Entry 9: Analyze a Folk Tale

"Coyote Kills the Giant" explains why wood ticks are flat. According to the story, wood ticks were not used to be flat, but when Coyote pulled it out of the giant's closing teeth the wood tick was pressed thin and stayed flat forever.
I remember when I was little I read a Taiwanese aboriginal tale about how the bird, Black bulbul, got its red beak and legs. The story goes like this: Once there was a giant python wandering around. For some reason it decided to rest for a while and lay down. But the python was so huge that its body blocked several rivers. The waters soon flooded and the Bunun people were forced to stay on high mountain peaks. On one of the peaks the people there didn't bring any flint, but they saw that people on the other peak have fire. To try to solve the problem they asked a toad to swim across the water and borrow some fire for them, using a small wooden stick. When the toad came back, they saw that the wooden stick got wet. They then asked a bird for the same mission, but the bird was in such a hurry that the fire just went out. The Bunun people didn't give up, however. Again they asked the Black bulbul to help them. The Black bulbul tried to slow down to prevent the fire from dying out, but the fire burned quickly and reached near the end of the stick. The Black bulbul bravely endured the pain and brought the fire successfully to the people. As a result its severely burned beak and legs remained red until today.

As for the giant python, several days later a giant crab was taking a walk and saw a wall of scales and flesh, blocking its way. The crab was angry and attacked the python. After a fierce battle the crab cut the python in half and the rivers returned to normal.