The Fox Sister

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The Fox Sister (a Korean folktale about the origin of the mosquito) from various sources, retold by Heinz Insu Fenkl A long time ago there was a man who had three sons but no daughter. It was his dearest wish to have a daughter, so he went up into the mountains and prayed to the spirits. One night, after months of prayer, he was so desperate he said, "Please, Hannanim, give me a daughter even if she is a fox!" Soon the man discovered that his wife was pregnant, and in time she had a beautiful girl. The man was happy. But when the daughter was about six years old, strange things began to happen. Every night a cow would die, and in the morning they could never find a trace of what had killed it. So man told his first son to keep watch one night. In the morning, the first son told a terrible story of what had happened. "Father, I could not believe my own eyes," he said. "It is our little sister who is killing the cattle. She came out in the middle of the night and I followed her to the cattle shed. By the moonlight I could see her as she did a little dance. Then she oiled her hand and her arm with sesame oil. She shoved her whole arm into the cow’s anus and pulled out its liver. She ate it raw while the cow died without a sound. That is all I saw, father, for it was too horrible to witness any longer." The father was outraged. "That is not possible," he said. "Tell me the truth." "That is the truth, Father." "Then you must have had a nightmare. That means you have betrayed my trust by falling asleep when you were supposed to keep watch. Leave my sight at once! You are no longer my son!" And so he threw out his eldest son. Now it was the second son’s turn to keep watch. Everything was fine for a month, but then when the full moon came around the same thing happened, and in the morning he made his report to his father. "That is not possible," said the father.
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