Reading Diary A: Tales of the Congo

I decided to read the Tales of the Congo unit for my assigned reading this week. I chose this using the crystal ball (again) because I had trouble choosing a unit. As I read I kept notes on what stories I liked the best and they are as follows:

How the Wives Restored Their Husband to Life

This story reminds me of many others I've read from the past weeks. It seems to be a big point in lots of cultures that these families have competitions to see who is liked more or whatever. They all kind of seem to be the same where the person who revives the person or whoever gives the gift with the most value is usually the "winner" of sorts.

An illustration of women from the Congo (Wikipedia Commons).

The Vanishing Wife

This story reminds me of something like a genie that promises everything you could every want as long as you follow his one wish. I feel like it is a strange request that the man's wife can not stand to see the fishes without their heads cut off. It seems like a such a simple request as well and I was not surprised to see that in the end all his possessions vanished after he failed to follow the simple request.

The Wicked Husband

This story is somewhat of a good one to show the typical mood of all stories within this unit. Something that seems minor results in someone having a gruesome thing happen to them. I was not expecting this much violence and gruesome acts to occur in this unit.