The story of the fisherman

Whether a student, parent or teacher, you can take a magical journey, filled with adventure, or just remember what it feels like to be a child again. There is a little something for everyone among these stories starting with the classic fairy tale stories by the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen and Charles Perrault, going on to the morally edifying fables of Aesop and Jean de La Fontaine and ending with the wisdom, gathered by the people: the folktales from different parts of the world. This week we bring you a folk tale from Asia.

There was once upon a time a fisherman so old and so poor that he could scarcely manage to support his wife and three children. He went every day to fish very early, and each day he made a rule not to throw his nets more than four times. He started out one morning by moonlight and came to the sea-shore. He undressed and threw his nets, and as he was drawing them towards the bank he felt a great weight. He thought he had caught a large fish and he felt pleased. But a moment afterwards, seeing that instead of a fish he only had in his nets the carcass of an ass, he was disappointed.

Vexed with having such a bad haul, when he had mended his nets, which the carcass of the ass had broken in several places, he threw them a second time. Again he felt a great weight but he only found a large basket full of rubbish. He was annoyed. He threw away the rubbish and he threw them for the third time. But he only drew in stones, shells, and mud. He was in despair.

Then he threw his nets for the fourth time. When he thought he had a fish he drew them in with a great deal of trouble. There was no fish however, but he found a yellow pot, which by its weight seemed full of something, and he noticed that it was fastened and sealed with lead. He was delighted. "I will sell it to the foundry," he said; "with the money I shall get for it I shall buy a measure of wheat." He examined the jar on all sides; he shook it to see if it would rattle. But he heard nothing, and so, judging from the impression of the seal and the lid, he thought there must be something precious inside. To find out, he took his knife, and with a little trouble he opened it. He turned it upside down, but nothing came out,which surprised him.

He set it in front of him, and while he was looking at it attentively, such a thick smoke came out that he had to step back a pace or two. This smoke rose up to the clouds, and stretching over the sea and the shore, formed a thick mist. The fisherman was astonished. When all the smoke was out of the jar it gathered itself together and became a thick mass in which appeared a genius, twice as large as the largest giant. He saw such a terrible-looking monster and he wanted to run away, but he trembled with fright and could not move a step.

"Great king of the geni," cried the monster, "I will never again disobey you!" At these words the fisherman took courage.

"What is this you are saying, great genius? Tell me your history and how you came to be shut up in that vase."

At this, the geni looked at the fisherman haughtily. "Speak to me more civilly," he said, "before I kill you." "Alas! why should you kill me?" cried the fisherman. "I have just freed you; have you already forgotten that?" "No," answered the geni; "but that will not prevent me from killing you; and I am only going to grant you one favour, and that is to choose the manner of your death."

"But what have I done to you?" asked the fisherman. "I cannot treat you in any other way," said the geni, "and if you would know why, listen to my story."I rebelled against the king of the genis. To punish me, he shut me up in this vase of copper, and he put on the leaden cover his seal, to prevent my coming out. Then he had the vase thrown into the sea. During the first period of my captivity I vowed that if anyone should free me before a hundred years passed, I would make him rich even after his death. But that century passed, and no one freed me. In the second century I vowed that I would give all the treasures in the world to my deliverer; but he never came. "In the third, I promised to make him a king, to be always near him, and to grant him three wishes every day; but that century passed away as the other two had done, and I remained in the same plight. At last I grew angry at being captive for so long, and I vowed that if anyone would release me I would kill him at once, and would only allow him to choose the manner in which he should die. So you see, as you have freed me to-day, choose in what way you will die."

The fisherman was very unhappy. "What an unlucky man I am to have freed you! I implore you to spare my life." "I have told you," said the geni, "that it is impossible. Choose quickly; you are wasting time." The fisherman began to devise a plot.

"Since I must die," he said, "before I choose the manner of my death, I conjure you on your honour to tell me if you really were in that vase?""Yes, I was," answered the geni. "I really cannot believe it," said the fisherman. "That vase could not

contain one of your feet even, and how could your whole body go in? I cannot believe it unless I see you do the thing."

Then the geni began to change himself into smoke, which, as before, spread over the sea and the shore, and which, then collecting itself together, began to go back into the vase slowly and evenly till there was nothing left outside. Then a voice came from the vase which said to the fisherman, "Well, unbelieving fisherman, here I am in the vase; do you believe me now?"

The fisherman instead of answering took the lid of lead and shut it down quickly on the vase. "Now, O geni," he cried, "ask pardon from me, and choose by what death you will die! But no, it will be better if I throw you into the sea whence I drew you out, and I will build a house on the shore to warn fishermen who come to cast their nets here, against fishing up such a wicked geni, who vows to kill the man who frees you."

At these words the geni did all he could to get out, but he could not, because of the enchantment of the lid. Then he tried to get out by cunning. "If you will take off the cover," he said, "I will repay you."

"No," answered the fisherman, "if I trust myself to you I am afraid you will treat me as a certain Greek king treated the physician Douban, so you shall be in the vase forever".

A fisherman's song

The fisherman is pitchin' pennies
In the sand beside the sea
The sunrise hits their oilskin boots
And their painted boats and me
They seem to know the ocean

For half the mornin' for the tide to turn
Pull on the ropes, Seine haul fisherman
Never catches more than he knows he can sell in a day
Pull in the nets, Seine haul fisherman
Day's for work and night's the time to go dancing
And squinting at the sun
Waitin' for the gulls to tell them
When the fish will come
Their faces brown and weathered
From all the nets they've run

They've learned to wait
They always know that the tide will turn
Pull on the ropes, Seine haul fisherman
Never catches more than he knows he can sell in a day
Pull in the nets, Seine haul fisherman
Day's for work and night's the time to go dancing
Pull in the ropes, Seine haul fisherman
Never catches more than he knows he can sell in a day
Pull in the nets, Seine haul fisherman
Day's for work and night's the time to go dancing

Way out on the ocean
The big ships hunt for whales
The Japanese have caught so many
That now they hunt for snails
My fisherman's not greedy
They seem content to live
With the sun and the sand
And a net full of fishes when the tide turns
Pull in the ropes, Seine haul fisherman
Never catches more than he knows he can sell in a day

Pull in the nets, Seine haul fisherman
Day's for work and night's the time to go dancing
Pull in the ropes, Seine haul fisherman
Never catches more than he knows he can sell in a day
Pull in the nets, Seine haul fisherman

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