Of all the readings in the Khasi Folktales unit my favorite was definitely the story of The Stag and the Snail. It seemed to me like a variation of the Tortoise and the Hare story I grew up hearing as a child. Within this story the stag is bragging about being the swiftest of all the animals and this angers the snail because there is more to life than just being quick. The snail challenges the stag to a race through the jungle which all the animals laugh at the idea of. The stag accepts the challenge so the snail calls a meeting amongst all of the snails. They formulate a plan to fool the stag and win the race. All of the snails form a line through the path of the race so the stag can hear their voices call out to him to think the snail is keeping up. The last snail in the line proceeds to make it to the final mark so the stag thinks he lost the race. This story teaches the importance of cunning and wit over smugness and athletic ability. The ending is a bit bizarre because the stag proceeds to throw up his gall bladder. They explained this as the reasoning for why stags anatomically lack gall bladders. During these old times people often used mythology to explain natural phenomena because they didn’t have real reasons as to why something occurred the way it did. Over all it was an intriguing story and was my favorite of the unit!
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