Soul Tran

The Race Between the Crane and the Hummingbird Main Characters:  Crane Hummingbird Plot: The crane and hummingbird were both in love with a woman but she liked the hummingbird more. The crane refused to give up so she tried to get rid of him by tell them to challenge each other to a race and whoever wins would marry her. The hummingbird was overconfident because he was so much lighter and faster than the crane so he took longer rests and didn't imagine that the crane would keep flying throughout the night. The crane ended up winning the race but the woman still refused to marry the crane. Crane landing: Audubon Bibliography. "The Race Between the Crane and the Hummingbird" from Myths of the Cherokee by James Mooney,  web source

The Rabbit Goes Duck Hunting Main Characters:  Rabbit Otter Setting: In the woods near a pond Plot: An otter challenges the boastful rabbit a duck capturing contest. The rabbit had previously tricked the otter and was confident that he could win again. The otter easily captures a duck without being noticed and comes back. The rabbit fixes a noose and tries to strangle a duck but the duck broke free and flew up in the air until the rabbit fell into a tree. The rabbit was starved and weak until he convinced a man to cut open a portion in the trunk to free him. Rabbit and Otter:  Word Press Bibliography. "The Rabbit Goes Duck Hunting" from Myths of the Cherokee by James Mooney,   web source

The Cat and the Mouse Main Characters:  Cat Plot: A cat wanted to get married so she stood on the corner and asked each animal that came by to sing and was amused by the mouse's voice so she married him. One day when she went to go buy food, the mouse fell in the pot and died. The cat didn't notice until later and mourned for him so it triggered a chain of events where the door slammed shut so the window responded by opening and closing and then a tree collapsed, and so on.  A cat and a mouse:  Borders of Sleep Bibliography. "The Cat and the Mouse" from Italian Popular Tales by Thomas Frederick Crane,  websource

The Turtle and the Man Main Characters:  Turtle Man Type of Story: Trickster Story Plot: The trickster turtle built a net with a man and claimed the better half of the net to capture food. The man got nothing but the turtle captured an antelope which he called on the forest animals to come sing and dance since he couldn't take it down himself. An ox came by and the turtle told him to clean the plates and help him prepare the antelope and then go get leaves to claim his share but when the ox left, the turtle took all of the meat and shut himself in his house. The ox was mad and went to go destroy the trap but got caught in it and died. The turtle hosted another session to now cook the ox and a leopard came by and got tricked just like the ox, except that when the leopard went to destroy the trap, he was successful and decided to lay in the trap and pretend like he was caught so when the turtle came to claim the leopard, the turtle got his head bitten off by the leopard....

The Vanishing Wife Main Characters:  Buite Swarmi Setting: It just says "certain town" Plot: Buite and Swarmi were brothers but Swarmi was married and owned servants while Buite was lonely and had no one. Buite had a dream that a beautiful woman told him to knock on the ground and he would get a canoe and paddles. She also told him to go fishing and she would could it for him as long as he cut the heads off of the fish. All of this came true in the dream and when he woke up to go fishing, everything that happened in his dream came true again in real life. He got the canoe and when he came home, he saw an extravagant home that replaced his shed with the beautiful wife and nine servants. She cooked the fish for him and he was wealthy and happy. He went fishing everyday with one of the servants and eventually grew tired of having to cut the fish heads off everytime. He kept refusing to do it after a certain point and the servant would protest so then he would run af...

Water and Salt Main Characters:  A magician The king The king's daughter The magicians' son Plot: The king had 3 daughters and he asked them how much they loved him. The two oldest daughters answered well but the youngest said "salt and water" which outraged the king so he wanted her executed. They secretly killed a dog instead and had the youngest daughter escape to a cave where a magician found her and took her in. His son fell in love with her and they were going to get married so they invited the king but they made sure to not give the king any salt or water to teach him a lesson. Salt and Water:  Health Bibliography. "Water and Salt" from Italian Popular Tales by Thomas Frederick Crane, websource

A Child of the Woods Main Character:  An old woman who is honored as a princess in her village Setting: In a large village deep in the forest of the North  Plot: The main character explains to a stranger why she is considered a princess in her village. She talks about how when she was younger, she got tired of her people so she went into the jungle that no one has every explored because it was known as the tiger eating jungle. She never was harmed by any wild beast and ate just fine so she lived there for a while before coming upon a bordering village. They were amazed at how she was still alive after living in the forest and took her back to her village where she was honored with gold and jewels. A child hiking in a forest: Montessori for Everyone Bibliography. "A Child of the Woods" from Laos Folk-Lore by Katherine Neville Fleeson, websource

The Maiden Who Was Stolen Away Main Characters:  Maiden: main charcter Ogre: villain Brother: hero Setting: Western portion of the old capital city of Lo Yang Plot: A maiden was abducted by an ogre that was disguised as a youth and brought her up to the top of a pagoda and trapped her there until she agreed to marry him. She constantly refused everyday even though he brought her wine, bread, jewelry, clothes, and all the expensive things a girl could want. He would make sure to move stones in the way so she couldn't escape and one day he forgot to close it up completely so she saw him turn from a human into an ogre and she was horrified. She said a man pass by below and got his attention by throwing her clothes down and the man remembered his neighbor's daughter had disappeared so he showed her family and the brother went to go save her by hitting the ogre with an axe and climbing with the help of others up the pagoda to save her. Story Idea: A gender flip coul...

The Cave of the Beasts Main Characters:  Father, 2 youngest daughters, wolf, fox Setting: In the mountains Plot: The dad went to the woods and found 7 wild duck eggs which is perfect because he has 7 daughters but he brought them home and hid them for himself and his wife. His wife cooked all 7 and gave them to each daughter as they woke up for breakfast and told them not to tell anyone else. The father was so upset that he wanted to leave the girls in the mountains to get eaten by wolves. He invited them for a car ride to their "grandma's place" and the oldest daughters said no because they were suspicious and the 2 youngest daughters agreed. He drove out to the mountains and told them to get out so that he could go ahead and warn grandma but then he never came back to get them. They found a stone to sleep on as a pillow but then saw a light that led into a cave full of gold and jewels. The cave was owned by a wolf and fox that came home that night to sleep o...

Miemun and Khojisteh Characters:  Miemun: the main character who marries Khojisteh and buys the parrot Khojisteh: wife of the main character Parrot: wise bird that is bought by Miemun Ahmed Sultaun: dad of  Miemun Setting: Former times of Persia Overall Plot of the Stories: Miemun goes out of town and Khojisteh is about to commit adultery but the parrot continuously tells her stories every night to keep her from leaving. Plot of the Intro: Miemun and Khojisteh were set up by Miemun's father and they were the perfect couple who always spent time with each other. Miemun bought the parrot with a ridiculous sum of money because the bird was wise and kept up with current affairs as well as told advice on what to invest in for the market.  Story Idea: Change the setting to modernize the story line and change the wording as well as names to make it easier to follow along. Miemun with the parrot: Wikipedia Bibliography. "Miemun and Khojiste...

Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp Characters: Aladdin: the main character Evil Magician: pretends to be Aladdin's uncle Minor characters: Aladdin's parents Storyline Aladdin's dad was a tailor who passed away and was depressed at the fact that Aladdin was idle and had no trade so one day, this evil magician shows up to tell Aladdin and his mom that he is Aladdin's uncle who left 40 years ago so that's why they don't know him. He takes Aladdin into a shop and buys him all of these wonderful suits and what surprised me was that the story started saying fake uncle at this part when it hadn't earlier. The magician tricked Aladdin into going into this underground tunnel and retrieving a lamp for this fake uncle and then quickly left and never came back. The only problem is that the magician forgot to take the ring back from Aladdin as well. Ending Aladdin rubs the ring on his finger and a genie comes out of the ground with 3 wishes to offer and the magician ...

The Physician's Revenge Characters:  Vizir: advisor to the king The Greek King Douban: a physician for the king Plot: The weak king gets tricked by vizir who means to do Douban harm. Vizir tells the king that Douban is actually trying to kill the king instead of heal him and the king sadly falls for his lies. The king orders Douban to be killed but Douban begs the king to let him take care of everything before he dies and amazes him with a book that with Douban's head on it can talk and give him advice. So the king allows Douban to go back to his house and grab the book with a guard and take care of last minute things before dying. Douban gets his head cut off and tells the king to go through the pages of the book while licking his fingers between each page but the King was confused as the pages were blank. Ending: The king gets poisoned by the pages in the book and Douban still ends up dying. Possible Storytelling Idea: Have the physician find a way to get the vizir ...

     Ra complained that humans who he had created were speaking ill of him behind his back and were wishing to slay him so he called a council of the gods and goddesses to discuss what he should do to punish them. Some gave their opinions and they eventually reached the consensus that Ra should release his eye upon the people and Hathor violently slaughtered many humans until they all went into hiding and Ra tried to stop her by offering many jars of alcohol as a gift to her to finally make her stop. Ra then happily had loyal supporters who would never speak ill of him.      To change this story, I would modernize it because some of the parts were hard to understand at first. Ra and Hathor: Flickr Bibliography. Egyptian Myth and Legend by Donald Mackenzie: link to online reading .

     The story starts off with a merchant's daughter named Pearl who lives in Ayodhya and rejects all the men. She is beautiful and charming but refuses kings and great merchants. Her father is deeply sad about her love life but then the citizens were being robbed every night by thieves so the king went to go stop the thieves. The king found one and told the thief that the king was also a thief so the thief took him home to show him hospitality but the maid told the king to escape or he would be harmed so the king escaped to go get help and came back to capture the thief. He successfully captured the thief with his own hands and brought him back to be killed. Pearl saw the thief out of her balcony and cried at the sight of his death because she fell in love with him at first sight and her father thought she was crazy to love a thief but not kings or merchants but she wouldn't have it. She said she would go die with him and took his body to the stake to be burned with him ...

Goblins: The 3 lovers The goblin gives the king riddles for him to solve and this one is about a beautiful girl named Coral. She has three lovers but she dies suddenly after getting a fever so the dad was sad until he found a brahman doing a spell to bring a baby back to life that was thrown in the fire. The dad took the book and found one of the lovers who slept in the cemetery with coral's ashes and the second lover at the ganges river where he left her bones. So the dad did the spell to bring coral back to life and claimed that coral should be his wife, while the other two also complained that coral should be their wives because of their contribution to bringing her back. The king said that the guy who slept in the grave should be chosen to be the husband because he actually did hard work. Goblins over a fire: Youtube Bibliography. Twenty-Two Goblins by Arthur Ryder: link to reading online

Venus and the Goddesses  Word had spread that Cupid was at his mom's place and badly burned on his shoulder while Psyche was at the sea bathing and bad rumors had spread about how their relationship was disintegrating. Venus found out who her son had married and was outraged at her worst enemy becoming her daughter in law and possibly giving her more daughters. Venus scolded her son for being a disgrace and choosing such a girl to marry and ordered others to go find Psyche. Cupid and Psyche painted by Luca Giordano from 1692-1701:  Wikipedia                          Bibliography. Cupid and Psyche by Apuleius; link to online reading

Birds Part 1: The Fox and the Crow A crow had a piece of cheese on her beak but a cunning fox that wanted the piece of cheese decided to flatter her in order to obtain the cheese. He went on about how wonderful of a singer she was and asked her to sing a song and as soon as she started singing, she dropped the piece of cheese that was quickly snatched away by the fox. The Fox and the Crow:  Page by Page Books Bibliography. Aesop's Fables by Joseph Jacobs,  link to the reading online

Foxes Part 1: The Fox and the Stork The fox invited the stork over for dinner and offered to cook. However, the fox put the food in a shallow bowl that the stork's bill barely grazed. The stork then offered to have the fox over for dinner next time. When the stork made dinner, the stork placed the food in a narrow jar that only the stork's bill could fit into in order to get food and the fox was left to starve.  Foxes Part 2: The Fox Without a Tail A fox lost his tail when trying to escape a trap that he was caught in. He was ashamed and embarrassed everywhere he went so he decided to convince other foxes that he didn't need his tail and that others should also cut off their tails but the others didn't listen. The Fox and the Stork:  Kids Zone Bibliography. Aesop's Fables by Joseph Jacobs,  link to the reading online

The Oracle of Apollo: Since Psyche was beyond beautiful, no one would take her as a bride. She was a mere ornament for people to stare at and admire. Her parents went to Apollo and received a command to wed her to a fatal marriage and they had  no choice but to accept. They made her go to a miserable marriage and they cried and wept bitterly as she had to go up to a top of a mountain by herself. I could retell the story by changing the beginning to where there were many suitors after her because I feel so sad that Psyche was lonely and and wept. I am also upset that her sisters were sought after but she wasn't. Psyche adored by the people painted by Luca Giordano from 1692-1701: Wikipedia Bibliography. Cupid and Psyche by Apuleius; link to online reading

Mercury and the Woodman A woodman was in the forest trying to chop down a tree when he accidentally dropped the axe in the water after a long tiring day of chopping. He cried bitterly without his axe because it was his source of income and his life line. He didn't have enough money to buy a new one. Mercury heard his cries and dove deep in the water to retrieve his axe but instead pulled out a gold axe. The woodman denied that it was his and Mercury then pulled out a silver which the woodman also turned down and then finally, Mercury pulled out the one that the woodman lost originally and he happily accepted. Mercury gladly gave him all 3 to keep for his honesty. Other people in town had heard about his fortune and started hiding their axes in the bushes and forest and pretending like they had lost their axes and called out to Mercury to help them find their axes and once again, Mercury offered them the gold one first and they tried to take it but Mercury instead hit them with the...