Author: Elphinstone Dayrell (1869-1917)
Illustrations: There are a few black-and-white photos included in the book.
Year: 1913 [public domain]
Internet Archive: Always available.
Stories (34): How an Inkum Woman Abandoned One of Her Twins in the Forest / The Cunning Hare / The Story of Igiri and Her Husband Inkang / How Elili of Inkum Died, and Was Brought Back to Life Again / Concerning the Human Sacrifices / The Story of the Witch who Tried to Kill Her Husband / How Two Friends Fell Out: The Spider and the Grasshopper / How Ewa Abagi, an Inkum Woman, Was Drowned in the Cross River / The Story of the War between Inkum and Enfitop / How an Inkum Boy Was Drowned by His Companions / How a Father Tried to Kill One of His Sons but Failed / Concerning the Okuni Witches and Cannibalism / Of Chief Amaza, His Wife Achi, and the Tortoise / The Fate of Agbor the Hunter, Who Killed His Wife and Children / What Happened at Okuni When Anyone Was Killed by Accident / How Oghabi Poisoned His Friend Okpa / How Chief Alankor and All His Family Were Killed by a Big Frog / How the River Came into Existence / Why the Mist Rises from the Water / How Ibanang Okpong and Her Mother Were Swallowed by a Man-Eating Drum / Why the Head of the Male Goat Smells So Strong / A Story of the Great Famine / Why Edidor Killed Her Husband and Her Lover / How 'Nyambi Punished Chief Oga / How Two Bendega Young Men Changes Their Skins / Concerning the Ju-Ju against Elephantiasis / How a Cruel Inkum Chief Was Poisoned by His Slaves / How the Frog Beat the Bush Buck in a Race / Why a Python Never Swallows a Tortoise / The Game of Hide-and-Seek / Chief Kekong's Daughter 'Ndere who Married a Python / How Agbor Adam Broke the Hunting Law of Okuni / How Essama Stole Her Father's Goat in the Fatting-House / Quomodo Evenit ut Penis Primum Cum Vagina Coiit (How it Happened that the Penis for the First Time Had Intercourse with the Vagina; in Latin). I have included one story below: The Great Famine.
Style: The stories are told in literary English.
Frame: None.
Storytellers: The storyteller is acknowledged by name at the end of each story.
Additional Information: This book follows Dayrell's earlier collection of stories from southern Nigeria, published in 1910. Unlike that book, this book features an introduction where Dayrell offers some insights into how he collected and translated the stories. This book focuses on stories from the Cross River State in southern Nigeria; Dayrell was the colonial administrator of the Ikom district, with its capital at Calabar, and the phrase "Calabar people" can be used to refer generally to the people in this southeastern part of Nigeria.
Story Title: A Story of the Great Famine
Tradition: an Okuni story from southern Nigeria
Notes: This story was told by Ennenni, an Okuni woman.
Parallels: The story of the greedy trickster abandoned on the top of a tree or up in heaven is widespread, including in the Americas; for a Jamaican version of the trickster spider left in the tree see Anansi, White-Belly, and Fish. The story of the deadly nanny and counting-substitutes is also widespread and it too is an African story told by African storytellers in the Americas; here's a version collected by Joel Chandler Harris: How the Bear Nursed the Little Alligators. This story makes reference to alligators, but as there are no alligators in Africa, only crocodiles, I have changed that to crocodile. Also, there are no iguanas native to Africa, so where Dayrell said iguana, I changed that to lizard. I also did some light editing to clarify ambiguous pronouns.
A STORY OF THE GREAT FAMINE
In the days of the great famine, when all men and animals on the land were starving, the crocodiles and the fish in the river had plenty to eat and the parrots and bats were also well off for food. The parrot used to fly off very early every morning with his family to an island in the river where there were plenty of palm-trees, and return in the evening carrying his bag of palm nuts with him. All the people were very jealous of the parrot in consequence, and wanted to kill him and all his family.
The hare was very curious to know how it was that the parrot always managed to get food, so he went to him pretending to be a great friend of his, but could never find him at home in the daytime, so he went in the evening and met the parrot returning home carrying his bag, full of palm nuts as usual. The hare asked the parrot where he got all the palm nuts from, and said he would like to go with him. But the parrot said that the hare could not go, and that he was only able to take his own family to the place where the palm nuts grew.
The hare then went home, but made up his mind to go with the parrot, so that very night he hid himself in the parrot's bag. At daylight the parrot put his bag round his neck and flew off with his family to the island. He then began to gather the palm nuts, and to fill up his bag. Now the palm-tree where the parrot was overhung the river, and the hare, thinking he would pay the parrot out for refusing to bring him, made a hole in the bottom of the bag so that the nuts dropped through into the water as fast as the parrot put them into the bag.
When the parrot began to eat some of the nuts, the hare ate some also, and when the parrot dropped the kernel the hare dropped his at the same time through the hole in the bag. The parrot did not notice this, as he thought that some of his family were also eating close at hand, so he continued to put nuts into the bag, but could not understand why it was that the bag did not get full. At last the parrot thought there must be a hole in the bag, so he looked inside and found the hare there.
Then the parrot said, " My friend, what are you doing in my bag? Did I not tell you that I would not take you to the place where I got my food from? You must have hidden yourself in my bag without my knowledge." He then pulled the hare out of the bag and, having placed him on the top of the palm-tree, flew off to the next tree where he was joined by the rest of his family, to whom he related the way in which he had punished the hare, and shortly afterwards they all flew home, leaving the hare on the island.
The hare managed with some difficulty to climb down the tree, but when he reached the ground he was afraid to cross over to the land from the island, as he thought the crocodiles or big fish might catch him. He looked all round the island for a place to make his house in, but it was all wet, as the river was high, so the next day he determined to swim across the river, and risk being eaten. But before the hare started he threw some small bits of dried sticks into the river and watched the fish come up and look at them. When he saw that he was bigger than the fish, he said, "They cannot eat me," and without much fear jumped into the water and began to swim across.
The fish came round the hare and saluted him, saying, "Go on your way in peace." Just as he got near the land, however, he came across a large female crocodile, who asked him where he came from and where he was going. When he said that he was swimming from the island towards the land the crocodile caught him, saying, "I want you to do me a service first, and then I will let you go."
Crocodile by Tambako at Flickr
She then took the hare to her house at the bottom of the river, where she introduced him to her husband, and said, "This man can paint our children, and make them look nice to all people." At this time the crocodiles were grey-coloured without any markings, and had for some time been wanting to change their colouring.
Then the hare said, "I see you have many young crocodiles here, and I will paint them all for you, but you must not look at me while I am doing it. I will paint one of your children every day and show it to you, but you must first of all build me a house, into which you must put all your children, with plenty of food and firewood."
The next day the crocodiles built the house, and did everything the hare told them, a small hole being left in the wall of the house so that the hare could show the crocodiles each child as he painted it. The hare then went into the house and shut the door carefully. That day he painted the crocodiles' eldest son with long dark stripes across his body, and when he had finished he held the young crocodile up to the hole for his parents to see, and asked them if they were satisfied. The old crocodiles told the hare that he had painted their son very well, and they were pleased. So the hare put the young crocodile on the ground and closed the hole.
That evening the hare killed one of the young crocodiles and ate it. The next day he held up the crocodile he had already painted to the hole for the old ones to see, and then put it down again, closing the hole as before. When night came he again killed another young crocodile and ate it. The same thing happened every night until the hare had eaten all the young crocodiles except the one he had painted and showed to the parents each morning.
The hare then told the crocodiles that he had finished painting all their children, and wanted to go home, but he told them that they must not go into the house until after he had gone, as if they did, his magic ju-ju would be broken and all the painting would be spoiled. He also asked them to allow him to be rowed across the river by a lizard, who is deaf and cannot hear anyone shouting.
The crocodiles agreed to this, and told the lizard to bring his canoe and paddle the hare across the river. They then gave the hare presents of fish and yams, and said good-bye to him. The hare then got into the canoe and pushed off, and the lizard commenced to paddle him over.
When they had gone a little distance the father crocodile went to the house where the hare had been, and when he looked in he found only his eldest son who had been painted, so he asked him where the other children were, and his son replied that the hare had eaten one of his brothers or sisters every night until he was the only one left. When the crocodile heard this he was wild with rage, and went up the bank and called to the lizard to bring the hare back, but as the lizard was deaf, the lizard took no notice. When the hare heard the crocodile shouting and waving from the bank, he attracted the lizard's attention and made him understand that the crocodile was so pleased at the good work the hare had done that he wished the lizard to row faster, so the lizard paddled harder than before.
Seeing that the canoe did not return, the crocodile dived into the river and swam after the canoe, but before he could catch it the hare had jumped to the land and ran up the bank. The crocodile then scrambled up the bank to where the hare was sitting, and asked him why he had killed and eaten his children, and told the hare he should kill him. The hare acknowledged that he had done wrong, but asked the crocodile not to kill him at once, as his body was so small it would not be worth eating. He then advised the crocodile to dig a pit and put sharp stakes, with their points upwards, in the bottom. The hare said, "If you do this, and then throw me up in the air as high as you can, so that my body will fall into the pit on the sharp stakes, then I shall die in great pain, and in three days' time my body will be much swollen and will then be better worth eating."
The crocodile thought this a good plan, and agreed to what the hare said, so he dug a pit and put the sharp sticks in the bottom. The crocodile then threw the hare into the air as high as he could, and the hare fell into the pit but was careful not to be caught on the sharp sticks. The hare then commenced to scream with pain, pretending to be in great agony. So the crocodile said, "Now I have got you, you cunning hare!" and walked away to the river. The crocodile then swam home and told his wife, who was mourning her children, of the revenge he had taken upon the hare.
The next morning he went to the pit to see if the hare had grown any larger, but when he looked in he found that the hare had disappeared. He then made enquiries from some other animals about the hare, and they told him that the hare was alive and they had seen him running home.
When the hare got home, he went to the parrot and told him what had happened to him, and warned the parrot that he should do his best to kill him for leaving him on the palm-tree to the danger of his life, unless for the future the parrot lived by the waterside, as that was where the parrot got his food from. Then the parrot was frightened, and moved his house to the top of a high tree on the island. Ever since that time the parrots have made their nests on high trees on islands, and when they are flying high up in the air you can hear them laughing at the hare, saying, "We are out of your reach; you cannot harm us now." And even at the present time you can see that the young crocodiles have stripes across their bodies, but the skin of the old ones, which is very rough, does not show the marks made by the hare, except on the tail part.
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