COCKROACH
STORIES
(excerpts
from posts)
(If you want to retell any of the stories listed below, be sure
to obtain permission from the copyright holder if the material
is not in the public domain)
1)
Crickwing by Janell Cannon, and the
story of The Cockroach Martin, found
in Señor Cat's Romance and Other
Favorite Stories from Latin America (English). Retold by
Lucía M. González.
2) Cucarachita Perez, which is the
same story as Mariposa, the Butterfly.
From the Texas Storytelling Festival Book
published by August House.
3) There are lots of books about cockroach stories, just do an
online search on "cockroach folktales."
4) Who wants to kill a million-dollar cockroach?
http://europe.cnn.com/2000/US/07/06/moos.roaches/
5) Cockroaches: World champion side-steppers
http://news.bbc.co.uk/low/english/sci/tech/newsid_281000/281512.stm
6) All About Cockroaches
http://www.biohaven.com/pests/roach/roachinf.htm
7) Danger in the Air -Cockroaches Sense Attack By Hair on Legs
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DailyNews/cockroach000614.html
8) Urban Legends
http://www.urbanlegends.com/ulz/poroaches.html
9) African Proverb of the Month
http://www.afriprov.org/resources/proverbs.htm
Ehemwen wÿÿ iren te gua so ihuan,
ren te vbe gua ku, sokpan ukpÿ iye-ÿkhÿkhÿ
ÿre ÿ ma gie iren ku iku iren vbe avan. (Edo) (Nigeria)
A cockroach knows how to sing and dance, but it is the hen who
prevents it from performing its art during the day. (English)
Une blatte sait chanter et danser, mais c'est la poule qui l'empeche
de le faire pendant la journee. (French)
Background, Explanation and Everyday Use
The story of a singing and dancing cockroach belongs to the imaginary
world of folktale where ants walk erect and spiders hold court.
No one has seen a singing and dancing cockroach, but the sight
of a hen chasing a cockroach is a common spectacle in many African
villages. For the hungry hen, mindless of the plight of the cockroach,
it makes a delightful meal. The cockroach is not oblivious to
its precarious existence -- that it has an enemy who is mostly
alert at daytime. This is inhibiting because it cannot then show
what it is capable of doing at a time when all can see. It is
forced to perform in the dark for its own safety. It is such a
situation that this Nigerian proverb describes.
10) A Bug Joke
Every night, Frank would go down to the liquor store, get a six
pack, bring it home, and drink it while he watched TV. One night,
as he finished his last beer, the doorbell rang. He stumbled to
the door and found a six-foot cockroach standing there. The bug
grabbed him by the collar and threw him across the room, then
left. The next night, after he finished his 4th beer, the doorbell
rang. He walked slowly to the door and found the same six-foot
cockroach standing there. The big bug punched him in the stomach,
then left. The next night, after he finished his 1st beer, the
doorbell rang again. The same six-foot cockroach was standing
there. This time he was kneed in the groin and hit behind the
ear as he doubled over in pain. Then the big bug left. The fourth
night Frank didn't drink at all. The doorbell rang. The cockroach
was standing there. The bug beat the snot out of Frank and left
him in a heap on the living room floor. The following day, Frank
went to see his doctor. He explained events of the preceding four
nights. "What can I do?" he pleaded. "Not much"
the doctor replied. "There's just a nasty bug going around."
11) Jay Mechling, American Studies, UCD did an article and a book
about cockroaches using an anthropological approach.
12) The Bee, the Harp, the Mouse, and the
Bum-Clock, from Troubadour's Storybag,
edited by Norma J. Livo. Fulcrum Publishing, 1996. She gives her
source as Irish Fairy Tales, edited
by Philip Smith, 1993, who took it from Donegal
Fairy Stories 1900. A Bum-Clock is a cockroach (she says).
13) The Bee, the Harp, the Mouse, and the
Bum-Clock, adapted and told as Silly
Jack on Harlynne Geisler's CD/cassette A
Giant, An Imp, and Two Jacks.
14) Mistress Cockroach in
Persian Folk and Fairy Tales by Anne Sinclair Mehdevi.
ISBN 0-394-91496-1.
15) Cockroach Party (11:20 minutes
long), told by Margaret Read MacDonald with music by Richard Scholtz
on their CD: Cockroach Party. Contact
Live Music Recordings, 2901 - 26th Street, Bellingham, WA 98225.
16) Poule and Roach by Margaret Read
MacDonald, found in Celebrate the World,
20 tellable folktales for multicultural celebrations. Poule is
French for chicken and it's a Cajun tale about a mismatched marriage.
17) Don Marquis' archy & mehitabel
poems. (archy was the cockroach poet who used Don's typewriter
but was unable to operate the shift key to get capital letters).
For a change of pace, there's Lynn & Peter Berryman's song,
What's on a Cockroach Christmas List?
18) Senorita Cucarachita may be found
on page 25 of Danny Kaye's Around The World
Story Book, Random House, 1969. Origin: Costa Rica, Panama
and El Salvador. This version by Ruth Sawyer.
19) Not quite a cockroach - but a beetle. There is a short, easy-to-learn,
fun story in Arnold Lobel's Fables.
It has a great little moral to it - the bigger they are the harder
they fall.
20) Pura Belpre's famous couple Perez y
Martina. The idea of an attractive cockroach always grosses
kids out, but that's half the fun. The picture book version Perez
and Martina is 1932 from Warne, it's longer in text than
a picture book of today and the illustrations don't stand
up to today's standards, but the tales are worth the read.
21) Cucharachita (Little Cockroach)
on an audiocassette entitled: Stories from
the Hearth, Glass Wing Media, 1994, Portland, OR. analog
013000.
22) Forgey, William W., 1942- , Campfire
Stories : Things That Go Bump in the Night. Merrillville,
Ind. : ICS Books, c1985. 176 p. A collection of twenty ghost stories
by a variety of authors with suggestions on how each should be
told to a group, preferably around a campfire. There is a creepy
cockroach story in this book called La Cucaracha
Mine.
23) I'm pleased to announce that Marion Copeland's extensive bibliography
on cockroaches has been added to the NILAS website. It is listed
under "Bibliographies" on our home page.
http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/~nilas/
http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/%7Enilas/bibs/appROACHES.html
(This
web page updated 8/10/03)
