Chapter I: Front Matter

</pre>

Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Suzanne Shell, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)

FOLK STORIES

FROM

SOUTHERN NIGERIA

WEST AFRICA

BY

ELPHINSTONE DAYRELL, F.R.G.S., F.R.A.I.

DISTRICT COMMISSIONER, SOUTHERN NIGERIA

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY

ANDREW LANG

_WITH FRONTISPIECE_

LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO.

39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON

NEW YORK, BOMBAY, AND CALCUTTA

1910

* * * * *

CONTENTS

_Frontispiece from a Drawing in Colour by_ Major G. M. DE L. DAYRELL

PAGE

Introduction vii

I. The Tortoise with a Pretty Daughter 1

II. How a Hunter obtained Money from his Friends the Leopard, Goat, Bush Cat, and Cock, and how he got out of repaying them 6

III. The Woman with two Skins 11

IV. The King's Magic Drum 20

V. Ituen and the King's Wife 29

VI. Of the Pretty Stranger who Killed the King 33

VII. Why the Bat flies by Night 36

VIII. The Disobedient Daughter who Married a Skull 38

IX. The King who Married the Cock's Daughter 42

X. Concerning the Woman, the Ape, and the Child 46

XI. The Fish and The Leopard's Wife; or, Why the Fish lives in the Water 49

XII. Why the Bat is Ashamed to be seen in the Daytime 51

XIII. Why the Worms live Underneath the Ground 56

XIV. The Elephant and the Tortoise; or, Why the Worms are Blind and the Elephant has Small Eyes 58

XV. Why a Hawk kills Chickens 62

XVI. Why the Sun and the Moon live in the Sky 64

XVII. Why the Flies Bother the Cows 66

XVIII. Why the Cat kills Rats 68

XIX. The Story of the Lightning and the Thunder 70

XX. Why the Bush Cow and the Elephant are bad Friends 72

XXI. The Cock who caused a Fight between two Towns 76

XXII. The Affair of the Hippopotamus and the Tortoise; or, Why the Hippopotamus lives in the Water 79

XXIII. Why Dead People are Buried 81

XXIV. Of the Fat Woman who Melted Away 83

XXV. Concerning the Leopard, the Squirrel, and the Tortoise 86

XXVI. Why the Moon Waxes and Wanes 91

XXVII. The Story of the Leopard, the Tortoise, and the Bush Rat 93

XXVIII. The King and the Ju Ju Tree 98

XXIX. How the Tortoise overcame the Elephant and the Hippopotamus 104

XXX. Of the Pretty Girl and the Seven Jealous Women 107

XXXI. How the Cannibals drove the People from Insofan Mountain to the Cross River (Ikom) 115

XXXII. The Lucky Fisherman 119

XXXIII. The Orphan Boy and the Magic Stone 121

XXXIV. The Slave Girl who tried to Kill her Mistress 126

XXXV. The King and the 'Nsiat Bird 133

XXXVI. Concerning the Fate of Essido and his Evil Companions 135

XXXVII. Concerning the Hawk and the Owl 142

XXXVIII. The Story of the Drummer and the Alligators 145

XXXIX. The 'Nsasak Bird and the Odudu Bird 153

XL. The Election of the King Bird (the black-and-white Fishing Eagle) 156

* * * * *