The Crane Wife is a fabulous old chinese story I think, about a man who saves a crane that has been wounded. Shortly after this a beautiful woman turns up on his doorstep. They marry. She has the ability to weave the most fantastic silk which the man sells and they become very rich. She only stipulates that he must never try to watch her weaving, but his curiosity gets the better of him and one nights he creeps up on her and sees that she is really a crane. She flies away and never returns.
And the reason for this story is that I have recently been listening to the Decemberists and I love their new album The Crane Wife.
