The Old Hermit and the Boy Who Couldn't Stop Laughing: An African Fable

Title

en_US The Old Hermit and the Boy Who Couldn't Stop Laughing: An African Fable

en_US African Fables for Children Series

Description

en_US This is a hardbound book (hard cover)

en_US K. Christopher Toussaint

Creator

en_US Toussaint, Kimani Christopher

Contributor

en_US Lassiter, Alphonso

Date

2016-01-25T20:11:13Z

en_US 2012-03

en_US 1999

Date Available

2016-01-25T20:11:13Z

Date Issued

en_US 1999

Abstract

en_US I am surprised not to have run into this book earlier. UAEF has a website that displays some five other books in this series. Their name has apparently changed to drop the previously included and scholarship between Educational and Foundation. In this book there is an identical list before and after this story of Future book publications in our African Fables for Children Series. Each list contains the same fourteen items, not including the present book. This book tells a story I had not heard before. A hermit with a huge head and a hobbled walk visited town one day, only to be laughed and mocked by a young boy named Osade. After trying to get away from the boy, the hermit laid a curse on him. The boy could not stop laughing. His parents were deeply concerned. They consulted a griot, a wise old storyteller with mysterious powers. He told them of an expensive set of rituals that would be required if they wanted to lift the boy's spell. Then one day the boy abruptly stopped laughing -- but now had a large misshapen head like that of the old hermit. The griot understood that the hermit himself had shifted the spell and went to the hermit to ask him to release young Osade from the spell. Meanwhile, Osade underwent a change of heart. Now he helped old people. One day Osade even came upon the old hermit in town. Now he no longer laughed at him. The tale comes, of all places, from the very territory in Africa in which I worked, Benin City in Nigeria. I will be looking for the other stories in the series.

Identifier

en_US 9781893811003

en_US 7704 (Access ID)

uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10504/82961

Language

en_US eng

Publisher

en_US The United African Educational (and Scholarship) Foundation

en_US Philadelphia, PA

Subject

en_US PZ8.1.T6215 Old 1999

en_US One story

en_US Title Page Scanned

Type

en_US Book, Whole