Week 7: Filipino Tales Continued

Nelore cattle

This week I read Filipino Popular Tales from Dean Fansler's monumental Filipino Popular Tales, published in 1921. I've really liked this unit, and my favorite stories from the second half were pretty different from the first half of this unit.

I liked Why the Cow’s Skin is Loose on the Neck the most this time. I liked this story because it was about two friendly animals running away from their master together, and it told a sort of creation or "why something is so" story. I had never wondered why the cow has looser than many other animals, but now I know! It could be fun to do a storytelling post that explains something about another animal, or maybe even a human!

My second favorite from this unit Why the Cuttlefish and Squids produce a Black Liquid because it was the same kind of story as that of the cow. I like that this one was more of a punishment than the cow story because that gives the cuttlefish and the squids more motivation to have a boring special feature like squirting black liquid.

There's so many stories like this is so many different cultures that it always really interests me to see the commonalities and differences. Writing my own could be really fun because I would feel like I was creating a culture of my own with it's own myths and creation stories!