Moruga Tales Second Edition

Moruga Tales by June Lee-Sing Khan
ISBN: 978-0-9878256-3-6 (eBook)
Second Edition eBook published May 2021

The author spent her early years in the village of Grand Chemin in the district of Moruga. Grand Chemin is a seaside village on the south coast of Trinidad and to this day it is still very rural in nature, forgotten by Time and the Government.

She grew up hearing the stories of the strange and supernatural creatures that haunted the area and filled the inhabitants with dread and wonder. It was with hair-raising excitement and anticipation that she listened to these stories told by school friends and others, and her imagination ran wild as she experienced vicariously the exploits of the heroes who lived to tell the tale.

The “doorstep group” in the tales is composed of young people and children. Some of the names of the people in this group are of actual people she knew in the village and she uses these people to tell the stories. However, the stories they tell are pure fiction and they never really experienced whatever befell the characters in them. For example, June (the author) told a story of douens but she never saw one and Cecil surely never met a real diablesse. As well, the characters in the stories that the group tells are all fictitious and bear no resemblance to anyone extant. The stories come from the author’s imagination while using the folklore of Moruga as a framework upon which to flesh out the characters and the plots. As for the tale about the mermaid, that is the author’s own story. Indeed, the only mermaid she had ever heard anything about was the one from Hans Christian Andersen.

With the passage of time, it is possible that the oral tradition of storytelling may die out and important folklore may be lost. The author remembers the thrill and excitement of the story-telling sessions of her childhood and in her later years has decided to share her experiences.

In this second edition of Moruga Tales, two new tales have been added. The stories are printed in the order in which they were written so the reader may notice a change in narration style as the stories progress. The first two stories are written in the Trini dialect of the 1940's and are not too complicated. The later stories are basically in third person format with the dialect appearing when the characters speak. The last two were written after the publication of the original book and the author hopes that these will continue to grip your imagination. They are in a slightly different vein from the others and do not take place in Grand Chemin and environs (neither does Tale #9 where the setting is anywhere in Trinidad). Their locations, however, are still in the large area called Moruga.

Dim your lights, turn off the television, radio and computer, shut down the cell phone and take the landline off the hook. Light a candle and surround yourself in an aura of mystery. Now, remove yourself to a time and place remote from today’s hustle and bustle. Read, laugh and be entertained!