Reading Notes: Nigerian Folk Stories, Part A

The Elephant and the Tortoise

The story begins with a greedy elephant that has a reputation of devouring everything at feasts-even leaving similar sized animals, such as hippos, with a very small amount of food. A tortoise decided that he would be the one to put a stop to this behavior, and came up with a plan in which to do so. One day he arrived at the elephant's house and ate a delicious snack right in front of him. Predictably, the elephant asked for some of his food, but the tortoise said that the elephant must give up an eye in order to eat it. Agreeing, the elephant allowed his eyes to be painfully slashed out. The elephant ate the snack and was not satisfied, so he asked for more. The same deal took place- more snacks for his other eye. The tortoise then left, leaving the elephant blind and feeling deceived. The elephant went around town asking for other animals to lend him their eyes, but everyone said no except for the worms. The worms were glad to have been noticed and therefore volunteered their eyes to the elephant. However when the worms requested their eyes back, the elephant pretended not to hear, leaving worms to be blind and elephants with small eyes for eternity.

Overall, this story includes a folklore about why the elephants eyes are so small. The elephant in this story was greedy when it came to food, and a tortoise took noticed. When the elephant and the tortoise were together, the elephant wanted some of the food the tortoise was eating, However, the tortoise made the elephant trade his eyes and eventually the only animal to lend the elephant their eyes were worms. This story was fun to read and has a lesson about greed in it. If I were retelling it, I would keep the lesson about greed but change other aspects so it is recreated in a new way.

[Elephant eye. Image Information]

Bibliography

Dayrell, Elphinstone. Elephant and the Tortoise. Folk Stories from Southern Nigeria. 1910. Link

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