This week on Myths and Legends, it's two Japanese fairy tales, and you'll see why it's a really

good idea to make friends with Kaodong, and how the cutest of animals can come up with the

bloodiest of revenge plans. The cruiser this week is why you'll want to sleep with a bail of

hay and chop some coffee grounds before bed.

This is Myths and Legends, episode 143. Crabby.

This is a podcast where I tell stories from mythology and folklore. Some are incredibly

popular stories you'd think you know, but with surprising origins. Others are stories that might

be new to you, but are definitely worth listening. So long, long time members might recognize today's

underlying stories as ones shared in the member figures ago. That would be correct, however,

I've been thinking about these two Japanese fairy tales recently, and we decided that it would

be time to go back and redo them because, one, they honestly deserve a much wider audience,

and two, those were the early days of Myths and Legends. And I like to think that we've grown

no displacements then, both on audio quality and narrative writing. So for most of you, these are

completely new stories, and for the others, I hope you enjoy them a new.

Our first story is the Battle of the Monkey in the Crab, which is exactly as epic as it sounds.

Though the beginning might sound a bit like the Monkey in the Tortoise story,

stick with it. You'll see when it veers off and becomes its own tale. A long time ago,

a monkey and a crab sat playing together by a river. Along the bank, lay exactly one rice dumpling

and one persimmon seed. In time, the crab chanced upon the delicious, sticky rice dumpling,

and the monkey found the hard, decidedly not delicious, persimmon seed.

Now, the monkey loved persimmons, but at the moment, given his post-play appetite,

he much preferred the savory rice dumpling. It sent wafting over and making his stomach growl.

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