"A wonderful collection of tales about villagers and talking animals and their day-to-day problems in a pastoral Sri Lanka. Many stories are similar to the ones heard in other South Asian lands, a testimony to the foreign influences that blew across the island over the centuries through interaction with invaders, adventurers and peaceful travellers. These folktales do not, however, offer moral lessons. They are hilarious, with characters who find themselves in awkward situations and end up exhibiting the many tragic and comic aspects of our transient lives."--

Presents a cummulative folk tale about a mother quail's efforts to recover her egg after it rolls into the crevice of a rock.

Publisher Description

This series of fascinating folk tales are from the different states of India. Children love to hear tales. These stories, handed down from generation to generation, will hold them spell bound. An effective way of introducing good literature to children, these tales make interesting reading.

With 600 signed, alphabetically organized articles covering the entirety of folklore in South Asia, this new resource includes countries and regions, ethnic groups, religious concepts and practices, artistic genres, holidays and traditions, and many other concepts. A preface introduces the material, while a comprehensive index, cross-references, and black and white illustrations round out the work. The focus on south Asia includes Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, with short survey articles on Tibet, Bhutan, Sikkim, and various diaspora communities. This unique reference will be invaluable for collections serving students, scholars, and the general public.

COLONIAL MIXED BLOOD The navies built by the Arabs and King Solomon plied the oceans long ago. The Portuguese, Dutch, and British followed suit, and eventually the oceans were mastered. The colonial age came into being and brought with it increased movements of people and the mixing of genes. In Colonial Mixed Blood, author Allan Russell Juriansz, who was born in Sri Lanka, provides an account of this occurrence with reference to the Portuguese, Dutch, and British who colonized Sri Lanka for the period of the past five hundred years. The story begins in Riga, Latvia, in the late 1400s and centres on the Ondatjes and the Juriansz clan, their love story, their immersion in Christianity, and their struggles to survive the forces of colonialism and find happiness. A blend of history and fiction, Colonial Mixed Blood provides a background of the religious forces at work during this time in Europe and outlines the genealogy and life experiences of Juriansz’s family as part of the colonial activity of the Dutch East India Company in Sri Lanka. They inherited an adventurous spirit from their first Dutch ancestors, and this spirit inspired their diaspora. But it was one hundred and fifty years of intense British influence that transformed them into loyal British subjects.