A long time ago, there lived two sisters on a beautiful island. The older sister married a man, while the younger sister had a son without a husband. The two sisters were happy. One day, the younger sister went to fix a lei with the flower tree at the end of the island. After fixing the lei, she got tired and decided to sleep under the flower tree. She woke up and saw a man on the tree. The man proposed to her, and she accepted. The man asked her to leave her son with her older sister. After they left, though, the older sister started treating the boy very badly. One day, the older sister got mad and told the boy to look for his own mother. He left the house and climbed the flower tree and went to another world, where he met his mother. There, the boy met a man named Yolfat. Yolfat asked his mother if the boy could stay with him and become his son. The mother allowed her son to stay with Yolfat, who taught the boy how to navigate, sail, fight, etc. One day, the boy went to take a shower on the other side of the island and met a big, strong ghost. They started fighting until the last minute before sunrise. The ghost asked the boy who his father was and he answered it was Yolfat. Admitting defeat, the ghost named him Palulap, which means the one who has all knowledge of everything. The boy returned to Yolfat and told him what had happened. Yolfat told him to go back to the other world and spread his knowledge, so Palulap became the one who taught the knowledge of navigation to the people in this world. Note: Yolfat is used in the outer islands of Yap, whereas the Yapese main island uses Yalfath. Both Yolfat and Yalfath indicate the same god.

The Alha is an oral epic from the Bundelkhand area in the state of Uttar Pradesh. However, it is popular and performed across much of Northwest India. It is a martial epic, and tells a single story. It’s the story of brothers Alha and Udal, who belong to the Banaphar family, loyal to the ruler Parmal of the Chandel dynasty. The story is told and sung over fifty-two episodes, each called a larai, which means “battle.” Some episodes are about births and weddings, but most culminate in a larai. The underlying theme is that of the Chandels fighting Prithviraj Chauhan, a legendary king of the Chauhan dynasty. Prithviraj Chauhan is a major figure in Indian folklore and there are many medieval epic poems dedicated to him. Most of the Alha larais are about the Chandels defending the kingdom of Mahoba from Prithviraj Chauhan. The Chandels are eventually defeated by Prithviraj Chauhan. However, Prithviraj Chauhan is weakened by the battles, thereby demonstrating how powerful the Chandels are. The Alha is thus not an epic of victorious heroes like many martial epics. The heroes are praisied for their loyalty and valor. The Alha is also an example of a local oral epic that is linked to the great Indian epics. Alha is often referred to as the Mahabharata of the Kaliyug, comparing the Banaphar brothers to the Pandavas. The Alha epic was translated and published as the The lay of Alha: A Saga of Rajput Chivalry as Sung by Minstrels of Northern India. It was partly translated into English ballad meter by William Waterfield in 1923. The singing of the Alha epic is based on the Alha-Khand, a body of episodes that is passed down from generation to generation. Though there are published pamphlets available in current times, most people learn from their gurus in the traditional system of oral transmission. Alha epic poets and singers belong to akharas, and singers perform only the compositions of the poets of their own akharas. The Alha epic is normally sung by a group, with one singer following another. Traditionally, Alha is performed in villages during the monsoon, when there is no work in the fields. Though there are fifty-one episodes, only one larai is performed at a time, which may last one hour or the whole night. It is performed by men for all-male audiences. In recent times, competitions or pratiyogitas have been organized by State departments and other cultural bodies. As these cannot give the same space to each group, the performances are necessarily truncated. This has also led to the use of costumes and props, and sometimes acting out of episodes. This track from the epic of Alha, is an excerpt from the beginning of an episode titled “Kiratsagar Ki Larai.” In this episode, women are carrying wheat shoots in baskets on their heads to the Kiratsagar lake in Mahoba on the full moon of the Indian month of Sawan, when Prithviraj Chauhan attacks Mahoba. The Kiratsagar ki larai is part of the collection of the Alha recorded and collected by Karine Schomer, who is known for her considerable research on the Alha.

O so I heard mother and father are fighting\nWell I can follow you (father) and play some music for you \n\nLullabies (Ru) within the family environment has a hypnotising function, where it's used to ease the child into sleeping. Southern Vietnam (Nam bộ) lullabies was formed and sustained through the many layers of Nam bộ culture. The environmental ecosystem and culture have given it a distinctive form that is expressed through lyrics, melodies, and rhytms.