Week 7: Khasi Folktales (Extra Reading Diary)

For the extra half reading, I chose to read Khasi Folktales.

The first story I would like to talk about from this unit is the story of The Goddesses Ka Ngot and Ka Iam. This story reminded me a lot of the story of the race between the tortoise and the hare.

It surprised me when the twins became rivers. While it did say they were goddesses, I wasn't expecting them to become rivers to race. I liked that instead of having something like the tortoise and the hare where each species was naturally fast or slow, they gave each of the girls comparable human traits. Ka Ngot being timid and anxious was great for her being slower and more careful about the path she chose, while Ka Iam was impatient and overly confident and just wanted the most direct path even if she had to struggle through it and in the end it took longer.

I was a little confused about what the part about the sliver necklace had to do with anything, as it didn't seem relevant. It seemed more like an offshoot or side note of the story.

Two Rivers by Albert Bridge. Geograph.

The second story that I want to talk about from the first half of this unit is Hunting the Stag Lamalang. I was really expecting the mother to die in the story instead of the stag and for it to end like Bambi. I thought that the Stag being hunted and dying because he didn't listen to his mother was a good moral, especially for young children who would hear the story of the stag. 

I also liked the ending where the mother deer was so heart broken about the death of her son that the humans around felt her pain and were ashamed at what they did to mourn their own dead. The ending was a great story to explain how and why people now mourn for the dead.