Tricksters. Cunnie Rabbit, Mr. Spider, and the Other Beef

For this week of royal antelope stories, today's book is an old and fascinating book of stories collected by a missionary in Sierra Leone: Cunnie Rabbit, Mr. Spider, and the Other Beef: West African Folk Tales. The "cunnie rabbit" or "cunning rabbit" is the royal antelope and, just as in yesterday's book, the book contains stories about the trickster spider too.

Florence Cronise, an American missionary, heard these stories told by Temne storytellers at a mission school in Rotifunk, Sierra Leone, where she was stationed from 1884-1889. She recorded the stories in the pidgin English of the storytellers, and Henry Ward then arranged 38 of the pidgin stories inside a frame tale written in literary English, much as Joel Chandler Harris did with his Uncle Remus books.

The artwork is by Gerard Sichel. Here is his depiction of "cunnie rabbit," the royal antelope:

Here you can see the antelope digging a well:

Because the stories are written in pidgin, it takes a while to get used to. Reading out loud helps, and you can also find a glossary in the back of the book. Probably the most important thing to keep in mind is that the pronouns are not gendered: "he" could refer to a a male character or a female character, depending on context.

Tomorrow I'll share a literary version based on Cronise's collection, but for now, I hope you will find this resource useful to learning about royal antelope stories from the Temne people of Sierra Leone.

Cunnie Rabbit, Mr. Spider, and the Other Beef:

West African Folk Tales

by Florence Cronise and Henry Ward