Stories from Fables and fairy tales for little folk; or, Uncle Remus in Hausaland by Mary and Arthur Tremearne.
The Spider Deceives the Hippopotamus and the Elephant. This is a tug of war story! AND it has a great sequel also: the Spider dresses in a dried-up rabbit skin and used that to scare Elephant and Hippo (like the rabbit-in-dried-up-deerskin story!).
How the Hyena was Blamed for the Spider's Wickedness. There is a subplot of Spider and Mrs. Spider (she dies), and Spider is able to pin the corn-theft on Hyena, but I don't think this is one I will use.
The Crafty Spider Replenishes his Larder. Spider inviting animals to rebuild his burnt down house (he burnt it down!): Chicken, Wildcat, Dog, Hyena, Leopard, Lion. I could do this as a two-parter: the set-up and then the defeat of the animals one by one.
Hausatu and the Enchanted Spider. Spider uses tricks to win a wife, and then sings a song to their baby confessing his tricks. (This could work as a series of tales, but probably not for my Storybook.)
How The Thieving Spider was Caught by the Half-Man. Spider pretends to work, fooling Mrs. Spider. Then he steals corn from Half-Man's field, who makes a doll (tar baby).
The Boy Who Refused to Walk. Long story in which Spider play sonly a minor role.
Stories from Hausa superstitions and customs by Arthur Tremearene:
The Spider, the Old Woman, and the Wonderful Bull. Spider is not the main character here but it is a cool and weird story.
The Rich Malam, the Thieving Spider, and the Hyena. Spider sneakily steals from rich man. Rich man catches Spider, but Hyena takes Spider's place. Doing a take-my-place story would be good.
The Biter Bit. Cute little story about fooling Spider by putting mud in sacks where there was meat.
How the Spider ate the Hyena Cubs' Food. Spider says his name is For-You-All to get the food mother hyena brings cubs, "for you all." Then he runs off and throws blame on Dog by saying he was panting. This is a good one!
The Spider, the Guinea-fowl, and the Francolin. Spider sends Guinea-Fowl back for spoon and for grass, so he eats all the food. Then he tricks Guinea-Fowl into throwing herself in the fire. But then Francolin reverses all the Spider's tricks, and finally tricks Spider into killing his family (like Butterfly in Jamaica story)... this is a good one too!
The camel and the rude monkey. The spider is just one of the judges in this story, while it is the jackal who saves the monkey from the camel.
Bortorimi and the Spider. Bortorimi is a giant, which is really cool, and this has an "early dawn" motif I've never seen before: greedy Spider burns down his own house! But the ending is not very good. Greedy Spider wants to go hunting for elephants with Bortorimi again, but Bortorimi says he has enough.
The Hyena and the Spider Visit the King of a Far City. Spider replaces Hyena's honey with dirt, so the king is angry. He gives Hyena mats to sleep on, while Spider gets skins. Spider won't share skins with Hyena because greedy Hyena will eat them, but Spider finally relents, and Hyena eats skins. King gives Spider a Bull and Hyena only a goat, which Hyena eats bit by bit along the way. Spider tricked Hyena into going away, and he ate the Bull, then hid in a tree. Hyena brings Ostrich to get Spider out of the tree, and Hyena eats her eggs. An odd story, but with some good elements.
The Greedy Spider and the Birds. Birds make wings for Spider so he can fly to island where there are mangos. He greedily ate all the mangos so they took back their feathers and he was trapped on the island. Trying to escape, he drowned.
The Spider which Bought a Dog as a Slave. Dog doesn't help farm but he catches a rabbit, so Spider gets Monkey to make arrowheads to equip Dog. Dog attacks Monkey and finally even Spider and his wife must flee and Dog takes their house.
The Fighting Ram. Story of a brave Ram who defies King's attempts to capture it. Spider is the King's helper. In the end, they finally kill the poor Ram who is very admirable.
The Lazy Boy. Spider is incidental; see Boy Who Refused to Walk above.
Woman, Mouse, Cake. Spider comes in at the end and eats both mouse and cake.
The Spider Passes on a Debt. Chain tale of debt! Spider to Goat to Crab to Daughter to Slipperiness (!) to Ant to Bird to Boy to Mother to Blacksmith.
The Spider Pays his Debts. See the larder story above. I love this story! This is a shorter version without the house-fire.
The Lucky Youngest Son. Spider is just a minor character in this story. It opens with a marvelous chain tale!
Sleepless Town. Same way here; Spider is minor character.
Tremearne has also published some really valuable Hausa stories in a series in Folklore. I will write about those in a separate post but what I did for today was to combine them into a handy single PDF so that I will be ready to go! Fifty Hausa Folktales.
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