This story sounds wonderful, and I would love to know its source once you track it down. I am only familiar with a humorous version where Joha leaves a nail in the wall to claim sentimental property rights in a house so the trickster can continue to visit once the house has been sold: Joha's Nail appears in Folktales of Joha by Matilda Koen-Sarano and as Juha's Nail in Sheldon Oberman's Solomon and the Ant. Joha continues to visit, barging in to hang his coat, once even hanging a dead cat on the nail.
The most famous Lashon hara stories, of course, are the many variations of feathers loosed into the wind. There are also several stories where the weight of uttered words and it opposite, silence, matter and shape what happens next. (Thank you for the vote of confidence, Linda. The Joha version does appear in The Jewish Story Finder. I wish I knew the story Heather seeks.) Sharon Elswit --- Messages and opinions expressed on Hasafran are those of the individual author and are not necessarily endorsed by the Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL) =========================================================== Submissions for Ha-Safran, send to: hasaf...@osu.edu SUBscribing, SIGNOFF commands send to: Listproc @ lists.acs.ohio-state.edu Questions, problems, complaints, compliments;-) send to: galron.1 @ osu.edu Ha-Safran Archives: Current: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/maillist.html History: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/history.html AJL HomePage http://www.JewishLibraries.org
