Folk Stories from Southern Nigeria, West Africa

XXIX. How the Tortoise overcame the Elephant and the Hippopotamus.--A "Just So Story," with the tortoise as cunning as Brer Rabbit.

XXX. Of the Pretty Girl and the Seven Jealous Women.--Here the good little bird plays the part of the popinjay who "up and spake" with good effect in the first ballads. The useful Ju Ju man divines by casting lots, a common method among the Zulus. The revenge of the pretty girl's father is certainly adequate.

XXXI. How the Cannibals drove the People from Insofan Mountain to the Cross River (Ikom).--This professes to be historical, and concerns human sacrifices, "to cool the new yams," and cannibalism.

XXXII. is unimportant.

In XXXIII. we find the ordeal poison, which destroys fifty witches.

XXXIV. The Slave Girl who tried to Kill her Mistress is a form of our common tale of the waiting-maid who usurps the place of her mistress, the Bride. The resurrection of the Bride from t