Humour - Twins

["T. K. Cassidy" <tkc@KUENTOS.GUAM.NET>]

I thought you folks would like this. The message came in response to a
request for stories about twins!

>
>What about "Be Nice"?  I don't know the origins of this folktale, though
>I first heard it from Milbre Burch and have heard other tellers perform
>it.  The basic storyline is that a woman is married to an angry man and,
>when she gets pregnant, fears that her children will also be angry.  So
>she gets a salve (from a wise woman) and is told to rub it into her
>stomach every day saying "be nice, be nice".  She continues to do this for
>1 month... 2 months... 6 months... 9 months... 10 months...12 months...2
>years... 5 years... 10 years... 50 years.  Finally she dies and they cut her
>open to see what happened - and they find two wizened old men with long
>beards saying "after you", "no, after you".
>
>Incidentally, I've twisted this one completely around and done it with
>a woman whose husband is too nice and wants her children to "be mean, be
>mean"... leading the twins to shove each other out of the way saying "me
>first"
>
>Miriam Nadel

Slainte! Guam is 15 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time --
Living' in the future -- ain't Life grand!

T. K. Cassidy - Children's Librarian /// Guam Public Library
                             Resident Writer and Storyteller ///
tkc@kuentos.guam.net

Winner of the 1996 Maga'lahi Award for Excellence in the Humanities