Grammar

Spider and Mole – a Puguli (Phuieŋ) folk tale

Folk tales like this one teach children how things came to be or how they should behave. This story teaches the principle of being satisfied with one’s own identity, rather than trying to be like someone else. In it, Mole (who is blessed with a layer of fat under his skin) greases his wife’s red-hot frying pan. When Spider later tries to imitate Mole in his own wife’s frying pan, he is fried to a crisp, embarrassing himself in public. His wife humiliates him further by slinging him against a wall when she scoops him out of the frying pan.

The sentences that have been interlinearized so far provide the setting for the story. The juicy details will come as I have time to complete the interlinearization process.

Click here to view the interlinearized text: Spider and Mole