Week 6 Reading Diary: South African Folktales

South African Folktales by James Honey (1910)

The Lost Message

• Each of the different species of ants come together
• They all want to find a way to better protect themselves from their enemies
• In the end they all disagree on how to solve their issues and end up no better off than before
• Each species tries to solve their problems their own way and none of them are successful
• The insect king sent them the secret of unity to solve their problems, but he sent the beetle as his messenger and they have yet to receive the message

The Monkey's Fiddle

• The monkey was given a bow and arrow, and a fiddle by his uncle
• The monkey met a wolf who was trying to catch a deer
• The monkey killed the deer with his bow and arrow
• The wolf became jealous of the monkey and threatened the monkey to give him his bow and arrow
• The jackal came by and the wolf claimed to the jackal that the monkey stole his now and arrow
• They decided to settle the matter in the court of the lion, tiger and other animals
• The monkey lost and was sentenced to hanging for his crime
• The monkey asked to play his fiddle one last time
• Everyone began dancing uncontrollably
• They begged the monkey to stop
• He requested to be set free and be given his bow and arrow back
• They did as asked and then they all fled to different parts of the world

The Tiger, The Ram, and The Jackal

• The tiger came across the ram, whom he had never met
• He ran home to the jackal in fear
• The jackal told him not to fear and that they would go back tomorrow to slay the ram
• The ram saw them coming and asked his wife what to do
• His wife said to take their child out, pinch him to make him cry so the tiger and jackal will think he's hungry
• The ram did so and then yelled to the jackal thanking him for bringing the tiger to feed his child
• The tiger took off in fear again and drug the jackal behind him all the way home

The Lion, The Jackal, and The Man

• The lion and the jackal were discussing business when the lion began boasting about how strong he was
• The jackal told him he wasn't the strongest
• The jackal took him to a man
• The lion tried to attack the man
• The man stabbed him a few times and shot at him
• The lion retreated and told the jackal he was not the strongest

The World's Reward

• A dog was getting old and his owner wanted to get rid of him
• So he decided to set off on his own
• He met a bull, ram, donkey, cat, cock, and goose
• They all came upon a house of robbers eating dinner
• They were all hungry so they decided to scare off the robbers
• When the robbers fled the animals ate and then decided to stay the night
• One robber came back to see if the coast was clear and the animals attacked
• The robber ran back terrified to the others and said the coast was not clear

(South African veldt, Mpumalanga)