Reading Notes: Laos, Part A

Laos: The Origin of Lightning. Story Source: Laos Folk-Lore by Katherine Neville Fleeson, with photographs by W.A. Briggs (1899).

• A long time ago, there was a chief who wanted to be happy in his future life
• Because of this, he spent a lot of money to cook big meals for the priests and for the poor
• The chief had 10 wives
• 9 of them helped him do good deeds
• The last one (his favorite) didn't help him do these things and instead clothed herself in beautiful clothes, jewels, and gave the priests trouble
• When the chief passed away and went to the sky because of their good deeds, the chief looked down to see his favorite wife below
• After many days he saw her as a crane hunting for food on the side of a lake
• The chief was curious where her heart was and if she had repented
• So, he came back down to earth in the form of a fish and swam over to his wife (the crane)
• The crane pecked at the fish, however stopped once she knew the fish was alive
• She did this once again
• This deed proved to the chief that the wife had repented because the did not take the life of another just to satisfy her own wants
• He decided that she could be a woman again
• One day the crane died and was reborn into a gardener's child 
• As the child grew up, she was the most beautiful woman in the land
• One day, her father and mother made her a flower crown and told her to throw it in the air, and whoever's head the crown landed on would be her husband.
• Upon hearing this, the chief came down to earth as an old man
• When the woman threw up the crown, it landed on the chief's (the old man) head
• People snickered at this and questioned why the old man thought that he could be her husband
• They held hands and rose into the air
• The father shot at the old man as the rose into the air, but they were never seen again

• When people see the chain (circular) lightning, they claim that it is the flower crown of the beautiful woman
• When people hear the lightning strikes, they claim it is the father shooting at the old man
• When the lightning flashes, they claim it is the chief looking for his favorite wife left behind

(Flash of lightning. Source: Wikimedia Commons)