A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

Overview

After a life of merit-making, a chief and nine of his wives live in the sky. He searches for the favorite wife who had not joined their charitable acts, looking down through a glass, and discovers her reborn as a crane. Taking a fish’s form, he approaches her twice and finds that she will not eat him once she sees he is alive. He understands this restraint as enabling her return to human birth.

When she is reborn as a gardener’s daughter, he attends her marriage gathering disguised as an old man. Her thrown flower wreath selects him; she takes his hand and they rise into the sky despite her father’s shot. The tale explains heat lightning as the chief flashing his searching glass, chain lightning as her wreath and a lightning strike as the gardener’s shot. These are separately narrated images, not a claim that the chief has three different lightning-shaped bodies.

Deceased chief who takes fish and old-man formsSource-specific narrative
01

Origins & earliest records

Historical Laos country within Siam, as identified by the collection

02

Records & interpretation

Complete relevant narrative and Willis G. Craig’s introduction directly read.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

  1. 01

    Laos Folk-Lore of Farther India

    Katherine Neville Fleeson, collector/translator · 1899

    III.2, The Origin of Lightning, pp.38–40

Family & connections

A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.

Primary records and illustrations

Direct primary record

Katherine Neville Fleeson, Laos Folk-Lore of Farther India (1899)

III.2. III.2, The Origin of Lightning, pp.38–40

Complete relevant narrative read with attached notes; Craig introduction previously read. Historical missionary collection, unnamed individual narrator and original-script name absent. Rebirth, disguise and mistaken resurrection kept distinct. Original paraphrase.

Inspect the digitized plate · Source collection manifest

References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

  1. Historical folktale collectionFleeson, Laos Folk-Lore of Farther India, III.2, The Origin of Lightning, pp.38–40Research access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

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