Reading Diary A: Alice in Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland Unit

READING A:

Down the Rabbit-Hole
Down the Rabbit-Hole (cont.)
Down the Rabbit-Hole (end)

• Dear Alice, the purpose of a book is so that you can paint your own pictures and conversations within your own mind. Much like what you did for this story!
• I like how this story uses caps to emphasize things. 
• She's very much like a kid in the way she thinks and speaks... although she is one. 
• the image of shutting up like a telescope is quite... quirky. 

Illustration by John Tenniel. 

Source: Project Gutenberg.

Advice from a Caterpillar
Advice from a Caterpillar (cont.)
Advice from a Caterpillar (end)

It's so crazy, the image of a caterpillar smoking hookah and asking who you are. The little story within a story part with father william was interesting since it rhymed. I always imagined the caterpillar to be bigger than it was but.. it's actually only 3 inches tall.

Pig and Pepper
Pig and Pepper (cont.)
Pig and Pepper (end)

For this story, I could never tell if it was her imagination or for real even though it's quite famous. 

Extra Reading Diary: English Fairy Tales

English Fairy Tales Unit

READING A:

Tom Tit Tot

This story certainly did remind me of Rumpelstiltskin. The differences were that instead of spinning gold, the girl had to spin skein (which I originally thought was skin, which creeped me out a bit, but it was actually just a ball of yarn. That should not have been too hard.) and the little creature wanted to own her instead of her firstborn child. Also, she was already married to the king. The little rhyme that went with the name was cute as well.

The Rose-Tree

This story felt like a Cinderella story gone wrong. The stepmother manages to kill the daughter of the family, and yet, the husband doesn't even bother asking what happened. The younger stepbrother didn't bother telling his father his sister was murdered either. 

The Old Woman and Her Pig

That story was quite repetitive, yet, I liked it. The old woman went through so many troubles just to get her pig to move when she could have done it herself instead of asking both animate and inanimate objects to do one thing or another. 

Binnorie

The younger sister came back as a spirit it seems since the harper used her hair and breast bone to make an instrument. That also sounds weird since why would you use human parts to make an instrument? 

Mouse and Mouser

I wonder why the cat is referred to as the Mouser in this story. The story itself eventually led to the mouse being eaten, unfortunately.

Cap O' Rushes

That was a really cute story. One thing I didn't like was that the dance dragged on for three days until we got anywhere. "Rarely liked" sounds like "really liked." Is that the word before it became modernized?

The Story of the Three Little Pigs

I couldn't tell if that was a happy story or a savage one because the pig ended up eating the wolf in the end. I guess it just sounds weird because we eat pigs and if they're eating other things... then that would be kind of gross.

The Master and His Pupil
I want to know the words that cast away Beelzebub.

The pupil and Beelzebub. 

Source: UN-Textbook. 

Reading Diary B: Canterbury Tales Unit

Canterbury Tales Unit

The Chaucer Storybook Book Cover. Source: UN-Textbook. 

READING B:
The Prioress's Tale: Little Hugh

• this was a sweet tale of a little boy who sang O Alma Redemptoris
• He was killed by Jews but managed to sing even after death
• I found that it was weird that in this story, Jews were affiliated with Satan

Nun's Priest's Tale: The Cock, the Hen, and the Fox

The Cock, the Hen, and the Fox (cont.)
The Cock, the Hen, and the Fox (cont. again)
The Cock, the Hen, and the Fox (end)

• I couldn't tell if the hen was encouraging the cock or just belittling him for telling her about his bad dream
• It looks like the cock is quite superstitious
• he sang so loud that he didn't hear the fox coming closer
• Does pride make us less self-aware?
• No one died in this story so i'm quite pleased.

The Canon's Yeoman's Tale: The Priest as Philosopher
The Priest who Learned to be a Philosopher (cont.)
The Priest who Learned to be a Philosopher (end)

• The priest seems quite gullible. I expected the philosopher to run away with his money at first.
• the language for this particular story is hard to follow
• what is a "canon" or "beechen"?
• So the "philosopher" did trick the priest after all!

Reading Diary A: Canterbury Tales Unit

Canterbury Tales Unit

"The Canterbury Tales" by Eljiasan. Source: DeviantArt.

READING A:

The Wife of Bath's Tale: The Unknown Bride
The Unknown Bride (cont.)

• I had a feeling that this story would end up as a "happily ever after" with the old woman actually being a beautiful young maiden
• It kind of reminds me of the beginning of Beauty and the Beast where the witch disguised herself as an old hag
• I really liked this story
• Possible storytelling post

The Friar's Tale: The Story of the Summoner
The Story of the Summoner (cont.)

• I didn't really understand what was happening until the end of the story for this one
• So the fiend was actually a devil from hell. I thought he was just joking.

The Franklin's Tale: The Promise of Dorigen
The Promise of Dorigen (cont.)
The Promise of Dorigen (cont. again)
The Promise of Dorigen (end)

• It's sweet to see how much Dorigen loved her husband.
• The squire had a kind of "love at first sight" moment
• Arviragus was actually really nice to let his wife go... I would have thought he would fight for her.
• I felt like Arviragus was the most generous, but all three were very generous
• that was a great story too

The Pardoner's Tale: The Revelers
The Revelers (cont.)
The Revelers (end)

• The ending was very clever in that they were trying to find Death and eventually did find him
• The 3 men were equally wretched in this story
• I wonder who the old man really was; was he Death?

Week 10 Reading B: Native American Marriage Tales

Week 10 Native American Marriage Tales Unit

READING B:

The Dog-Husband

So the girl and her dog had some puppies together. As a result, the family decided to leave her for dead, but a crow saved her. Then she found out the dog babies could turn into humans and taught them how to hunt. They got really good at it, and the village people decided to return. Wow. 

The Youth Who Joined the Deer

There was a deer hunter who had wives and children. He came across some tracks and met a woman who basically forced him to be her husband. How does that happen? So he left his wife and kids for a deer woman. Then he went and hunted for his deer family. It turns out the deer are cannibalistic and eat their own kind. But wait.. they revive back into deer at the end. 

The Youth Who Joined the Deer (cont.)

The stories continues and the couple decide to return to the land of people. They had a son and he became a great hunter and taught the people how to hunt deer. 

A deer and its young.

Posted by Halie Barton. Source: Pinterest.

The Girl and the Turkeys

There was a really poor girl who had some turkeys and told them of her problems. The wonderful turkeys understood her and wanted to help her. 

The Girl and the Turkeys (cont.)

This part of the story is similar to the story of cinderella. Except the turkeys were the mice. This part was quite cute. I hope that she will not betray the love of her turkeys in the end. 

The Girl and the Turkeys (end)

It turns out she did betray them. Sort of. She ended up coming back too late from the festival and they left her. She was reduced to what she was before. 

The True Bride

So there was a girl who had an evil stepmother. She ventured out and wanted to run away but ran into a lodge with four men who were her relatives and they gave her some strawberries, new clothes, and the power to spit gold. The stepmother sent her own daughter to try to get the same, but the girl was stuck up and so they gave her the power to spit out nasty toenails. LOL! 

The True Bride (cont.)

So she who spat gold got married to the chief's son and got pregnant twice. Both of the time, the stepmother was the midwife and she killed both of the infants and gave the girl a cat and a snake as her "babies." How twisted. Then she told the husband to kill his wife and he agreed.

The True Bride (cont. again)

The bride's children had actually survived because her dog ended up rearing them. However, the stepmother found out and poisoned the children. The dog then went to the sun to try to revive them. 

The True Bride (end)

He managed to save the children and they revived. One had a sun mark on his forehead, and the other, a moon mark. Then the truth was revealed in the end and justice was served! I'm glad there was a happy ending. 

Week 10 Reading A: Native American Marriage Tales

Week 10 Native American Marriage Tales Unit

READING A:

The Piqued Buffalo-Wife

So what happened here was that a young man "took advantage" of a cow/buffalo and she gave birth to a son. I'm unsure as to whether the son is a cow or a human or both because how could he talk to humans if he was just a calf? It looks like the man eventually came to love his family so much he died to get them back.

Bear-Woman and Deer-Woman

This story was extremely dark. So the bear killed the deer wife. Then the deer children killed the bear children. Why were there two wives? Where was the husband in all this? I think I can write something about this. Maybe have the husband come back wondering where in the heck his family went.

Splinter-Foot-Girl

Okay... so some guy's leg gave birth to a child. Then this bull comes along and wants to marry the child. After a few tries, he got her.

Splinter-Foot-Girl (cont.)

This part tells us why bulls have shorter horns (than they did before?) and why they are hunted by humans. So the wife ran away from the bull and got up on a tree. He found her and started ramming the tree with it and breaking his horns. Then he got stuck in the tree and died. The rest of his herd ended up with short horns because he made them ram the tree so much.

Splinter-Foot-Girl (end)

So then an evil moving rock wanted to marry the girl. The girl and her family escaped by using a ball to bounce themselves to the stars. This tells the reason as to why rocks no longer move.

The Eagle and Whale Husbands

There were two girls who each wanted an eagle and a whale husband. They got their wish and found out that it wasn't the best life and abandoned ship.

The Fox-Woman

There was a man who had some random person taking care of his house. Which is kind of creepy and weird if you ask me. He then spied to see who it was and it turned out to be a fox who told him she was his wife. Then over time, she started smelling bad and he asked about it and she up and left.

The Woman Stolen by Killer Whales

A man was fishing and happened to kill a killer whale. Then the friends of the dead killer whale took revenge by capturing his wife. The man got help from a shark to get his wife back. 

The Rolling Head

So many things happened in this story. The wife was cheating on the husband with a giant snake. I don't even know how. Then the husband killed his wife and fed her to his children. He left the head there and the children ran away after realizing what they did. Then in the end, they made some lions kill him. What did I just read?

The Bear-Woman

A woman fell in love with a bear. Her little sister saw what happened and told the family, causing them to kill the bear. The older sister made her little sister get the flesh of the bear and all was well after that... then one day they were playing and big sis got touched in the wrong place by little sis and big sis ended up killing a ton of people. 

The Bear-Woman (cont.)

This story basically finished with the older sis getting killed. Then it was tied with the constellations

Constellations.

Source: Starryskies.

Extra Reading Diary: Chinese Fairy Tales

Unit: Chinese Fairy Tales

READING B:

The Little Hunting Dog

• there was a scholar who hated being around people, so lived in a Buddhist temple
• awww this story was so cute yet so sad
• so the little tiny knights left behind a tiny dog that kept gnats from annoying the scholar at night
• then one day while the scholar was taking nap, he accidentally squished it to death. 

Fox-Fire

• a man caught a fox preparing the elixir of life using fox fire
• the man caught the ball and swallowed it, giving himself the ability to connect to the spirit world
• he used his ability to help people and he gained many gifts from it
• thirty years later, the fox came and took back its ball

The Talking Silver Foxes

• the silver foxes had the form of a normal fox, except it was yellow/red/white colored and could talk
• there was a fox that liked to toy with wanderers and one day, a man managed to whip the fox
• the fox spirit ended up possessing a woman and said the only person who it feared was the man who had the ox-tail whip
• so the villagers went and got the man and he killed it

Retribution

• there was a young boy named Ma whose father accidentally killed another man 
• once the young boy grew up, he saw the spirit of the dead man coming back and became born into a wealthy family 
• when the little boy grew up, he threw some rocks at some birds and accidentally struck Ma
• this story was about how karma will always get you in the end

The Night on the Battlefield

• this story was about a merchant who came across a small in late at night
• it turns out the inn was full of dead spirits

The Maiden Who Was Stolen Away

• an ogre who was masquerading as a young scholar captured a young maiden and placed her at the top of a pagoda
• she couldn't escape
• however, she saw a wanderer who happened to be her neighbor and caught his attention
• he couldn't tell who she was, but he was suspicious she was his neighbor's child
• so he went to the family and the youngest brother managed to save his sister by killing the ogre

The Sorcerer of the White Lotus Lodge

• there was a great sorcerer who was quite cruel to his pupils
• he had them do various mundane tasks that were related to his journey
• when the families of the pupils inquired about them, they found out that the sorcerer kept them there
• so the father of one boy asked the city official to capture the sorcerer and put him and his family into jail 
• however, the people how were transporting the sorcerer got tricked and the sorcerer got away

The Three Evils

• there was a young man named Dschou Tschu who was strong yet was a savage of sorts
• the people called him one of the three evils 
• a new mandarin came to town and told him about him being one of the three evils
• D.T. went and killed the other two evils
• then he offered himself as a soldier and killed himself in battle 

Yang Gui Fe

• Yang Gui Fe was the beautiful wife of the emperor, Ming Huang. 
• the emperor loved her so much that he did whatever she said
• she wanted to bring in her cousin, who brought many troubles to the monarchy
• soon the emperor was cast out and the soldiers wanted Yang Gui Fe and her cousin killed
• the emperor had no choice and had the two killed
• then he heard of a man who was able to speak to dead people
• the man went to look for YGF's spirit and found her as a blessed fairy
• YGF then gave him her half of the ring that matched the emperors and promised to see the emperor soon

Yang Gui Fei

Source: UN-Textbook. 

Week 9: Reading Diary B

Week 9 Unit: California and the Old Southwest

READING B:

Origin of the Sierra Nevadas and Coast Range

• this story explains why the sierra nevada range is larger than the coast range
• Hawk and Crow took mud from a dead duck's mouth to create the mountain ranges
• Hawk thought Crow stole mud from him since Crow's mountain range was larger, so he put his where Crow's was

Legend of Tu-tok-a-nu'-la (El Capitan)

• tutokanula means measuring worm
• the story is about why the rock is called tutokanula
• two boys fell asleep on the rock that is continuously growing
• as a result, no one could go and wake them up to bring them home
• so various animals tried to jump up, but only the measuring worm was able to climb up and get them to wake up

The Children of Cloud

• this is the story of two twin boys who had the power of the cloud: thunder and lightning
• they did not know who their father was and so their mother sent them to go see him
• once they met their father, he was skeptical and had them go through various trials to make sure they were his children
• he finally accepted them, but after they lived to him for a while, they wanted to see their mother
• he sent them on their way and told them to not talk to anyone, but they got caught by a wolf and turned into agave plants

Origin of the Raven and the Macaw

• there was a priest with a beautiful staff who bestowed the people with 4 eggs: 2 blue and 2 red.
• he told them the blue would give them good fortune and happiness and the red would give them cold hard winters, so essentially, misfortune
• the stronger people took the blue egg from the weaker ones
• the blue egg ended up to be a raven 
• the red egg was a beautiful macaw

Coyote and Hare; Coyote and Fawns

• in the first story, a hare gets caught by a coyote and uses its wit to get away. 
• it does so by saying that all of the things that can kill it are its 'friends' whereas the weak stuff was harmful
• in the second story, the coyote wanted its children to be beautiful like the deer, so it put it in a cave of fire and accidentally burned them all to death
• the deer misled the coyote. so sad.

Coyote and the Quails

• some quails stole some meat from the coyote's body without him noticing
• he woke up and stole that meat from them and ate it
• they told him he was eating his own meat
• he finally noticed they had cut meat from him, so he went after them
• they disguised a cactus to look like them
• he bit the cactus and died

How the Bluebird Got its Color

• the bluebird used to be an ugly color, but it bathed in a river for 4 days and come out blue
• the coyote wanted the same, so he followed its instructions
• but he was so busy wanting to see if people noticed him that he ran into a stump and got covered with dirt
• as a result, all coyotes are the color of dirt

Coyote's Eyes

• I didn't really understand this story
• it seems there was a bird that could take out its eyes and throw them up and back into its sockets to make them "brighter" 
• the coyote wanted the same, so he copied it, making the bird do it for him
• the first time, it worked, but later one, he lost his eyes
• then the bird found some gum on a tree and used them to fill his sockets
• that's why his eyes are no longer black, but yellow

Coyote eyes.

Source: Larry 1732.

How the Rattlesnake Learned to Bite

• the rattlesnake was known as the soft child because all it could do was rattle its tail
• other animals would poke it and bother it in order to hear its tail
• so the rattlesnake was given teeth with poison made from hair
• the rabbit bothered it and got bitten and died
• the others tried to cremate the rabbit without letting the coyote know, but fail and the coyote ate its heart
• but the coyote also got burned from the fire in its mouth, which is why it is black

Week 9: Reading Diary A

Week 9 Unit: California and the Old Southwest

READING A:

Three Coyote Creation Stories

• In the first story, it looks like the coyote did much more than the eagle when the world was created. 
• Why were his methods more lethal or had a bigger impact on what became of the world? 
• The second story also put more emphasis on the coyote's helping hand in creating the world
• Something important is the 9 suns and 9 moons being destroyed
• maybe write a story on how the fragments from the destroyed sun and moons brothers came together to be one big sun and one big moon. 
• In the third story, everything was wiped out instead of the coyote and due to his benevolence, he grabbed feathers from various birds and recreated the world

The Creation of the World

• In this story, the Earth Doctor plays the role of the god that creates the earth 
• It almost seems like he plays around with various elements to create the earth
• like throwing the sun or land back and forth

Spider's Creation

• In this story, the spider was the one who created the world
• the name was Sussistinnako
• It sang and thus created the animals of the world
• it also separated people in to different clans according to animal names

The Great Fire; The Origin of Light

• For the first story, a man who was ridiculed by the two women he wanted to marry got angry and destroyed the world
• In the end, the world was saved by the coyote
• In the second story, it tells of why the moon isn't very bright
• it is because the moon is a ball of tule reeds made by the coyote and the hawk

Creation of Man

• It tells about how the cunning coyote created man
• all the other animals wanted to make man into a creature that resembled their own species
• however, while the other animal were sleeping, coyote destroyed all of their clay models and gave life to his own and beat the others to it, so he was able to use his own model

Old Man Above and the Grizzlies

• this story tells about why grizzly bears are the way that they are
• the Old Man Above had a daughter that got swept to the land of the grizzlies
• as a result, she married a grizzly and had children who became men 
• Old Man Above was furious and punished grizzlies by taking away their voice and then making them walk on all fours instead 2 legs

The Creation of Man-kind and the Flood

• this story also talks about the Earth Doctor as the creator
• he created animals, but because there were too many of them to handle, he had to kill them all in a flood
• then he went and recreated animals and continued to kill them in the flood if they got out of hand
• how did elder brother become the ruler of the world if earth doctor was the creator? why did earth doctor try to create something that would eventually become stronger than himself?

The Great Flood

• I wasn't too sure how the turkey bears the mark of the water
• this story talks about how the spider from the previous stories saved the people from the flood and how the constellations were made

The Fable of the Animals

• In this story, Kareya is the god figure
• coyote wanted to be the most powerful animal so he sent out to not sleep to meet kareya in order to gain more power, but his plan backfired
• as a result, he was the last to meet kareya and was to be the weakest but kareya felt sorry for him and gave him more cunning power than any other animal

The Course of the Sun

• this story explains why the sun goes from rises in the east and sets in the west
• the sun went various directions and didn't like them before he settled from east to west

The Theft of Fire

• the karok people were cold so coyote set out to steal fire in order to warm them for this story

Coyote, Tortillas, and Mesquite Beans

• I think the story warns about the dangers of eating mesquite beans because the coyote ate them and died. 
• In both stories, the coyote died..

Extra Reading Diary: Tibetan Folk Tales

Extra Reading Diary: Tibetan Folk Tales (Reading A)

The Tiger and the Frog.

• the lesson: the tall strong pine is a great help, for with its support the weak vine may climb as high
• this Khuden tigers kinda funny
• I GUESS I'll eat you, but you're kind of pitiful. Who are you again?
• he got scared of the frog and ran away

The Cony Who Got into Bad Company.

• a cony = rabbit
• the lesson: if you are without kindness, you will meet no kindness in return
• there was a rabbit and a rat who was friends with a lama
• they decided to steal stuff from him and were caught by him and had their ears and whiskers cut off
• the rat tried to get its king to get revenge, but the king of conies knew the truth and denied to help
• the king of conies then told the cony that it should not hang out with rats because they have always been thieving folk

The Story of the Donkey and the Rock.

• the lesson: between iron and brass there is union if the welding is skillful
• there were two men who worked to take care of their mothers
• one day, the man with the donkey accidentally knocked over the other man's pot of oil
• they brought the issue to the king
• which decided to hold a trial for the donkey and rock
• people came to see and were forced to pay money
• in the end, the man who lost is oil was paid back and no one was sentenced for the incident

How the Fox Fell a Victim to His Own Deceit.

• the lesson: between the official and his people is confidence if the headman is skillful
• there was a tiger with a son
• she found a calf and a fox to be his friends
• after she died, she told them to always be friends
• the fox, however, was jealous of the calf and wanted to get him out of the picture 
• he told the tiger and the calf individually that the other was going to kill them
• they found out and killed the fox

The Ingratitude of Man.

• the lesson: whatever you have promised make it not as changeable as a loop in a string, but as firm as a line on a crack
• there was a man, a crow, a rat, and a snake who were friends
• they fell down in a hole in the road and were rescued by the traveler
• the crow wanted to repay the traveler by giving him the queen's necklace
• the rescued man betrayed the traveler by turning him in to the king and saying he stole the necklace
• the traveler was imprisoned and then saved by the snake 

Covetousness.

• the lesson: as hail leads rain, so a quarrel leads relatives apart
• in the mountains, there was a pool where all the animals drank
• a hunter set a trap and killed a bear
• a fox came along and accidentally killed himself on the hunter's bow
• an elephant then thought he could jump like a rabbit and needed up killing himself
• everyone just died in this story...

The Wise Carpenter.

• the lesson: for men there is no hope, except to find happiness in the worship of the gods
• i didn't really like this story

The Story of Drashup and the Goddesses.

• the lesson: in birth and death there is no fear, and in fear there is no doubt
• a man named drashup lived alone because all of his family was dead
• some goddesses foretold that a baby girl that was just born would die eating the shoulder of a sheep and that drashup would marry her
• he overheard them and was angered
• he went to the girl and tried to kill her
• he met her later on and fell in love with her 
• and her fate continued as they said

From "The Story of Drashup and the Goddesses" 

Source: UN-Textbook.

The Man and the Ghost.

• the lesson: as you desire the sun, so you desire your friend's return
• there was a man walking and he saw the ghost
• the ghost passed through the water without making a sound and was confused as to why he was making so much noise
• the two became good friends
• the ghost stole the soul of the king's son and put it in the sack
• the man disguised himself as a holy lama with the bag and healed the king's son, granting himself riches

Week 7: Reading Diary A

Week 7 Unit: Tibetan Folk Tales

How the Rabbit Killed the Lion.

• the lesson: to your foe do not give a promise, for he carries a sword
• meaning: don't trust your enemy because he will stab your back in the end (?)
• long ago, the sun was so hot that it melted the mountains (yikes)
• the lion was the king of beasts (it still is)
• the lion was kind of like a tyrant, wanting everyone to pay respects to him
• the rabbit didn't want to kowtow to him so it made up a lie about a devil chasing it and that it wanted to fight the lion
• the lion saw its reflection and wanted to fight it in the water
• it ultimately drowned

The Story of the Three Hunters.

• the lesson: be the work good or bad, we cannot tell what may be said of it, nor how far its result may spread
• there was a family of 3 brothers and their wives
• their sister lived with them
• they only gave their scraps to the sister, but she was able to make delicious food out of it
• the wive got jealous and conspired against her to kill her
• the youngest wife did not want to partake in anything
• on the way back from the hunt, the brothers found a bird and thought it sounded like their sister
• they told it to hop on their hand if it was the sister and it did, meaning she was dead
• they eventually found out the two older wives killed the sister and thus, the brothers killed the wives
• the youngest wife was shared between the 3 brothers (.... what?)

How the Raven Saved the Hunter.

• the lesson: for a foolish official to speak skillful words is as difficult for lightning to split a lump of bronze
• there was an old man who made his living by hunting
• he was about to drink out of a stream before a raven knocked the cup from his hands
• he got angry and shot the raven
• turns out the raven was trying to save his life bc the water from the stream was from the mouth of a snake

The Golden Squash.

• the lesson: the shepherd will protect his flock of sheep and without power can save a hundred lives
• there lived two men in the mountains who had gardens
• one was inherently good
• the other wanted to be rich
• the inherently good man saved a bird and it gave him a seed to plant in his garden
• the seed turned into a giant golden squash, which helped him become very rich 
• he used his wealth to help others in need
• the other man tried to copy what the IG man did by shooting the bird then "saving it"
• the bird brought a seed that housed a devil
• the devil cut off the man's neck after "weighing him"
• i'm not sure what his weight has to do with his usefulness though

The Man with Five Friends with Different Colored Eyes.

• the lesson: a man who can succeed is always sent; if there is nothing to be done, it doesn't matter who goes
• there was a man whose father taught him to never trust his wife until they had 10 children and to choose friends by their eyes
• they have to have eyes that have a red inner corner, a white sclera, and a black iris
• the man was very nice and had friends with different colored eyes
• he then wanted to test his father's theory by killing a hog and pretending as if he killed a man 
• he told his wife, who ended up calling the police on him and his friends found out
• all of them abandoned him except the man with black irises

The Story of the Violinist.

• the lesson: when the robber arrives, it is very difficult for the traveler to string his bow and carry tea and wine at the same time
• there was a family who had 3 sons
• the youngest son was sent away because he learned how to play the violin, which was a beggar's trade
• on his journey, he stopped a fight between two snakes
• turns out one of them was the king of hell's son
• the violinist was gifted with the king's daughter, who was very beautiful and had powers that gave them whatever they wanted or needed
• he wanted to give a feast to the king but the king stole his wife
• he used his wife's gifts to trick the king and trapped him in hell

How the Sacred Duck Got His Yellow Breast.

photo of ruddy shell duck.

source: tibetbirds

• the lesson: when life ends you may arise and have peace with drama, but nevertheless it's a great calamity when the rock rolls down the mountain and takes your life
• a frog sound a golden pot and the rabbit wanted to fight him for it by racing up a mountain
• the frog used some doppelgängers to trick the rabbit
• the frog won and couldn't bring the pot down, so it asked a duck and gave the duck half
• the duck then smeared it on its chest and that's where the beautiful golden breast came from

The Two Little Cats.

• the lesson: an arrow aimed straight will find the heart of your foe. but if you have no foe it does not matter about the arrow.
• there were two cats who were looking for salt with their tea (ew)
• they ran into a handre and ran away from him and met a cow, a dog a crow, and a snake
• each of the animals helped them get away from the handre

How the Wolf, the Fox and the Rabbit Committed a Crime.

• the lesson: when an evil man gets mad at his enemy, he beats his horse on the head
• a fox, wolf, and rabbit tried to steal stuff from a wizard
• they got some bread, boots, and a bell
• the rabbit tricked the others and took the food
• the others ended up either dying or accidentally scaring their children to death

A Rabbit Story.

• the lesson: the voice of the wolf is a sign to the sheep
• there was a family of bears and rabbits
• the mama bear killed the mama rabbit and the baby rabbit saw and swore revenge
• he shot the baby bear with an arrow and killed him
• the rabbit was helped by a tiger. he ate some roots and gave the tiger some
• the tiger thought it was eyeballs and wanted to eat his own, making him blind
• he killed the tiger and went to the shepherd to tell him to get the carcass
• then he told a wolf to eat the sheets
• then he told the ravens to poke the wolf's babies' eyes out
• then he ran away after causing as much chaos as possible

The Man and the Monkeys.

• the lesson: the male deer from the top of the hill can see afar off. but the goose on her nest thinks only of the egg she covers
• there was a man who came upon the garden of eden and fell into a lake
• the monkeys rescued him
• he then killed them all
• the god of monkeys punished him by turning him into a snake and swallowed him

Extra Reading Diary: Indian Fairy Tales

Indian Fairy Tales Half-Unit Reading

READING A:
1. The Lion and the Crane

• This is a story about a lion who, while eating, got a bone stuck in his throat.
• As a result, his throat became sore and he was suffering.
• A crane decided to help him by pulling out the bone.
• The crane wanted a reward for being so helpful, but the lion said the rewards was his life.
• I feel like I may have read this story in one of my past reading diaries, but this story was more detailed
• I think this story paints a very good picture of how being grateful, especially if someone goes out of their way to help you, is important in life. It builds relationships and in the future, if you ever need help again, they will surely be there for you.

2. The Broken Pot

• To be quite honest, I don't think I like the message, if any, from this story
• From what it looks like, there was a man who collected rice and hung a pot of it above his couch
• He then started daydreaming about his "future riches" if he were to sell the rice, leading all the way up to him having a wife and a son
• Then it just went downhill from there and he was thinking about kicking his wife??
• He acted out that daydream and ended up kicking his rice pot instead and spilled all of it
• The wife kicking part was not very appealing to me

3. The Magic Fiddle

• Reading this story, I felt sorry for the "Bonga girl" 
• I'm not sure what Bonga means and I tried looking it up, but there was not much of an explanation
• However, although it says that there was a "revenge" at the end, it didn't feel like there was much of a revenge in the plot
• Was the revenge that she came back and married a chief? 

4. The Cruel Crane Outwitted

• I believe I have also read this story in one of my past reading diaries as well, but from another unit!
• Here, a crane deceived an entire pond of fish by telling them he would bring them to a larger pond since the water in the one they were in is very low
• It turns out that he was going to eat them instead
• Once he finished off the last fish, he found a crab that he tried to trick, but the crab saw through it and killed the crane
• I think I could definitely write a story about this if I ever were to decide to since there is so much material that I could use. This story is simple enough that my imagination can go wild, but it still has a moral that I can stick to.

5. The Tiger, The Brahman, and the Jackal

• In this story, a tiger got stuck in a cage and was freed by a brahman
• the tiger ended up wanting to eat his savior and only granted him "a promise to abide by the decision of the first three things he chose to question as to the justice of the tiger's action."
• all of the objects he questioned said that he should accept his fate
• however, a jackal came along and tricked the tiger into getting stuck in the cage once again
• I liked this story very much. I felt it was very clever, the jackal.

6. Harisarman

• Harisarman was a poor man with many children
• he worked for a wealthy family and decided to deceive them by saying that he possessed "knowledge of magic" 
• To be honest, this was based entirely on his luck
• Nonetheless, I enjoyed this story. If only real life was like that.

Drawing of Harisarman.

Source: UN-Textbook.

7. The Charmed Ring

• there was a man who was given 300 rupees by his father to try becoming a merchant
• he ended up using all of his money on buying a dog, cat, and a snake
• as a result, his father disowned him
• it turns out the snake was the son of a king and so the young man was rewarded for saving the snake's life
• he obtained a right hand ring and a pot & spoon that would provide him eternal food
• the right hand ring gave him a mansion and a wife
• one day, the prince of a neighboring country happened to obtain the hair of the young man's wife and desired her to be his
• so the father of the king hired an ogress to steal the wife
• she did so and the young man was distressed his wife was gone. his cat and dog vowed to find her and bring her back in a month's time.

8. The Charmed Ring (cont.)

• the cat elicited help from the rats to get the ring from the stomach of the ogress
• the cat succeeded, but upon the journey to bring the ring back to their master, the dog kept dropping the ring
• wow dog wow
• eventually the cat, with its wit and kind of aggressive temper, got the ring back multiple times
• the young man was eventually reunited with his wife

Reading Diary B: Japanese Fairy Tales (LANG)

Japanese Fairy Tales (Lang) Unit

READING B:
1. Schippeitaro

• Interesting how once men "become of age" and reach manhood, they have to leave their home in search of adventure back then. Sort of like a rite of passage.
• So this young man set out on an adventure to make his name known to all the peeps
• He traveled for a while and found nothing much until one night, he heard a group of ugly cats dancing around and saying "don't tell Schippeitaro"
• who is shippeitaro?
• It turns out that nearby, there was a family who was in distress because she was to be sacrificed for the "spirit of the muntains" to eat
• He wanted to help the girl so he went looking for Schippeitaro (who is actually a dog)
• He put the dog into the casket that the girl was supposed to be put into to be carried away 
• once the time came to "eat" the girl, the dog came out and bit the cats and killed quite a few of them along with the "spirit of the mountain" 
• yay, victory

2. The Crab and the Monkey

• Did I just read that a crab was a good housewife??
• the mean monkey beat up the crab?! that's so terrible. 
• violence is not the answer, children.
• I'm glad the monkey got what he deserved. 
• And the crab lived happily ever after!

3. The Magic Kettle

• there was once an old man who found a kettle that could transform into a tanuki
• he thought it wreaked havoc so he sold it to a man named Jimmu
• Jimmu found out that it was a magic kettle that could dance and transformed
• he opened a booth to showcase the magic powers of the kettle and made a lot of money
• in the end, he returned the kettle along with some money to the old man
• what a kind man to give some money back to the seller

4. How the Wicked Tanuki was Punished

• Wow. Hunting all of the animals...
• the fox was married to the tanuki? cute.
• they concocted a plan to play dead in order to get money
• wow he betrayed his wife by truly getting rid of her so he and his son could have more food.
• but she's your wife..
• the son soon made plans to avenge his mother
• he made a wager with his father by saying he was better at magic and tricked him into getting caught by the king and his guards

5. The Slaying of the Tanuki

• there are a lot of tanuki stories, surprisingly.
• This one was hard for me to read and found it to be uninteresting unfortunately.

6. Uraschimataro and the Turtle

• uraschimataro sounds like a really nice name and a mouthful haha
• he was brave and ventured out to sea where no other man would go
• people warned him that if he went too far, one day he would be swept away at sea
• One day, he found a turtle and captured it but eventually let it go because it begged him to set it free and so he did
• Years later, he got caught up in the storm and the turtle saved his life
• the turtle took him to the palace of the sea god and told him that it was the subject of Otohime, the sea god's daughter
• the daughter saw uraschimataro and fell him love with him. she begged him to stay and so he did.
• A long time passed and he eventually felt homesick. The princess eventually let him leave with a box he was to not open, but it turned out that he had stayed in the palace for 300 years. All of his friends and family have passed away.
• He ended up opening the box which caused him to lose his youth and the turtle never came back to get him and he eventually died
• how sad... but a really good story nonetheless

Source: UN-Textbook.

Reading Diary A: Japanese Fairy Tales (Lang)

Japanese Fairy Tales (Lang) Unit

READING A:
1. The Two Frogs

• There were two frogs that lived in different parts of Japan, Kioto and Osaka.
• They both decided to travel the country to explore the places they have never been before. 
• The went along the same road, one at each end. 
• They met each other and were delighted. 
• Determined to see the world together, they decided to have one stand on top of the other so that they could be "bigger"
• It turns out that one was looking one way and the other was looking the other way towards their homeland and they thought they were looking at the "other side" 
• I thought this was kind of funny and sad at the same time
• They were foolish and missed the chance to see the world because it didn't occur to them that they were looking in the direction they came from

2. The Stonecutter

• there was once a stone cutter who was very good at his job. he had lots of customers
• it just so happens that around the mountain where he cut stone, there was a spirit that helped grant wishes and riches
• he never met the spirit before, but that was only because he never wish for anything
• one day, he saw a rich man's house and wished that he was rich and the spirit granted that to him
• over time, he wished for more and more only to realize that he never felt content
• he then realized there was nothing better than to just be himself
• i feel like this was a good story about greed, but it kind of teaches people they shouldn't try to reach for their dreams and be more than they should be
• i suppose this makes sense because Japan is more of a collectivistic culture and "the nail that sticks out gets hammered back down"

3. The Maiden with the Wooden Helmet

• the story starts out with a family who used to be well off and had a beautiful daughter
• they eventually lost everything and became very poor and moved to the countryside
• out of depression for his loss, the father died
• over time, the mother grew ill as well and feared that her daughter would be taken advantage of due to her beauty
• she told her daughter to wear a wooden helmet over her head to hide her beauty
• the daughter heeded her advice, and even after the mother died, she would still wear the helmet. 
• One day, the young master of the family that she worked for accidentally saw her face and wanted to marry her
• she eventually said yes and they got married.
• I felt like this was just a story to tell a story. There were no morals or lessons to be learned.
• I felt like this story was kind of anticlimactic just because they were building up the mystery of the helmet just to have it end with her marrying the guy who saw her without one, kind of cliche.
• Nonetheless, it was a pleasant read.

4. The Envious Neighbour

• This family had a dog that was very loyal and loved. 
• One day, the dog found a treasure and the neighbor found out and wanted to borrow the dog
• he got to borrow the dog and the dog only found him bones. out of rage, he killed the dog.
• wow anger management problems.
• the family was saddened but the spirit of the dog came back and brought the man more riches
• the neighbor found out and got mad and tried to steal his fortune 
• this happened continually and he eventually got caught and got thrown into jail
• serves him right

5. The Sparrow with the Slit Tongue

• The title is kind of creepy
• So far, I enjoyed this story the most out of all the ones in Diary A
• There was an old couple who lived together. The wife was very mean and the husband was kind. 
• The husband rescued a small sparrow from a hungry raven
• The wife began to feel jealous that all of her husband's attention was being stolen from her (wow, lady, it's just a bird!)
• She caught it and cut a slit in its tongue. The bird flew away and ended up escaping.
• The husband then came home to find his precious bird gone and set out to find it. On his way, he came across a cottage and a little girl claiming to be the little sparrow greeted him.
• She sang and danced for him and eventually gave him two treasure chests full of gold and precious metals to bring home.
• his wife, being the greedy woman she is, saw it and demanded to know where the sparrow girl lived. 
• She ventured to the sparrow girl's house and she also obtained to chests, but instead of treasure, the chest had two snakes who came out and bit her. She died.
• Once again, serves her right.

The Old Woman Opens the Box

Source: UN-Textbook.

6. The Cat's Elopement

Source: Tumblr.

• What a cute and happy story
• This reminded of a cat I saw on Tumblr once. It was gorgeous.
• This was a story of two beautiful cats who fell in love with each other, but they couldn't be with together
• They ended up eloping and were separated for quite a while
• In the end, they were able to be together
• yay!!

Extra Reading Diary: Japanese Fairy Tales (Ozaki)

My Lord Bag of Rice

• Why was he called My Lord Bag of Rice? 
• He must have been strong to carry two sword and a bow that was larger than himself.
• It was a dragon?!
• He was fearless to walk across the dragon. 
• He dragon transformed into a man. 
• Why is a centipede the dragon's enemy? He could crush it and be done with it.
• I feel bad for the dragon king's family. That's terrible.
• Yay for Hidesato coming to the rescue.
• I wish there was a picture for these goldfish dancers. like.. were they human-looking or plain large goldfish because that would be really creepy.
• What? Centipedes are vulnerable to human saliva? That's the first time I have ever heard that.
• Yay he killed the centipede!!
• I still don't get why his name was so long..
• I wish I could have that bag of inexhaustible rice, to be quite honest.

Digital art of My Lord Bag of Rice vs. the Centipede.

"My Lord Bag of Rice" by breakbot. Source: DeviantArt.

The Adventures of Kintaro, the Golden Boy

• First off, the Kintaro doll looks very creepy
• I wonder how his father died, was it grief/stress or was it murder? 
• Why did she name her son the Golden Boy? 
• How did this boy become so strong while they were living in the mountains? Is there a lot of nutrition there?
• His ability to speak with animals is pretty amazing. 
• Yaaay! He became a Chief and build a house for his mom. 
• What a good son.

The Man Who Did Not Wish to Die

• What an ironic last name to be called "Millionaire" but not be one.
• He lived without working until he was 32? He did not do a good job of planning for future..
• He didn't want to work to live but he wanted to live forever
• He sought out the elixir of life
• He was sent to the country of Perpetual Life by Jofuku
• Apparently all of the people there will never die, and at that point, all they did was want to die.
• Everything was the opposite there.
• People ate poison instead of normal food just to suicide, but they got healthier instead.
• He lived there for 300 years and got bored of it and decided to leave.
• Upon leaving, he regretted it and wanted to return,
• On the way back to Japan, he nearly drowned and got eaten by the shark. 
• It all turned out to be a dream to show Sentaro what it would have been like if he really went to the island. 
• An angel then handed him a book of how to live life and from then on, he gave up his vain ways and his family prospered.

Bibliography:

"Japanese Fairy Tales" by Yei Theodora Ozaki. Source: Un-Textbook.

Reading Diary B: The Life of Buddha

Unit: The Life of Buddha

Siddhartha Leaves

• Siddhartha leaves with the horse
• The Gods made Chandaka disobey the king's orders and gave Siddhartha the horse
• The Gods are really adamant about making Siddhartha leave 
• He took his dad's horse? Is this like rebellious teenage stage? jk
• Siddhartha vows to never return to the city of Kapila

Siddhartha the Hermit

• Kanthaka the horse carried him and he spoke to him like a person 
• I think that's good because we're all animals as well, why are other animals beneath us?
• Siddhartha's reason for leaving was to destroy old age and death and to be rid of unhappiness due to his desire to learn more about old age/death/suffering
• He had a son? And he left? I kind of question that..
• He exchanged clothes with a hunter for something more plain. 

Gopa and Suddhodana Grieve

• Gopa wakes in the middle of the night to find her husband gone and blames the maids for letting him go
• Everyone that Siddhartha left behind mourned his departure
• Mahaprajapati left the castle
• Kanthaka died due to sadness or was he exhausted? I'm not too sure.

Arata Kalama

• Siddhartha went into the hermitage of Arata Kalama
• Taught the doctrine of renunciation
• His knowledge became as great as Kalama's and soon he began teaching the disciples
• He then realized that the doctrine was not right and left the hermitage to go to the city of Rajagriha

Siddhartha and King Vimbasara

• His beauty was noted by the people of Rajagriha
• He lived on a mountain and the king told him to come to his palace but he refused
• He doesn't care about desire, he just wanted to seek the true law
• He sought out Rudraka, one of the famous hermits in the city, but found out that Rudraka didn't know about the "true law" so left
• Five of Rudraka's disciples left with him

Siddhartha Deserted by His First Disciples

• He was meditating one day and then fell over, not breathing
• Maya lived amongst the gods, and after she heard their worries, she descended to see him
• It turns out he did not die and that it was almost time that he was to attain supreme knowledge
• He remained at the same spot for 6 years, meditating
• He found out that starving himself wasn't the right way of going about things and eventually ate
• His disciples saw that and left him because they thought he was a fool and mad

The Tree of Knowledge

• He took a shroud from a dead body
• whut.
• He went to the tree of knowledge and meditated since that very day was the day he was ready to become a Buddha

Mara's Defeat

• Mara is the demon that tempts the Buddha

Siddhartha Becomes the Buddha

• He learns that to suppress desire, we can suppress birth, which suppress death and old age
• We must lead a life of holiness, where desire is stifled in order to stop being reborn and to end our own suffering

Art of the Buddha by Minh Nguyen, June 2015. Source: Pinterest.

Reading Diary A: The Life of Buddha

This week, I will be reading The Life of Buddha.

Maya's Dream:

• Queen Maya has a conception dream of her son as a white elephant with six tusks and thousands of gods appeared before her
• What kind of gods were they?
• What an amazing premonition of birth of the Buddha
• The power Maya gained while bearing Buddha was great as well 
• I can see why they had to check if the palace has been visited by good or evil because evil spirits can be tricky
• You get to choose what family you want to be born into? 

Birth of Siddhartha:

• How was Maya able to know that her son was to be born on a particular day?
• She had birth in a flower garden?! How unsanitary
• That was the easiest sounding birth I have ever heard of. Smiling while giving birth?
• His birth brought joy to the world and they named him Siddhartha
• "He will be the one to see the truth" I feel like that will be an important quote

Asita's Prediction:

• Asita was one of Sakya's great hermits
• The king became Buddha's father because his lineage is pure and he is kind of heart, which makes sense
• You wouldn't want the Buddha growing up in a bad environment, right?
• Asita cried because he wouldn't live long enough to hear the words of Buddha when he grows up

Siddhartha at the Temple:

• If Siddhartha was to renounce royalty, who would rule kingdom? 
• The birth of Siddhartha brought great things to the kingdom such as prosperity and fertility in all things
• MAYA DIED on the 7th day. NOOOOO.
• Mahaprajapati, Maya's sister, was given the task of raising Siddhartha after his mother's death. 
• Why was she only almost Maya's equal?
• The "light" that Siddhartha diffused was so great that precious stones looked dull
• That is one heck of an aura! 
• The Goddess of the garden is hilarious. Woman remove those necklaces and give them to slaves and his thoughts will be his adornments!
• Why does he call Mahaprajapati his Mother?
• All of the gods fell at Siddhartha's feet and paid homage to him

Siddhartha's First Meditation:

• Siddhartha got a teacher to learn the art of writing, his name was Vasvamitra.
• It turns out that Siddhartha already knew all of the 64 scriptures, so Vasvamitra told him there was nothing left to teach
• He left Vasvamitra and came to meditate under the shade of a tree
• A group of hermits saw him and predicted he will become the Buddha
• It turns out that the tree that Siddhartha sat under did not move its shadow so that he could meditate in peace
• How is that done? 
• The king really worships and loves his son

Siddhartha meditating under a tree.

Art from David Grubin's film, "The Buddha." Source: Los Angeles Times.

The First Encounter:

• Siddhartha wanted to leave the palace to see the world
• The king wanted to shield Siddhartha from the evils and sadness of the world, so he had his people remove the beggars and suffering from the sides of the road
• The king didn't really want his son to leave, didn't he? Because of reasons mentioned before, of course.
• The Gods interfered with the king's plan to shield Siddhartha by sending an old man his direction because they were jealous of the happiness that was around Siddhartha
• The old man was suffering from old age and looked bad
• Siddhartha learns that old age will steal strength, mind, and beauty from everyone
• Because of this incident, his heart had no more joy

Two More Encounters:

• The second man the Gods sent was a man riddled by sickness
• Siddhartha learns that everyone gets sick
• This made Siddhartha even sadder
• The king notices and tries to cheer him up with happy things like kicking out the sick and old people from the city and changing out his charioteer
• The third encounter the Gods made was a corpse that was carried by four weeping men
• Siddhartha saw that scene and found out about death and how it comes inevitably

The Fair Maidens and Gopa's Dream:

• Oh no, here comes the girls!
• Siddhartha was lead to a group of girls who would try to marry him
• He shunned their advances because his mind was still on death 
• His wife dreamt that she was stripped of her title and wealth 
• Siddhartha replies with happiness that this is because he will grant the light of wisdom to the world that is ignorant and blind

The Great Truths:

• Siddhartha was very unhappy with all of his encounters with old age, sickness, death, and suffering. 
• He muses that it is a shame that others look down on these types of people
• After meeting a God disguised as a monk, he decides to become a monk himself
• I've always thought being a monk was interesting. You can shed yourself of all your worries.
• He asks his father to leave the palace, but his father wants him to stay and reign in his stead and reminds him the importance of family to prevent him from going
• I can see where the king is going with this... but he knew his son would eventually leave and go on the path of enlightenment
• In the end.. he left anyways

Extra Reading Diary: Monkey King Unit

For this week's extra reading diary, I will be reading the first half of the Monkey King unit.

"Monkey King" by SnowSkadi. Source: DeviantArt.

Handsome King of the Apes

• The name of the mountain is very eye catching--the Mountain of Flowers and Fruits--I hope there are lots of flowers and fruits there
• Ooh, the rock has supernatural powers.
• Why was there only an ape, but no other animals that bursted out of the stone egg?
• Two streams of golden radiance.. like light? 
• These monkeys lived for so long--300 years+?!

The Great Sea

• They are scared of dying? Humans have a much shorter life span than they do!
• The Monkey King was a good monkey in that he wanted his family and friends to live forever instead of growing and old and dying, so he tried to look for ways to gain immortality. Whether that means becoming a buddha, blessed spirit, or a god.
• He went to the mortal world to seek immortality
• Humans didn't care about living, but cared about wealth

Sun Wu Kung Gets His Name

• The saint taught the monkey domestic tasks to lessen his wild nature and gave him his name.

The Master

• The Monkey King desperately wanted to gain eternal life, so he refused to learn about any technique of attaining the great truth without it giving eternal life
• The three blow across the head from the master was actually a secret code!

Learning the Art

• The master decides to teach MK the way of eternal life by magical incantation
• MK then practiced what his master taught him such as breathing techniques and how to tame his spirit
• He also learned how to transform himself 72 times
• He could also fly by forming clouds at his feet!

Sun Wu Kung Departs

• MK was showing his friends some of the things he learned and was scolded by his master
• This made sense because these arts are to be secret
• The master then sent MK away as a punishment
• MK stayed loyal until the end by paying his respects to his master before leaving

The Devil-King

• During MK's absence, a group of devils came and wreaked havoc at his home by taking away his children and kin.
• The cave the devils lived was the "Cave of Kidneys." What a hilarious name.
• MK has 84,000 hairs on his body that he could transform into little apes that could fight with him. How cool!
• He was able to successfully save his children (yay!)

The Dragon-King

• The MK's character turned bad. He soon used his power to steal from armies
• He wanted to find a weapon to suit him and his subjects told him of the Dragon King's magical weapon in the Great Sea
• The MK set out to obtain the weapon, but none of them were heavy enough for the MK's tremendous strength
• MK has powers over all the elements, so he can't drown in water or even burn in a fire

The Dragon-Queen

• The Dragon-Queen then offered the great iron bar of the Great Yu but the Dragon-King did not want to give it to the MK
• Reluctantly, the Dragon-King showed MK the bar, but the MK couldn't lift it and asked that it be a little shorter and thinner
• The rod then listened to the MK and grew smaller! He found out he could command its size.
• MK wanted armor as well but the Dragon-King had none for him and MK threatened him with the rod. He eventually got his armor. 

The Nether World

• He tucks the rod in his ear. How handy!
• He was taken to the place of death aka the nether world.
• MK demanded the Book of Life and read that he would die after 324 years.
• He then scratched off all the names of his kin off in the Book of Life, meaning they would never die!