Old Age

[shanmonster]

Yup. Time for another Inuit folktale.

There was a woman who was old, blind and likewise unable to walk. Once she asked her daughter for a drink of water. The daughter was so bored with her old mother that she gave her a bowl of her own piss. The old woman drank it all up, then said, "You're a nice one, daughter. Tell me--which would you prefer as a lover, a louse or a sea scorpion?"

"Oh, a sea scorpion," laughed the daughter, "because he would not be crushed so easily when I slept with him."

Whereupon the old woman proceeded to pull sea scorpions out of her vagina, one after another, until she fell over dead.

Comments

[suzycat.livejournal.com]

I'm getting this sense of old women doing absolutely anything to give daughters what they want and then dying. God, how miserable. I'm glad I'm not an Inuit.

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

They don't all have sad endings. I'll post a fun one soon...

Re: Question.

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

I don't know.

Maybe it's a very old story. Heh...

[advancedentropy.livejournal.com]

Where are you getting these?

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

From The Virago Book of Fairy Tales. It's a good read.

[admnaismith.livejournal.com]

It was a wise and humane choice the daughter made. It would have taken the old lady so much longer to pull out louses until she died; this way, it was quicker.

At first glance, I read the ending as, the old woman pulled sea scorpions out of her (the daughter's) vagina. I'm still not sure that was wrong. It's certainly what the Bros. Grimm would have had happen. Old ladies are always doing cruel, deadly things to girls in Grimm tales.

[zombienought.livejournal.com]

I think I want to live with the Esquimaux.

[y3korean.livejournal.com]

hmm, i see what you're saying, and that does make a little more sense than the mother dying. not that either really makes that much sense.

[fourcorners.livejournal.com]

The moral is, if the sea scorpions decide to nest in one of your orifi, for God's sake, leave them to their own devices!!

Re: Question.

[issi-noho.livejournal.com]

http://www.polarlife.ca/Traditional/traditional/animals/sculpin.htm

[shangchi.livejournal.com]

So, I guess the moral of the story is don't joke with mom about who you'd rather marry, or she could end up pulling some deadly arthropod or arachnid, or maybe even Cthulhu, out of her snatch....?

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

Is that a picture of Cthulhu sitting on an Elder God toilet?

Re: Question.

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

Yay! Sculpins! I used to catch many of them when I lived in Newfoundland. They're helluva ugly.

[shangchi.livejournal.com]

I think so. Looks like he just pulled someone out of his ass.

Re: Question.

[issi-noho.livejournal.com]

You're welcome.

[chilywily-wonka.livejournal.com]

it's a fable, the moral is respect your elder's and don't underestimate them. i think the story was read or posted wrong, i believe the old woman cursed the girl for being disrespectful and feeding her urine, so the next time the girl went to the bathroom scorpions came out until she died.

[chilywily-wonka.livejournal.com]

it's a fable, the moral is respect your elder's and don't underestimate them. i think the story was read or posted wrong, i believe the old woman cursed the girl for being disrespectful and feeding her urine, so the next time the girl went to the bathroom scorpions came out until she died.

[chilywily-wonka.livejournal.com]

it's a fable, the moral is respect your elder's and don't underestimate them. i think the story was read or posted wrong, i believe the old woman cursed the girl for being disrespectful and feeding her urine, so the next time the girl went to the bathroom scorpions came out until she died.

[suzycat.livejournal.com]

Oh, the scorpions came out of the *girl*! That makes more sense.

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

The final sentence of the story is worded very poorly. I agree with your assessment.

[chilywily-wonka.livejournal.com]

i didn't mean to post the same thing 3 times. i just noticed some confusion and wanted to set the record straight. i hope i didn't offend you.