Reading Notes: Chinese Fairy Tales, Part A

The Panther

from The Chinese Fairy Book by R. Wilhelm

Black Panther. Source: Public Domain Pictures

For this week's African and Asian stories, I decided to go with the Chinese fairytales. I found all of these so fun to read because they reminded me of fables I read when I was in elementary school. They were fairytale-like but also had an overall message as well.

One of my favorites from Part A was the story about The Panther. I don't know why, but this particular story reminded me of a cartoon. Almost like an episode of Tom and Jerry. 

The story starts off with the mom and son going to visit the grandmother, and they leave the two daughters at home. The mom and son come across a panther who continually tells them to take rest break with him. The panther wants to comb through the mom's hair and she lets him. He ended up clawing off a little bit of skin and eats it. The mother asks him to stop but the panther likes the taste of it and claws off another bigger chunk of skin. The mother starts to call for help and the panther pounces on her and eats her. Then he turns to the son and devours him too. 

The panther dresses up like the mom and goes back to her house where the daughters are. He still has the son's bones in the basket he takes along with him.

*This is when it started getting comical for me* 

The panther knocks on the door and calls the daughters to open the door. The daughters peep through and start saying things like mother didn't have so and so and the panther's retorts back with some funny excuse. 

• “Our mother’s eyes are not so large as yours!” -->  “I have been to grandmother’s house and saw her hens laying eggs. That pleases me and is the reason why my eyes have grown so large.”
• “Our mother had no spots in her face such as you have.” --> “Grandmother had no spare bed, so I had to sleep on the peas, and they pressed themselves into my face.”
• "Our mother’s feet are not so large as yours" --> “Stupid things! That comes from walking such a distance. Come, open the door quickly!”
• The last line from the wolf was the best because the daughters go “It must be our mother". I actually chuckled at that because if I was ever in a situation like this and my mom ever called me stupid, I'd know it was her too. 

The story goes on to where the Panther lives with them and the girls find out one day that it is not their mother and that the panther must've ate their mother and brother, and will try to eat them now. So they climb up a tree and try to trick the panther into leaving. 

And then once panther leaves, they start crying until people notice them and give them things to help them get rid of the panther for good. 

• needle-vender- “Stick these needles in the cushion of the arm chair with the points up.”
• scorpion-catcher- “Put it behind the hearth in the kitchen.” 
• egg-seller- “Lay it beneath the ashes in the hearth.”
• dealer in turtles- “Put it in the water-barrel in the yard.”
• man sold wooden clubs- “Hang them up over the door to the street.”

The funny part was that after each of these characters came by and asked what happened, the girls would be like "“A panther has devoured our mother and our brother. He has gone now, but he is sure to return and devour us as well." And after the character would give them something to help with the Panther, they would thank him and go back to crying until the next character came around.