International Folk Tales

The Hare and the Turtle

Once upon a time, in the world of animals, it lived a very proud and vain hare who was always boasting about her great speed when running, proclaiming herself the fastest animal in the forest, and who spent the day mocking the slowness of the turtle.

- Hey, turtle, don't run so much! said the hare, laughing at her.

One day, it occurred to the turtle to make an unusual bet on the hare:

- Hare, I challenge you to a race. I'm sure I can beat you.

- Me? the hare asked in amazement.

- Yes, yes, you," said the turtle. Let's place our bets and see who wins the race.

The hare, very conceited, accepted the bet promptly.

So all the animals gathered to watch the race. The owl has been responsible for marking the starting and finishing points. And that's how the race started:

Astute and very confident in herself, the hare ran away, and the turtle stayed behind, coughing and wrapped in a cloud of dust. By the time she started walking, the hare had already lost sight of her. Regardless of the advantage the hare had over her, the turtle kept up with her, non-stop.

The hare, meanwhile, confident that the turtle would take a long time to reach her, stopped halfway in front of a leafy green tree, and rested before finishing the race. There she fell asleep, while the turtle continued walking, step by step, slowly, but without stopping.

It is not known how long the hare fell asleep, but when she woke up, she saw with fear that the turtle was only three steps from the finish line. In a jolt, she started to run with all her strength, but it was too late: the turtle had reached the finish line and had won the race!

That day the hare learned, in the midst of a great humiliation, that one should never make fun of others. He also learned that overconfidence and vanity is an obstacle to achieving our goals. And that no one, absolutely no one, is better than no one.

This fable teaches us that we should never make fun of others and that overconfidence can be an obstacle to achieving our goals.

The Story of Princess Mandalika

Once upon a time in Lombok, there was a kingdom named Kuripan. The king or Kuripan was very wise. He had a daughter, named. Mandalika. She was so beautiful. Many princes wanted to marry her. To choose the one that would be his son-in-law, the king had an arrow shooting competition. The best one would be Mandalika's husband.

One the day of the competition, those princes shot their arrows. All of them did it perfectly. The king found it difficult to choose. Therefore, the princes began to fight and kill each other. Princes Mandalika was so desperate. She didn't want anyone killing each other because of her. That's why she decided to go to the sea. She died in the south sea of Lombok and transformed into sea worms. The king and princes were sad and felt guilty. They regretted and stopped fighting.

Untill now, one day in every year, usually in February or March, people in to the south sea. On that day, great number of worms come out from the sea. People calls there worms 'NYALE'. People believe that those nyales are princess Mandalika's hair.