At one time lived a sister, brother, and his wife. The wife did not like the sister of her husband for the sister took care of the cooking every single night. While this should have made the wife very happy, it made her very made. So mad that one day she called onto her Bonga and pleaded that the Bonga get rid of the sister for she had enough of her.
The very next day when the sister went to fill her pitcher at the creek she noticed it was near empty. She thought it was very odd but still attempted to dip her pitcher in what water was there. The pitcher even submerged in the creek would not fill with water. After trying a few times with no luck the girl notices something very odd. A large wave of water rushing right at her. The wave overtook the young girl who was still holding her pitcher. The pitcher now began to fill with water and it sank the poor girl down to the bottom. The girl drowned and floated down the creek.
Eventually the girl transformed into a Bonga and reappeared as a bamboo stick near the creek where she drowned. The girl stayed this way until a man passed by and noticed the bamboo and thought to himself
"Hm.. that bamboo would make a lovely fiddle"
So, the man came back the next day and cut it down and carved it into a fiddle. The man began playing the fiddle as a way of earning money. Many people had offered to buy the fiddle, but the man kept refusing. He would take it home every night with him to make sure it was safe.
After returning home from playing the man and his wife would often go out and tend to their livestock.
One day the mans wife noticed dinner was cooked and could not figure out how it happened. The man insisted that it wasn't him and said it must be a friendly neighbor. Day after day dinner was prepared for the man and wife without either of them doing any cooking.
After a week of cooked meals being placed on the table the wife had enough. She decided to let the husband go out to work the livestock and she was going to hide in the kitchen to find who was leaving all this food.
While hiding the wife noticed a women coming out of the fiddle! It was a Bonga transforming from a fiddle to women! Then the women began to prepare dinner. When the wife went to confront her she noticed that the Bonga was her husbands dead sister...
The sister was glad she was finally caught for now she could take her revenge. The sister killed the wife and left only one plate of food for her brother for when he returned. Then she turned back into the fiddle and never transformed again.
The brother never found out what happened to his wife. That was the hardest part for him.
It was the exact revenge the sister needed.
Fiddle. Keith Carver, 2005. Flickr.
Authors Note:
I kept the beginning of the story similar, except in the original there are seven brothers instead of one. When the sister goes to the creek to fill the pitcher, I wrote a big wave comes but the original describes how the water slowly rises until it is above her head and she drowns. After the sister turns into a Bonga and becomes the bamboo the two sisters become very different. In the original a random man cuts down the bamboo, turns it into a fiddle, and plays it. One day plays it for the village chief who loved it so much he wanted to buy it. The man denied the request. However, the chief got him drunk and took the fiddle. When the man went to get his fiddle back the chief denied him and the fiddle found its way to the chiefs son who was a musician. The people of the house would go out for their labor during the day and one day they returned to dinner being made. After a few days of this the son hides to find out who is doing this and sees the Bonga come out of the fiddle and appear as a women. They then fall in love. One day the eldest brother of the girl was having dinner with chief and therefore the brother and sister saw each other. She described what the sisters had done to her and let it be. I took it to a much more revenge level.
Bibliography:
"The Magic Fiddle" from Indian Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten. Web source.
I like how you made the story more personal than the previous one, making it be her brother that cut down the bamboo and created the fiddle. I wonder how it would have been if his sister would have spoken to him after the murder of his wife and he would have known who it was that murdered her. The way it was now kinda made it sound like he might get scared of some evil spirit in his house, but perhaps that was the intention.
ReplyDelete- Anna Margret
Hello Katlyn!
ReplyDeleteI thought this was such an interesting story. I have not read the original but your authors note really helped me understand what happens and what changes you made. After reading your retelling and the authors note I am going to have to go an read the original story for myself because I really liked the idea behind this. I really like the sense of revenge in the end. I find stories like that feel a little eerie which I really enjoy. I wondered what would have happened if the wife was honest about what she did and told her husband instead of confronting her. That would have been interesting to see, also makes me wonder what the husband's reaction would have been to the wife's actions. I think it would also be interesting if you expanded on the confrontation between the wife and the sister. I think that might be very fun to write and develop. Good story!
Hi Katlyn!
ReplyDeleteI love the plot twist that the man that cut down the bamboo and made the fiddle was the brother! I thought it was cool that you let the sister get revenge on the wife for having her killed. I was wondering what a Bonga is, maybe adding a short description in the first paragraph might help those who haven’t read the story.
Hello Katlyn, I really enjoyed reading your version of the story. I thought that changes of cutting down the brothers down to one and having the water rush instead of slowly rise up were great ideas. Overall I thought the story was really great, and cant wait to read more of your other stories. Keep up the great work that your doing!
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