SHAN FOLK LORE STORIES - 9 Children's Stories from the Hill Country of Old Burma E-Book

Anon E. Mouse

• Herausgeber: Abela Publishing
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

These stories have been taken from the great mass of unwritten lore that is to the boys and girls of the Shan mountain country of Burma what "Rapunzel", “Snow White” and "Cinderella" are to Western children. Herein you will find 9 illustrated Shan stories like, How Boh Han Me Got His Title, Story Of The Princess Nang Kam Ung, How The Hare Deceived The Tiger, How The World Was Created, How The King Of Pagan Caught The Thief and more. In Shan folk-lore the hero does not "marry and live happy ever after," but he becomes the king of the country, which, we guess, is a pretty good substitute. These stories are purely native, with as little mixture of Western ideas as possible, while dressing them in their garment of English words. They will give a better insight into what the Burmese natives are. As such, our hope is they will be found to be more interesting to children and the avid folklorist alike. A percentage of the net profit from the sale of this book will be donated to the Phaung Daw Oo Monastic Education High School, Mandalay, Myanmar.  

Leseprobe

SHAN FOLK LORE STORIES

From The Hill And Water Country

of Burma

BY

WILLIAM C. GRIGGS, M.D.

Originally Published

[1920]

Resurrected By

Abela Publishing, London

[2017]

Shan Folk Lore Stories

From the Hill and Water Country

of Burma

Typographical arrangement of this edition

© Abela Publishing 2017

This book may not be reproduced in its current format in any

manner in any media, or transmitted by any means whatsoever,

electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, or mechanical ( including

photocopy, file or video recording, internet web sites, blogs,

wikis, or any other information storage and retrieval system)

except as permitted by law without the prior written permission

of the publisher.

Abela Publishing

London

United Kingdom

2017

ISBN-13: 978-8-822813-28-2

email:

[email protected]

Website

www.AbelaPublishing.com

Acknowledgements

The Publisher acknowledges the work that

William C. Griggs

did

in compiling, editing and illustrating

Shan Folk Lore Stories

in a time well before any electronic media was in use.

* * * * * * *

A percentage of the net profit from the sale of this book

will be donated to

Phaung Daw Oo Monastic Education

High School, Mandalay, Myanmar

Dedication

TO MY FRIEND

The Principal of the American Baptist College, Rangoon, and Senior Shan Missionary, the greatest authority upon Shan literature, and the translator of the Bible into that language, this little book is dedicated.

W C Griggs

Introduction

The following stories have been taken from the great mass of unwritten lore that is to the black-eyed, brown-skinned boys and girls of the Shan mountain country of Burma what "Jack the Giant Killer" and "Cinderella" are to our own children.

The old saw as to the songs and laws of a country may or may not be true. I feel confident, however, that stories such as these, being as they are purely native, with as little admixture of Western ideas as it was possible to give them in dressing them in their garment of English words, will give a better insight into what the native of Burma really is, his modes of thought and ways of looking at and measuring things, than a treatise thrice as long and representing infinitely more literary merit than will be found in these little tales; and at the same time I hope they will be found to the average reader, at least, more interesting.

It may, perhaps, be not out of place to say a little of the "hpeas" who appear so frequently in these stories. The hpea is the Burman nat, and is "a being superior to men and inferior to Brahmas, and having its dwelling in one of the six celestial regions" (Doctor Cushing's "Shan-English Dictionary"). They are universally worshiped by the inhabitants of Burma. If a man has fever, the best thing to do is to "ling hpea," that is, to feed the spirits, and the sufferer therefore offers rice, betel-nut, painted sticks, etc. Some kinds of hpeas live in the sacred banyan trees, and frequently have I seen men, after a long day's march in the jungle, sit shivering on the ground when within an arm's length lay good dry fire-wood. It had fallen, however, from a tree in which lived a hpea, and not a man would dare touch it. Big combs of honey may be in the nests of the wild bees, but it is safe from the hungry traveler if it is sheltered by such a tree. Some watch over wells, tanks, and lakes, and it is notorious throughout the Southern Shan States, that a promising young American missionary, who was drowned while shooting, met his death by being dragged to the bottom of the lake by the guardian spirit, who had become incensed at him for killing a water-fowl on his domains.

In Shan folk-lore the hero does not "marry and live happy ever after," but he becomes the king of the country.

American Baptist Shan Mission House,

Bhamo, Burma, 1902.

Contents

Acknowledgements

Dedication

Introduction

Contents

List Of Illustrations

SHAN FOLK LORE STORIES

"A Laung Khit"

How Boh Han Me Got His Title

The Two Chinamen

Story Of The Princess Nang Kam Ung

How The Hare Deceived The Tiger

The Story Of The Tortoise

The Sparrow's Wonderful Brood

How The World Was Created

How The King Of Pagan Caught The Thief

Footnotes

Glossary Of Terms

List of Illustrations

"Each year at the Feast of Lights ... she prayed"

"The man standing at the top of the tree was the long-lost brother"

"Again the cunning hare deceived the tiger"

"'I am nothing but a tortoise swimming in the lake'"

"On his way he saw what seemed to be a bed of flowers"

“The Ruins of Ancient Pagan”

SHAN

FOLK LORE STORIES

"A Laung Khit"[1]