So, that brings me to today's book, which is a collection of folktales from southern Nigeria: Folk Stories from Southern Nigeria, West Africa by Elphinstone Dayrell, just a click away at the Internet Archive.
Dayrell was a colonial administrator in Nigeria in the early 20th century, and he published this book in 1910; he also published a collection of Ikom stories from Nigeria which I will write about tomorrow. This is an incredibly valuable collection of traditional stories and a real pleasure to read. The book contains 40 folktales; these links go directly to the page with that story: The Tortoise with a Pretty Daughter / How a Hunter obtained Money from his Friends the Leopard, Goat, Bush Cat, Cock, and how he got out of repaying them / The Woman with Two Skins / The King's Magic Drum / Ituen and the King's Wife / Of the Pretty Stranger who Killed the King / Why the Bat flies by Night / The Disobedient Daughter who Married a Skull / The King who Married the Cock's Daughter / The Woman, the Ape, and the Child / The Fish and the Leopard's Wife; or, Why the Fish lives in the Water / Why the Bat is Ashamed to be seen in the Daytime / Why the Worms Live Underneath the Ground / The Elephant and the Tortoise; or, Why the Worms are Blind and why the Elephant has Small Eyes / Why a Hawk kills Chickens / Why the Sun and the Moon live in the Sky / Why the Flies Bother the Cows / Why the Cat kills Rats / The Story of the Lightning and the Thunder / Why the Bush Cow and the Elephant are bad Friends / The Cock who caused a Fight between two Towns / The Affair of the Hippopotamus and the Tortoise; or, Why the Hippopotamus lives in the Water / Why Dead People are Buried / Of the Fat Woman who Melted Away / Concerning the Leopard, the Squirrel, and the Tortoise / Why the Moon Waxes and Wanes / The Story of the Leopard, the Tortoise, and the Bush Rat / The King and the Ju Ju Tree / How the Tortoise overcame the Elephant and the Hippopotamus / Of the Pretty Girl and the Seven Jealous Women / How the Cannibals drove the People from Insofan Mountain to the Cross River (Ikom) / The Lucky Fisherman / The Orphan Boy and the Magic Stone / The Slave Girl who tried to Kill her Mistress / The King and the 'Nsiat Bird / Concerning the Fate of Essido and his Evil Companions / Concerning the Hawk and the Owl / The Story of the Drummer and the Alligators / The 'Nsasak Bird and the Odudu Bird / The Election of the King Bird.
For my Public Domain project, I chose one of my favorite trickster tortoise stories from this book: The King's Magic Drum. Here's an audio recording I made too!
One of the great things about these old books of folktales have been used as sources of ideas and inspiration by modern writers, especially the authors of children's books. Here are two books which are inspired by stories found in Dayrell's book:
by Blair Lent
Here are Sun and Moon greeting Water:
And here is Water with all his family:
by Ashley Bryan
Here are Sheep Thunder and Ram Lightning:
And here is Ram Lightning causing trouble:
The book illustrated by Blair Lent was a Caldecott Honor book back in 1969; you can find out more about Lent's life and work at Wikipedia. You might recognize Ashley Bryan (and his distinctive style!) from many previous blog posts, most recently: The Dancing Granny. This link takes you to a page with all the Ashley Bryan books featured in this blog so far.
So, enjoy! You can take a look at these beautifully illustrated children's books if you want, or just plunge right in to all the stories in Dayrell's book:
by Elphinstone Dayrell
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