Monthly Archives: May 2019

Golden Ax, Silver Ax (Korean Story)

Nationality: Korean
Age: 78
Residence: South Korea
Performance Date: ~2005
Primary Language: Korean
Language: English

Background Info/Context:

My grandma told me the story of 금도끼 은도끼 (pronounced ghum do gi uhn do gi), or in English, Golden Ax, Silver Ax, when I was in elementary school after I was caught stealing Ritz crackers out of the prize box. This was a bedtime story that my grandma also told my mom when she was a child. Even though the main purpose of the story was to entertain my mom before she went to bed, my grandma was also trying to teach my mom not to lie and to be a good girl. In my case, my grandma was trying to show me that I need to be an honest person to have good things happen to me.

 

Piece:

There was a man who cut trees for a living… a lumberjack. He was cutting trees in the woods when he accidentally dropped his ax into the pond. He was so sad because that ax was the only thing he had… so he started crying. Suddenly, a mountain god appeared. He had a golden ax, and asked the lumberjack, “Is this yours?” And then the lumberjack said, “No, the golden ax is not mine.” So the mountain god pulled out a silver ax and asked, “Is this one yours?” And the lumberjack responded, “No, that’s not mine.” So the mountain god was like, “Oh, you’re so honest. Then I’ll just gift you these axes and also give you your original one.”

 

But the lumberjack had a facial bump… like something was sticking out of his face. So people who had those were called a “혹부리,” (pronounced hok boori). But in their village, there is another bad guy with bump. So he heard that story and was like “Oh, then I’m gonna go” because the golden ax and silver ax are pure gold and silver, so you can be rich. So the bad man wanted that too, so he mimicked. He cut the tree, and dropped the ax and pretended to cry. The mountain god appeared again and asked, “Is this yours?” while holding the golden ax. And the man cried, “Oh yes that’s mine!” And then he held the silver ax and asked, “Is this one yours?” And the man said, “Oh yes that’s also mine!” The mountain god got really mad and said that the man was not honest, and he was very bad, so he gave him another facial bump instead.  

 

 

Thoughts:

This story contains classic cause and effect examples that hope to lead children to be good and not lie or be selfish. The good guy was awarded for his honesty, while the bad man who tried to deceive the mountain god did not get any axes, but was given a facial bump.

The story is very specific in its consequences for people who lie, but folk literature plays a large part in children’s growth to extract a broader lesson from stories. “Golden Ax, Silver Ax” could be viewed from a larger scope to be a story about being a virtuous person, and that there are positive consequences for good behavior. While those who are not virtuous, will face negative consequences.

 

To read a different variation of this story, read “Golden Ax and Silver Ax : Korean Folktales” (2009) by Dongwol Kim Roberson.

Arabic Eyeliner Gives Good Vision

Nationality: Jordanian
Age: 35
Occupation: Project Manager
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 20 April 2019
Primary Language: Arabic
Language: English

Background Info/Context:

My boss and I were talking about cultural traditions she grew up participating in, and one example she gave was about wearing a special Jordanian eyeliner. This eyeliner was put on her as an infant, and she has applied it on babies as well to help ensure them to have good eyesight.

 

Piece:

Rehab – “They have this stuff called Arabic eyeliner. So for all the girls, and it’s like black like coal, eyeliner. It looks really nice, but I think they think that, um, it’s supposed to help the baby’s vision.”

 

Sophia – “Oh, they put the eyeliner on a BABY?”

 

R – “Yeah like a baby baby. I have pictures when I was younger, like FULL on eyeliner. Inside your eye.”

 

S – “And the baby didn’t cry? That’s hard to do.”

 

R – “Well it’s like a little thing that we have. It looks like a genie bottle. It’s so pretty. It’s like all brass and the eyeliner is powder, so you just pull it through and it gets on the top and bottom.”

 

Thoughts:

My boss wore this special coal eyeliner up until she was in high school. Although its initial use is to help the newborn baby’s vision, many people continue to use it as they get older. They may still believe it has potential powers to bless people with good vision. However, it is more likely that people keep applying the eyeliner because wearing darker eye makeup is common in Arab beauty standards.

I think it is interesting to learn about a culture that is heavily tied to Christianity, but still has its separate cultural beliefs. Many Christian dominated countries follow the miracles and stories written in the Bible, and I have not personally heard of many practices in American or Korean culture that are independent from the Christian text.

 

Blessing a Baby After Sneezing

Nationality: Jordanian
Age: 35
Occupation: Project Manager
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 17 April 2019
Primary Language: Arabic
Language: English

Background Info/Context:

Religion plays a large part in Jordanian culture, and Jordanians express it in many different ways. My boss told me about a practice that Jordanians do to their babies to maximize their blessings. She grew up giving babies the sign of the cross on them when they sneezed.

 

Piece:

Rehab – “If a baby yawns, you’re supposed to do the, um, cross symbol on them to bless them when they sneeze or when they yawn. I think it’s more when they’re sneezing rather than yawning if I remember correctly.”

 

Sophia – “Do you think this a Jordanian thing? Because I’ve never heard that.”

 

R – “It’s probably a Jordanian religious thing, I don’t know. A lot of things have to do with God or what they think is religious.”

 

Thoughts:

My boss later shared that giving someone the sign of the cross when they sneeze is not something that continues into adulthood. This is mostly a practice that is done on an infant, to ensure that they are blessed by God. I think adults do this for babies, because babies aren’t able to pray to God themselves, so doing the sign of the cross on them connects them to God even before they’re able to speak.

Filipino Aswang Myth

Nationality: Filipino
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 5 April 2019
Primary Language: English
Language: Filipino

Text

Informant: This is Aswang, which was, like, an imp-like creature that takes the form of a baby. Like, a lot of peoples call it, like, a demon-baby. Basically, if you hear crying in the woods… like it’s usually found in the woods, and it’s usually making, like, a cry of a normal baby, like, it sounds stressed in order to lure in the people and try and make them get lost. And, if a person picks up the baby, he sheds his skin, like, like, like, his baby form, like, sort of like a snake and reveals his demon form and sinks his fangs into the person who picked him up.

Interviewer: Oh, so this one is very descriptive. Like, it’s very descriptive of the characteristics of like.

Informant: Yeah.

 

Context– The informant is a young man who immigrated from the Philippines to the U.S. at a young age. Although he is Catholic, he grew up hearing about the native folklore and mythology of the Philippines from members of his family as a way to preserve their heritage.

 

Analysis– The legend most likely comes from the fear of getting lost in the woods. Most likely people would get lost in the woods and be found later dead from exposure or attacked by an animal. As some animal calls can sound like babies crying, people probably assumed that those lost in the woods were lured there by such sounds in order to be attacked by some sort of demon.

Mexico City Volcano Myth

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 53
Occupation: Nanny
Residence: North Hollywood
Performance Date: 13 April 2019
Primary Language: Spanish
Language: English

Text

Informant: Basically you grew up with all these legends and all these stories, but the most famous was La Llorona and the next famous is the famous is the story of the volcanoes that are actually in Mexico City. There’s two big Volcanoes, so there’s Popocatepetl? Which is hard to say, and… I forgot the lady’s name but I can look it up for you. So the legend goes that these two… a princess, kind of like a princess on like the Aztecs and a warrior, they fell in love. So the dad tells him to go fight for, you know, the… at the time of war the dad of the girl says “go fight and I’ll save my daughter for you, you know, you can be a hero and just come back and you can be… uh, you can marry her.” So he does. He leaves to war and she stays but there is this other guy that is in love with her, and he’s envi… you know like he envies his position and he says, “well, this is not going to happen,” so he poisons the girl, and she dies. When he comes back and he finds out that she’s dead, he just can’t take it. So there’s these different stories, but the one I know, it’s about him finding out… he comes back like a hero. He fights for country, and he finds out that she’s dead, so he goes to the highest mountain, supposedly this is the highest mountain in Mexico, and he lays her and he, um, holds a torch to keep her… he wants her to know he is there. So the legend is those two persons are those two volcanoes. If you go to Mexico City, you will see two mount- volcanoes, and one looks like a lady laying down next to the volcano that is, uh, Popocatepetl, and that volcano is pretty much… they said that when it makes the… like when there’s the… smoke coming out of it, it’s him saying he still loves her.

Interviewer: Aw, that part is cute. It’s a bit cute

Informant: Well, that’s good, but actually those two volcanoes are pretty famous in Mexico City because you can really see the image of a lady laying down and Popocatepetl, which is pretty active.

 

Context– The informant is a middle-aged Mexican immigrant who grew up in Mexico City and then immigrated to Los Angeles in her teenage years. She has many family members still in Mexico City, so she learned many of these legends from those family members both while growing up and during her frequent visits and phone conversations.

 

Analysis– This story interests me not only because of the origins of this story being seen in the natural landscape around Mexico City, but also because of the common tropes seen in folktales and legends. Common folktale tropes in this story can be seen in the main character being a princess, who is poisoned, the warrior being sent on a task to prove his love, and a villain getting in the way of the romance. I also find it interesting that this story is fueled by the natural characteristics of the volcanoes, such as the fact that smoke comes out from the one associated with the warrior and the fact that the one associated with the princess is shaped like a woman laying.

For another form of this legend see: “The Legend of Popocatepetl and Iztaccíhuatl” on Inside Mexico (https://www.inside-mexico.com/the-legend-of-popocatepetl-iztaccihuatl/)