Reading Notes: Persian Tales, Part B

 For the second part of the Persian tales I noticed that the trend was that the stories started off with "There once was a..."

Image Information: Four Leaf Clover (WebLink)

My favorite story in this part was "The Man Who Went to Wake His Luck". 

Plot: It is about a rich and poor brother. One day the poor brother went to the rich brother's estate. He noticed a man herding his brother's horses. He asked what the man thought he was doing with his brother's horses. The man replied saying that he was his brother's Luck. The poor brother asked him where his Luck was. The horseherder said that his Luck was asleep. 

So the poor brother went to go find his Luck. On his journey, he met a gardener, a king, and a wolf. All of them asked the poor brother to deliver question to his Luck about their misfortunes. So the poor brother found his Luck and woke him up asking the questions. The poor brother then delivered the answers to the king and gardener who wanted to share their newfound fortune with him. However, the brother refused. 

It turns out the the wolf's fortune was that he would eat a foolish man to relieve his starving belly. That foolish man was the poor brother. If the brother had stayed with the king or gardener he would've been rich. But he was foolish. 

I really like the idea of everyone having their own Luck. If their Luck is active and awake then they're fortunate. If their Luck is asleep then they're unfortunate. I also like how it doesn't all depend on the Luck though. Even when the poor brother woke up his Luck he still ended up in a bad situation becuase of his foolishness. 

Bibliography: 

"The Man Who Went to Wake His Luck" from the Persian Tales written by D.L.R. Lorimer and E.O. Lorimer and illustrated by Hilda Roberts (weblink)