Folk Tales and Fables

Title

en_US Folk Tales and Fables

en_US West African Series

Description

en_US Collected by Phebean Itayemi and P. Gurrey

Creator

en_US Gurrey, Percival (compiler) See all items with this value

Date

2016-01-25T19:38:47Z

en_US 1998-06

en_US 1953

Date Available

2016-01-25T19:38:47Z

Date Issued

en_US 1953

Abstract

en_US Unfortunately, I find no Aesopic fables here in the fifty-two stories that are offered. There is plenty of magic and incantation and trick in these stories. They are from various sources: Yoruba, Isoko, Gold Coast, and Sierra Leone. The introduction stresses that folk tales include jokes, puns, and songs. There are several propositions in the introduction that I may not easily be able to bring together, e.g., that these stories are for entertainment, not morality--but they portray a way of life and a tradition. The issues addressed by the stories include war, slavery, the separation from family that comes with war and slavery, discord in polygamy, childlessness, and famine. The closest to a fable may be #28. The tortoise fools his wife three times but not the fourth time. Another story close to a fable is #29: The tortoise steals yams in a coffin five times, but the sixth time people stop and punish him. Story #35 is really OF with an aetiological close. We learn why frogs say Oho and why they swell up.

Identifier

en_US 5546 (Access ID)

uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10504/81079

Language

en_US eng

Publisher

en_US Penguin Books

en_US London

Subject

en_US GR350.I8 1953 See all items with this value

en_US West African See all items with this value

en_US Title Page Scanned See all items with this value

Type

en_US Book, Whole