The story of The Stag and The Snail was definitely my favorite from this unit. It was a much more fun, and morbid, version of the Tortoise and the Hare that I grew up hearing. The Stag brags the entire time about a long journey and the Snail does not like the Stags arrogance. The Snail challenges the Stag to a race, but the snail family is concerned and decides to line-up, hidden, the entire length of the race. Once the race begins the Stag runs off and after a certain distance he yells for the Snail, where he the hears a reply right behind him and starts running faster. The Stag continues this over and over again until he collapse near the finish line. The Snail ends up winning and the Stag, from sheer exhaustion, spits up his gallbladder, which is why Stags do not have gallbladders to this very day.
Another story I enjoyed was The Legend of the Iei Tree. It reminded that wisdom and help can come from the smallest of places. In the story these men want to chop down a mighty tree that is causing much damage to their homes. They spend all day trying to cut down the tree, and when they return to it the next day all of their work from the previous day is gone. A little bird then comes to them and offers assistance. The men laugh at the little bird. The bird they scolds them and tells them that the tiger has been healing the tree at night. The men feel ashamed and end up defeating the tiger and finishing their task of cutting down the tree.
How the Dog Came to live with Man was another story I greatly enjoyed. It would be interesting to hear the entire thing first-hand from the dog.
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| Stag (Source) |
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