Tuesday, 30 October 2012

29 - 虎姑婆


I was reading a book of Taiwanese Folktales today and this one stuck out. I've translated the beginning pretty much word for word and may get round to posting the whole thing on here, if anyone wants to read it.

Since long ago there’s been a house up on the mountain side. Living there now is a family with a boy and a girl. One day the mummy and daddy had to take a trip to somewhere far away, so they told the children to be very careful and look after the house.

That evening there was suddenly a knock at the door. “Open up! I’m your great auntie and I’ve brought lots of cakes and biscuits for us to have while I look after you.” In actual fact this old lady was a tiger who had changed shape by magic so that she could eat little children.

As soon as the little boy heard about the cakes and biscuits his mouth started to water. He opened the door wide and in came a hunchbacked old lady with a few whiskers on her face and a tail just about poking out from under her hem. The little boy instantly took a liking to his so-called great auntie and later that night fell asleep beside her.

1 comment:

  1. OMG! OMG! And then? What happened to the little boy??

    ReplyDelete