Folk Tales from Chile

Book excerpt: These 15 tales give a taste of the variety of Chile's rich folklore. The stories represent both the Old World culture that the Spanish soldiers and priests who colonised the region brought with them, and the native Indian culture of the original inhabitants of Chile. Despite the attempts of the Spanish to impose their language, rule of law, and Catholicism upon Chile, many of the native Indian tribes clung tenaciously to their own language, customs, and beliefs. There is a story of the spirit who lives in a volcano and keeps his daughter imprisoned in the mountain, guarded by a devoted dwarf; there are domestic tales with luck favouring the poor and simple, and tales which tell how poppies first appeared in the cornfields and how the Big Stone in Lake Llanquihue came to be there. These tales are all beautifully told; ideal for reading aloud or for young children to read on their own.