the A to Z Challenge! My theme this year is Representation and Diversity in Traditional Stories. I am looking for rare and interesting motifs in folktales, fairy tales, and legends that add variety to the well-known canon.

Once again, a very important part of representation - offering stories that feature heroes from minority groups. For this post, I focused on stories where these heroes appear as a minority in their social context - because all too often those are the situations where they are portrayed negatively (think of the "False Bride" fairy tale type, ATU 533, where the real bride is usually blonde and beautiful, while the fake bride is often either black-skinned or a Gypsy - see the illustration on the left). I also focused on ethnic minorities, over other kinds that will be (or have been) represented elsewhere in the challenge.

The clever girl
In this Hungarian Roma version of the well known "clever maiden" folktale type, a Gypsy girl is seen bathing by a king, and he demands to marry her. She first gives a mathematical riddle to the king to solve (he fails to do so), and then solves all the king's riddles, including the classic "come to me not clothed but not naked, walking but not walking, etc." She becomes queen in the end.
I especially like this story because girls, especially girls from marginalized groups, are rarely ever portrayed as, or encouraged to be, good at things like mathematics. By the way, the riddle says: "I am as old as I am. My mother is twice as old as I am. My father is two years older than my mother, and together the three of us are 100 years old!" Can you solve it?
(Hungarian text here)

The stolen bairn and the Sídh
A Scottish folktale about a mother whose baby is taken by the fairies. She goes to search for him, and she is helped by an old Gypsy (not clear if Roma or Traveler) grandmother who instructs her on how to get the baby back.
(You can read this story in Thistle and Thyme)

Antarah
Once again, I am referring back to the Romance of Antar, because while Antar is accepted into his Arab tribe, he is also referred to as a "raven" for being born from a black African (slave) mother.
(I blogged about this epic here)

The King, the Vizier, and the Clever Jew
In this Moroccan Jewish folktale, a jealous vizier tries to turn a king against the Jewish community and the rabbi he respects. The rabbi is tasked with counting the stars in the sky and measuring the water of the ocean. When all seems lost, a drunkard from the community volunteers to give a clever answer to the king, and save his people from punishment.
(This tale type, about counting stars and water, also exists in other cultures.)
(Read the story in this book)

The servant's dream 
A very famous Peruvian folktale, collected by writer José Maria Arguedas. In it, an indigenous servant is humiliated and tortured by his master, who takes enjoyment in his power. In the end, the servant claims he had a prophetic dream about what will happen after death, and the master demands to hear it. The dream portrays the master treated well by angels and covered in honey, and the servant covered in excrement. And then, just when the master is most satisfied with the "prophetic dream," comes the surprise ending: "... and then we were told to lick each other clean."
(If he had a mic, he probably would have dropped it)
(Read the Spanish text here)

Uncle Monday
Florida legend about a powerful medicine man that leads his fellow slaves to freedom, and then turns into a giant alligator that is still said to haunt the swamps in Florida. Sometimes he turns back into a man, and rewards or punishes people according to their deeds.
(Read his story in this book)

The Metlicani and the Gypsy
This folktale from Slovenia tells about a Gypsy sentenced to death for theft who tricks the baronass that sentenced him, and gets away alive. I am including it for two reasons, one, because the story highlights that he stole the goose out of hunger and to provide for his family, and two, because he wins his life and freedom with ingenuity against power.
(Found the English translation in the Journal of the Ohio Folklore Society I/2, 1972)

Coyote and the anthropologist
I am including this story here because it says a lot about the relationship between "researchers" and indigenous communities. According to this story from the Warm Springs Indian Reservation, an anthropologist comes across a trapped Coyote (who is a famous indigenous trickster figure) and offers to free it in exchange for money and a long story. Coyote forks over the money and tells a story until the recording tape runs out. But once he is free and away, and the researcher returns home, he discovers that the money turned to leaves and the tape recorder is full of Coyote droppings...
(Read the story, and many other Coyote tales, in this book)

What other stories should I add to this list?