I have no real problem with Thai Superstitions, myths, folklore, and old wive’s tales, but my problem is not knowing all of these Thai stories since I am just a Farang.
And, since I am the foreigner, I have to learn these Thai superstitions by osmosis, Google, or the occasional explanation from my wife – usually after the fact.
When my wife was pregnant, she told me that it was bad luck to kill anything. Now, my wife is a good Thai Buddhist, so killing anything at anytime is bad. But, she does make exceptions for things like snakes and centipedes. But, not while with child. So, if I came across any critters, I had to scoop them up and toss them outside the yard. Kind of hard to do with a live, foot-long snake.
Now that Laela is home and my wife and mother-in-law are giving her the best of care, I am relegated to helper and heavy lifter. Thai women believe that only they know how to take care of babies and men are totally incapable of anything other than moving furniture around.
My complaint is trying to sleep with a new baby in the bedroom. The first couple of weeks, Laela would wake up, cry a little, and my wife would feed her and she would go back to sleep.
Lately, Laela is staying awake longer and crying more causing my wife to try harder to get her to sleep. She does this by moaning “UHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH” in a low growl. Over and over UHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.
This was OK the first couple of time I heard it. It was short lived and I figured it was one of those Thai superstitions, though I had no idea what.
After a few days of this moaning, we had a night that Laela didn’t want to go back to sleep and the moaning from my wife went on for about two hours. I didn’t know what was worse – Laela’s crying or my wife’s moaning. I couldn’t take it anymore, got up and confronted my wife and asked her what the hell she was doing.
She told me she was trying to get Laela back to sleep. I told her the moaning wasn’t working and why not sing a song or put one of the numerous CDs of lullabies that I made on. She told me she couldn’t and I went back and tried to sleep.
The following morning I had a “discussion” with my wife, and after we both had a few choice words for each other, she explained that what she was doing was to protect Laela from Pii Krasue – a Thai ghost.
Krasue is one of many Thai superstitions, but she is one of the meanest, baddest, rottenest ghosts in Thai folklore. She comes out at night, only has a head and entrails, and searches for babies.