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| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | ManElephant-utf8.txt | 1179 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 |
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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/77175-h/77175-h.htm b/77175-h/77175-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ed346ad --- /dev/null +++ b/77175-h/77175-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,2575 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML> +<!-- This HTML file has been automatically generated from an XML source on 2025-11-03T19:16:10Z using SAXON HE 9.9.1.8 . --> +<html lang="en"> +<head> +<title>The man elephant | Project Gutenberg</title> +<meta charset="utf-8"> +<meta name="generator" content="tei2html.xsl, see https://github.com/jhellingman/tei2html"> +<meta name="author" content="Hartwell James"> +<link rel="coverpage" href="images/front.jpg"> +<link rel="icon" href="images/front.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> +<meta name="DC.Title" content="The man elephant"> +<meta name="DC.Creator" content="Hartwell James"> +<meta name="DC.Contributor" content="John Rea Neill (1877–1943)"> +<meta name="DC.Language" content="en"> +<meta name="DC.Format" content="text/html"> +<meta name="DC.Publisher" content="Project Gutenberg"> +<style> /* <![CDATA[ */ +html { +line-height: 1.3; 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NEILL</span></div> +<div class="docImprint">PHILADELPHIA<br> +HENRY ALTEMUS COMPANY</div> +</div> +<p><span class="pageNum" id="xd33e143">[<a href="#xd33e143">4</a>]</span></p> +<div class="div1 advertisement"><span class="pageNum">[<a title="Go to the table of contents" href="#toc">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> +<h2 class="main">Altemus’<br> +Illustrated<br> +Fairy Tales Series</h2> +</div> +<div class="divBody"> +<p class="first"><a class="pglink xd33e45" title="Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/37708">The Magic Bed</a> +<br><span class="indentxd33e155"></span>A Book of East Indian Tales +</p> +<p>The Cat and the Mouse +<br><span class="indentxd33e159"></span>A Book of Persian Tales +</p> +<p>The Jeweled Sea +<br><span class="indentxd33e163"></span>A Book of Chinese Tales +</p> +<p>The Magic Jaw Bone +<br><span class="indentxd33e167"></span>A Book of South Sea Islands Tales +</p> +<p>The Man Elephant +<br><span class="indentxd33e171"></span>A Book of African Tales +</p> +<p><a class="pglink xd33e45" title="Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/27952">The Enchanted Castle</a> +<br><span class="indentxd33e177"></span>A Book of Tales from Flower Land +</p> +<p class="center">Fifty Cents Each +</p> +<p class="center small">Copyright, 1906<br> +By Henry Altemus +<span class="pageNum" id="xd33e185">[<a href="#xd33e185">5</a>]</span></p> +</div> +</div> +<div class="div1 introduction"><span class="pageNum">[<a title="Go to the table of contents" href="#toc">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> +<div class="figure"><img src="images/p-v.png" alt="INTRODUCTION" width="720" height="447"></div> +<h2 class="main orange">INTRODUCTION</h2> +</div> +<div class="divBody"> +<p class="first">A series of fairy tales from different countries would be incomplete without a book +of stories from Africa, which for many years was called the “Dark Continent.” +</p> +<p>We are very largely indebted to travelers, explorers, and missionaries for African +legends and stories. Those in this book were told to them by the natives themselves +in dark and gloomy forests, and by the great, brown rivers of that wonderful land. +They are not so much about princes and princesses as are the fairy tales of other +countries, but are more about animals—elephants, and lions, and jackals. +</p> +<p>There is plenty of magic in these stories, however. <span class="pageNum" id="xd33e193">[<a href="#xd33e193">6</a>]</span>Ramil, the witch mother, used it on her elephant son; the hunter’s wife in “The Master +Weaver” rubbed a stronger magic “medicine” on her husband’s spear than he had been +using, and so had her way about things; and The Flying Lion never would have lost +the power of using his wings if the beautiful girl with red flowers in her hair and +a gold bracelet on her arm had not learned how to make an invisible robe for herself. +“King Mungo” is a very funny story, and in “Uncle Lion” we are told how the phrase +“taking the lion’s share” originated. All of these tales are extremely interesting. +</p> +<p>The borders and other decorations in the book will be of great interest to young people, +for they represent musical instruments, headdresses, war clubs, war drums, spears, +belts, idols, and other rude objects used by African tribes hundreds of years ago. +</p> +<p class="signed">H. J. +<span class="pageNum" id="xd33e198">[<a href="#xd33e198">7</a>]</span></p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="toc" class="div1 contents"><span class="pageNum">[<a title="Go to the table of contents" href="#toc">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> +<div class="figure"><img src="images/p-vii-1.png" alt="CONTENTS" width="720" height="442"></div> +<h2 class="main orange">CONTENTS</h2> +<table class="tocList"> +<tr> +<td class="tocDivNum"></td> +<td class="tocDivTitle"><a href="#ch1" id="xd33e204">The Man Elephant</a> </td> +<td class="tocPageNum">13</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tocDivNum"></td> +<td class="tocDivTitle"><a href="#ch2" id="xd33e210">The Master Weaver</a> </td> +<td class="tocPageNum">39</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tocDivNum"></td> +<td class="tocDivTitle"><a href="#ch3" id="xd33e216">The Flying Lion</a> </td> +<td class="tocPageNum">53</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tocDivNum"></td> +<td class="tocDivTitle"><a href="#ch4" id="xd33e222">King Mungo</a> </td> +<td class="tocPageNum">75</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tocDivNum"></td> +<td class="tocDivTitle"><a href="#ch5" id="xd33e228">Uncle Lion</a> </td> +<td class="tocPageNum">91</td> +</tr> +</table> +</div> +<div class="divBody"> +<p></p> +<div class="figure p-vii-2width"><img src="images/p-vii-2.png" alt="" data-role="presentation" width="199" height="245"></div><p> +<span class="pageNum" id="xd33e236">[<a href="#xd33e236">8</a>]</span> +</p> +<p></p> +<div class="figure p-viiiwidth"><img src="images/p-viii.png" alt="" data-role="presentation" width="111" height="264"></div><p> +<span class="pageNum" id="xd33e242">[<a href="#xd33e242">9</a>]</span></p> +</div> +</div> +<div class="div1 last-child contents"><span class="pageNum">[<a title="Go to the table of contents" href="#toc">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> +<div class="figure"><img src="images/p-ix.png" alt="LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS" width="720" height="447"></div> +<h2 class="main orange">LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> +<table class="tocList"> +<tr> +<td class="tocDivNum"></td> +<td class="tocDivTitle"> </td> +<td class="tocPageNum xs">Page</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tocDivNum"></td> +<td class="tocDivTitle"><a href="#p-ii">“ ‘Let me go with you and hunt the elephant’ ”</a> </td> +<td class="tocPageNum">Frontispiece</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tocDivNum"></td> +<td class="tocDivTitle"><a href="#p015">“Led her on to talk of the river”</a> </td> +<td class="tocPageNum">15</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tocDivNum"></td> +<td class="tocDivTitle"><a href="#p019">“He was twelve feet high as she had said”</a> </td> +<td class="tocPageNum">19</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tocDivNum"></td> +<td class="tocDivTitle"><a href="#p023">“ ‘I want them all cooked’ ”</a> </td> +<td class="tocPageNum">23</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tocDivNum"></td> +<td class="tocDivTitle"><a href="#p025">“ ‘Save me from the elephant!’ ”</a> </td> +<td class="tocPageNum">25</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tocDivNum"></td> +<td class="tocDivTitle"><a href="#p026">“How she did have to work”</a> </td> +<td class="tocPageNum">26</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tocDivNum"></td> +<td class="tocDivTitle"><a href="#p028">“Put her right up on top of a tree”</a> </td> +<td class="tocPageNum">28</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tocDivNum"></td> +<td class="tocDivTitle"><a href="#p029">“He sniffed suspiciously around the hut”</a> </td> +<td class="tocPageNum">29</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tocDivNum"></td> +<td class="tocDivTitle"><a href="#p031">“Parle remembered a spell”</a> </td> +<td class="tocPageNum">31</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tocDivNum"></td> +<td class="tocDivTitle"><a href="#p038">“He saw a spider making a net”</a> </td> +<td class="tocPageNum">38</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tocDivNum"></td> +<td class="tocDivTitle"><a href="#p042">“Malla was a great hunter”</a> </td> +<td class="tocPageNum">42</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tocDivNum"></td> +<td class="tocDivTitle"><a href="#p043">“The bush-cow rushed furiously upon him”</a> </td> +<td class="tocPageNum">43</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tocDivNum"></td> +<td class="tocDivTitle"><a href="#p045">“A kind of coarse cloth made of bark”</a> </td> +<td class="tocPageNum">45</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tocDivNum"></td> +<td class="tocDivTitle"><a href="#p046">“All the other women envied her”</a> </td> +<td class="tocPageNum">46</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tocDivNum"></td> +<td class="tocDivTitle"><a href="#p047">“ ‘He taught me all I know’ ”</a> </td> +<td class="tocPageNum">47</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tocDivNum"></td> +<td class="tocDivTitle"><a href="#p052">“Lighted by fire-flies and glow-worms”</a> <span class="pageNum" id="xd33e348">[<a href="#xd33e348">10</a>]</span></td> +<td class="tocPageNum">52</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tocDivNum"></td> +<td class="tocDivTitle"><a href="#p055">“The Flying Lion was a terrible beast”</a> </td> +<td class="tocPageNum">55</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tocDivNum"></td> +<td class="tocDivTitle"><a href="#p059">“ ‘There is some secret about his wings’ ”</a> </td> +<td class="tocPageNum">59</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tocDivNum"></td> +<td class="tocDivTitle"><a href="#p061">“Sometimes she had to creep over fallen trees”</a> </td> +<td class="tocPageNum">61</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tocDivNum"></td> +<td class="tocDivTitle"><a href="#p063">“ ‘Human beings are queer creatures’ ”</a> </td> +<td class="tocPageNum">63</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tocDivNum"></td> +<td class="tocDivTitle"><a href="#p065">“The Great Frog was sunning himself”</a> </td> +<td class="tocPageNum">65</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tocDivNum"></td> +<td class="tocDivTitle"><a href="#p067">“ ‘Nothing would give me more pleasure’ ”</a> </td> +<td class="tocPageNum">67</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tocDivNum"></td> +<td class="tocDivTitle"><a href="#p068">“The frog was too quick for him”</a> </td> +<td class="tocPageNum">68</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tocDivNum"></td> +<td class="tocDivTitle"><a href="#p074">“The largest was an elephant”</a> </td> +<td class="tocPageNum">74</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tocDivNum"></td> +<td class="tocDivTitle"><a href="#p076">“Swing himself from one branch to another”</a> </td> +<td class="tocPageNum">76</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tocDivNum"></td> +<td class="tocDivTitle"><a href="#p077">“They lived in peace and harmony”</a> </td> +<td class="tocPageNum">77</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tocDivNum"></td> +<td class="tocDivTitle"><a href="#p079">“A piece of cloth with six holes in it”</a> </td> +<td class="tocPageNum">79</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tocDivNum"></td> +<td class="tocDivTitle"><a href="#p081">“Pulled out his thimble and thread”</a> </td> +<td class="tocPageNum">81</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tocDivNum"></td> +<td class="tocDivTitle"><a href="#p083">“ ‘Here, dog, bite the cat’ ”</a> </td> +<td class="tocPageNum">83</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tocDivNum"></td> +<td class="tocDivTitle"><a href="#p085">“Had to go on all fours”</a> </td> +<td class="tocPageNum">85</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tocDivNum"></td> +<td class="tocDivTitle"><a href="#p090">“ ‘I am glad to see you, Kanja’ ”</a> </td> +<td class="tocPageNum">90</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tocDivNum"></td> +<td class="tocDivTitle"><a href="#p092">“ ‘What is your idea of the lion’s share?’ ”</a> </td> +<td class="tocPageNum">92</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tocDivNum"></td> +<td class="tocDivTitle"><a href="#p093">“ ‘What seems to be the matter?’ ”</a> </td> +<td class="tocPageNum">93</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tocDivNum"></td> +<td class="tocDivTitle"><a href="#p096">“They rushed on and on”</a> </td> +<td class="tocPageNum">96</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tocDivNum"></td> +<td class="tocDivTitle"><a href="#p097">“ ‘His skin will make a nice cloak’ ”</a> </td> +<td class="tocPageNum">97</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tocDivNum"></td> +<td class="tocDivTitle"><a href="#p099">“ ‘They are no more your fish than mine’ ”</a> </td> +<td class="tocPageNum">99</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tocDivNum"></td> +<td class="tocDivTitle"><a href="#p102">“ ‘Are you sure you laid perfectly still?’ ”</a> </td> +<td class="tocPageNum">102</td> +</tr> +</table> +<p><span class="pageNum" id="xd33e477">[<a href="#xd33e477">11</a>]</span></p> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="body"> +<div class="div1 chapter"><span class="pageNum">[<a title="Go to the table of contents" href="#toc">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> +<h2 class="main">THE MAN ELEPHANT</h2> +</div> +<div class="divBody"> +<p class="first"></p> +<div class="figure p011width"><img src="images/p011.png" alt="" data-role="presentation" width="241" height="297"></div><p> +<span class="pageNum" id="xd33e484">[<a href="#xd33e484">12</a>]</span></p> +<p></p> +<div class="figure p012width"><img src="images/p012.png" alt="" data-role="presentation" width="115" height="135"></div><p> +<span class="pageNum" id="xd33e489">[<a href="#xd33e489">13</a>]</span></p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="ch1" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pageNum">[<a title="Go to the table of contents" href="#xd33e204">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> +<div class="figure"><img src="images/p013.png" alt="FAIRY TALES FROM AFRICA" width="720" height="455"></div> +<h2 class="super orange">FAIRY TALES FROM AFRICA</h2> +<h2 class="main">The Man Elephant</h2> +<div class="argument orange center"> +<p class="first">Parle deserved a better husband than the Man Elephant, but one of Ramil’s spells, +happily remembered, clears up the situation; and Lomi, by inference, cooks his own +fish.</p> +</div> +</div> +<div class="divBody"> +<div class="figure floatLeft"><img src="images/initial-p.png" alt="P" width="251" height="255"></div> +<p class="first">arle was a very pretty girl who lived with her father and mother and two brothers +in a hut by the side of an African river. +</p> +<p>It was not a pleasant river at all, for it was brown in color, and flowed through +a dark and gloomy forest of great trees and closely woven vines. There were crocodiles, +<span class="pageNum" id="xd33e500">[<a href="#xd33e500">14</a>]</span>too, in the ugly black river, and Parle was afraid to bathe in it. +</p> +<p>Although one would hardly believe it, Parle grew up very happily in this little clearing +by the river, and never had a real grief until her two brothers left home to go hunting, +and would not take her with them. +</p> +<p>“You will see the moon rise and set many times before we come back,” they said, “but +when we come, we will find you a good husband, and we will dance merrily at your wedding.” +</p> +<p>“Let me go with you, and hunt the elephant,” she pleaded. “I don’t want a husband; +I want to go with you.” +</p> +<p>“The cooking-pot is better than the spear for girls,” said the older brother decidedly, +“and you must stay at home.” +</p> +<p>“But I want to go so much,” still pleaded the girl, “for you may find the great river +Ramil has told us about so often.” +</p> +<p>“What river is that?” they asked. +</p> +<p>“Why Ramil says the first men who were <span class="pageNum" id="xd33e511">[<a href="#xd33e511">15</a>]</span>ever made, lived by the side of a great river—up there,” she answered, pointing vaguely +towards the north. +</p> +<p></p> +<div class="figure p015width" id="p015"><img src="images/p015.png" alt="Led her on to talk of the river" width="720" height="548"></div><p> +</p> +<p>“She says the men were all black; but some of them swam across to the other side, +and the water washed them white. Since then the white men are always stretching out +their hands and calling to the blacks to come across to them.” +<span class="pageNum" id="xd33e519">[<a href="#xd33e519">16</a>]</span></p> +<p>“Oh, that Ramil is full of silly stories,” said the older brother. “I don’t believe +them.” +</p> +<p>“But the white men do come from over there,” persisted Parle, gazing northward as +if she could see the river in the distance. “I should like to swim across and be washed +white, too!” +</p> +<p>The younger brother thought this the most foolish speech he had ever heard. “Well,” +he said, “there is no accounting for some people’s tastes!” +</p> +<p>Then the brothers rubbed their spears with some kind of grease which they believed +would kill elephants, and as they did so they sang: +</p> +<div class="lgouter"> +<p class="line">“When mine enemy thou shalt see, +</p> +<p class="line">Black and tall like an ebony-tree, +</p> +<p class="line">Sing softly, softly, little spear, +</p> +<p class="line">As to his heart thou drawest near.”</p> +</div> +<p class="first">Early the next morning the two brothers started on the expedition, leaving their sister +behind. In her loneliness, she visited the witch-doctress, Ramil, oftener than she +had ever done before, and led her <span class="pageNum" id="xd33e531">[<a href="#xd33e531">17</a>]</span>on to talk of the river far away beyond the forest, and the white men on the other +side of it. +</p> +<p>“The best thing for you to do,” said Ramil, “that is, if you really want to go there, +is to marry my son. Then he can carry you on his back through the forest.” +</p> +<p>“I should be too heavy,” said Parle, shaking her pretty head; “and besides, I don’t +want to marry anyone.” +</p> +<p>“You could not be too heavy for my son,” replied the witch. “His legs are as thick +as tree-trunks, and he stands twelve feet high at least. +</p> +<p>“As for not wanting a husband,” continued Ramil; “that is what all girls say, but +they don’t mean it.” +</p> +<p>“I wouldn’t want to marry a giant,” said Parle. +</p> +<p>“Oh, he isn’t a giant. He is—but never mind—wait till you see him,” replied Ramil +mysteriously, for she was determined to marry Parle to her son, if possible. +</p> +<p>So that evening, when the moon was shining softly through the trees, she stole away +to the place <span class="pageNum" id="xd33e542">[<a href="#xd33e542">18</a>]</span>where her son was usually to be found at night, and by and by she came across him +at the edge of a swamp, where he had been rolling about in the muddy water. +</p> +<p>He was twelve feet high, and had legs like tree-trunks, as she had said; for Ramil’s +son was nothing more nor less than a big black elephant, and that very day he had +nearly been killed by Parle’s brothers. +</p> +<p>“What do you want of me now, little mother?” he asked, rubbing himself gently against +a tree. +</p> +<p>“It is time you had a wife,” she replied. “I have found the prettiest little wife +for you, but she will never consent to marry an elephant. You will have to let me +turn you into a bushman for a little while.” +</p> +<p>“How will you do it? and why is it necessary?” asked her son suspiciously. You see, +he knew his mother was a witch. +</p> +<p>“If you eat one of these,” replied his mother, showing him some leaves she had picked +on her way through the forest, “you will become a handsome <span class="pageNum" id="xd33e550">[<a href="#xd33e550">21</a>]</span>young bushman, who can woo the girl and marry her. +<span class="pageNum" id="xd33e552">[<a href="#xd33e552">19</a>]</span></p> +<p></p> +<div class="figure p019width" id="p019"><img src="images/p019.png" alt="He was twelve feet high as she had said" width="508" height="720"></div><p> +<span class="pageNum" id="xd33e557">[<a href="#xd33e557">21</a>]</span></p> +<p>“Then when you have carried off your bride, you can eat another leaf, and then you +will be changed into an elephant again.” +</p> +<p>“Can she cook fish and make cakes?” asked the elephant; “and is she really a pretty +girl, my mother?” +</p> +<p>“Indeed she is pretty,” said Ramil, noticing that her son’s eyes twinkled. “She is +as sweet as the wild mango blossoms when they fall to the ground in the spring. +</p> +<p>“And as to her cooking,” she went on; “I have tasted her baked fish and her broth.” +And Ramil rolled her eyes, remembering how good they had been, and pleased to see +a look of satisfaction stealing over her son’s face. +</p> +<p>“I do get so tired of plantain leaves,” said the elephant plaintively. +</p> +<p>“No wonder. That’s because your mother wasn’t an elephant. Well, she will need a big +<span class="pageNum" id="xd33e566">[<a href="#xd33e566">22</a>]</span>cooking-pot! One baked fish will never satisfy you.” +</p> +<p>So Ramil persuaded her son to eat one of the leaves, and as soon as he had done it +his four legs became two, and his clumsy body changed into that of a tall, well-made +young bushman. +</p> +<p>Then he took a spear in his hand and went with his mother to the door of Parle’s hut, +who thought he was the handsomest young man she had ever seen. +</p> +<p>“But you said he was twelve feet high, and that his legs were like tree-trunks,” she +cried. +</p> +<p>And the cunning old woman answered, “That was because he was under a spell. He is +cured now.” So Parle promised to be his wife, and after they were married he took +her away with him into the forest. +</p> +<p>But they did not travel north as he had promised, towards the great river which washed +black people white. Instead, they went south, always south, towards the plains where +the elephant hunters were <span class="pageNum" id="xd33e574">[<a href="#xd33e574">23</a>]</span>few, and where her husband thought he might live in peace with his wife. +</p> +<p></p> +<div class="figure p023width" id="p023"><img src="images/p023.png" alt="‘I want them all cooked’" width="720" height="457"></div><p> +</p> +<p>By and by they came to a beautiful country covered with green grass and flowers, for +it was early spring, and there he built her a hut. “Now I will go fishing,” he said, +“and you shall cook my supper when I come back.” +</p> +<p>When he came back, he brought with him thirty fish; and when Parle saw them, she said, +“three would have been enough.” +<span class="pageNum" id="xd33e584">[<a href="#xd33e584">24</a>]</span></p> +<p>“I want them all cooked,” replied her husband. “Thirty will not be too many.” +</p> +<p>“But see how large they are!” insisted his wife. +</p> +<p>“That makes no difference. Do as I tell you!” he answered sternly. +</p> +<p>So Parle began to cook them, while her husband went behind the hut and ate the second +leaf his mother had given him. +</p> +<p>And as soon as he had done this, his nose grew into a trunk and his teeth into tusks, +while his body changed into that of a huge elephant, standing four feet above the +roof! +</p> +<p>Parle looked up from her cooking and gave a scream. “Oh, Lomi! Lomi!” she called out. +“Save me from the elephant!” +</p> +<p>“I am Lomi, your husband,” he replied, talking to her across the roof of the hut. +“Don’t be frightened.” +</p> +<p>“But I am frightened!” cried the poor girl, crouching on the ground and holding her +face in her hands, while her husband told her the story of the trick he had played +on her. +<span class="pageNum" id="xd33e594">[<a href="#xd33e594">25</a>]</span></p> +<p>“Now all you have to do is to please me,” he went on, “or it will be the worse for +you. +</p> +<p></p> +<div class="figure p025width" id="p025"><img src="images/p025.png" alt="‘Save me from the elephant!’" width="720" height="418"></div><p> +</p> +<p>“I am tired of elephant food, and want broth, baked meat, plenty of fish, and all +the good things bushmen eat. I will go and hunt for them, and it will be your business +to see that they are properly cooked.” +</p> +<p>So poor Parle had to cook from morning until night to satisfy her husband’s appetite. +He brought home springbok and gemsbok—small deer <span class="pageNum" id="xd33e604">[<a href="#xd33e604">26</a>]</span>which roamed about the plains—and she made broths and stews of them, as her mother +had taught her. +</p> +<p></p> +<div class="figure p026width" id="p026"><img src="images/p026.png" alt="How she did have to work" width="720" height="518"></div><p> +</p> +<p>How she did have to work! Instead of running out in the morning to gather flowers, +she had to go fishing, or to collect eggs to put into the soups. She grew so ill and +thin that none would have known her for the same pretty girl who had left home with +the young bushman. +<span class="pageNum" id="xd33e612">[<a href="#xd33e612">27</a>]</span></p> +<p>But every day, when she came out of her hut, she shaded her eyes from the sun, and +looked across the plain to see if there were any travelers coming from the north. +“Some day my brothers may find me,” she thought. +</p> +<p>So the days went on until one morning her husband’s breakfast did not please him, +and he was so angry that he snatched her up in his trunk and put her right up on top +of a tree which grew near the hut. “You shall stay there until I come back,” he said. +</p> +<p>It was not much of a punishment, and his wife did not mind it at all, for it was rather +pleasant than otherwise. There was no cooking to be done up there, and she could see +much farther over the plain from the top of the tree. +</p> +<p>So Parle looked and looked, always to the north, all the morning, but in vain. At +last, about noon, two black dots appeared on the line where the plain met the sky, +and Parle forgot how hungry she was as she watched the dots grow larger and larger. +</p> +<p>“I wonder if they are lions,” she thought. “No, <span class="pageNum" id="xd33e619">[<a href="#xd33e619">28</a>]</span>they are men!” she cried aloud. In an hour she could see that they were bushmen, coming +swiftly across the plains; and in a little while she recognized her brothers, who +had traveled all this way to find her and hear if she was happy. +</p> +<p></p> +<div class="figure p028width" id="p028"><img src="images/p028.png" alt="Put her right up on top of a tree" width="720" height="507"></div><p> +</p> +<p>It did not take long for the oldest brother to climb the tree and bring her down. +And then how glad they were to see each other! Parle cooked <span class="pageNum" id="xd33e628">[<a href="#xd33e628">29</a>]</span>them some food and while they were eating it she told them how unhappy she was, and +made them promise to take her away. +</p> +<p>Then they planned how to get away. “We must wait until night, or Lomi will catch us,” +she told them. “I will hide you until it is safe to start.” +</p> +<p></p> +<div class="figure p029width" id="p029"><img src="images/p029.png" alt="He sniffed suspiciously around the hut" width="720" height="406"></div><p> +</p> +<p>There was a raised wooden platform behind the hut, and underneath it Parle kept firewood, +rugs to sleep on, and all kinds of things for which there was not room in the hut. +So she stowed away her brothers in there; and when Lomi came home, <span class="pageNum" id="xd33e637">[<a href="#xd33e637">30</a>]</span>although he sniffed suspiciously around the hut, he did not catch a glimpse of them. +</p> +<p>Then at midnight when Lomi was fast asleep, his wife roused her brothers, and they +prepared to leave. “We are going to kill the elephant,” whispered the older brother. +</p> +<p>“Indeed, you must not,” replied Parle decidedly. +</p> +<p>“If you won’t let us kill the elephant, you must let us take his cattle, at least,” +said the younger brother. +</p> +<p>So they set out, driving the cattle before them; but Parle left behind one cow, one +sheep, and one goat, telling them to make as much noise as they could during the night. +</p> +<p>Lomi waked several times after they had gone, but when he heard the noises the cow, +the goat, and the sheep made, he concluded that all his cattle were safe, and went +to sleep again each time. +</p> +<p>Early in the morning he found out his mistake, but by this time Parle and her brothers +were far away across the plain. Soon he was in pursuit of them, and how fast he did +tear over the ground! +<span class="pageNum" id="xd33e646">[<a href="#xd33e646">31</a>]</span></p> +<p></p> +<div class="figure p031width" id="p031"><img src="images/p031.png" alt="Parle remembered a spell" width="509" height="720"></div><p> +<span class="pageNum" id="xd33e652">[<a href="#xd33e652">33</a>]</span></p> +<p>Driving the cattle before them, Parle and her brothers flew on and on; but the terrible +elephant got over the ground much more quickly than they could, and at last was only +a half a mile away. +</p> +<p>And as if to make it worse, right ahead of them were great rocks, too steep to climb, +and so high they seemed to touch the sky. Then they gave themselves up for lost. +</p> +<p>But just then Parle remembered a spell which Ramil, the witch, had taught her, and +cried out: +</p> +<div class="lgouter"> +<p class="line">“By the lilies which grow +</p> +<p class="line xd33e658">On the still lagoon, +</p> +<p class="line">All silver-white +</p> +<p class="line xd33e658">Under the moon, +</p> +<p class="line">Stone of my fathers, +</p> +<p class="line xd33e658">Divide! Divide! +</p> +<p class="line">Let us pass through +</p> +<p class="line xd33e658">To the other side.”</p> +</div> +<p class="first">As the words ceased, the rocks opened, and Parle with her brothers and the cattle +went safely through. +<span class="pageNum" id="xd33e671">[<a href="#xd33e671">34</a>]</span></p> +<p>And how angry Lomi was when he saw the rocks close behind them! +</p> +<p>On the other side there was a beautiful lagoon shining in the silvery moonlight, with +white lilies floating on the water, and it looked so beautiful that Parle ran, with +a cry of joy, to bathe her face and hands in it. +</p> +<p>“I wonder if Ramil’s spell brought it here? Or was it here all the time?” she cried +in bewilderment. +</p> +<p>So Parle and her brothers rested there for a time, and then went on again to try and +find the river of which Ramil had told them so often. It would be nice to know whether +they found it or not, and were washed white in its waters, but you will have to decide +that for yourselves. +</p> +<p>There is one thing quite sure, however, and that is, Lomi never saw Parle again, which +served him quite right. +<span class="pageNum" id="xd33e678">[<a href="#xd33e678">35</a>]</span></p> +</div> +</div> +<div class="div1 chapter"><span class="pageNum">[<a title="Go to the table of contents" href="#toc">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> +<h2 class="main">THE MASTER WEAVER</h2> +</div> +<div class="divBody"> +<p class="first"></p> +<div class="figure p035width"><img src="images/p035.png" alt="" data-role="presentation" width="295" height="239"></div><p> +<span class="pageNum" id="xd33e684">[<a href="#xd33e684">36</a>]</span></p> +<p></p> +<div class="figure p036width"><img src="images/p036.png" alt="" data-role="presentation" width="132" height="177"></div><p> +<span class="pageNum" id="xd33e688">[<a href="#xd33e688">37</a>]</span></p> +<p></p> +<div class="figure p037width"><img src="images/p037.png" alt="" data-role="presentation" width="252" height="356"></div><p> +<span class="pageNum" id="xd33e692">[<a href="#xd33e692">38</a>]</span></p> +<p></p> +<div class="figure p038width" id="p038"><img src="images/p038.png" alt="He saw a spider making a net" width="508" height="720"></div><p> +<span class="pageNum" id="xd33e697">[<a href="#xd33e697">39</a>]</span></p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="ch2" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pageNum">[<a title="Go to the table of contents" href="#xd33e210">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> +<div class="figure"><img src="images/p013.png" alt="FAIRY TALES FROM AFRICA" width="720" height="455"></div> +<h2 class="super orange">FAIRY TALES FROM AFRICA</h2> +<h2 class="main">The Master Weaver</h2> +<div class="argument orange center"> +<p class="first">It is unwise to change the medicine on one’s husband’s spear, as Sassa found out to +her sorrow. Still, she acquired a much handsomer frock as a resultant occurrence.</p> +</div> +</div> +<div class="divBody"> +<div class="figure floatLeft"><img src="images/initial-u.png" alt="U" width="251" height="256"></div> +<p class="first">ntil he married Sassa, Malla was a great hunter—the greatest in his tribe, for he +never failed to bring home game when he went hunting in the bush. +</p> +<p>Malla used to put medicine on his spear—at least that is what he called it—but it +<span class="pageNum" id="xd33e708">[<a href="#xd33e708">40</a>]</span>was only a kind of grease, and then he would hold up his spear in front of him and +say: +</p> +<div class="lgouter"> +<p class="line">“Kill, kill, spear of mine, +</p> +<p class="line">Earth-pig and porcupine, +</p> +<p class="line">Bush-cow and bush-deer, +</p> +<p class="line">Kill, kill, little spear.”</p> +</div> +<p class="first">It was very odd, but after he married Sassa, his spear was always getting fast in +the trees, or gliding past the bush-cows without touching them. The fact was, Sassa +did not want him to go hunting, and as she knew a better charm than his, she rubbed +a different medicine onto the spear after he had finished with it. And this is what +she would say: +</p> +<div class="lgouter"> +<p class="line">“Bush-deer and bush-cow, +</p> +<p class="line">Say, who shall hurt you now? +</p> +<p class="line">By my spell you shall be +</p> +<p class="line">Safe and free, safe and free.”</p> +</div> +<p class="first">Malla did not know this, of course, and one day he went out after a big, savage bush-cow. +He threw his spear as skilfully as usual, but it passed <span class="pageNum" id="xd33e723">[<a href="#xd33e723">41</a>]</span>through the animal’s horns and struck a tree. Then the bush-cow rushed furiously upon +him, and gored him, injuring him so much that he could hardly creep home. +</p> +<p>As he lay in his hut, in great pain, his friends found out that it was Sassa’s fault +that he got hurt, and they punished her for it. They need not have done so, for Sassa +was punished sufficiently by seeing her husband in pain, and she nursed him very tenderly. +</p> +<p>One day she said to him, “I witched your spear to make you give up hunting, because +it is so dangerous.” +</p> +<p>“I shall never give it up while I can drag myself into the bush,” said her husband. +“Once a hunter, always a hunter, Sassa.” +</p> +<p>Long before he had recovered from his wounds, and while he was too weak to walk, he +would creep on his hands and knees into the bush, and lie there all day. His wife +tried to persuade him to stay in the hut, but he said if he couldn’t hunt the animals, +he could at least watch them. +<span class="pageNum" id="xd33e731">[<a href="#xd33e731">42</a>]</span></p> +<p>One day as Malla was lying on his back, looking up at the trees, he saw a spider making +a net, so he said to him, “You also, my lord spider, are a great hunter.” +</p> +<p></p> +<div class="figure p042width" id="p042"><img src="images/p042.png" alt="Malla was a great hunter" width="720" height="598"></div><p> +</p> +<p>“If you had made a trap like this, and caught the <span class="pageNum" id="xd33e739">[<a href="#xd33e739">43</a>]</span>bush-cow in it, you would not have been hurt,” replied the spider. +</p> +<p></p> +<div class="figure p043width" id="p043"><img src="images/p043.png" alt="The bush-cow rushed furiously upon him" width="720" height="582"></div><p> +</p> +<p>“It would have been much better,” Malla agreed. “I think I will make a net of bush-rope.” +</p> +<p>Now bush-rope is the stem of a creeping plant which grows in African forests, and +is very strong <span class="pageNum" id="xd33e748">[<a href="#xd33e748">44</a>]</span>and tough; so Malla took the thickest he could find, and made a net, and put it between +two bushes. +</p> +<p>Then in the morning when he went to look at it, he found bush-deer, earth-pigs, and +porcupines struggling in it. “I told you it would be a good thing,” said the spider. +</p> +<p>Then Malla made another net, and it was made better than the first, and then he made +a third one which was better still, and made of finer rope. +</p> +<p>One day Sassa said to him, “If you could weave a very fine net, I would wear it;” +for like all the other women who lived in the forest, she had nothing to wear but +a kind of coarse cloth made of bark, which shrank when it was wet. +</p> +<p>Malla said he was willing to try, but he could not make the cloth of the right shape, +and so he went to the spider again. +</p> +<p>“I make my net on sticks,” said the spider; “and you must do the same thing. But why +should you, who are a mighty hunter, waste your time making dresses for your wife?” +</p> +<p>Then Malla hunted around until he found some <span class="pageNum" id="xd33e758">[<a href="#xd33e758">45</a>]</span>very fine rope, and fixed his sticks near the spider’s web, so he could see just how +he made it. Then he wove a piece of cloth which was the right shape, and pleased Sassa +very much. +</p> +<p></p> +<div class="figure p045width" id="p045"><img src="images/p045.png" alt="A kind of coarse cloth made of bark" width="720" height="634"></div><p> +</p> +<p>One day she showed him a place where some long, silky grass grew, and then said to +him, “If <span class="pageNum" id="xd33e766">[<a href="#xd33e766">46</a>]</span>you can make the cloth of this grass, instead of the bush-rope, it would be finer +still.” +</p> +<p></p> +<div class="figure p046width" id="p046"><img src="images/p046.png" alt="All the other women envied her" width="720" height="479"></div><p> +</p> +<p>So Malla showed some of it to the spider. “I have made nets of thick bush-rope and +thin bush-rope. Can I make one out of this?” he asked. +</p> +<p>Then the spider growled out, “Women are never satisfied,” but he was a good-natured +spider on the whole, and showed Malla how to weave a fine, <span class="pageNum" id="xd33e775">[<a href="#xd33e775">47</a>]</span>beautiful cloth of grass, of which Sassa was very proud. +</p> +<p></p> +<div class="figure p047width" id="p047"><img src="images/p047.png" alt="‘He taught me all I know’" width="720" height="584"></div><p> +</p> +<p>All the other women envied her as she wrapped herself in it and walked past the other +huts. “How lucky she is,” they said. “Her husband is not only <span class="pageNum" id="xd33e783">[<a href="#xd33e783">48</a>]</span>a mighty hunter, but he can make finer cloth than anyone else.” +</p> +<p>Malla continued to make bush-rope nets to catch game, and was so successful that he +and his friends feasted all the year round. +</p> +<p>Both he and Sassa lived to a great age, and saw their grandchildren and great-grandchildren. +Even when he was old and grey-headed, he was called “The Great Hunter;” but when they +called him, in addition, “The Master Weaver,” he would point to the bush where the +spider wove his silvery web: +</p> +<p>“He taught me all I know,” he said. “He is the Master Weaver!” +</p> +<p></p> +<div class="figure p048width"><img src="images/p048.png" alt="" data-role="presentation" width="312" height="154"></div><p> +<span class="pageNum" id="xd33e792">[<a href="#xd33e792">49</a>]</span></p> +</div> +</div> +<div class="div1 chapter"><span class="pageNum">[<a title="Go to the table of contents" href="#toc">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> +<h2 class="main">THE FLYING LION</h2> +</div> +<div class="divBody"> +<p class="first"></p> +<div class="figure p049width"><img src="images/p-i.png" alt="" data-role="presentation" width="242" height="339"></div><p> +<span class="pageNum" id="xd33e798">[<a href="#xd33e798">50</a>]</span></p> +<p></p> +<div class="figure p050width"><img src="images/p050.png" alt="" data-role="presentation" width="73" height="168"></div><p> +<span class="pageNum" id="xd33e802">[<a href="#xd33e802">51</a>]</span></p> +<p></p> +<div class="figure p051width"><img src="images/p051.png" alt="" data-role="presentation" width="242" height="331"></div><p> +<span class="pageNum" id="xd33e806">[<a href="#xd33e806">52</a>]</span></p> +<p></p> +<div class="figure p052width" id="p052"><img src="images/p052.png" alt="Lighted by fire-flies and glow-worms" width="509" height="720"></div><p> +<span class="pageNum" id="xd33e811">[<a href="#xd33e811">53</a>]</span></p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="ch3" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pageNum">[<a title="Go to the table of contents" href="#xd33e216">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> +<div class="figure"><img src="images/p013.png" alt="FAIRY TALES FROM AFRICA" width="720" height="455"></div> +<h2 class="super orange">FAIRY TALES FROM AFRICA</h2> +<h2 class="main">The Flying Lion</h2> +<div class="argument orange center"> +<p class="first">The wonder is that the Great Frog did not meet a princess with gold bracelets on her +arms and red flowers in her hair, sooner than he did. However, it is an excellent +story.</p> +</div> +</div> +<div class="divBody"> +<div class="figure floatLeft"><img src="images/initial-o.png" alt="O" width="284" height="251"></div> +<p class="first">ne of the most clever girls who ever lived was a king’s daughter named Pearl Blossom. +She was so clever that every one came to her for advice. +</p> +<p>She knew what medicine to give people when they were sick, the kind of herbs and <span class="pageNum" id="xd33e822">[<a href="#xd33e822">54</a>]</span>plants which were good to eat, and the crops which would grow best in different kinds +of soil. +</p> +<p>She could tell when it was going to rain, and when the rain would clear; and she understood +what animals said to each other. There was just one thing she did not know, and that +was how to get rid of the Flying Lion. +</p> +<p>Now the Flying Lion was a very terrible beast. He devoured everything he came across; +and had built himself a house, or palace, of the bones of the creatures he had eaten. +</p> +<p>Pearl Blossom would have been perfectly happy if it had not been for the Flying Lion, +for the very thought of him made her sad. +</p> +<p>“He is like a cloud hanging over our village,” she said to her father, one day. “When +the women go to the river to wash, or the children go outdoors to play, no one knows +how many will come back.” +</p> +<p>“It is a terrible thing to think about, of course,” replied her father. “Some one +should get rid of him, but a woman cannot do it. Don’t think about the Flying Lion.” +<span class="pageNum" id="xd33e830">[<a href="#xd33e830">55</a>]</span></p> +<p>You see, the old King had no great opinion of his daughter’s abilities, and he thought +her rather spoiled by the fuss his people made over her. But this was not so. Pearl +Blossom was too sensible to be conceited. She was kind and good, and wanted to help +others as much as possible. +</p> +<p></p> +<div class="figure p055width" id="p055"><img src="images/p055.png" alt="The Flying Lion was a terrible beast" width="720" height="401"></div><p> +</p> +<p>One morning, Pearl Blossom went into the forest to gather roots, and pretty soon came +to a place where a tall woman was sitting at the foot of a cotton-tree. +<span class="pageNum" id="xd33e839">[<a href="#xd33e839">56</a>]</span></p> +<p>The woman was fair of face, with hair like red gold, and she wore a long, trailing +white garment. “Who are you?” asked Pearl Blossom. “I never saw you before.” +</p> +<p>“You haven’t seen me before, although I have always been here,” the woman replied. +“I whispered in your ear all you know about the things in the forest. How did you +think you learned so much about animals and plants?” +</p> +<p>“Why, I just thought about them as I sat under the trees,” said Pearl Blossom, after +a little pause. +</p> +<p>“It was I who taught you,” said the woman. “My name is Gulu, and I live inside the +cotton-tree. Would you like to see my home?” +</p> +<p>“Indeed I would,” said Pearl Blossom. +</p> +<p>So Gulu led her through the door into the tree, and there was the loveliest little +house she had ever seen. The carpet was green moss, the walls were covered with beautiful +flowers, and it was lighted by fire-flies and glow-worms. +</p> +<p>Pearl Blossom was delighted with what she saw, and said so. Then she and Gulu sat +down and began <span class="pageNum" id="xd33e848">[<a href="#xd33e848">57</a>]</span>to talk. “We are old friends; for although you have never seen me, I have told you +nearly all my secrets. Is there anything else you want to know?” +</p> +<p>“I want to know how to get rid of the Flying Lion,” replied Pearl Blossom. “Can you +tell me how to do it?” +</p> +<p>Gulu was silent for quite a little while. Then at length she said: “It will be rather +difficult; yes, the most difficult thing you could have asked me. But if you will +stay with me for three months, it can be done.” +</p> +<p>“Why must I stay three whole months?” asked Pearl Blossom. +</p> +<p>“Because, in the first place it will take you a month to weave an invisible robe for +yourself; and unless you have one, you can’t meddle with the Flying Lion.” +</p> +<p>“I suppose if he should see me, that would be the end of it.” +</p> +<p>“Indeed it would, and of you, too,” said Gulu. “Then after the robe is made, you will +have to learn the language of the crows and the frogs. That will <span class="pageNum" id="xd33e858">[<a href="#xd33e858">58</a>]</span>take two months, because they are more difficult to understand than the rest of the +animals.” +</p> +<p>“But I must go home first and tell my parents where I am.” +</p> +<p>“Indeed you must not,” replied Gulu. “No one must know where you are, or the Flying +Lion will hear of it and know what you are doing.” +</p> +<p>“I must get rid of the Flying Lion,” said Pearl Blossom; “so it will be best for me +to stay.” +</p> +<p>But the King and Queen were distracted with grief when night came and the Princess +had not come back from the forest, so they sent the bushmen in every direction in +search of her. They sought for many days, but could not find her, and every one thought +the Flying Lion had eaten her. +</p> +<p>All this time Pearl Blossom sat in the cotton-tree house weaving herself a robe which +would make her invisible wherever she went. And when it was finished she learned the +language of the crows and the frogs. +</p> +<p>Then, when the three months were at an end, Gulu told her she would better go and +listen to the <span class="pageNum" id="xd33e867">[<a href="#xd33e867">59</a>]</span>crows in the forest and find out what to do about the Flying Lion. +</p> +<p>So Pearl Blossom put on her invisible robe and crept up close to the crows to hear +what they had to say. +</p> +<p></p> +<div class="figure p059width" id="p059"><img src="images/p059.png" alt="‘There is some secret about his wings’" width="720" height="460"></div><p> +</p> +<p>“I don’t know just what it is,” said one of them, “but there is some secret about +his wings. The white crows know it, but they dare not tell.” +</p> +<p>“He leaves two white crows to guard the bones every day when he goes hunting,” said +a young <span class="pageNum" id="xd33e878">[<a href="#xd33e878">60</a>]</span>crow. “There are piles and piles of them, and he won’t have one of them broken. I +have seen them,” he added proudly. +</p> +<p>“What is all this about bones?” asked a very old crow. He could not fly as far as +the younger ones, and was inclined not to pay much attention to their wonderful tales. +</p> +<p>“Why, the bones of the creatures the Flying Lion has eaten,” replied the young crow. +“He has built a house with them over there where the sun goes down,” nodding towards +the west. “I know it, for I have seen it,” he added, puffing out his breast with a +great deal of importance. +</p> +<p>“I must see that house myself,” thought Pearl Blossom; “and I must hear what the white +crows say to each other. Perhaps they will let out the secret.” +</p> +<p>So Pearl Blossom went away through the forest, and walked for a long time before she +reached the house where the white crows were. +</p> +<p>The way through the forest was very difficult, too. Sometimes the bush-rope caught +her feet and <span class="pageNum" id="xd33e886">[<a href="#xd33e886">61</a>]</span>threw her down; sometimes she had to creep over great fallen trees; and again she +had to creep under bushes. +</p> +<p></p> +<div class="figure p061width" id="p061"><img src="images/p061.png" alt="Sometimes she had to creep over fallen trees" width="720" height="629"></div><p> +</p> +<p>It was very fortunate that she could talk to the animals, for the bush-crows and the +monkeys and <span class="pageNum" id="xd33e894">[<a href="#xd33e894">62</a>]</span>the snails showed her the way, and were all very kind to her. +</p> +<p>It took some time for them to get used to her way of appearing and disappearing, and +of course, it puzzled them, for she had to slip off her invisible robe while she spoke +to them. +</p> +<p>“Human beings are queer creatures at the best of times,” said the snake to the monkey. +“Being a Princess makes her a little queerer, I suppose.” +</p> +<p>The white crows were flying round and round the Flying Lion’s house when Pearl Blossom +got there. The house was very large, all built of bones, and there was a pile of bones +in front of it three times as high as the Princess. After a while the white crows +settled on a tree near her, and began to talk. +</p> +<p>“I wish I knew one thing,” said the first one. “Why doesn’t he want any of the bones +broken? Can you tell me that?” +</p> +<p>“The only person who knows is the Great Frog,” answered the other. +<span class="pageNum" id="xd33e903">[<a href="#xd33e903">63</a>]</span></p> +<p>Pearl Blossom was disappointed. “They don’t know the secret after all,” she said to +herself. +</p> +<p>“What Great Frog?” asked one of the crows. “Do you mean the Great Frog who lives in +the pond behind the house?” +</p> +<p>The other crow nodded his head. +</p> +<p></p> +<div class="figure p063width" id="p063"><img src="images/p063.png" alt="‘Human beings are queer creatures’" width="720" height="370"></div><p> +</p> +<p>“But he won’t tell it until he is asked by a Princess with gold bracelets on her arm +and red flowers in her hair. I have heard that ever since I was born.” +</p> +<p>The moment Pearl Blossom heard this, she hurried <span class="pageNum" id="xd33e914">[<a href="#xd33e914">64</a>]</span>away to the pond behind the house, for she had gold bracelets on her arm and red flowers +in her hair. +</p> +<p>The Great Frog was sunning himself on the bank when the Princess came up. He was green +in color, with a white chest, and he was three feet high and one foot broad. +</p> +<p>Pearl Blossom, who never knew what it was to be afraid, slipped off her invisible +robe and went up to him. +</p> +<p>“Well,” he said when he learned what Pearl Blossom wanted, “if the Flying Lion is +doing as much damage as that, it is time to stop him.” +</p> +<p>“But can you do it?” asked Pearl Blossom anxiously. +</p> +<p>“Anyone can do it who knows the secret of the bones,” replied the Great Frog. “If +the bones are broken, he won’t be able to fly any more.” +</p> +<p>“Then will you go and break them?” asked the Princess. +<span class="pageNum" id="xd33e924">[<a href="#xd33e924">65</a>]</span></p> +<p></p> +<div class="figure p065width" id="p065"><img src="images/p065.png" alt="The Great Frog was sunning himself" width="508" height="720"></div><p> +<span class="pageNum" id="xd33e929">[<a href="#xd33e929">67</a>]</span></p> +<p>“Nothing would give me more pleasure,” replied the frog politely, and off he went +by leaps and bounds to the Flying Lion’s house, and pulled it down and broke all the +bones in pieces. +</p> +<p></p> +<div class="figure p067width" id="p067"><img src="images/p067.png" alt="‘Nothing would give me more pleasure’" width="720" height="391"></div><p> +</p> +<p>Then he called out to the white crows: “Tell your master, if he wants me, to come +to the pond and look for me!” +</p> +<p>Pretty soon the lion came crashing through the bushes in a great rage. +</p> +<p>“I can’t fly!” he cried out. “What have you done that I can’t fly?” he asked the white +crows. +<span class="pageNum" id="xd33e939">[<a href="#xd33e939">68</a>]</span></p> +<p>“We haven’t done anything,” they replied. “The Great Frog has been here and broken +the bones. He says if you want him you may go to the pond.” +</p> +<p></p> +<div class="figure p068width" id="p068"><img src="images/p068.png" alt="The frog was too quick for him" width="720" height="382"></div><p> +</p> +<p>Then the lion stopped roaring and crept softly towards the water to catch the frog, +who was sitting on the bank. But the Great Frog slipped into the water just as he +was within a yard of him, and dived to the other side and sat there. +</p> +<p>Then the lion crept round to the other side, but again the frog was too quick for +him, and he could not catch him. He tried time and time again to catch him, but at +last had to give it up and go away. +<span class="pageNum" id="xd33e949">[<a href="#xd33e949">69</a>]</span></p> +<p>Since then lions have never had any wings, but are obliged to walk on their feet like +other animals. +</p> +<p>As for Pearl Blossom, the Great Frog had fallen so much in love with her that he wanted +to marry her. She thanked him, but now that the lion had lost his wings she must go +back to her father and mother. +</p> +<p>And how delighted her parents were to see her; and when the people of the village +heard that the Flying Lion would trouble them no more, there was great feasting and +rejoicing in every house. +</p> +<p></p> +<div class="figure p069width"><img src="images/p069.png" alt="" data-role="presentation" width="260" height="260"></div><p> +<span class="pageNum" id="xd33e956">[<a href="#xd33e956">70</a>]</span></p> +<p></p> +<div class="figure p070width"><img src="images/p070.png" alt="" data-role="presentation" width="130" height="221"></div><p> +<span class="pageNum" id="xd33e960">[<a href="#xd33e960">71</a>]</span></p> +</div> +</div> +<div class="div1 chapter"><span class="pageNum">[<a title="Go to the table of contents" href="#toc">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> +<h2 class="main">KING MUNGO</h2> +</div> +<div class="divBody"> +<p class="first"></p> +<div class="figure p071width"><img src="images/p071.png" alt="" data-role="presentation" width="246" height="300"></div><p> +<span class="pageNum" id="xd33e966">[<a href="#xd33e966">72</a>]</span></p> +<p></p> +<div class="figure p072width"><img src="images/p072.png" alt="" data-role="presentation" width="92" height="138"></div><p> +<span class="pageNum" id="xd33e970">[<a href="#xd33e970">73</a>]</span></p> +<p></p> +<div class="figure p073width"><img src="images/p073.png" alt="" data-role="presentation" width="211" height="267"></div><p> +<span class="pageNum" id="xd33e974">[<a href="#xd33e974">74</a>]</span></p> +<p></p> +<div class="figure p074width" id="p074"><img src="images/p074.png" alt="The largest was an elephant" width="509" height="720"></div><p> +<span class="pageNum" id="xd33e979">[<a href="#xd33e979">75</a>]</span></p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="ch4" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pageNum">[<a title="Go to the table of contents" href="#xd33e222">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> +<div class="figure"><img src="images/p013.png" alt="FAIRY TALES FROM AFRICA" width="720" height="455"></div> +<h2 class="super orange">FAIRY TALES FROM AFRICA</h2> +<h2 class="main">King Mungo</h2> +<div class="argument orange center"> +<p class="first">Probably the mischief making propensities of the Jackal have never been better set +forth than in this relation of certain happenings in the realm of King Mungo.</p> +</div> +</div> +<div class="divBody"> +<div class="figure floatLeft"><img src="images/initial-a.png" alt="A" width="255" height="259"></div> +<p class="first"> wise old baboon was King Mungo—not quite so wise, perhaps, as he imagined, which +is often the case with many of us; but quite sensible enough to be a good ruler over +his part of the forest. +</p> +<p>He could swing himself from one branch to another, by his long arms, nearly as quickly +as <span class="pageNum" id="xd33e990">[<a href="#xd33e990">76</a>]</span>lightning, and could run so fast and far that no one could catch him. +</p> +<p></p> +<div class="figure p076width" id="p076"><img src="images/p076.png" alt="Swing himself from one branch to another" width="720" height="608"></div><p> +</p> +<p>At this time, King Mungo walked on two legs, and he was respected for this more than +anything else. But you will soon see that this is the sad story <span class="pageNum" id="xd33e998">[<a href="#xd33e998">77</a>]</span>of how he, and all the baboons after him, lost the power of walking erect, and had +to go on all fours, like the rest of the animals. +</p> +<p></p> +<div class="figure p077width" id="p077"><img src="images/p077.png" alt="They lived in peace and harmony" width="720" height="519"></div><p> +</p> +<p>Of all King Mungo’s subjects, the largest was an elephant, and the smallest one an +ant. Besides these, his kingdom contained a dog, a cat, a mouse, <span class="pageNum" id="xd33e1006">[<a href="#xd33e1006">78</a>]</span>a pool of water, a stick, and a fire lit among the brambles. +</p> +<p>Of course, you have seen water put out fire, with a great fizz and splutter; but the +strange thing about King Mungo’s fire was that however much water was thrown on the +fire, the fire burned all the better for it. King Mungo said, “That’s because they +are friends.” +</p> +<p>And so it went on. The cat would never bite the mouse; and the cat and the dog played +nicely together. The stick went quietly about its business without beating the dog; +and the ant never even dreamed of giving the elephant a nip. +</p> +<p>They all lived in peace and harmony together until one day a wretched little tailor, +named Klit, came to the King to complain of the holes some one had made in his cloth. +</p> +<p>You know how often it is, just when we are enjoying ourselves most, somebody comes +and interferes, and spoils things. It was just like that in King Mungo’s kingdom. +They were all as happy <span class="pageNum" id="xd33e1014">[<a href="#xd33e1014">79</a>]</span>as they could be, when Klit, the tailor, brought the King a piece of cloth with six +holes in it. +</p> +<p></p> +<div class="figure p079width" id="p079"><img src="images/p079.png" alt="A piece of cloth with six holes in it" width="720" height="433"></div><p> +</p> +<p>“I must have satisfaction, Your Majesty,” he said. “I thought the mouse had done this, +but she blames the cat, and the cat says she saw my cloth in the dog’s mouth. +</p> +<p>“But the dog says it was the stick; the stick declares it was the fire; and the fire +says the water did it. The water denies it, and says the elephant <span class="pageNum" id="xd33e1023">[<a href="#xd33e1023">80</a>]</span>tore the cloth; and the elephant lays the blame on the ant.” +</p> +<p>King Mungo put on his most judicial air. “Well” he said. +</p> +<p>“As long as they are all quarreling about it,” continued the tailor, “I suggest, Your +Majesty, that you bring them together and try them, so that we may find out the truth.” +</p> +<p>“Dear me! Quarreling? Why, such a thing has never happened before. Pray take a seat; +I will talk it over with my Prime Minister, and see what can be done. Quarreling! +Well!” +</p> +<p>So Klit sat down cross-legged on the grass, and pulled out his thimble and thread. +</p> +<p>“Here, here! Don’t darn the holes. What are you thinking about? If you darn them, +they’ll say there never were any,” said the wise baboon. +</p> +<p>“Whatever you do, don’t consult your Prime Minister,” retorted the tailor. “He is +sure to give you some foolish advice.” +</p> +<p>Now King Mungo was very much annoyed at this. He had great faith in the jackal, who +was his <span class="pageNum" id="xd33e1034">[<a href="#xd33e1034">81</a>]</span>Prime Minister; and besides, like other royal personages, he did not like to be addressed +in a rude and familiar manner. +</p> +<p></p> +<div class="figure p081width" id="p081"><img src="images/p081.png" alt="Pulled out his thimble and thread" width="720" height="337"></div><p> +</p> +<p>However, what the tailor said was true. The jackal was a mischievous fellow, and people +who took his advice were generally sorry for it afterwards. +</p> +<p>But King Mungo told his Prime Minister what had happened, and they consulted together +for a long time. Then the King nodded his head, and the jackal went off to assemble +his subjects. +</p> +<p>So they all appeared before the King. There <span class="pageNum" id="xd33e1044">[<a href="#xd33e1044">82</a>]</span>was the little brown mouse, the cat, the black curly dog, the stick, and next to the +stick the fire was burning, and at the other side of the fire was the pool of water. +Beyond the water stood the elephant, and next to him, on the top of a blade of grass, +was a tiny black ant. +</p> +<p>Then King Mungo began. “Klit,” he said, “hold up your cloth.” +</p> +<p>“Yes, Your Majesty,” and the tailor held up the cloth, and there were six round holes +in it. +</p> +<p>“Now tell me which of you has done this,” commanded the King. +</p> +<p>“The mouse!” cried Klit. +</p> +<p>“The cat!” squeaked the mouse. +</p> +<p>“The dog!” said the cat. +</p> +<p>“The stick!” growled the dog. +</p> +<p>“The fire!” shouted the stick. +</p> +<p>“The water!” hissed the fire. +</p> +<p>“The elephant!” roared the water. +</p> +<p>“The ant!” trumpeted the elephant. +</p> +<p>“Your Majesty,” said the jackal, “you see, none of them will confess.” +<span class="pageNum" id="xd33e1060">[<a href="#xd33e1060">83</a>]</span></p> +<p>“Silence!” commanded the King. “The best thing will be for them to punish each other. +Klit, you accuse the mouse?” +</p> +<p>“I do, Your Majesty,” answered the tailor. +</p> +<p>“Then, cat, bite the mouse!” +</p> +<p>And the cat bit the mouse as hard as she could. +</p> +<p>“Where are you, mouse? Do you accuse the cat?” +</p> +<p></p> +<div class="figure p083width" id="p083"><img src="images/p083.png" alt="‘Here, dog, bite the cat’" width="720" height="314"></div><p> +</p> +<p>“I certainly do,” squeaked the mouse. +</p> +<p>“Here, dog, bite the cat!” +</p> +<p>The dog growled and buried his teeth in the cat’s fur. +</p> +<p>“Now, cat, you accuse the dog?” +<span class="pageNum" id="xd33e1076">[<a href="#xd33e1076">84</a>]</span></p> +<p>“Your Majesty, I accuse the dog.” +</p> +<p>“Stick, beat the dog!” +</p> +<p>“It was the fire that did it,” said the stick in a sulky tone. +</p> +<p>“Then, fire, burn the stick! +</p> +<p>“Water, put out the fire! +</p> +<p>“Elephant, drink the water! +</p> +<p></p> +<div class="figure p084width"><img src="images/p084.png" alt="" data-role="presentation" width="720" height="229"></div><p> +</p> +<p>“Ant, bite the elephant!” commanded the King. +</p> +<p>“Just think of it!” cried the jackal, capering about with delight. “There will be +no peace in this kingdom for many a long day.” +</p> +<p>Now you see what a mischievous rascal the jackal was, for it turned out just as he +wanted it to. From that time to this, the cat has always bitten the <span class="pageNum" id="xd33e1091">[<a href="#xd33e1091">85</a>]</span>mouse; the dog the cat, and the ant the elephant; while fire has burned wood, and +water quenched fire. +</p> +<p>“Thanks to your advice, I have made a nice mess of it,” said the King to his Prime +Minister. +</p> +<p>But that was not the worst of it. As a punishment for his foolishness, King Mungo +lost the power of walking on two legs, and had to go on all fours like the rest of +the animals. +</p> +<p>He lost his name of Mungo, too; and since then he and all of his race have been called +just baboons. +</p> +<p></p> +<div class="figure p085width" id="p085"><img src="images/p085.png" alt="Had to go on all fours" width="253" height="313"></div><p> +<span class="pageNum" id="xd33e1100">[<a href="#xd33e1100">86</a>]</span></p> +<p></p> +<div class="figure p086width"><img src="images/p086.png" alt="" data-role="presentation" width="132" height="217"></div><p> +<span class="pageNum" id="xd33e1104">[<a href="#xd33e1104">87</a>]</span></p> +</div> +</div> +<div class="div1 chapter"><span class="pageNum">[<a title="Go to the table of contents" href="#toc">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> +<h2 class="main">UNCLE LION</h2> +</div> +<div class="divBody"> +<p class="first"></p> +<div class="figure p087width"><img src="images/p035.png" alt="" data-role="presentation" width="295" height="239"></div><p> +<span class="pageNum" id="xd33e1110">[<a href="#xd33e1110">88</a>]</span></p> +<p></p> +<div class="figure p088width"><img src="images/p088.png" alt="" data-role="presentation" width="113" height="268"></div><p> +<span class="pageNum" id="xd33e1114">[<a href="#xd33e1114">89</a>]</span></p> +<p></p> +<div class="figure p089width"><img src="images/p089.png" alt="" data-role="presentation" width="264" height="304"></div><p> +<span class="pageNum" id="xd33e1118">[<a href="#xd33e1118">90</a>]</span></p> +<p></p> +<div class="figure p090width" id="p090"><img src="images/p090.png" alt="‘I am glad to see you, Kanja’" width="508" height="720"></div><p> +<span class="pageNum" id="xd33e1123">[<a href="#xd33e1123">91</a>]</span></p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="ch5" class="div1 last-child chapter"><span class="pageNum">[<a title="Go to the table of contents" href="#xd33e228">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> +<div class="figure"><img src="images/p013.png" alt="FAIRY TALES FROM AFRICA" width="720" height="455"></div> +<h2 class="super orange">FAIRY TALES FROM AFRICA</h2> +<h2 class="main">Uncle Lion</h2> +<div class="argument orange center"> +<p class="first">Providing the circumstance from which the phrase “Taking the Lion’s Share” has been +derived. Inferentially all other accounts are inaccurate.</p> +</div> +</div> +<div class="divBody"> +<div class="figure floatLeft"><img src="images/initial-a.png" alt="A" width="255" height="259"></div> +<p class="first">lways when the lion went out hunting he took Kanja, the jackal, with him, for Kanja +was a much better hunter than he. +</p> +<p>But whenever the jackal had killed the game, he would say, “That is mine, Uncle Lion!” +Then the lion would look at him with such an angry glare that Kanja <span class="pageNum" id="xd33e1134">[<a href="#xd33e1134">92</a>]</span>would contradict himself at once, and say, “No, it is yours, of course!” Then Uncle +Lion would eat it up, and Kanja would go hungry. +</p> +<p>“You see, I only take the lion’s share,” Uncle Lion would explain. +</p> +<p>“Yes, I have noticed it,” replied the jackal. +</p> +<p></p> +<div class="figure p092width" id="p092"><img src="images/p092.png" alt="‘What is your idea of the lion’s share?’" width="720" height="318"></div><p> +</p> +<p>“What is your idea of the lion’s share?” asked the lion, with one eye on Kanja. +</p> +<p>“Everything, Uncle Lion,” answered poor Kanja. +</p> +<p>“Very well. You shall hunt with me again to-morrow,” said the lion approvingly. +</p> +<p>When the next day came, however, Kanja <span class="pageNum" id="xd33e1148">[<a href="#xd33e1148">93</a>]</span>avoided Uncle Lion, and went off to hunt on his own account. +</p> +<p>After a while he met a friend of his, the leopard, flying across the plains as though +a dozen hunters were after him. +</p> +<p></p> +<div class="figure p093width" id="p093"><img src="images/p093.png" alt="‘What seems to be the matter?’" width="720" height="400"></div><p> +</p> +<p>“What seems to be the matter?” asked the jackal. +</p> +<p>“I am really in a hurry,” replied the leopard. “Don’t stop me. There is a terrible +beast looking out of the door of a hut, a little way back! It has great horns and +is four times as big as you. I must be going.” +<span class="pageNum" id="xd33e1158">[<a href="#xd33e1158">94</a>]</span></p> +<p>“But wait a minute!” said the jackal, and caught hold of the leopard, and insisted +on hearing more about the creature which had frightened him. +</p> +<p>In a minute he began to laugh. “Why, it is only a ram!” he cried. “He can’t do you +any harm. We will go and catch him for dinner. I am almost starved.” +</p> +<p>Kanja found it rather hard work to persuade him, but at last, when the leopard heard +how badly the lion had treated his friend the day before, he agreed to go with him. +</p> +<p>“But you must tie me to you,” said the leopard, with his teeth chattering. “I shall +be sure to run when I see him.” +</p> +<p>So Kanja fastened a leather thong around both their bodies, and dragged him along +at a great rate. “Don’t let Uncle Lion catch us,” he whispered, looking from side +to side. “If he took the lion’s share this time, I should die of hunger.” +</p> +<p>When the ram saw them coming, he was more frightened than the leopard had been, so +he ran back to the hut and told his wife. +<span class="pageNum" id="xd33e1166">[<a href="#xd33e1166">95</a>]</span></p> +<p>“I don’t know what we are going to do,” he cried. “Kanja and his friend the leopard +are coming to devour us!” +</p> +<p>“Oh, that’s nonsense!” answered his wife. “Here take the child and go out to meet +them.” Then she gave him their little kid, and told him to pinch it and make it cry. +</p> +<p>“But I don’t understand,” said her husband, who was really very stupid. +</p> +<p>“Do just as I tell you,” said his wife. “You must shout in a terrible tone, ‘Just +in time! Just in time! My child is crying for food!’ Then you’ll see what will happen!” +</p> +<p>When the leopard saw the ram, with his terrible horns coming towards them, he would +have run away there and then if the jackal had not pulled him forward. Just then the +ram gave his child a pinch, and the little kid began to cry. +</p> +<p>“I am glad to see you, Kanja,” he cried. “You have brought the leopard just in time. +My child is crying for food.” +</p> +<p>“This is no place for me!” cried the leopard. “Let <span class="pageNum" id="xd33e1176">[<a href="#xd33e1176">96</a>]</span>us be off.” And so they both tugged at the leather thong, Kanja determined to go on, +and the leopard to go back. +</p> +<p></p> +<div class="figure p096width" id="p096"><img src="images/p096.png" alt="They rushed on and on" width="720" height="278"></div><p> +</p> +<p>But the leopard was much the stronger, and in a minute or two he was dragging the +jackal along at a terrible pace. They rushed on and on, until they were out of sight +of the ram, and then Kanja fell down exhausted. He was too faint with hunger to go +any farther, but the leopard, who could not get over his fright, unfastened the thong +and went on. +</p> +<p>After a while, a wagon loaded with fish came <span class="pageNum" id="xd33e1185">[<a href="#xd33e1185">97</a>]</span>past, and as it was going very slowly, the jackal tried to jump into it from behind. +</p> +<p>“Even fish is better than nothing,” he said to himself, but he was too weak to manage +it, and the wagon passed along. +</p> +<p></p> +<div class="figure p097width" id="p097"><img src="images/p097.png" alt="‘His skin will make a nice cloak’" width="720" height="476"></div><p> +</p> +<p>But there was another following it at a little distance, and this time Kanja stretched +himself in front of it as though he were dead. +</p> +<p>“What is this?” said the driver, when he saw the <span class="pageNum" id="xd33e1196">[<a href="#xd33e1196">98</a>]</span>jackal stretched out in the road. “His skin will make a nice cloak for my daughter.” +</p> +<p>So the driver picked him up and threw him into the wagon, which was exactly what Kanja +wanted. He had no idea of being made into a cloak for the driver’s daughter, but he +did wish to be near the fish. +</p> +<p>When Kanja had satisfied his hunger, he began to throw the fish out into the road, +one by one. The daylight failed and the moon rose, but he was still busy with this, +until the fishes lay like a silver streak as far along the track as he could see. +</p> +<p>At last he jumped out of the wagon. “Four hundred!” he cried. “One for every day in +the year, and thirty-five over. Now I must carry them to a place where Uncle Lion +won’t find them.” +</p> +<p>But while he was collecting them, a hyena came up and ate as many as she wanted without +asking his permission. +</p> +<p>“Here, you! Leave my fish alone!” cried Kanja angrily. +<span class="pageNum" id="xd33e1204">[<a href="#xd33e1204">99</a>]</span></p> +<p></p> +<div class="figure p099width" id="p099"><img src="images/p099.png" alt="‘They are no more your fish than mine’" width="509" height="720"></div><p> +<span class="pageNum" id="xd33e1209">[<a href="#xd33e1209">98</a>]</span></p> +<p>“They are no more your fish than mine,” replied <span class="pageNum" id="xd33e1212">[<a href="#xd33e1212">101</a>]</span>the hyena. “Your fish, indeed! Why they have fallen out of the wagon.” +</p> +<p>Kanja was too much annoyed to speak, so he went on gathering up the fish, and thinking +of a way to punish her. +</p> +<p>“There is another wagon coming,” he said at last. “Lie down in the road, and you will +get as many fish as I did.” +</p> +<p>The hyena opened her eyes. “Really?” she asked. +</p> +<p>“Really. But you must keep perfectly still. Pretend to be dead.” +</p> +<p>The fur of a hyena is not soft and silky like that of a jackal, so when the driver +saw her stretched out in front of the wagon, he kicked her out of the way. +</p> +<p>“Great, ugly thing!” he said. “What is it doing here?” Then he looked around for a +stick to beat her with, and as she moved a little he cried out, “Oh, she’s not dead +at all. Get up, you stupid, and be off!” +</p> +<p>After the wagon had gone on, the hyena limped <span class="pageNum" id="xd33e1223">[<a href="#xd33e1223">102</a>]</span>away to tell Kanja what had happened, “There was no fish,” she said, “and I am beaten +to a jelly.” +</p> +<p>“You have probably made some mistake,” said the jackal politely. “Are you sure you +laid perfectly still?” he asked, “and right in the middle of the track?” +</p> +<p></p> +<div class="figure p102width" id="p102"><img src="images/p102.png" alt="‘Are you sure you laid perfectly still?’" width="720" height="312"></div><p> +</p> +<p>“I lay perfectly still in the middle of the track,” replied the hyena. +</p> +<p>“Then it must be that the driver didn’t think you handsome enough to make a cloak. +That’s it, dear friend. Your want of beauty is your misfortune and not your fault,” +said Kanja in a sympathetic tone. +<span class="pageNum" id="xd33e1233">[<a href="#xd33e1233">103</a>]</span></p> +<p>“It certainly is a great misfortune to be plain,” sighed the hyena, with tears in +her eyes. +</p> +<p>“But it is a still greater one to be stupid!” added Kanja, as he ran off with another +fish in his mouth. +</p> +<p>“I wonder what he meant?” said the hyena to herself. +</p> +<p></p> +<div class="figure p103width"><img src="images/p103.png" alt="" data-role="presentation" width="343" height="338"></div><p> +<span class="pageNum" id="xd33e1241">[<a href="#xd33e1241">104</a>]</span></p> +<p></p> +<div class="figure p104width"><img src="images/p104.png" alt="" data-role="presentation" width="130" height="172"></div><p> +</p> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="back"> +<div class="transcriberNote"> +<h2 class="main">Colophon</h2> +<h3 class="main">Revision History</h3> +<ul> +<li>2025-10-31 Started. +</li> +</ul> +</div> +</div> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77175 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/77175-h/images/front.jpg b/77175-h/images/front.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..cc0cc13 --- /dev/null +++ b/77175-h/images/front.jpg diff --git a/77175-h/images/initial-a.png b/77175-h/images/initial-a.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..cefdbb9 --- /dev/null +++ b/77175-h/images/initial-a.png diff --git a/77175-h/images/initial-o.png b/77175-h/images/initial-o.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..61d1f81 --- /dev/null +++ b/77175-h/images/initial-o.png diff --git a/77175-h/images/initial-p.png b/77175-h/images/initial-p.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c01f6c1 --- /dev/null +++ b/77175-h/images/initial-p.png diff --git a/77175-h/images/initial-u.png b/77175-h/images/initial-u.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0043e83 --- 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b/77175-h/images/titlepage.png diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6c72794 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This book, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/ManElephant-utf8.txt b/ManElephant-utf8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f9d8a97 --- /dev/null +++ b/ManElephant-utf8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1179 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77175 *** + + + + + ALTEMUS’ FAIRY TALES SERIES + + The MAN ELEPHANT + A Book of African + Fairy Tales + + EDITED with an INTRODUCTION + By Hartwell James + + WITH FORTY ILLUSTRATIONS + By JOHN R. NEILL + + PHILADELPHIA + HENRY ALTEMUS COMPANY + + + + + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +A series of fairy tales from different countries would be incomplete +without a book of stories from Africa, which for many years was called +the “Dark Continent.” + +We are very largely indebted to travelers, explorers, and missionaries +for African legends and stories. Those in this book were told to them +by the natives themselves in dark and gloomy forests, and by the great, +brown rivers of that wonderful land. They are not so much about princes +and princesses as are the fairy tales of other countries, but are more +about animals—elephants, and lions, and jackals. + +There is plenty of magic in these stories, however. Ramil, the witch +mother, used it on her elephant son; the hunter’s wife in “The Master +Weaver” rubbed a stronger magic “medicine” on her husband’s spear than +he had been using, and so had her way about things; and The Flying Lion +never would have lost the power of using his wings if the beautiful +girl with red flowers in her hair and a gold bracelet on her arm had +not learned how to make an invisible robe for herself. “King Mungo” is +a very funny story, and in “Uncle Lion” we are told how the phrase +“taking the lion’s share” originated. All of these tales are extremely +interesting. + +The borders and other decorations in the book will be of great interest +to young people, for they represent musical instruments, headdresses, +war clubs, war drums, spears, belts, idols, and other rude objects used +by African tribes hundreds of years ago. + + +H. J. + + + + + + + + +CONTENTS + + + The Man Elephant 13 + The Master Weaver 39 + The Flying Lion 53 + King Mungo 75 + Uncle Lion 91 + + + + + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + + Page + “‘Let me go with you and hunt the elephant’” Frontispiece + “Led her on to talk of the river” 15 + “He was twelve feet high as she had said” 19 + “‘I want them all cooked’” 23 + “‘Save me from the elephant!’” 25 + “How she did have to work” 26 + “Put her right up on top of a tree” 28 + “He sniffed suspiciously around the hut” 29 + “Parle remembered a spell” 31 + “He saw a spider making a net” 38 + “Malla was a great hunter” 42 + “The bush-cow rushed furiously upon him” 43 + “A kind of coarse cloth made of bark” 45 + “All the other women envied her” 46 + “‘He taught me all I know’” 47 + “Lighted by fire-flies and glow-worms” 52 + “The Flying Lion was a terrible beast” 55 + “‘There is some secret about his wings’” 59 + “Sometimes she had to creep over fallen trees” 61 + “‘Human beings are queer creatures’” 63 + “The Great Frog was sunning himself” 65 + “‘Nothing would give me more pleasure’” 67 + “The frog was too quick for him” 68 + “The largest was an elephant” 74 + “Swing himself from one branch to another” 76 + “They lived in peace and harmony” 77 + “A piece of cloth with six holes in it” 79 + “Pulled out his thimble and thread” 81 + “‘Here, dog, bite the cat’” 83 + “Had to go on all fours” 85 + “‘I am glad to see you, Kanja’” 90 + “‘What is your idea of the lion’s share?’” 92 + “‘What seems to be the matter?’” 93 + “They rushed on and on” 96 + “‘His skin will make a nice cloak’” 97 + “‘They are no more your fish than mine’” 99 + “‘Are you sure you laid perfectly still?’” 102 + + + + + + + + +FAIRY TALES FROM AFRICA + +THE MAN ELEPHANT + + Parle deserved a better husband than the Man Elephant, but one + of Ramil’s spells, happily remembered, clears up the situation; + and Lomi, by inference, cooks his own fish. + + +Parle was a very pretty girl who lived with her father and mother and +two brothers in a hut by the side of an African river. + +It was not a pleasant river at all, for it was brown in color, and +flowed through a dark and gloomy forest of great trees and closely +woven vines. There were crocodiles, too, in the ugly black river, and +Parle was afraid to bathe in it. + +Although one would hardly believe it, Parle grew up very happily in +this little clearing by the river, and never had a real grief until her +two brothers left home to go hunting, and would not take her with them. + +“You will see the moon rise and set many times before we come back,” +they said, “but when we come, we will find you a good husband, and we +will dance merrily at your wedding.” + +“Let me go with you, and hunt the elephant,” she pleaded. “I don’t want +a husband; I want to go with you.” + +“The cooking-pot is better than the spear for girls,” said the older +brother decidedly, “and you must stay at home.” + +“But I want to go so much,” still pleaded the girl, “for you may find +the great river Ramil has told us about so often.” + +“What river is that?” they asked. + +“Why Ramil says the first men who were ever made, lived by the side of +a great river—up there,” she answered, pointing vaguely towards the +north. + +“She says the men were all black; but some of them swam across to the +other side, and the water washed them white. Since then the white men +are always stretching out their hands and calling to the blacks to come +across to them.” + +“Oh, that Ramil is full of silly stories,” said the older brother. “I +don’t believe them.” + +“But the white men do come from over there,” persisted Parle, gazing +northward as if she could see the river in the distance. “I should like +to swim across and be washed white, too!” + +The younger brother thought this the most foolish speech he had ever +heard. “Well,” he said, “there is no accounting for some people’s +tastes!” + +Then the brothers rubbed their spears with some kind of grease which +they believed would kill elephants, and as they did so they sang: + + + “When mine enemy thou shalt see, + Black and tall like an ebony-tree, + Sing softly, softly, little spear, + As to his heart thou drawest near.” + + +Early the next morning the two brothers started on the expedition, +leaving their sister behind. In her loneliness, she visited the +witch-doctress, Ramil, oftener than she had ever done before, and led +her on to talk of the river far away beyond the forest, and the white +men on the other side of it. + +“The best thing for you to do,” said Ramil, “that is, if you really +want to go there, is to marry my son. Then he can carry you on his back +through the forest.” + +“I should be too heavy,” said Parle, shaking her pretty head; “and +besides, I don’t want to marry anyone.” + +“You could not be too heavy for my son,” replied the witch. “His legs +are as thick as tree-trunks, and he stands twelve feet high at least. + +“As for not wanting a husband,” continued Ramil; “that is what all +girls say, but they don’t mean it.” + +“I wouldn’t want to marry a giant,” said Parle. + +“Oh, he isn’t a giant. He is—but never mind—wait till you see him,” +replied Ramil mysteriously, for she was determined to marry Parle to +her son, if possible. + +So that evening, when the moon was shining softly through the trees, +she stole away to the place where her son was usually to be found at +night, and by and by she came across him at the edge of a swamp, where +he had been rolling about in the muddy water. + +He was twelve feet high, and had legs like tree-trunks, as she had +said; for Ramil’s son was nothing more nor less than a big black +elephant, and that very day he had nearly been killed by Parle’s +brothers. + +“What do you want of me now, little mother?” he asked, rubbing himself +gently against a tree. + +“It is time you had a wife,” she replied. “I have found the prettiest +little wife for you, but she will never consent to marry an elephant. +You will have to let me turn you into a bushman for a little while.” + +“How will you do it? and why is it necessary?” asked her son +suspiciously. You see, he knew his mother was a witch. + +“If you eat one of these,” replied his mother, showing him some leaves +she had picked on her way through the forest, “you will become a +handsome young bushman, who can woo the girl and marry her. + +“Then when you have carried off your bride, you can eat another leaf, +and then you will be changed into an elephant again.” + +“Can she cook fish and make cakes?” asked the elephant; “and is she +really a pretty girl, my mother?” + +“Indeed she is pretty,” said Ramil, noticing that her son’s eyes +twinkled. “She is as sweet as the wild mango blossoms when they fall to +the ground in the spring. + +“And as to her cooking,” she went on; “I have tasted her baked fish and +her broth.” And Ramil rolled her eyes, remembering how good they had +been, and pleased to see a look of satisfaction stealing over her son’s +face. + +“I do get so tired of plantain leaves,” said the elephant plaintively. + +“No wonder. That’s because your mother wasn’t an elephant. Well, she +will need a big cooking-pot! One baked fish will never satisfy you.” + +So Ramil persuaded her son to eat one of the leaves, and as soon as he +had done it his four legs became two, and his clumsy body changed into +that of a tall, well-made young bushman. + +Then he took a spear in his hand and went with his mother to the door +of Parle’s hut, who thought he was the handsomest young man she had +ever seen. + +“But you said he was twelve feet high, and that his legs were like +tree-trunks,” she cried. + +And the cunning old woman answered, “That was because he was under a +spell. He is cured now.” So Parle promised to be his wife, and after +they were married he took her away with him into the forest. + +But they did not travel north as he had promised, towards the great +river which washed black people white. Instead, they went south, always +south, towards the plains where the elephant hunters were few, and +where her husband thought he might live in peace with his wife. + +By and by they came to a beautiful country covered with green grass and +flowers, for it was early spring, and there he built her a hut. “Now I +will go fishing,” he said, “and you shall cook my supper when I come +back.” + +When he came back, he brought with him thirty fish; and when Parle saw +them, she said, “three would have been enough.” + +“I want them all cooked,” replied her husband. “Thirty will not be too +many.” + +“But see how large they are!” insisted his wife. + +“That makes no difference. Do as I tell you!” he answered sternly. + +So Parle began to cook them, while her husband went behind the hut and +ate the second leaf his mother had given him. + +And as soon as he had done this, his nose grew into a trunk and his +teeth into tusks, while his body changed into that of a huge elephant, +standing four feet above the roof! + +Parle looked up from her cooking and gave a scream. “Oh, Lomi! Lomi!” +she called out. “Save me from the elephant!” + +“I am Lomi, your husband,” he replied, talking to her across the roof +of the hut. “Don’t be frightened.” + +“But I am frightened!” cried the poor girl, crouching on the ground and +holding her face in her hands, while her husband told her the story of +the trick he had played on her. + +“Now all you have to do is to please me,” he went on, “or it will be +the worse for you. + +“I am tired of elephant food, and want broth, baked meat, plenty of +fish, and all the good things bushmen eat. I will go and hunt for them, +and it will be your business to see that they are properly cooked.” + +So poor Parle had to cook from morning until night to satisfy her +husband’s appetite. He brought home springbok and gemsbok—small deer +which roamed about the plains—and she made broths and stews of them, as +her mother had taught her. + +How she did have to work! Instead of running out in the morning to +gather flowers, she had to go fishing, or to collect eggs to put into +the soups. She grew so ill and thin that none would have known her for +the same pretty girl who had left home with the young bushman. + +But every day, when she came out of her hut, she shaded her eyes from +the sun, and looked across the plain to see if there were any travelers +coming from the north. “Some day my brothers may find me,” she thought. + +So the days went on until one morning her husband’s breakfast did not +please him, and he was so angry that he snatched her up in his trunk +and put her right up on top of a tree which grew near the hut. “You +shall stay there until I come back,” he said. + +It was not much of a punishment, and his wife did not mind it at all, +for it was rather pleasant than otherwise. There was no cooking to be +done up there, and she could see much farther over the plain from the +top of the tree. + +So Parle looked and looked, always to the north, all the morning, but +in vain. At last, about noon, two black dots appeared on the line where +the plain met the sky, and Parle forgot how hungry she was as she +watched the dots grow larger and larger. + +“I wonder if they are lions,” she thought. “No, they are men!” she +cried aloud. In an hour she could see that they were bushmen, coming +swiftly across the plains; and in a little while she recognized her +brothers, who had traveled all this way to find her and hear if she was +happy. + +It did not take long for the oldest brother to climb the tree and bring +her down. And then how glad they were to see each other! Parle cooked +them some food and while they were eating it she told them how unhappy +she was, and made them promise to take her away. + +Then they planned how to get away. “We must wait until night, or Lomi +will catch us,” she told them. “I will hide you until it is safe to +start.” + +There was a raised wooden platform behind the hut, and underneath it +Parle kept firewood, rugs to sleep on, and all kinds of things for +which there was not room in the hut. So she stowed away her brothers in +there; and when Lomi came home, although he sniffed suspiciously around +the hut, he did not catch a glimpse of them. + +Then at midnight when Lomi was fast asleep, his wife roused her +brothers, and they prepared to leave. “We are going to kill the +elephant,” whispered the older brother. + +“Indeed, you must not,” replied Parle decidedly. + +“If you won’t let us kill the elephant, you must let us take his +cattle, at least,” said the younger brother. + +So they set out, driving the cattle before them; but Parle left behind +one cow, one sheep, and one goat, telling them to make as much noise as +they could during the night. + +Lomi waked several times after they had gone, but when he heard the +noises the cow, the goat, and the sheep made, he concluded that all his +cattle were safe, and went to sleep again each time. + +Early in the morning he found out his mistake, but by this time Parle +and her brothers were far away across the plain. Soon he was in pursuit +of them, and how fast he did tear over the ground! + +Driving the cattle before them, Parle and her brothers flew on and on; +but the terrible elephant got over the ground much more quickly than +they could, and at last was only a half a mile away. + +And as if to make it worse, right ahead of them were great rocks, too +steep to climb, and so high they seemed to touch the sky. Then they +gave themselves up for lost. + +But just then Parle remembered a spell which Ramil, the witch, had +taught her, and cried out: + + + “By the lilies which grow + On the still lagoon, + All silver-white + Under the moon, + Stone of my fathers, + Divide! Divide! + Let us pass through + To the other side.” + + +As the words ceased, the rocks opened, and Parle with her brothers and +the cattle went safely through. + +And how angry Lomi was when he saw the rocks close behind them! + +On the other side there was a beautiful lagoon shining in the silvery +moonlight, with white lilies floating on the water, and it looked so +beautiful that Parle ran, with a cry of joy, to bathe her face and +hands in it. + +“I wonder if Ramil’s spell brought it here? Or was it here all the +time?” she cried in bewilderment. + +So Parle and her brothers rested there for a time, and then went on +again to try and find the river of which Ramil had told them so often. +It would be nice to know whether they found it or not, and were washed +white in its waters, but you will have to decide that for yourselves. + +There is one thing quite sure, however, and that is, Lomi never saw +Parle again, which served him quite right. + + + + + + + + +FAIRY TALES FROM AFRICA + +THE MASTER WEAVER + + It is unwise to change the medicine on one’s husband’s spear, + as Sassa found out to her sorrow. Still, she acquired a much + handsomer frock as a resultant occurrence. + + +Until he married Sassa, Malla was a great hunter—the greatest in his +tribe, for he never failed to bring home game when he went hunting in +the bush. + +Malla used to put medicine on his spear—at least that is what he called +it—but it was only a kind of grease, and then he would hold up his +spear in front of him and say: + + + “Kill, kill, spear of mine, + Earth-pig and porcupine, + Bush-cow and bush-deer, + Kill, kill, little spear.” + + +It was very odd, but after he married Sassa, his spear was always +getting fast in the trees, or gliding past the bush-cows without +touching them. The fact was, Sassa did not want him to go hunting, and +as she knew a better charm than his, she rubbed a different medicine +onto the spear after he had finished with it. And this is what she +would say: + + + “Bush-deer and bush-cow, + Say, who shall hurt you now? + By my spell you shall be + Safe and free, safe and free.” + + +Malla did not know this, of course, and one day he went out after a +big, savage bush-cow. He threw his spear as skilfully as usual, but it +passed through the animal’s horns and struck a tree. Then the bush-cow +rushed furiously upon him, and gored him, injuring him so much that he +could hardly creep home. + +As he lay in his hut, in great pain, his friends found out that it was +Sassa’s fault that he got hurt, and they punished her for it. They need +not have done so, for Sassa was punished sufficiently by seeing her +husband in pain, and she nursed him very tenderly. + +One day she said to him, “I witched your spear to make you give up +hunting, because it is so dangerous.” + +“I shall never give it up while I can drag myself into the bush,” said +her husband. “Once a hunter, always a hunter, Sassa.” + +Long before he had recovered from his wounds, and while he was too weak +to walk, he would creep on his hands and knees into the bush, and lie +there all day. His wife tried to persuade him to stay in the hut, but +he said if he couldn’t hunt the animals, he could at least watch them. + +One day as Malla was lying on his back, looking up at the trees, he saw +a spider making a net, so he said to him, “You also, my lord spider, +are a great hunter.” + +“If you had made a trap like this, and caught the bush-cow in it, you +would not have been hurt,” replied the spider. + +“It would have been much better,” Malla agreed. “I think I will make a +net of bush-rope.” + +Now bush-rope is the stem of a creeping plant which grows in African +forests, and is very strong and tough; so Malla took the thickest he +could find, and made a net, and put it between two bushes. + +Then in the morning when he went to look at it, he found bush-deer, +earth-pigs, and porcupines struggling in it. “I told you it would be a +good thing,” said the spider. + +Then Malla made another net, and it was made better than the first, and +then he made a third one which was better still, and made of finer +rope. + +One day Sassa said to him, “If you could weave a very fine net, I would +wear it;” for like all the other women who lived in the forest, she had +nothing to wear but a kind of coarse cloth made of bark, which shrank +when it was wet. + +Malla said he was willing to try, but he could not make the cloth of +the right shape, and so he went to the spider again. + +“I make my net on sticks,” said the spider; “and you must do the same +thing. But why should you, who are a mighty hunter, waste your time +making dresses for your wife?” + +Then Malla hunted around until he found some very fine rope, and fixed +his sticks near the spider’s web, so he could see just how he made it. +Then he wove a piece of cloth which was the right shape, and pleased +Sassa very much. + +One day she showed him a place where some long, silky grass grew, and +then said to him, “If you can make the cloth of this grass, instead of +the bush-rope, it would be finer still.” + +So Malla showed some of it to the spider. “I have made nets of thick +bush-rope and thin bush-rope. Can I make one out of this?” he asked. + +Then the spider growled out, “Women are never satisfied,” but he was a +good-natured spider on the whole, and showed Malla how to weave a fine, +beautiful cloth of grass, of which Sassa was very proud. + +All the other women envied her as she wrapped herself in it and walked +past the other huts. “How lucky she is,” they said. “Her husband is not +only a mighty hunter, but he can make finer cloth than anyone else.” + +Malla continued to make bush-rope nets to catch game, and was so +successful that he and his friends feasted all the year round. + +Both he and Sassa lived to a great age, and saw their grandchildren and +great-grandchildren. Even when he was old and grey-headed, he was +called “The Great Hunter;” but when they called him, in addition, “The +Master Weaver,” he would point to the bush where the spider wove his +silvery web: + +“He taught me all I know,” he said. “He is the Master Weaver!” + + + + + + + + +FAIRY TALES FROM AFRICA + +THE FLYING LION + + The wonder is that the Great Frog did not meet a princess with + gold bracelets on her arms and red flowers in her hair, sooner + than he did. However, it is an excellent story. + + +One of the most clever girls who ever lived was a king’s daughter named +Pearl Blossom. She was so clever that every one came to her for advice. + +She knew what medicine to give people when they were sick, the kind of +herbs and plants which were good to eat, and the crops which would grow +best in different kinds of soil. + +She could tell when it was going to rain, and when the rain would +clear; and she understood what animals said to each other. There was +just one thing she did not know, and that was how to get rid of the +Flying Lion. + +Now the Flying Lion was a very terrible beast. He devoured everything +he came across; and had built himself a house, or palace, of the bones +of the creatures he had eaten. + +Pearl Blossom would have been perfectly happy if it had not been for +the Flying Lion, for the very thought of him made her sad. + +“He is like a cloud hanging over our village,” she said to her father, +one day. “When the women go to the river to wash, or the children go +outdoors to play, no one knows how many will come back.” + +“It is a terrible thing to think about, of course,” replied her father. +“Some one should get rid of him, but a woman cannot do it. Don’t think +about the Flying Lion.” + +You see, the old King had no great opinion of his daughter’s abilities, +and he thought her rather spoiled by the fuss his people made over her. +But this was not so. Pearl Blossom was too sensible to be conceited. +She was kind and good, and wanted to help others as much as possible. + +One morning, Pearl Blossom went into the forest to gather roots, and +pretty soon came to a place where a tall woman was sitting at the foot +of a cotton-tree. + +The woman was fair of face, with hair like red gold, and she wore a +long, trailing white garment. “Who are you?” asked Pearl Blossom. “I +never saw you before.” + +“You haven’t seen me before, although I have always been here,” the +woman replied. “I whispered in your ear all you know about the things +in the forest. How did you think you learned so much about animals and +plants?” + +“Why, I just thought about them as I sat under the trees,” said Pearl +Blossom, after a little pause. + +“It was I who taught you,” said the woman. “My name is Gulu, and I live +inside the cotton-tree. Would you like to see my home?” + +“Indeed I would,” said Pearl Blossom. + +So Gulu led her through the door into the tree, and there was the +loveliest little house she had ever seen. The carpet was green moss, +the walls were covered with beautiful flowers, and it was lighted by +fire-flies and glow-worms. + +Pearl Blossom was delighted with what she saw, and said so. Then she +and Gulu sat down and began to talk. “We are old friends; for although +you have never seen me, I have told you nearly all my secrets. Is there +anything else you want to know?” + +“I want to know how to get rid of the Flying Lion,” replied Pearl +Blossom. “Can you tell me how to do it?” + +Gulu was silent for quite a little while. Then at length she said: “It +will be rather difficult; yes, the most difficult thing you could have +asked me. But if you will stay with me for three months, it can be +done.” + +“Why must I stay three whole months?” asked Pearl Blossom. + +“Because, in the first place it will take you a month to weave an +invisible robe for yourself; and unless you have one, you can’t meddle +with the Flying Lion.” + +“I suppose if he should see me, that would be the end of it.” + +“Indeed it would, and of you, too,” said Gulu. “Then after the robe is +made, you will have to learn the language of the crows and the frogs. +That will take two months, because they are more difficult to +understand than the rest of the animals.” + +“But I must go home first and tell my parents where I am.” + +“Indeed you must not,” replied Gulu. “No one must know where you are, +or the Flying Lion will hear of it and know what you are doing.” + +“I must get rid of the Flying Lion,” said Pearl Blossom; “so it will be +best for me to stay.” + +But the King and Queen were distracted with grief when night came and +the Princess had not come back from the forest, so they sent the +bushmen in every direction in search of her. They sought for many days, +but could not find her, and every one thought the Flying Lion had eaten +her. + +All this time Pearl Blossom sat in the cotton-tree house weaving +herself a robe which would make her invisible wherever she went. And +when it was finished she learned the language of the crows and the +frogs. + +Then, when the three months were at an end, Gulu told her she would +better go and listen to the crows in the forest and find out what to do +about the Flying Lion. + +So Pearl Blossom put on her invisible robe and crept up close to the +crows to hear what they had to say. + +“I don’t know just what it is,” said one of them, “but there is some +secret about his wings. The white crows know it, but they dare not +tell.” + +“He leaves two white crows to guard the bones every day when he goes +hunting,” said a young crow. “There are piles and piles of them, and he +won’t have one of them broken. I have seen them,” he added proudly. + +“What is all this about bones?” asked a very old crow. He could not fly +as far as the younger ones, and was inclined not to pay much attention +to their wonderful tales. + +“Why, the bones of the creatures the Flying Lion has eaten,” replied +the young crow. “He has built a house with them over there where the +sun goes down,” nodding towards the west. “I know it, for I have seen +it,” he added, puffing out his breast with a great deal of importance. + +“I must see that house myself,” thought Pearl Blossom; “and I must hear +what the white crows say to each other. Perhaps they will let out the +secret.” + +So Pearl Blossom went away through the forest, and walked for a long +time before she reached the house where the white crows were. + +The way through the forest was very difficult, too. Sometimes the +bush-rope caught her feet and threw her down; sometimes she had to +creep over great fallen trees; and again she had to creep under bushes. + +It was very fortunate that she could talk to the animals, for the +bush-crows and the monkeys and the snails showed her the way, and were +all very kind to her. + +It took some time for them to get used to her way of appearing and +disappearing, and of course, it puzzled them, for she had to slip off +her invisible robe while she spoke to them. + +“Human beings are queer creatures at the best of times,” said the snake +to the monkey. “Being a Princess makes her a little queerer, I +suppose.” + +The white crows were flying round and round the Flying Lion’s house +when Pearl Blossom got there. The house was very large, all built of +bones, and there was a pile of bones in front of it three times as high +as the Princess. After a while the white crows settled on a tree near +her, and began to talk. + +“I wish I knew one thing,” said the first one. “Why doesn’t he want any +of the bones broken? Can you tell me that?” + +“The only person who knows is the Great Frog,” answered the other. + +Pearl Blossom was disappointed. “They don’t know the secret after all,” +she said to herself. + +“What Great Frog?” asked one of the crows. “Do you mean the Great Frog +who lives in the pond behind the house?” + +The other crow nodded his head. + +“But he won’t tell it until he is asked by a Princess with gold +bracelets on her arm and red flowers in her hair. I have heard that +ever since I was born.” + +The moment Pearl Blossom heard this, she hurried away to the pond +behind the house, for she had gold bracelets on her arm and red flowers +in her hair. + +The Great Frog was sunning himself on the bank when the Princess came +up. He was green in color, with a white chest, and he was three feet +high and one foot broad. + +Pearl Blossom, who never knew what it was to be afraid, slipped off her +invisible robe and went up to him. + +“Well,” he said when he learned what Pearl Blossom wanted, “if the +Flying Lion is doing as much damage as that, it is time to stop him.” + +“But can you do it?” asked Pearl Blossom anxiously. + +“Anyone can do it who knows the secret of the bones,” replied the Great +Frog. “If the bones are broken, he won’t be able to fly any more.” + +“Then will you go and break them?” asked the Princess. + +“Nothing would give me more pleasure,” replied the frog politely, and +off he went by leaps and bounds to the Flying Lion’s house, and pulled +it down and broke all the bones in pieces. + +Then he called out to the white crows: “Tell your master, if he wants +me, to come to the pond and look for me!” + +Pretty soon the lion came crashing through the bushes in a great rage. + +“I can’t fly!” he cried out. “What have you done that I can’t fly?” he +asked the white crows. + +“We haven’t done anything,” they replied. “The Great Frog has been here +and broken the bones. He says if you want him you may go to the pond.” + +Then the lion stopped roaring and crept softly towards the water to +catch the frog, who was sitting on the bank. But the Great Frog slipped +into the water just as he was within a yard of him, and dived to the +other side and sat there. + +Then the lion crept round to the other side, but again the frog was too +quick for him, and he could not catch him. He tried time and time again +to catch him, but at last had to give it up and go away. + +Since then lions have never had any wings, but are obliged to walk on +their feet like other animals. + +As for Pearl Blossom, the Great Frog had fallen so much in love with +her that he wanted to marry her. She thanked him, but now that the lion +had lost his wings she must go back to her father and mother. + +And how delighted her parents were to see her; and when the people of +the village heard that the Flying Lion would trouble them no more, +there was great feasting and rejoicing in every house. + + + + + + + + +FAIRY TALES FROM AFRICA + +KING MUNGO + + Probably the mischief making propensities of the Jackal have + never been better set forth than in this relation of certain + happenings in the realm of King Mungo. + + +A wise old baboon was King Mungo—not quite so wise, perhaps, as he +imagined, which is often the case with many of us; but quite sensible +enough to be a good ruler over his part of the forest. + +He could swing himself from one branch to another, by his long arms, +nearly as quickly as lightning, and could run so fast and far that no +one could catch him. + +At this time, King Mungo walked on two legs, and he was respected for +this more than anything else. But you will soon see that this is the +sad story of how he, and all the baboons after him, lost the power of +walking erect, and had to go on all fours, like the rest of the +animals. + +Of all King Mungo’s subjects, the largest was an elephant, and the +smallest one an ant. Besides these, his kingdom contained a dog, a cat, +a mouse, a pool of water, a stick, and a fire lit among the brambles. + +Of course, you have seen water put out fire, with a great fizz and +splutter; but the strange thing about King Mungo’s fire was that +however much water was thrown on the fire, the fire burned all the +better for it. King Mungo said, “That’s because they are friends.” + +And so it went on. The cat would never bite the mouse; and the cat and +the dog played nicely together. The stick went quietly about its +business without beating the dog; and the ant never even dreamed of +giving the elephant a nip. + +They all lived in peace and harmony together until one day a wretched +little tailor, named Klit, came to the King to complain of the holes +some one had made in his cloth. + +You know how often it is, just when we are enjoying ourselves most, +somebody comes and interferes, and spoils things. It was just like that +in King Mungo’s kingdom. They were all as happy as they could be, when +Klit, the tailor, brought the King a piece of cloth with six holes in +it. + +“I must have satisfaction, Your Majesty,” he said. “I thought the mouse +had done this, but she blames the cat, and the cat says she saw my +cloth in the dog’s mouth. + +“But the dog says it was the stick; the stick declares it was the fire; +and the fire says the water did it. The water denies it, and says the +elephant tore the cloth; and the elephant lays the blame on the ant.” + +King Mungo put on his most judicial air. “Well” he said. + +“As long as they are all quarreling about it,” continued the tailor, “I +suggest, Your Majesty, that you bring them together and try them, so +that we may find out the truth.” + +“Dear me! Quarreling? Why, such a thing has never happened before. Pray +take a seat; I will talk it over with my Prime Minister, and see what +can be done. Quarreling! Well!” + +So Klit sat down cross-legged on the grass, and pulled out his thimble +and thread. + +“Here, here! Don’t darn the holes. What are you thinking about? If you +darn them, they’ll say there never were any,” said the wise baboon. + +“Whatever you do, don’t consult your Prime Minister,” retorted the +tailor. “He is sure to give you some foolish advice.” + +Now King Mungo was very much annoyed at this. He had great faith in the +jackal, who was his Prime Minister; and besides, like other royal +personages, he did not like to be addressed in a rude and familiar +manner. + +However, what the tailor said was true. The jackal was a mischievous +fellow, and people who took his advice were generally sorry for it +afterwards. + +But King Mungo told his Prime Minister what had happened, and they +consulted together for a long time. Then the King nodded his head, and +the jackal went off to assemble his subjects. + +So they all appeared before the King. There was the little brown mouse, +the cat, the black curly dog, the stick, and next to the stick the fire +was burning, and at the other side of the fire was the pool of water. +Beyond the water stood the elephant, and next to him, on the top of a +blade of grass, was a tiny black ant. + +Then King Mungo began. “Klit,” he said, “hold up your cloth.” + +“Yes, Your Majesty,” and the tailor held up the cloth, and there were +six round holes in it. + +“Now tell me which of you has done this,” commanded the King. + +“The mouse!” cried Klit. + +“The cat!” squeaked the mouse. + +“The dog!” said the cat. + +“The stick!” growled the dog. + +“The fire!” shouted the stick. + +“The water!” hissed the fire. + +“The elephant!” roared the water. + +“The ant!” trumpeted the elephant. + +“Your Majesty,” said the jackal, “you see, none of them will confess.” + +“Silence!” commanded the King. “The best thing will be for them to +punish each other. Klit, you accuse the mouse?” + +“I do, Your Majesty,” answered the tailor. + +“Then, cat, bite the mouse!” + +And the cat bit the mouse as hard as she could. + +“Where are you, mouse? Do you accuse the cat?” + +“I certainly do,” squeaked the mouse. + +“Here, dog, bite the cat!” + +The dog growled and buried his teeth in the cat’s fur. + +“Now, cat, you accuse the dog?” + +“Your Majesty, I accuse the dog.” + +“Stick, beat the dog!” + +“It was the fire that did it,” said the stick in a sulky tone. + +“Then, fire, burn the stick! + +“Water, put out the fire! + +“Elephant, drink the water! + +“Ant, bite the elephant!” commanded the King. + +“Just think of it!” cried the jackal, capering about with delight. +“There will be no peace in this kingdom for many a long day.” + +Now you see what a mischievous rascal the jackal was, for it turned out +just as he wanted it to. From that time to this, the cat has always +bitten the mouse; the dog the cat, and the ant the elephant; while fire +has burned wood, and water quenched fire. + +“Thanks to your advice, I have made a nice mess of it,” said the King +to his Prime Minister. + +But that was not the worst of it. As a punishment for his foolishness, +King Mungo lost the power of walking on two legs, and had to go on all +fours like the rest of the animals. + +He lost his name of Mungo, too; and since then he and all of his race +have been called just baboons. + + + + + + + + +FAIRY TALES FROM AFRICA + +UNCLE LION + + Providing the circumstance from which the phrase “Taking the + Lion’s Share” has been derived. Inferentially all other + accounts are inaccurate. + + +Always when the lion went out hunting he took Kanja, the jackal, with +him, for Kanja was a much better hunter than he. + +But whenever the jackal had killed the game, he would say, “That is +mine, Uncle Lion!” Then the lion would look at him with such an angry +glare that Kanja would contradict himself at once, and say, “No, it is +yours, of course!” Then Uncle Lion would eat it up, and Kanja would go +hungry. + +“You see, I only take the lion’s share,” Uncle Lion would explain. + +“Yes, I have noticed it,” replied the jackal. + +“What is your idea of the lion’s share?” asked the lion, with one eye +on Kanja. + +“Everything, Uncle Lion,” answered poor Kanja. + +“Very well. You shall hunt with me again to-morrow,” said the lion +approvingly. + +When the next day came, however, Kanja avoided Uncle Lion, and went off +to hunt on his own account. + +After a while he met a friend of his, the leopard, flying across the +plains as though a dozen hunters were after him. + +“What seems to be the matter?” asked the jackal. + +“I am really in a hurry,” replied the leopard. “Don’t stop me. There is +a terrible beast looking out of the door of a hut, a little way back! +It has great horns and is four times as big as you. I must be going.” + +“But wait a minute!” said the jackal, and caught hold of the leopard, +and insisted on hearing more about the creature which had frightened +him. + +In a minute he began to laugh. “Why, it is only a ram!” he cried. “He +can’t do you any harm. We will go and catch him for dinner. I am almost +starved.” + +Kanja found it rather hard work to persuade him, but at last, when the +leopard heard how badly the lion had treated his friend the day before, +he agreed to go with him. + +“But you must tie me to you,” said the leopard, with his teeth +chattering. “I shall be sure to run when I see him.” + +So Kanja fastened a leather thong around both their bodies, and dragged +him along at a great rate. “Don’t let Uncle Lion catch us,” he +whispered, looking from side to side. “If he took the lion’s share this +time, I should die of hunger.” + +When the ram saw them coming, he was more frightened than the leopard +had been, so he ran back to the hut and told his wife. + +“I don’t know what we are going to do,” he cried. “Kanja and his friend +the leopard are coming to devour us!” + +“Oh, that’s nonsense!” answered his wife. “Here take the child and go +out to meet them.” Then she gave him their little kid, and told him to +pinch it and make it cry. + +“But I don’t understand,” said her husband, who was really very stupid. + +“Do just as I tell you,” said his wife. “You must shout in a terrible +tone, ‘Just in time! Just in time! My child is crying for food!’ Then +you’ll see what will happen!” + +When the leopard saw the ram, with his terrible horns coming towards +them, he would have run away there and then if the jackal had not +pulled him forward. Just then the ram gave his child a pinch, and the +little kid began to cry. + +“I am glad to see you, Kanja,” he cried. “You have brought the leopard +just in time. My child is crying for food.” + +“This is no place for me!” cried the leopard. “Let us be off.” And so +they both tugged at the leather thong, Kanja determined to go on, and +the leopard to go back. + +But the leopard was much the stronger, and in a minute or two he was +dragging the jackal along at a terrible pace. They rushed on and on, +until they were out of sight of the ram, and then Kanja fell down +exhausted. He was too faint with hunger to go any farther, but the +leopard, who could not get over his fright, unfastened the thong and +went on. + +After a while, a wagon loaded with fish came past, and as it was going +very slowly, the jackal tried to jump into it from behind. + +“Even fish is better than nothing,” he said to himself, but he was too +weak to manage it, and the wagon passed along. + +But there was another following it at a little distance, and this time +Kanja stretched himself in front of it as though he were dead. + +“What is this?” said the driver, when he saw the jackal stretched out +in the road. “His skin will make a nice cloak for my daughter.” + +So the driver picked him up and threw him into the wagon, which was +exactly what Kanja wanted. He had no idea of being made into a cloak +for the driver’s daughter, but he did wish to be near the fish. + +When Kanja had satisfied his hunger, he began to throw the fish out +into the road, one by one. The daylight failed and the moon rose, but +he was still busy with this, until the fishes lay like a silver streak +as far along the track as he could see. + +At last he jumped out of the wagon. “Four hundred!” he cried. “One for +every day in the year, and thirty-five over. Now I must carry them to a +place where Uncle Lion won’t find them.” + +But while he was collecting them, a hyena came up and ate as many as +she wanted without asking his permission. + +“Here, you! Leave my fish alone!” cried Kanja angrily. + +“They are no more your fish than mine,” replied the hyena. “Your fish, +indeed! Why they have fallen out of the wagon.” + +Kanja was too much annoyed to speak, so he went on gathering up the +fish, and thinking of a way to punish her. + +“There is another wagon coming,” he said at last. “Lie down in the +road, and you will get as many fish as I did.” + +The hyena opened her eyes. “Really?” she asked. + +“Really. But you must keep perfectly still. Pretend to be dead.” + +The fur of a hyena is not soft and silky like that of a jackal, so when +the driver saw her stretched out in front of the wagon, he kicked her +out of the way. + +“Great, ugly thing!” he said. “What is it doing here?” Then he looked +around for a stick to beat her with, and as she moved a little he cried +out, “Oh, she’s not dead at all. Get up, you stupid, and be off!” + +After the wagon had gone on, the hyena limped away to tell Kanja what +had happened, “There was no fish,” she said, “and I am beaten to a +jelly.” + +“You have probably made some mistake,” said the jackal politely. “Are +you sure you laid perfectly still?” he asked, “and right in the middle +of the track?” + +“I lay perfectly still in the middle of the track,” replied the hyena. + +“Then it must be that the driver didn’t think you handsome enough to +make a cloak. That’s it, dear friend. Your want of beauty is your +misfortune and not your fault,” said Kanja in a sympathetic tone. + +“It certainly is a great misfortune to be plain,” sighed the hyena, +with tears in her eyes. + +“But it is a still greater one to be stupid!” added Kanja, as he ran +off with another fish in his mouth. + +“I wonder what he meant?” said the hyena to herself. + + + + + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77175 *** diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..802cdcf --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for eBook #77175 +(https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77175) |
