Reading notes: Nigerian folk stories, reading A
This week, I read a collection of Nigerian folk stories, compiled by Elphinstone Dayrell. Many of them are origin stories that focus on specific traits or practices of animals — for example, why the worm lives underground or why the bat flies at night. The legends personify each of the animals mentioned, giving them human feelings and explanations for their behaviors or characteristics.
In the story about why the fish lives in water, the fish is introduced as a good friend of the leopard, who has a beautiful wife. When the leopard is away, the fish has sex with the leopard's wife. An old woman tells the leopard what's going on, and one night when he comes home unexpectedly, he catches the fish with his wife. Rather than killing the fish, the leopard decides to tell the king, who banishes the fish to live in the water.
Another story explains why worms live underground: One day, a group of ants decide to criticize worms as pitiful wriggling things, so the king tells them to face off to determine which is stronger. The ants use their pincers to cut apart the worms, and the ones that escape live underground in fear forever.
The story about the bat flying by night is an odd one, too: A bat shows a rat how he makes soup extra delicious by boiling himself in the broth for a little while. When the rat tries this, he dies, and the other animals around get angry with the bat and try to hunt him down, so he only flies at night from then on.
I think it'd be fun to play off of these stories with stories about other animal characteristics — why does an owl's head turn all the way around, or why do they have such big eyes, or why are they awake at night? How did a cheetah get its speed? These stories would be fun to tell in the style of Nigerian folk stories.
Story source: Folk Stories From Southern Nigeria by Elphinstone Dayrell (1910).
In the story about why the fish lives in water, the fish is introduced as a good friend of the leopard, who has a beautiful wife. When the leopard is away, the fish has sex with the leopard's wife. An old woman tells the leopard what's going on, and one night when he comes home unexpectedly, he catches the fish with his wife. Rather than killing the fish, the leopard decides to tell the king, who banishes the fish to live in the water.
Another story explains why worms live underground: One day, a group of ants decide to criticize worms as pitiful wriggling things, so the king tells them to face off to determine which is stronger. The ants use their pincers to cut apart the worms, and the ones that escape live underground in fear forever.
The story about the bat flying by night is an odd one, too: A bat shows a rat how he makes soup extra delicious by boiling himself in the broth for a little while. When the rat tries this, he dies, and the other animals around get angry with the bat and try to hunt him down, so he only flies at night from then on.
I think it'd be fun to play off of these stories with stories about other animal characteristics — why does an owl's head turn all the way around, or why do they have such big eyes, or why are they awake at night? How did a cheetah get its speed? These stories would be fun to tell in the style of Nigerian folk stories.
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| A leopardfish swims in a tank. Web source: Wikimedia Commons |
Story source: Folk Stories From Southern Nigeria by Elphinstone Dayrell (1910).
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