Reading Notes: Nigerian Folk Stories, Part B

 Notes for Folk Stories From Southern Nigeria, collected by Elphinstone Dayrell

Artist's Painting of a Hippopotamus from the Rogers Fund (source: Wikimedia). 

"The Affair of the Hippopotamus and the Tortoise"/"Why the Hippopotamus Lives in the Water"

• Isantim 
• Hippo 
• Second only to the elephant 
• Had 7 large fat wives 
• Occasionally gives a feast to the people 
• He knew everyone's names 
• No one knew his name 
• Tells people to leave if they don't know his name 
• Tortoise 
• "...the tortoise stood up and asked the hippopotamus what he would do if he told him his name at the next feast. So the hippo replied that he would be so ashamed of himself, that he and his whole family would leave the land, and for the future would dwell in the water."
• Tortoise makes a small hole in the middle of the path that the hippo uses to go to a river 
• A wife hits her foot on the turtle and calls out her husband's name 
• Calls out the hippo's name at the next feast 
• The hippo and his wives leave and live in the river forevermore 

"How the Tortoise overcame the Elephant and the Hippopotamus"

• The elephant and hippo used to feed together and be great friends 
• The tortoise appeared one day and baited them 
• Said that neither could pull him out of the water with a "strong piece of tie-tie"
• Offered the elephant 10,000 rods 
• The elephant said he would give the tortoise 20,000 rods if he could not pull him out 
• Tortoise ties a tie-tie around a rock but tied it around his leg after the elephant failed to pull him out, claiming that the elephant failed entirely 
• Elephant admitted defeat, paying the tortoise 20,000 rods 
• Tortoise took rods home to his wife, and they lived happily 
• The tortoise made the same bet with the hippo after the money ran out
• Hippo says he will take the bet if the tortoise takes the land and the hippo takes the water 
• Tortoise agrees and ties the tie-tie around a tree when the hippo enters the water 
• Hippo believes he fails and gives the tortoise 20,000 more rods 
• The elephant and hippo want to befriend the tortoise 
• Tortoise says he will live with the hippo in the water and his son will live with the elephant 
• This is supposed to explain why tortoises supposedly live on water and land