Laos Folk-lore of Farther India |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Ai Powlo anger asked bade bamboo basket beautiful begged betel nut boat buffalo called cannibal cave chain home child Chom Kow Kilat Chow Soo Chow Soo Tome chow's Chum Paw cried crow daugh daughter dead deer desired earth elephant eye of day Farther India father feast fell fish fisherman fled forest fruit garden gave give gongs grew head chow hear heard heart hunter husband jewel journey jungle killed knew LAOS lazy lived loved maiden merit mon-goose mother mountain mouth neighbor Paw hüey Poison-Mouth Pome poor Powlo priest princess province puns of gold red ants replied returned rice fields rice house sala sao bird silver slave snake sought spirits stones Ta Pome temple thee thou tiger trader tree unto venomous snakes walked widow wife wisdom wizard woman wood words young
Popular passages
Page 37 - The Man in the Moon THERE was a blacksmith once, who complained: "I am not well, and my work is too warm. I want to be a stone on the mountain. There it must be cool, for the wind blows and the trees give a shade." A wise man, who had power over all things, replied, " Go thou, be a stone." And he was a stone, high up on the mountain-side. It happened a stone-cutter came that way for stone, and, when he saw the one that had been the blacksmith, he knew it was what he sought and he began to cut it....
Page 27 - ... almost to death. Then the fish complained to the court, and the deer, owl, cricket and fish had a lawsuit. In the trial came out this evidence: As the deer fled, he ran into some dry grass, and the seed fell into the eye of a wild chicken, and the pain of the seed in the eye of the chicken caused it to fly up against a nest of red ants. Alarmed, the red ants flew out to do battle, and in their haste, bit a mon-goose. The mon-goose ran into a vine of wild fruit and shook several pieces of it on...
Page 86 - In the days when the earth was young and all things were better than they now are, when men and women were stronger and of greater beauty, and the fruit of the trees was larger and sweeter than that which we now eat, rice, the food of the people, was of larger grain. One grain was all a man could eat, and in those early days, such, too, was the merit of the people, they never had to toil gathering the rice, for, when ripe, it fell from the stalks and rolled into the villages, even into the granaries....
Page 29 - Having heard the evidence, the judge said, "The cricket must replace the crushed parts of the fish and make it well," as he, the cricket, had called and frightened the deer. The cricket was smaller and weaker than the owl or the deer, therefore had to bear the penalty.