Author(s): Rosetta Baskerville (1880-1966)
Illustrations: Mrs. E. G. Morris
Year: 1900 [public domain]
Internet Archive: Always available.
Stories (24): The Flame Tree / The Buffalo Maiden / The Mpa Bana Bird / The Absent-minded Bridegroom / The Singer. a song, not a story. / The Famine / The Quits of Gomba / The Dog and the Leopard / The Leopard, the Hare, and the Monkey / Musoke the Moon-boy / The Elephant That Wanted to Dance / The Man Who Knew Too Much / The Story of Nsangi and the Apes / Soliloquy of Old Age in a Banana Garden / The Law Concerning Fortune-tellers / The Holy Man / The Cheats of Kijongo / The Story of the Frog / The Hare Who Earned a Cow / Song of a Muhima Herding Cattle in Bugerere / The Lion-girl / The Story of the Wonderful Goat / The River Fairy / The Royal Puff Adders of Budo. I have included two stories below: The Hare Who Earned a Cow and The Leopard, the Hare, and the Monkey.
Style: The stories are told in literary English, not too old-fashioned.
Frame: None.
Storytellers: Names not provided.
Additional Information: Rosetta Baskerville was the wife of George Baskerville, who was a missionary in Uganda. She published this book, plus another book of stories from Uganda: The King of the Snakes and Other Folklore Stories from Uganda.
Story Title: The Hare Who Earned a Cow
Tradition: A Baganda story from Uganda
Notes: You can read the story of the kasanke bird referred to here in another book by Baskerville. She says the hyena ran to "Kavirondo," but this is not a geographical reference that you can easily look up; since the Kavirondo people lived on the western slopes of Mount Elgon, I used Mount Elgon in the story here, specifically Mount Wagagai which is one of the peaks of Mount Elgon that is located in Uganda.
Parallels: The setting of impossible tasks like finding bamboo without a joint, carrying water in a basket, etc. is a common folklore motif in stories both about animals and about humans.
Story Title: The Leopard, the Hare, and the Monkey
Tradition: A Baganda story from Uganda
Notes: This story is composed of many familiar motifs focused on the antics of the trickster hare.
Parallels: For an African American parallel to the incident of setting the watchman to guard the trapped trickster, see Joel Chandler Harris's Mr. Fox Is Again Victimized.
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