LAZY STORIES

Lazies are a favorite subject for oral occasions, and storyteller Wolkstein, who reports wide success with these three, appends tips on how to make the most of them. From Laos there is a beggar who goes even further than the one of Ginsburg's Russian Lazies (1973) who wouldn't chew his own food--this one simply lies open-mouthed under a fig tree waiting for the fruit to drop, but as fairy tale luck often has it he wins riches and the princess anyway. ""Hiroko"" is an odd little tale from Japan about mat fairies who turn toothpicks into inch-high Samurai to torment the wife who dropped them. Our favorite--the slothful but otherwise virtuous Mexican who is proved correct in his placid faith that ""If God wishes to give, He will give, even if He has to push it in through the window."" Worth the effort--and even the usually uniform Marshall bothers to vary the style of his nincompoops according to their nationality.