Reading Part A "Folklore of Laos"

An idyllic landscape in Laos (Source)

The first story is a little bit different, it tells the story of a woman who becomes so enraged that she leaves her Laotian village and dwells among the beasts of the forest. She lives there until she is no longer angry, and returns to her village as a hero, having protected the villagers from wild beasts. This left me with so many questions, like: Why did she become so angry? What happened to her? Why did the animals love her specifically? How often were they attacking the village and why? What was the point of this story? I am very confused.
Since these stories are folklore, I a suppose that there does not have to be an exact point to each story. The next one tells the tale of a kind of "garden of eden" that exists for hunters who faithfully chase game up and down mountains. That is it, the entire story. There is nothing else to it. The author does try to throw in an element of faith in the story, but overall there is not a real moral lesson to be gained.
The next story tells the myth of a people who left their jewels in an enchanted cave while fleeing persecution from warring neighbors. It was interesting that this story did have more of a point, but what I most liked about this story was the fact that it mentioned even the white man could not enter the cave. I think I will write this week's story as a journal entry from the perspective of a colonial explorer who is trying to enter the caves.
Several of the following stories deal with animals, and an explanation for why they behave or look the way that they do. This includes elephants and parrots, with a particularly clever explanation for the repetitive nature of a parrot's speech. Another story is a "Romeo and Juliet"-esque tale of two young lovers who choose to die together rather than live apart. It was at once sad and funny, because they tried to jump across a cliff to escape her angry father, but simply missed instead. Oops.

Story Source: Laos Folk-lore by Katherine Neville Fleeson with photographs by W.A. Briggs (1899)

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