KacheliTV

KacheliTV — the world's stories, read aloud.

Looking for a story to fall asleep to, to ride with on a long drive, or to share at bedtime? Start here.

We read the folk tales and classics of every culture on Earth — complete and unabridged, never excerpts — in fresh English translations, performed by our cast of voices. The fairy tales of Ireland and Japan. The legends of India and Nigeria. Jamaica, the Netherlands, the Cherokee, the Norse — and the Russia of Pushkin and Krylov. The stories your grandmother knew, and stories from shores you've never heard — every culture in the spotlight, no one missed.

New tales arrive every week. Pick a shelf, press play, and let the world's grandmothers talk you to sleep.

Free always — here and on every podcast app. Prefer no commercials? Find us on Apple Podcasts.

From The Dog You Chose LLC, Gulfport, Florida. Public-domain sources, told with respect.

Find us:

YouTube — https://www.youtube.com/@KacheliTVFlorida

Telegram — https://t.me/kacheliTV

Website — https://dogyouchose.com

The Dog You Chose books — https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FYSTBLQ3

Our cast is a company of AI-generated voices, performing fresh in-house translations of public-domain works from every culture.

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S115 · E1
October 22 · 20 min
Faroese Folk Tales — Part 1: The Hidden Man under Lidastein · The Changeling Child · Oskudolgur, the Cinderlad · The Fox and the Bear · Two Suitor Tales
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! Faroese Folk Tales — Part 1: The Hidden Man under Lidastein · The Changeling Child · Oskudolgur, the Cinderlad · The Fox and the Bear · Two Suitor Tales Five tales from the Faroe Islands, from Jakob Jakobsen's Faroese Folk Legends and Fairy Tales (1898–1901), in a fresh translation made for KacheliTV. A hidden man stands in the farmyard at Kalgard on winter evenings, leaning his great hands on the roof-beam at a wedding, and no one is harmed; at the last he tells Jogvan why they will meet no more. A baby at Vidareidi who will not thrive is unmasked by four eggshells of water set at the corners of the hearth. Oskudolgur, the cinderlad whom nobody thought anything of, catches the great bird that steals his father's corn — and trades its life for a feather that grants a wish. The fox christens the white bear's Christmas butter away, one christening at a time: Top of the Pot, Half Way Down, All Eaten Up. And two young men go courting: one finds the girl who sets a room to rights, and the other finds out what a year of spinning the same wool really means. Stories in this episode: 0:35 Introduction 1:49 The Hidden Man under Lidastein 4:24 The Changeling Child 7:08 Oskudolgur, the Cinderlad 14:12 The Fox and the Bear 16:28 Two Suitor Tales Source: Færøske Folkesagn og Æventyr (Faroese Folk Legends and Fairy Tales), edited by Jakob Jakobsen (S. L. Møllers Bogtrykkeri, Copenhagen, 1898–1901) — public domain. The translation was made fresh for KacheliTV from Jakobsen's Faroese text. Narrated by Violetta. Music: "Falling Leaves at the Ice Cliffs" (instrumental) — opening and closing theme, with a short excerpt between stories.
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S110 · E1
October 22 · 24 min
Albanian Folk Tales — Part 1: The Grateful Serpent and the Wonderful Box · The Fisherman · The Ungrateful Son · Mosko and Tosko
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! Four tales from Epirus, collected and translated by Auguste Dozon, the French consul who learned Albanian and wrote down the stories as they were told to him, in Contes albanais (Paris, 1881). The English you hear is a new translation, made fresh from Dozon's French for KacheliTV. A poor boy finds a serpent stiff with cold, warms it back to life, and for his reward asks for the one thing its father least wants to give — a little box that grants whatever is wished. A fisherman whose net brings up nothing but a single leaf watches that leaf outweigh the king's gold, and waits while the learned men of the kingdom race the days to explain it. An old merchant who gave his son everything is turned away from the door — until his little grandson teaches the house a lesson with half a horse-blanket. And Mosko and Tosko, two brothers who are thieves by trade, spend a long night trading a piece of smoked meat back and forth with their brother-in-law, until nobody knows who has tricked whom. Stories in this episode: 0:35 Introduction 1:59 The Grateful Serpent and the Wonderful Box 7:34 The Fisherman 12:24 The Ungrateful Son 18:31 Mosko and Tosko Source: Contes albanais, recueillis et traduits, by Auguste Dozon (Ernest Leroux, Paris, 1881) — public domain; translation made fresh for KacheliTV. Narrated by Silas. Music: "Blazing Fire" (instrumental) — opening and closing theme, with a short excerpt between stories.
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S112 · E1
October 22 · 17 min
Vietnamese Folk Tales — Part 1: The Tiger and the Midwife · The Crocodile and the Old Monkey · The Celestial Emperor and the Poor Man
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! Six tales from Vietnam, gathered by Antony Landes, the French administrator in Cochinchina who mastered the language of the country and set down the tales its story-tellers told, in Contes et légendes annamites (Saigon, 1886). A tiger comes by night to fetch a midwife for his labouring mate, and pays her fee like a gentleman. A crocodile invites his friend the monkey to a feast across the river — and says too much in mid-stream. The lord Khong Lo raises mountains to win a lady who will not be won, and the first monkeys sit down, all unknowing, on red-hot bricks. A monk keeps his word to a tiger, and his envious brother keeps it too, with a very different reward. And a poor man walks to the island of the Celestial Emperor with four questions in his bundle — and comes home with the answers to everyone else's. Stories in this episode: 0:35 Introduction 1:46 The Tiger and the Midwife 2:59 The Crocodile and the Old Monkey 4:29 The Creation of the Mountains 6:49 The Origin of Monkeys 8:32 The Bonze Who Became a Lime Pot 11:43 The Celestial Emperor and the Poor Man Source: Contes et légendes annamites, collected by A. Landes (Imprimerie Coloniale, Saigon, 1886) — public domain; translated fresh into English for KacheliTV. Narrated by Orson. Music: "Aqua Elegie" (instrumental) — opening and closing theme, with a short excerpt between stories.
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S105 · E1
October 22 · 22 min
Basque Tales — Part 1: Acheria, the Fox · The Ass and the Wolf · The Servant at the Fairy's · The Pretty but Idle Girl · The Devil's Age · The Serpent in the Wood
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! Six legends from the Basque country, collected chiefly in the Labourd and published by the Reverend Wentworth Webster in Basque Legends (1879) — foxes, fairies, and one very frightened devil, told as the Basque storytellers told them. Acheria the fox trades three truths for a fish and lives to boast about it; an ass talks a wolf out of his dinner with pure logic; a little dog decodes a fairy's backwards speech; an idle girl's spinning is done by three very strange visitors; a labourer in honey and feathers asks the Devil his age; and in the wood, a maiden keeps her word to a serpent. Stories in this episode: 0:35 Introduction 1:29 Acheria, the Fox 6:22 The Ass and the Wolf 8:13 The Servant at the Fairy's 11:42 The Pretty but Idle Girl 14:26 The Devil's Age 16:42 The Serpent in the Wood Source: Basque Legends, collected by Wentworth Webster (Griffith and Farran, 1879, second edition) — public domain; read from the Project Gutenberg edition. Narrated by Violetta. Music: "The River's Dying Vision" (instrumental) — opening and closing theme, with a short excerpt between stories.
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S108 · E1
October 22 · 27 min
Sioux Tales — Part 1: Iktomi and the Muskrat · Iktomi and the Fawn · Dance in a Buffalo Skull
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! Three legends of the Dakota, retold by Zitkala-Sa (Red Bird), the Yankton Dakota writer who heard them from the old story-tellers of both Dakotas and carried them, root and all, into English in Old Indian Legends (1901). All three belong to Iktomi, the spider fairy — the snare-weaver in his beaded jacket and long fringed leggins, whose hands are always kept in mischief and whose conceit forever leads him hard against the common sense of simpler people. A race for a pot of fish teaches him the plains custom of sharing with a guest. Three wishes — to be a peacock, to be an arrow, to wear a fawn's brown spots — teach him the price of never keeping one condition. And the episode closes on the darkest of prairie nights, where the field mice hold their feast and dance inside a great buffalo skull, and two fiery eyes come creeping through the grass. Stories in this episode: 0:35 Introduction 1:47 Iktomi and the Muskrat 9:26 Iktomi and the Fawn 22:26 Dance in a Buffalo Skull Source: Old Indian Legends, retold by Zitkala-Sa (Ginn & Company, 1901) — public domain. Narrated by Madame de Pamplemousse. Music: "Luminous Springs 2" (instrumental) — opening and closing theme, with a short excerpt between stories.
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S107 · E1
October 22 · 17 min
Zulu Tales — Part 1: The Wise Son of the King · The Man and the Bread · The Origin of Baboons · The Hyena and the Moon · The Hyrax Went Without a Tail, Because He Sent for It
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! Five tales of the Zulus, taken down in their own words and translated by the Reverend Canon Henry Callaway for his Nursery Tales, Traditions, and Histories of the Zulus (1868) — stories told in the kraals of Natal, many of them by women to children. A king's little daughter is driven from home for a wonder no one can explain — and the child she brings back becomes the wisest healer in the land, who takes no reward because he helps "from pure mercy." A man throws away his bread in the days of plenty, and goes searching for it, handful by handful, in the famine. How the baboons came down from the Amatusi, and why the people still shout jokes at them on the precipices. A hyena who drops his bone to catch the moon. And the hyrax who stayed home on the day the tails were given out. Stories in this episode: 0:35 Introduction 1:41 The Wise Son of the King 7:24 The Man and the Bread 11:30 The Origin of Baboons 14:11 The Hyena and the Moon 15:48 The Hyrax Went Without a Tail, Because He Sent for It Source: Nursery Tales, Traditions, and Histories of the Zulus, collected and translated by Henry Callaway (Trübner and Co., 1868) — public domain. Narrated by Scratch. Music: "Golden Monologue" (instrumental) — opening and closing theme, with a short excerpt between stories.
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S106 · E1
October 22 · 17 min
Madagascar Tales — Part 1: The Three Deaf People · The Rice-Field · Ranalahy and Ranavavy · The Childless Couple · The Sun, the Moon, the Stars and the Chickens
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! Five tales from Madagascar, collected by Charles Renel and published in Paris in 1910 in his Contes de Madagascar — heard in English in a fresh translation made for this series, from Betsimisaraka, Sakalava and Tsimihety storytellers. A whole family is deaf, and every answer misses its question. Four strangers each do one piece of work on the same rice-field — and all come back to claim the harvest. A husband swears every food his wife finds is poison, until a bird gives him away. A rich couple long for a child, and a father sets out to fetch the full moon. And from the days when the Sun and Moon were friends: how the chickens got their name, and why they still greet the dawn. Stories in this episode: 0:35 Introduction 1:46 The Three Deaf People 3:17 The Rice-Field 5:42 Ranalahy and Ranavavy 10:08 The Childless Couple 12:51 The Sun, the Moon, the Stars and the Chickens Source: Contes de Madagascar, collected by Charles Renel (Ernest Leroux, Paris, 1910) — public domain; translated from the French for KacheliTV. Narrated by Mira. Music: "Falling Leaves at the Ice Cliffs" (instrumental) — opening and closing theme, with a short excerpt between stories.
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S104 · E1
October 22 · 20 min
Chinese Tales — Part 1: The Three Rhymsters · The Favorite of Fortune and the Child of Ill Luck · Why Dog and Cat Are Enemies · The Flower-Elves · The Dragon After His Winter Sleep
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! Season 104 · Episode 1 — the opening of the Chinese shelf of KacheliTV World Classics: tales from China, read aloud in the English translation printed in 1921. THE BOOK BEHIND THIS EPISODE The Chinese Fairy Book, edited by Dr. R. Wilhelm and translated after the original sources by Frederick H. Martens (New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1921). Wilhelm lived and worked in China for many years and gathered these tales from Chinese sources; Martens's translation carries them into English. The book's seventy-four numbered pieces were read and screened under this shelf's content rule before anything was built. Five tales from its opening fairy-tale section are told here. The book's legends of the gods, its tales of saints and magicians, its ghost stories, and its historic and literary pieces stand benched by name for later parts; the tales in which harm is done are excluded by name in the shelf register, and no completeness is claimed for the book. IN THIS EPISODE 0:35 Introduction 1:46 The Three Rhymsters — a father promises his daughter to the suitor who can rhyme with him; three sons-in-law take up the game, and the youngest one's last rhyme settles everything. 5:02 The Favorite of Fortune and the Child of Ill Luck — two boys are born on the same day under opposite stars; everything the fortunate one touches turns to good, and everything the ill-starred one touches turns to loss, until the Empress sets them both a task. 8:13 Why Dog and Cat Are Enemies — a poor couple's wishing-ring is stolen; the dog and the cat set out together to win it back, and a friendship is broken over who should carry the treasure home. 10:46 The Flower-Elves — a poor student befriends the flower-elves of an old temple garden; one of them, the elf-king's granddaughter, becomes his wife, and the garden blooms as it bloomed in the old days. 18:35 The Dragon After His Winter Sleep — deep under the earth the dragon wakes from his long winter sleep, and the spring rains come. Narration: Benedetto. Music: the instrumental theme "The Spring Remembers 2" is heard at the opening and at the close, and in a short excerpt between the stories; there is no music under the narration.
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S92 · E2
October 22 · 34 min
Patrañas: Spanish Stories, Legendary and Traditional — Part 2: The Ballad-maker and the Boot-maker · El Clavel · The Hermit and the Fig-tree
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! Three more stories from Patrañas, Rachel Harriette Busk's collection of Spanish stories, legendary and traditional (London, 1870), read in the book's own order after Part One's Juanita the Bald. A Provençal minstrel finds his songs stolen and sung badly by the town boot-maker — and the quarrel ends in the strangest bargain in Spanish story. A proud carnation scorns the broken pot that raised it, and learns what the wind teaches. And on a bare sierra, a hermit shows a young merchant three fig-trees — one heavy with fruit, one green with leaves only, one withered — and reads him the parable of how men are truly to be judged. In this part: 2:08 — The Ballad-maker and the Boot-maker 6:53 — El Clavel 13:22 — The Hermit and the Fig-tree Source: Rachel Harriette Busk (1831–1907), Patrañas; or, Spanish Stories, Legendary and Traditional (London: Griffith and Farran, 1870) — public domain. The stories were screened in the order they stand in the book under this shelf's standing rule; those set aside stand named, with their reasons, in the shelf register, and the book's saints' legends remain held for a separate ruling. Music: the instrumental theme "Wind-Swept Flight" is heard at the opening and the close, and briefly between the stories. There is no music under the reading. KacheliTV — world classics, read aloud.
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S74 · E2
October 22 · 32 min
Folk Fables of Montenegro — Part 2 (The Sick Wolf and His Mother)
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! Sixteen more beast fables from Vuk Vrčević's Narodne basne (Folk Fables), printed at Dubrovnik in 1892 — read in a fresh English translation made for KacheliTV. A sick wolf confesses his life to his mother; a piglet and a cat quarrel over a trough; a woodpecker and an ant repay each other's kindness; and an ox, trapped by his own rope, is set free by the smallest creature in the stable. Fables of gratitude, pride, counsel and contentment, told as the people of the Montenegrin lands told them. In this part: 1:37 — The Sick Wolf and His Mother 3:30 — The Piglet and the Cat 4:40 — The Woodpeckers and the Ants 6:49 — The Fox and Her Cubs 8:29 — The Wolf, the Fox and the Raven 10:40 — The Frogs and Their Elder 12:31 — The Lion and the Fox 14:07 — The Horse and the Donkey 16:03 — The Jackdaw in Borrowed Feathers 18:00 — The Rose and the Wild Apple Tree 19:54 — The Giant Poplar and the Slender Reed 21:39 — The Ox and the Mouse 24:14 — The Cuckoo and the Nightingale 26:24 — The Lion and the Hare 28:17 — The Fox and Her Grown Cubs 29:49 — The Bees and the Bear Source: Vuk Vrčević (1811–1882), Narodne basne (Dubrovnik, 1892) — public domain; fresh in-house English translation. Fables whose action turns on a killing shown on the page were set aside under this shelf's standing rule and stand named, with their reasons, in the shelf register; what the animals only speak of is told as written. Music: the instrumental theme "Calm After the Current" is heard at the opening and the close, and briefly between the fables. There is no music under the reading. KacheliTV — world classics, read aloud.
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S103 · E2
October 22 · 24 min
The Musical Break — Part 2: Six More Tales, Six More Songs
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! Season 103 · Episode 2 — the second of the Musical Break specials on KacheliTV World Classics: six more instrumental compositions, each introduced by its own tiny original fairy tale. Tonight the tales take a rest once more, and the music steps forward. Before each song, Benedetto tells a one-minute fairy tale about what the music holds — a spring that remembers, a hidden well in the desert shade, a swallow's first long journey, a gardener who works by moonlight, the deep hush of the first snow, and a ferry crossing the shining water at dusk. Every tale ends by handing you over to its song, so you always know what you are listening to, and why. Each composition then plays in full. THE PROGRAMME 0:00 Introduction 0:47 The Spring Remembers — Tale 1:38 The Spring Remembers — Song 5:30 Santa Fe Springs — Tale 6:24 Santa Fe Springs — Song 8:54 Wind-Swept Flight — Tale 9:43 Wind-Swept Flight — Song 13:00 The Night Gardener — Tale 13:55 The Night Gardener — Song 16:50 Winterstille — Tale 17:44 Winterstille — Song 20:25 Tampa Across the Water — Tale 21:14 Tampa Across the Water — Song 24:27 Closing THE MUSIC Six compositions from the house library, played here in full: The Spring Remembers · Santa Fe Springs · Wind-Swept Flight · The Night Gardener (library track "2-20") · Winterstille · Tampa Across the Water. They join the first six tales and songs of our musical break — twelve of each, so far. Narration: Benedetto. Music: the house composer's compositions, played in full. No music plays beneath the narration — the tales and the songs take their turns, each in the clear.
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S81 · E2
October 22 · 24 min
Folk Tales from Bosnia — Part 2: The Wised-Up Goat · The Wolf and the Dog · The Cat and the Fox · The Two Brothers Who Lie Their Way Through the World · Luck in Old Age
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! Part Two of the Bosnian shelf: folk tales from Bosnia and Herzegovina, this time from Tales and Legends of the South Slavs (Leipzig: Wilhelm Friedrich, 1883–1884) by Friedrich S. Krauss (1859–1938), the Austrian folklorist who travelled the South Slav lands collecting their stories and songs. Krauss's two volumes hold tales from all the South Slav peoples; the five read here are from among the pieces his book itself assigns to Bosnia and Herzegovina, read in the order they stand among those pieces, in fresh translations made for this reading. Billed by collector and book, as the tales Krauss gathered; not a survey of all Bosnian and Herzegovinian tradition, and no completeness is claimed. Every piece his book assigns to Bosnia or Herzegovina was read and screened under this shelf's standing rule, and a great many were set aside — each one stands named, with its reason, in the shelf register. The Wised-Up Goat — a lean goat begs the wolf to wait until autumn, and gives him her name. The Wolf and the Dog — the wolf trades his swiftness for the dog's scent, and the dog is gone. The Cat and the Fox — a cat's counsel saves the fox from the trap, and at the great feast in the high mountains the cat plays a mighty hero before the bear, the wolf and the boar. The Two Brothers Who Lie Their Way Through the World — two have-nothing brothers of Mostar lie in tandem: a dog barking under the sky, an egg a hundred men cannot roll, and the whole Danube burnt to ashes. Luck in Old Age — a voice from a heap of stones offers a poor ploughman of Kreševo his choice, and everything he loses on the long road — oxen, wife, gold, and both his sons — is given back to him one by one. Chapters: 0:00 Introduction 2:00 The Wised-Up Goat 2:59 The Wolf and the Dog 3:44 The Cat and the Fox 8:23 The Two Brothers Who Lie Their Way Through the World 12:29 Luck in Old Age Friedrich S. Krauss, Tales and Legends of the South Slavs (Wilhelm Friedrich, 1883–1884) — public domain. Narrated by Lulu. Music: opening and closing theme, "Napoli in Fiamme," also heard as a short separator between the stories — the tales themselves are read dry. KacheliTV — world classics, read aloud.
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S88 · E2
October 22 · 16 min
Ba-Ronga Tales of Delagoa Bay — Part 2: Grosse-Tête
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! Welcome back to the Ba-Ronga of Delagoa Bay, on the coast of what is now Mozambique. Part One of this shelf was drawn from Henri-Alexandre Junod's Songs and Tales of the Ba-Ronga (1897). Tonight's tale comes from his companion volume, the ethnographic study Les Ba-Ronga, published in 1898, where Junod printed nine further tales in the Ronga language with his own French translation. Each of the nine has been read in full; eight stand set aside under this shelf's standing rule, every one named with its reason in the shelf register. The English in this episode is a fresh translation made for KacheliTV from Junod's French. Grosse-Tête — In this tale: an old woman whose children have all died is given a single pea by the white people she begs from — and finds herself with child. The boy is born with no legs, only a head, a chest and hands; and before the cord is even cut, he speaks, and asks for paper — for he came into the world already knowing how to write. His letter to the Governor wins him a blanket, a cow, a servant and a goat. The Governor's daughter Minina conceives a great love for him, is driven from her home to him with nothing but the clothes she wears, and will not be parted from him. By night, Grosse-Tête calls on his father's ring: houses rise, trunks of clothes appear — and by night, too, he steps out of his own head as a splendid whole man, eats the food left for the morning, and falsely accuses Minina of feeding lovers. It is the little maidservant, watching through a hole in her blanket, who uncovers him; and it is Minina who catches him, and will not let him go back. Source: Henri-Alexandre Junod, Les Ba-Ronga: étude ethnographique sur les indigènes de la baie de Delagoa (Bulletin de la Société Neuchâteloise de Géographie, Tome X, Neuchâtel, 1898) — the tale "Grosse-Tête" (Ronga: Nhloko), printed in Ronga with Junod's French translation. Junod (1863–1934) collected among the Ba-Ronga of Delagoa Bay with the Swiss Romande Mission. Public domain. The reading is complete and unabridged from Junod's French text, in a fresh English translation made for this programme. Narration: Orson. Music: "Subterranean Earth" — opening and closing theme. KacheliTV — World Classics: the folk tales and classics of every culture, read aloud.
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S91 · E2
October 22 · 22 min
The Pagan Tribes of Borneo — Part 2: Lafaang, Simpang Impang, and the Mouse-Deer and the Tortoise
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! Part Two of the Folk Tales of Indonesia shelf returns to Borneo — this time to The Pagan Tribes of Borneo (London, 1912) by Charles Hose and William McDougall, and to its chapter "Myths, Legends, and Stories," gathered at first hand among the peoples of the Baram district in Sarawak. Part One of this shelf was drawn from Furness's Folk-lore in Borneo (1899). The billing is by peoples, collectors and books, as throughout this shelf — not a survey of all the peoples of Indonesia, and no completeness is claimed. The chapter's condensed Kayan creation myth, and its tale of the giant Usai, are set aside under this channel's standing rule and are named, with their reasons, in the shelf register. In this episode: Lafaang, a Long Kiput youth, marries the daughter of Palai, the constellation Pegasus, and cannot learn the customs of the sky — eating with a needle, felling trees by laying the axe at their foot — until a falling tree takes his left arm, as Orion's arm is wanting still; he comes down to earth with sugar-cane and bananas, gifts previously unknown to men. Simpang Impang, the Iban half-man born of the flood's one surviving woman, quarrels with the rat over padi grain and goes to settle accounts with Selulat Antu Ribut, the wind-spirit, passing the requests of a tree, a lake, and the branchless banana on the way — and comes home a whole man. The Kenyah fable of Plandok the mouse-deer and Kelap the water-tortoise, who talked his way out of the fire and the sugar-cane press and into his own river. The Kenyah story of the belira fish, and why it has so many bones. The Klemantan story of Saleh, the stupid boy, who cooked the rice with the pot upside down and marked the river with a notch in his boat. And a Barawan story with a moral: Kra the monkey and Raong the toad, who to this day are going to make their bark coat tomorrow. Chapters: 00:00 Opening theme 00:36 Introduction 01:52 The Story of Lafaang 05:51 The Iban Story of Simpang Impang 12:02 Kenyah Fable of the Mouse-Deer and the Tortoise 15:21 The Kenyah Story of the Belira Fish 16:31 The Story of the Stupid Boy 19:13 A Story with a Moral 20:40 Closing Words Source: Charles Hose and William McDougall, The Pagan Tribes of Borneo (London: Macmillan and Co., 1912), Volume II, Chapter XVII, "Myths, Legends, and Stories." Hose (1863–1929) served twenty-four years in Sarawak, most of them in the Baram district; McDougall (1871–1938) was his collaborator. Public domain. The readings follow the book's own English text, complete and unabridged; the authors' commentary and footnotes are not narrated. Narration: Lulu. Music: "The Cello's Unfinished Promise" — opening and closing theme, and as the separator between stories. KacheliTV — World Classics: the folk tales and classics of every culture, read aloud.
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S98 · E1
October 21 · 26 min
Rumanian Bird and Beast Stories — Part 1: How the Bee Outwitted the Mole, The Nightingale, Songster of the King, Why the Pelican Has a Big Pouch, The Fox and the Hedgehog, and The Cuckoo's Restless Life | Romanian Folk Tales in English
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! Season 98 · Episode 1 — the opening of the Romania shelf, from Moses Gaster's Rumanian Bird and Beast Stories (1915): the bird and beast tales of the Rumanian villages, rendered into English by Gaster himself and read aloud from the public-domain first edition — the bee who outwitted the mole, the nightingale who outsang the golden thrush, the pelican and his pouch, the fox and the hedgehog, and the man who grasped his way into a cuckoo. THE BOOK BEHIND THIS EPISODE Rumanian Bird and Beast Stories, rendered into English by M. Gaster, Ph.D., published in London for the Folk-Lore Society by Sidgwick & Jackson in 1915 (public domain; Project Gutenberg eBook #43059). In keeping with this channel's standing rule, every piece in the collection was read and screened before this episode was built: tales turning on killing or cruelty were set aside, by name, and this premiere gathers five of its gentlest — beast fables and "why" tales of the farmyard and the forest. More of the collection's gentle tales will follow in later parts. IN THIS EPISODE 00:00 Introduction 01:16 How the Bee Outwitted the Mole 05:28 The Nightingale, Songster of the King 09:47 Why the Pelican Has a Big Pouch 14:05 The Fox, His Bagful of Wits, and the One-Witted Hedgehog 18:09 The Cuckoo's Restless Life Narration: Madame de Pamplemousse. Music: the instrumental theme "Napoli in Fiamme 2" is heard at the opening and at the close, and in a short excerpt between the stories; there is no music under the narration.
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S96 · E2
October 21 · 10 min
Tunisian Folk Tales — Part 2: The Bad Habit · The Cock, the Wolf and the Greyhound · The Two Old People
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! Season 96 · Episode 2 — folk tales of Tunisia from the collections of Dr Hans Stumme (1864–1936), in fresh translations made for KacheliTV World Classics. THE BOOKS BEHIND THIS EPISODE • "Tunisische Märchen und Gedichte" (Tunisian Tales and Poems), by Hans Stumme — published at Leipzig in 1893. Tales in the Arabic dialect of the city of Tunis, collected and published by Stumme with his own translation. • "Märchen der Berbern von Tamazratt in Südtunisien" (Tales of the Berbers of Tamazratt in Southern Tunisia), by Hans Stumme — published at Leipzig in 1900. Recorded by Stumme in the city of Tunis in March 1897 from two men of Tamazratt — the porters and folk singers Muhammed ibn Abdelqader Ennasri and Mhammed El Alqmi. Both books are public domain (published before 1930; the author died in 1936), and the English texts in this episode are fresh translations made for this reading. IN THIS EPISODE The Bad Habit — 2:00 — A Bedouin's wife eats her guest's two chickens piece by piece as she cooks them, and then frightens the guest out of the tent with a tale about her husband's dreadful habit. From the tales of the city of Tunis. The Cock, the Wolf and the Greyhound — 3:51 — Left behind in an empty settlement, a cock calls the evening prayer from his tree, and the wolf who comes to join the prayer is sent to fetch the prayer-leader from the straw hut. From the tales of the Berbers of Tamazratt. The Two Old People — 5:40 — A miser fills a great clay pot with gold and will not spend a coin of it; after his death, his widow's second husband finds the pot under a marble slab, and the two old men's two sayings meet at last. From the tales of the Berbers of Tamazratt. Narration: Bruno. Music: the instrumental theme "Tampa Across the Water 2" is heard at the opening and at the close, and in a short excerpt between the stories; there is no music under the narration.
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S87 · E2
October 21 · 26 min
Moroccan Folk Tales — Part 2: Halblorber · The Student and the Magic Ring · The Magic Horse · Haroun er Rachid and the Daughter of the King of the Genies
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! Part Two of the Moroccan shelf: folk tales from Morocco, in fresh translations made for this reading. Albert Socin and Hans Stumme's The Arabic Dialect of the Houara of the Wad Sus in Morocco (Leipzig, 1895) sets down the tales of the Houara in their own tongue together with the collectors' German translation. Rene Basset's New Berber Tales (Paris, 1897) prints tales told in the Chelha tongue of the Sous and of Taroudant. Billed by collector and book, as the tales these books gather; not a survey of all Moroccan tradition, and no completeness is claimed. The tales were screened in the order they stand in their books under this shelf's standing rule, and a great many were set aside — every one stands named, with its reason, in the shelf register. Halblorber — a boy no bigger than half a laurel berry hides inside a cow and speaks out of her head, frightens the women at the spring and a rich rider off his mule; and the neighbour who tries to copy the trick is left with a mantle of turnip leaves — until the cow eats that too. The Student and the Magic Ring — three poor students come by a merchant's magic ring, whose spirits feed them and fill a chest with gold; and when the ring is tricked away on the road to Mecca, a cat and two mice win it back. The Magic Horse — a magician gives a king an iron horse with springs that flies through the sky; the prince rides it by night to another king's palace, and when the magician steals horse and princess both, the prince carries her home again. Haroun er Rachid and the Daughter of the King of the Genies — the caliph, wandering his city at night, is carried sleeping to the sea-palace of the king of the genies and marries his daughter; years later their son comes in search of his father, and is known by the crescent and the sabre he wears. Chapters: 0:00 Introduction 2:15 Halblorber 7:37 The Student and the Magic Ring 12:47 The Magic Horse 16:26 Haroun er Rachid and the Daughter of the King of the Genies Albert Socin and Hans Stumme, Der arabische Dialekt der Houwara des Wad Sus in Marokko (Leipzig: S. Hirzel, 1895), and Rene Basset, Nouveaux contes berberes (Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1897) — public domain. Narrated by Mira. Music: opening and closing theme, "Golden Monologue," also heard as short separators between the stories — the tales themselves are read dry. KacheliTV — world classics, read aloud.
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S86 · E2
October 21 · 24 min
Folk-Lore of the Holy Land — Part 2: Thaljiyeh, the Snow-Maiden · The Ring · The Ill-Used Camels
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! Part Two of the Palestine shelf: more folk tales from Folk-Lore of the Holy Land: Moslem, Christian and Jewish (London: Duckworth & Co., 1907) by J. E. Hanauer (1850–1938), Canon of St. George's Cathedral in Jerusalem and a member of the Palestine Exploration Fund, who lived most of his life in the land whose stories he gathered; the volume was edited by Marmaduke Pickthall. With this part, Hanauer's book has been read through in full for this shelf. As in Part One, only its secular folk tales and anecdotes of wit and kindness are read aloud, in the order they stand in the book; the book's legends of saints, prophets and miracles are set aside under the shelf's standing rule, and every tale set aside stands named, with its reason, in the shelf register — nothing is silently dropped, and no completeness is claimed. One tale, "The Emperor of China's Pig," stands held by name and is not read here. The Ring — a shopkeeper misses a valuable ring and can prove nothing, until a rabbi's one question, asked "in Hebrew, in tones of excited pleading," makes the thief confess himself. Thaljiyeh, the Snow-Maiden — the Palestinian Cinderella: a motherless drudge, a jinniyeh in the cistern who fills her bucket with jewels, a lost shoe of red Damascus leather, and a sheykh's son who swears thrice to marry its owner. The Ill-Used Camels — Haj Ahmad Izreyk of Damascus cannot die until he is forgiven, and the camels forgive him everything except being made to follow a wretched little donkey. The Dog and the Cat — the charter of exemption, the envious rat, and how the friendship ended; with the second telling, of the dogs who borrowed the jackals' place and would not give it back. The Dog That Left a Will — a Moslem buries his beloved Slugi with honour, and disarms the Kadi with the dog's last bequest. The Fox Feigning Dead — a fox plays corpse three times on the market road, and a peasant-woman's fowls pay for her second thoughts. Chapters: 0:00 Introduction 2:19 The Ring 4:20 Thaljiyeh, the Snow-Maiden 14:15 The Ill-Used Camels 17:51 The Dog and the Cat 20:21 The Dog That Left a Will 21:33 The Fox Feigning Dead J. E. Hanauer, Folk-Lore of the Holy Land (Duckworth & Co., 1907) — public domain. Narrated by Magnolia. Music: opening and closing theme, "Blazing Fire," also heard as a short separator between the stories — the tales themselves are read dry. KacheliTV — world classics, read aloud.
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S100 · E1
October 21 · 26 min
Icelandic Legends — Part 1: The Grateful Elfwoman · Grimsborg · Blue Face · The Bishop and the Elves · Who Built Reynir Church? · Bukolla
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! Season 100 · Episode 1 — the opening of the Icelandic shelf of KacheliTV World Classics: legends and folk tales from Iceland, read aloud in the English translation of George E. J. Powell and Eirikur Magnusson. THE BOOKS BEHIND THIS EPISODE Both sources are Icelandic Legends, collected by Jon Arnason, the librarian of Reykjavik, who gathered the folk tales of Iceland from tellers all over the island. The first series was published at London by Richard Bentley in 1864, and the second series at London by Longmans, Green, and Co. in 1866, in the translation of George E. J. Powell and Eirikur Magnusson. The five elf stories are read from the first series' Stories of Elves, and Bukolla from the second series' Tales, in the order they stand in their books. Every piece considered for this episode was read and screened under this shelf's content rule before anything was built: of the pieces read in full, six are told here. The rest stand named, each with its reason, in the shelf register — the excluded pieces are not told, and no completeness is claimed for either book. IN THIS EPISODE 0:35 Introduction 2:18 The Grateful Elfwoman — a month of milk left out for an elfwoman who asked in a dream, and the silver belt found under the pillow in thanks. 3:47 Grimsborg — in the famine the farmer of Keta begs Grimur, chief of the elves of the rock, for help, and a whale lies on the shore by morning. 6:33 Blue Face — a priest rides with a farmer over the sea to the elves' rock, where his lost daughter stands with a pale-blue face and a white cross on her forehead. 9:49 The Bishop and the Elves — the bishop's maid is stolen on a mountain camp, and John the Giant holds her fast against the magic circles until she comes to her senses. 15:16 Who Built Reynir Church? — a strange builder raises a church on one bargain: learn his name before the last plank is nailed, or give him your son. 19:28 Bukolla — another story of another Bukolla: the carl's son fetches the wonderful cow home past a river, a flame and a mountain, and the ogress who bored through the mountain is there yet, turned to stone in the hole. Narration: Morgana. Music: the instrumental theme "Falling Leaves at the Ice Cliffs" is heard at the opening and at the close, and in a short excerpt between the stories; there is no music under the narration.
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S102 · E1
October 21 · 23 min
Ugandan Folk Tales — Part 1: The Cat and the Fowl · Sifirwakange and Kasokambirye · Ndyakubi and Ndalakubi · Why the Bats Hang Head Downwards · Walukaga the Smith
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! Season 102 · Episode 1 — the opening of the Ugandan shelf of KacheliTV World Classics: folk tales of the Baganda, read aloud from John Roscoe's The Baganda. THE BOOK BEHIND THIS EPISODE John Roscoe, The Baganda: An Account of Their Native Customs and Beliefs (London: Macmillan, 1911). Roscoe spent twenty-five years as a missionary in the heart of Africa and gathered his material at first hand from the Baganda themselves, from old people who knew the former customs and beliefs, much of it in the house of Sir Apolo Kagwa, Prime Minister and Regent of Uganda. The tales are read as Roscoe printed them, in the order they stand in his seventeenth chapter, the folklore chapter. Every tale in that chapter was read in full before anything was built: of its fourteen tales, five are told here and eight stand excluded by name, each with its reason, in the shelf register; the Legend of Kintu, the Baganda origin cycle, stands held by name for a later ruling, so no completeness is claimed for the chapter. IN THIS EPISODE 0:35 Introduction 3:02 The Cat and the Fowl — the fowls lord it over the wild cats on the boast that their combs hold fire, until a young cat tests the sleeping cock's comb and finds it cold. 6:23 Sifirwakange and Kasokambirye — Sifirwakange, "I will not lose mine," hunts all Uganda for his debtors; Kasokambirye hides from him inside a bundle of firewood, and then inside the plantain food. 12:51 Ndyakubi and Ndalakubi — blood-brothers: the guest who eats a hundred men's food and still complains is answered by the host whose feet will not fit inside any house. 16:33 Why the Bats Hang Head Downwards — the bat loiters on his errand to call the sun, the moon takes the sun's office, and the bat may never look on the sun again. 18:35 Walukaga the Smith — the King orders his chief smith to forge a real man of iron, with blood and brains; Walukaga asks for a thousand loads of charcoal from the people's burnt hair, and a hundred pots of their tears. Narration: Felix. Music: the instrumental theme "Cypress in the Soil" is heard at the opening and at the close, and in a short excerpt between the stories; there is no music under the narration.
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