African Fables

Title

en_US African Fables

en_US A Bookland Juvenile

Description

en_US This is a hardbound book (hard cover)

en_US This book has a dust jacket (book cover)

en_US Signed by Helen D. Palmer

en_US Helen D. Palmer

Creator

en_US Palmer, Helen D.

Contributor

en_US Cardin, Carol

Date

2016-01-25T19:28:49Z

en_US 2003-02

en_US 1995

Date Available

2016-01-25T19:28:49Z

Date Issued

en_US 1995

Abstract

en_US Thirty-seven fables on 72 pages, gathered from the author's twenty-eight years in Cameroon. These are fables: short and pointed. The tortoise and leopard are frequent characters. Once the leopard and the python each ask the tortoise to catch the other. He digs one pit, lures both into it, and then tells them to work it out! There are simple black-and-white illustrations for perhaps a dozen of the fables. Let me give some highlights here of these tales that are new to me. In The Parrot and the Elephant, the visitor elephant finds the parrot standing on one foot. Asked why, the parrot answers that he has given his foot to his children for luck in their hunting. They bring back lots of game, and everyone eats well. The elephant, having returned home and hosting the parrot as guest, has his children saw off his foot to use it for good luck in hunting. He bleeds so heavily that he dies. Cuique suum! In The Story of a Tortoise Who Fell in a Pitfall, a tortoise falls into a pit. When antelope comes by, tortoise tells him that there are a lot of beautiful girls in the pit. Antelope jumps in. Tortoise: You can never throw me out. Antelope throws tortoise out. Tortoise asks the antelope in the pit: Was the pit made for animals with claws or for animals with split hooves? When antelope says Split hooves, tortoise says that antelope better stay where he is. Tortoise goes his way. In The Leopard, the Tortoise, and the Antelope, leopard hides in tortoise's home. Tipped off, the latter does the traditional fable maneuver, inviting the hut to welcome him. In Zambe Nyamebe'e, tortoise is challenged to carry a basketfull of water and cleverly responds that he will need some ropes of smoke to do it. In How the Tortoise Married the Daughter of Zambe Nyamebe'e, a father challenges any suitor of his daughter to commit to dying when he dies. The tortoise accepts the condition and marries the daughter. He proclaims with everything he does that he never does the same thing twice. When the father dies, the tortoise manages to fall into his grave before it is completely dug. When the grave is finished and people want to throw him in, he proclaims that he will not do this thing twice either. In How the Bat Threw the Elephant in a Wrestling Match, the bat gets inside the elephant's trunk. The elephant tries to dislodge him by thrashing about. When that technique fails, the elephant falls down to the ground--perhaps to smash the trunk's contents against the ground. But by getting onto the ground he is already being thrown. In The Otter, the Leopard and the Turtledove, the turtledove overhears the father leopard's advice to his son to kill his playmate, a young otter, the next day. The turtledove goes to both children. To the otter he says When you hear my voice be on your guard. To the young leopard he says The otter may fear you. Listen to my voice and be ready. The next day, when the young leopard approaches the young otter, the turtledove cries out Creep up now. The statement satisfies his promise to both playmates.

Identifier

en_US 806250742

en_US 5078 (Access ID)

uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10504/80666

Language

en_US eng

Publisher

en_US Carlton Press Corp.

en_US New York

Subject

en_US GR350.P35 1995

en_US Title Page Scanned

Type

en_US Book, Whole