Bell Witch

Story
“I’m from outside of Nashville Tennessee, and a few times growing up we went to this cave near our house called the Bell Witch cave, and it’s named after the Bell Witch, which is like a mix between a ghost and a curse. It’s based on the Bell family, whose house was haunted. In their house, they always heard strange noises and voices and things would fly off shelves and stuff.  The legend says there was a spirit who was angry with the father and wouldn’t leave until he was dead. When he died, everyone said the Bell Witch poisoned him. When you go to the cave, everyone says you can hear his voice or even see his shadow” 

When asked if they thought the Bell Witch was real, the informant said “I mean I went several times when I was little and I never saw or heard anything, so I don’t, but there are some people who swear on their lives that they’ve seen him, so who knows.”

Context

As previously mentioned, my informant grew up near the cave where this legend is based. This legend is common knowledge in the area where she is from, but she claims that she does not believe that the legend is true. 

Analysis
The Bell Witch is an example of a legend that is closely associated with local history and a specific geographic location. Because it is a ghost story, people’s belief in its legitimacy is often dependent on their experience in the cave. If they have been to the cave and witnessed paranormal activity, they would likely believe it to be true. Similar to my informant, however, if you have not seen or heard the ghost, it is likely difficult to believe it is real. 

The Man with the Gold Arm

Story:

“My favorite ghost story is about this man who had an arm made of gold, and after he died, someone stole it, so his ghost came back to haunt the town, searching for his arm. He would sneak into people’s houses late at night looking for it, so supposedly you would wake up to someone saying “where is my golden arm?”

Context:

My informant said she grew up going to camp in rural Texas, and a lot of the counselors would tell their cabins this story. My informant remembers being scared to go to sleep at camp when she was young. She would stay up and night listening for the man’s voice. 

Analysis: 

This ghost story is an example of legends passed around at camps through oral storytelling. It is about getting justice from beyond the grave and is designed to evoke fear. This legend could be used to teach a lesson about stealing. 

Pecos Bill

Story

“There’s this tale about a man named Pecos Bill who was a cowboy in Texas who fell out of a wagon and was raised by coyotes. He was real tough and would rope tornados with rattlesnakes. Some people say he created the Rio Grande, but I can’t remember how they say he did it.” 

Context

My informant is from Texas and heard this tale from his dad who grew up on a ranch in rural Texas. He claims his dad would often compare things to Pecos Bill by saying something like, “You are tougher than Pecos Bill.” 

Final Thoughts

This tale seems to reflect a lot of local hobbies and values. The association of Texas culture with bull riding, lassos, tornados, and acting tough allows this tale to be relevant in this state. As my informant mentioned, his father would often allude to Pecos Bill in everyday speech. He likely would not have been able to do this outside of Texas, as his audience likely would not be familiar with this tale. 

Selling Fragrant Farts Folktale

Language: English

There once were two brothers who lived together on a farm in a village. The older brother was lazy and always forced his younger brother to do all the farm work for him. Day after day, he tended to the farm, sowing the seeds and tilling the earth. One day, he saw a small bird with a broken leg on the ground. He carefully nursed it back to health, taking great care of the bird. When its leg was all better, the bird flew off, returning with a single peanut. The younger brother, not sure what to do with it, ate the peanut. After a moment, his stomach began to hurt and he farted, releasing the most fragrant and beautiful smell into their house.

At this time, the older brother returned home with a guest. The guest was amazed and in awe of how wonderful their house smelled, and asked the younger brother why the house smelled so good. The younger brother simply replied, “I farted.” The guest was amazed, asking

if the younger brother would be willing to fart in his house too, even offering money to him to do so. The younger brother agreed, and over time, word of his magnificent smelling farts spread

throughout the village, eventually reaching the richest family in their village. The rich man invited the younger brother to fart his sweet-smelling fart in his house, rewarding him with a small fortune.

The older brother became jealous of his younger brother’s newfound fame and wealth, and asked his brother how he began to fart his good-smelling farts. The younger brother recounted how he helped take care of the bird with the broken leg, and how it returned with the peanut that he ate to have his fragrant farts. The older brother went out to the field, catching a bird and breaking its leg. Then, he nursed it back to health, caring for it until it had recovered. The bird also flew off, returning to the older brother with a peanut. The older brother quickly ate the peanut and ran over to the rich man’s house, yelling that he too can fart wonderful smelling farts just like his younger brother. The rich man let him into his house and the older brother quickly released the pressure in his stomach. The worst smell in the world wafted through the house as the older brother pooped his pants in front of the rich man. Embarrassed, the older brother ran out of the village, never to be seen again.

Context

The informant told me about a story he had heard from his grandmother, who in turn had heard about it from her grandparents. Neither of us could find out the exact origin of folktale, as what scare online sources we could find attributed it to either Taiwan or China. But it still remains a longstanding part of the informant’s family history, evidenced by its generational persistence.

Both the informant and I agree on the story’s humor and absurdity being a core reason why the story has stuck around for so long. It’s very premise earworms itself into your head, and you can’t help but want to pass it around to other people. Despite the silliness of it, it conveys a deep and integral moral of how earnest work and kindness begets good fortune. Most likely this reflects a larger social value that parents seek to pass down to their children, and the humorous nature of the tale ensures that the intended audience remembers it.

Kachi Kachi Yama Folktale

Language: English

Text Transcription

“The basic story is there’s this tanuki racoon that causes trouble for this old couple, and one day the tanuki gets caught by the old man in his fields, and he ties the raccoon up and hangs him upside down in his house.

Then, while the old man is gone one day and the wife is cooking, the raccoon begs the wife to set him free and that he’ll help her (which she does). In the version I read as a kid, he obviously tricks her and (maybe) hits her. I think the most that happens is that the wife lays on the ground injured, but in the original, she’s killed. Also in the original, the raccoon transforms into the wife, cooks the wife, and serves the old man a soup with his wife’s flesh

So in my kids version the old man gets angry because the tanuki hit his wife and fled, but in the original I guess it’s way more violent since she’s killed and fed to him.

And so the old man begs this other animal, the rabbit (who’s a good friend) to get revenge/avenge his wife, and the Wikipedia article just vaguely lists that the rabbit pretended to befriend the tanuki but tortured him like by dropping a bee’s nest on him, “treating” it with “medicine” that actually burned the injury. Then (and this is where the title comes from) while the tanuki is carrying a pile of sticks on his back, setting fire on that pile of sticks but brushing off the sound of the burning by saying they’re nearing “kachi kachi yama” which is why they can hear burning, until it’s too late and it burns him.

In the version I read as a kid, I think the burning incident happens first, and then the rabbit “treats” the burn with the “medicine,” so there’s no other torture that i can recall like the bee’s nest.

And then the last part of the story is that the rabbit and the tanuki have a boat race (I can’t remember the reason). In the original, the rabbit carved his boat out of a tree while the tanuki made a boat out of mud (which would dissolve).

In my version, I think the rabbit built both boats, and I can’t recall if one was wood and the other was mud, but I think the rabbit tricks the tanuki into being like “oh this boat is too heavy,” or maybe instead he calls one sturdier? Either way he hints at one being worse or better and the tanuki takes whichever is better, but then the boat starts to fall apart in the race.

In the original, in the end, the tanuki dies from drowning (and I think in some version the rabbit strikes him to ensure he drowns), but in my version, the rabbit makes him swear to stop his deeds and then pulls him out, and the ending instead is that the tanuki befriends the rabbit and the couple for real this time.”

Context

This is a Japanese folktale the informant heard growing up. As a child, she heard the watered-down version of the story, where the wife is not killed by the tanuki and in the end they all learn to coexist. Later on, she learned that the original story is much darker, ending in not one but two deaths.

It isn’t unsurprising to see a story censored for a younger audience. We’ve seen it in western fairy tales too: Cinderella’s stepsisters get to keep their feet intact in Disney’s take on the story. But I think it’s interesting to note how this watered down completely changes, even reverses, the moral of the story. In the children’s version, the moral is a lesson in forgiveness and learning your lesson. In the original, it’s more akin to “what goes around comes around.” The old man doesn’t forgive the tanuki for its role in his wife’s death, and enacts his vengeance through his friend the rabbit. The different versions of this story are two sides of the same coin, and in trying to curate the story for a younger audience, the original message is seemingly abandoned.

One thing the informant noted is that tanuki’s are generally well-meaning, playful tricksters in the stories that feature. This is the only story they know of where the tanuki plays a villainous role. In censoring the original tale, the tanuki in this story has inadvertently become more similar to its counterparts in other stories.