Reading Notes: Nigerian Folk Stories, Part A

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

"The Disobedient Daughter who Married a Skull"

• Effiong Edem 
• From Cobham Town 
• Father of Afiong 
• Afiong 
• A beautiful girl
• Desired by all young men in the country 
• Refuses all marriage offers because she is vain and only wants the best-looking man 
• Most of the men her parents want her to marry are old 
• The Skull 
• Inhabitor of the spirit land 
• Wishes to possess Afiong 
• Borrows the best part of each of his friends' bodies 
• Allows him to be "a very perfect specimen of manhood" 
• Afiong sees the Skull at the market 
• Falls in love with him 
• Invites him home 
• Afiong's parents eventually agree to their marriage 
• The couple live together in Afiong's parents' house for 2 days before returning to the Skull's "country"
• Afiong's parents do not want her to leave with him 
• Effiong consults his Ju Ju man, who says that the Skull belongs to the spirit land 
• Ju Ju man says Afiong will be killed 
• When the couple arrive in the spirit land, the Skull's friends request their body parts back 
• Afiong cannot leave and cares for the Skull's mother, causing him to become fond of Afiong 
• The inhabitants of the spirit world are cannibals 
• The Skull's mother protects Afiong if she agrees to obey her parents in the future
• Calls a Ju Ju to take Afiong home 
• Chief passes a law prohibiting girls from marrying strangers from far off countries 
• Afiong marries her father's friend and lives happily ever after 

Elephant and people. Mughal school of painting. 17th -18th century. Drawing with heightened colors on paper. Musée Guimet. Purchase, 2010, MA 12291 from Ismoon (source: Wikimedia).

"The Elephant and the Tortoise"/"Why the Worms are Blind and Why the Elephant has Small Eyes"

• Ambo 
• King of Calabar 
• Men + animals are friends and hang out together
• Elephant 
• Had eyes proportional to body size 
• Eats tons at feasts 
• Begs everyone to lend them their eyesight 
• Tortoise
• Cuts elephant's eyes out for being greedy and to trick him into appreciating food 
• Worm 
• Flattered by the elephant's greeting and request for eyes 
• Lends the elephant his eyes 
• Does not get eyes back because the elephant's flesh sealed up around them