Happy December, everybody! After a month of focusing on the public domain, I'll now be sharing more recent books that you can find at the Internet Archive, starting with this absolute treasure trove of west African stories: Royal Antelope and Spider: West African Mende Tales by Marion Kilson, published in 1976 (and while that does not sound old to me, I need to keep reminding myself that it's almost 50 years ago...). The Internet Archive recently acquired a copy of this book, so now it is just a click away for all to read and enjoy.
You can read about the Mende people, who live mostly in Sierra Leone, at Wikipedia; Kilson collected these stories in Sierra Leone in 1959 and 1960. She then returned to Sierra Leone in 1976 and did additional field work at that time. This book is the product of the work she did on those two stays, and in addition to the stories she provides an overview of Mende culture with lots of detail about Mende storytelling traditions in the opening chapters of the book.
There are 100 stories in the book, including the Mende text for all the stories! Here is a list of links to the individual stories at Internet Archive: A Clever Man /
Chimpanzee and the Kola Nuts /
Hunter, His Wife and the Bushcows /
Hunter and His Adulterous Wife /
Kpana, His Wife, and a Bush Spirit /
Kpana, Wasp, and Snail /
Mr. Fonja and His Three Wives /
Spider and His Brother /
Spider, His Wife, and the Cassava /
Spider, His Wife, and Royal Antelope /
Spider and the Stick Woman /
A Jealous Husband /
The Watchman's Bride /
The Cock's Advice /
A Witch and Her Co-wife /
A Jealous Woman and Her Co-wife /
The Palm Oil Wife /
Gbelo and the Elephants /
Musa Wo and His Family /
Musa Wo and His Parents /
The Fledglings /
Jose, His Mother, and the Water Spirit /
A Sorrowful Mother's Reward /
A Dead Woman's Son /
Bushyma's Transformation /
A Young Wife's Disgrace /
A Disobedient Child /
A Coward and His Son /
A Hunter and His Son /
Spider and His Children /
Mase and Her Mother's Co-wife /
Three Brothers /
The Brothers' Pact /
Spider and His Mother-in-law's Plums /
Spider and His Mother-in-law's Cloth /
Spider and His Mother-in-law's Peanut /
Spider and His Mother-in-law's Stew /
Royal Antelope and the Chief /
Kpana and His Wife /
An Urchin and His Mother-in-law /
Royal Antelope and a Fighter /
Spider, Royal Antelope, and Teh Bananas /
Spider, Royal Antelope, and the Fish /
Spider, Royal Antelope, and the Baskets of Rice /
Leopard, Tiger, and Royal Antelope /
Cat and Leopard /
The Monkeys and Leopard /
Goat, Leopard, and Lion /
The Chief and the Turtle /
The Thief and His Apprentice /
Spider and the Chief /
The Rich Man and His Watchman /
Cats, Rats, and a Bell /
Royal Antelope, Chimpanzee, and Monkey /
Spider and the Provident Chief /
Kpana and the Elephants /
Royal Antelope and Leopard /
Giant Rat and Dog /
Royal Antelope, Elephant, and Hippopotamus /
The Palm Wine Tapper and the Palm Bird /
A Wise Man and a Little Child /
Spider, Frogs, and Nightingale /
Spider and Nightingale /
Spider and Bat /
Spider and Bat's Visit /
Spider and Monkey /
Spider and Maggot /
Spider and Star /
Spider and Chameleon /
Spider and Dog /
Spider and Chimpanzee /
Bushcat and Cock /
Fowl and Bushfowl /
Dog and Monitor Lizard /
Cat and Lizard /
Three Friends /
Fire and Bushcow /
Leopard and Dog /
Two Friends /
The Lazy Man and His Friend /
A Man Sells His Death /
Three Hunters /
Two Strong Friends /
A Quarrelsome Man /
The Mbembe Dance /
Dog and Fly /
Cat, Rats, and Mice /
The Man and the Bush Spirit /
Kpana and the Bush Spirit /
Kpana and the Bush Spirit's Pot /
The Palm Wine Tapper and the Spirit /
The Spirit's Golden Cup /
The Bush Spirit's Gifts /
The Spirits and the Young Women /
Kpaula and the Spirits /
The Twine and the Spirit /
The Twin, the Muslim, and the Spirit /
The Northern Man and the Spirit /
The Northern, the Spirit, and His Brother /
The Young Man and the Spirit.
Both the spider and the royal antelope are important trickster characters in the Mende storytelling tradition. Spider is a more reckless and greedy trickster, while Royal Antelope is a more careful planner with more moderate goals. People are generally aware of Spider as a trickster, but Royal Antelope is less well known. This species of antelope is the smallest of the African antelope, less than a foot high at the shoulder and weighing about 6 pounds, although the Southeast Asian mouse-deer is even smaller, weighing around 4 pounds. You can find out more at Wikipedia: Royal Antelope.
I've decided to render royal antelope in English as "mouse-deer" since that does a better job of conveying the animal's remarkably small size; "royal antelope" has all the wrong size connotations for people who are not already familiar with this fascinating animal. In one the Sierra Leone creoles, they call the royal antelope "cunnie rasbbit," as in the stories collected by Florence Cronise, but that's confusing because rabbit appears as a trickster in stories from all over Africa. You can find out more about Cronise's stories in this post: Cunnie Rabbit, Mr. Spider, and the Other Beef. You can see Spider and Royal Antelope on the cover here; the illustrations are by Gerald Sichel. I really like his anthropomorphic royal antelope here:
Kilson's book was one of the treasures of my personal collection, so I was super-excited to see it appear at the Internet Archive, just a click away thanks to the power of Controlled Digital Lending.
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