Reading Diary A: Santal Folklore

I let the crystal ball decide my fate this week as I could not make up my mind about which unit to read. After reading the first half I am happy with what the crystal ball decided for me. Maybe I should let it decide a few more things in my life down the road. It led me to read the first half of the Santal Folklore unit and here are what I found to be my favorite stories:

Ramai and the Animals

I enjoyed this story because it made the nicest son end up with the better life in the end. He saved all the animals from death not knowing that the snake would end up giving him the ability to have everything he could ever want. I found this to be odd because in most stories the snake is portrayed as the villain or the deceiver. I kind of enjoyed that little twist within the story. I would have liked to know what the father thought about his other sons since they surely made profits from their endeavors.

The Raibar and the Leopard

I liked this story because I found it very amusing that the Raibar tricked the Leopard into thinking he could set him up with a mate. In reality, he had used his status to trick the Leopard into trapping himself and then the Raibar tried to kill him. It ended up that what the Raibar told the Leopard did in fact happen. I may want to incorporate something like this into my storytelling this week. I found this to be one of the more entertaining stories in the first half reading.

The look on the Leopard's face when he saw his mate promised by the Raibar (Wikipedia Commons).