Folk Stories from Southern Nigeria, West Africa

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Dayrell Elphinstone. Folk Stories from Southern Nigeria, West Africa

INTRODUCTION

I. The Tortoise with a Pretty Daughter

II. How a Hunter obtained Money from his Friends the Leopard, Goat, Bush Cat, and Cock, and how he got out of repaying them

III. The Woman with Two Skins

IV. The King's Magic Drum

V. Ituen and the King's Wife

VI. Of the Pretty Stranger who Killed the King

VII. Why the Bat flies by Night

VIII. The Disobedient Daughter who Married a Skull

IX. The King who Married the Cock's Daughter

X. The Woman, the Ape, and the Child

XI. The Fish and the Leopard's Wife; or, Why the Fish lives in the Water

XII. Why the Bat is Ashamed to be seen in the Daytime

XIII. Why the Worms live Underneath the Ground

XIV. The Elephant and the Tortoise; or, Why the Worms are Blind and Why the Elephant has Small Eyes

XV. Why a Hawk kills Chickens

XVI. Why the Sun and the Moon live in the Sky

XVII. Why the Flies Bother the Cows

XVIII. Why the Cat kills Rats

XIX. The Story of the Lightning and the Thunder

XX. Why the Bush Cow and the Elephant are bad Friends

XXI. The Cock who caused a Fight between two Towns

XXII. The Affair of the Hippopotamus and the Tortoise; or, Why the Hippopotamus lives in the Water

XXIII. Why Dead People are Buried

XXIV. Of the Fat Woman who Melted Away

XXV. Concerning the Leopard, the Squirrel, and the Tortoise

XXVI. Why the Moon Waxes and Wanes

XXVII. The Story of the Leopard, the Tortoise, and the Bush Rat

XXVIII. The King and the Ju Ju Tree

XXIX. How the Tortoise overcame the Elephant and the Hippopotamus

XXX. Of the Pretty Girl and the Seven Jealous Women

XXXI. How the Cannibals drove the People from Insofan Mountain to the Cross River (Ikom)

XXXII. The Lucky Fisherman

XXXIII. The Orphan Boy and the Magic Stone

XXXIV. The Slave Girl who tried to Kill her Mistress

XXXV. The King and the 'Nsiat Bird

XXXVI. Concerning the Fate of Essido and his Evil Companions

XXXVII. Concerning the Hawk and the Owl

XXXVIII. The Story of the Drummer and the Alligators

XXXIX. The 'Nsasak Bird and the Odudu Bird

XL. The Election of the King Bird (the black-and-white Fishing Eagle)

Отрывок из книги

There was once a king who was very powerful. He had great influence over the wild beasts and animals. Now the tortoise was looked upon as the wisest of all beasts and men. This king had a son named Ekpenyon, to whom he gave fifty young girls as wives, but the prince did not like any of them. The king was very angry at this, and made a law that if any man had a daughter who was finer than the prince's wives, and who found favour in his son's eyes, the girl herself and her father and mother should be killed.

Now about this time the tortoise and his wife had a daughter who was very beautiful. The mother thought it was not safe to keep such a fine child, as the prince might fall in love with her, so she told her husband that her daughter ought to be killed and thrown away into the bush. The tortoise, however, was unwilling, and hid her until she was three years old. One day, when both the tortoise and his wife were away on their farm, the king's son happened to be hunting near their house, and saw a bird perched on the top of the fence round the house. The bird was watching the little girl, and was so entranced with her beauty that he did not notice the prince coming. The prince shot the bird with his bow and arrow, and it dropped inside the fence, so the prince sent his servant to gather it. While the servant was looking for the bird he came across the little girl, and was so struck with her form, that he immediately returned to his master and told him what he had seen. The prince then broke down the fence and found the child, and fell in love with her at once. He stayed and talked with her for a long time, until at last she agreed to become his wife. He then went home, but concealed from his father the fact that he had fallen in love with the beautiful daughter of the tortoise.

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When the day of trial arrived, Adiaha sat in a corner of the square, and nobody recognised the beautiful stranger as the spider's daughter. Her son then sat down next to her, and brought his sister with him. Immediately his mother saw her she said —

"This must be my daughter, whom I have long mourned as dead," and embraced her most affectionately.

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