Week 7 Extra Reading: South Africa A

Here are some notes on the South African stories; the one I would most want to retell I think is The World's Reward ... although I really like The Lion, The Jackal, and The Man too.

Here are my notes... and for future reference:
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[Notes by LKG]

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The Lost Message. Instead of the lost message that would have prevented death from coming into the world, this is a lost message about cooperation.

The Monkey's Fiddle. This is a great fairy-tale type story with magical objects, and monkey triumphs in the end thanks to his fiddle-playing. I could definitely see writing a version of this but with rabbit as the main character.

The Tiger, The Ram, and The Jackal. This is one of those folktale types where the weak animal pretends to be ready to eat the meat of the more powerful animal who approaches.

The Lion, The Jackal, and The Man. The "meeting man" story is one that shows up African-American folklore too! For example, Joel Chandler Harris: Mr. Lion Hunts for Mr. Man.

The World's Reward. This is a "Bremen Town Musicians" type of story, and this version does not fill out the chain in detail. I love chain tales, so it would be fun to do a complete version where we meet each creature one by one as the dog meets the bull and then a donkey, a cat, a cock, and a goose.

Tiger and Jackal. There is the jackal-without-a-tail here (from Aesop) but also the counting-the-children type of story like in the Harris tale of the Brer Bear and the Little Gators.

Tink-Tinkje. This is one of those stories about the little animal who rides on another animal to win a race or, in this case, fly the highest. This motif shows up in African American folklore too. There's also a "white crow" in this story which I looked up; it's also known as a pied crow since it is not completely white, but is black and white:

(African white crow)

The Lion, The Jackal and The Rope. This is a great story about jackal and wife tricking the lion, where the jackal is pretending to help the lion, but is doing just the opposite, whispering commands to his wife. I could definitely adapt this to a rabbit story!

Jackal Fools Lion Again. More detailed version of the previous story, ending with a red-hot stone tossed in lion's mouth. I am so sure I have read a version of this story somewhere, but I cannot remember where now! Argh!

The Hunt of Lion and Jackal. This is a simple story of greed and trickery on the part of the jackal; I could definitely adapt this to a rabbit story, and it would be easy to combine it with the previous story.

Story of Lion and Little Jackal. This story is full of all kinds of fun tricks, including the story of the jackal pretending to have horns and attending the meeting of the horned animals, but the horns melt when he is sitting by the fire. For an African American story with the horns motif: Brer Wolf and his Horns.

The Lioness and the Ostrich. What a great story about unexpected strength. I don't think I know any other story quite like this one.

The Story of a Dam. This is the tar baby story, with the Tortoise tricking the Jackal, but the Jackal using the greased-tail trick in order to escape.