There was a famine in Bat's village, so he went into the forest, looking for food, and found a tree with honey.
"Hey, everybody!" he shouted. "Help me cut down this tree!"
The animals worked together to fell the tree.
Then Tortoise said, "Bat will divide the honey among us."
"I'll go home and get my scales." said Bat. "Wait here; I'll be back soon!"
Then Bat found a hollow tree nearby. He crawled inside and started flapping his wings, making a strange and terrible sound to scare the animals away.
That's how Bat took all the honey for himself.
[a Bulu story from Cameroon]
Inspired by: "How Bat Got the Honey" in Bulu Folk-Tales (in Journal of American Folklore) by George Schwab, 1914. The Bulu are a people who live in Cameroon.
Notes: You can read the original story online. In the original story Bat did not have a good excuse for going back to his village, so I added the scales; you can read about the traditional goldweights of western Africa at Wikipedia.
No comments:
Post a Comment