Reading Notes: Nigerian Folk Stories Part B

The Tortoise

The tortoise is an interesting trickster character. He seems to take advantage of others and always gets away with it. You'd think the hippopotamus would learn that the tortoise is so tricky after he figures our his name but he still falls for the tortoise's bet.

Tortoise (Wikimedia Commons)

The Affair of the Hippopotamus and the Tortoise
The hippopotamus frequently threw large feasts for the people of his kingdom but no one except his seven wives knew his name, Isantim. The hippopotamus asks all of the guests at his feast if they know his name and kicks them out unfed when no one can give his name. The tortoise asks what he could get if he knew the hippopotamus' name at the next feast and the hippopotamus promises he and his family would dwell in the water forever out of embarrassment. One day when the hippopotamus and his wives went to bathe the tortoise hid himself in the path until one of the hippopotamuses wived walked by and he left part of his shell exposed so the wife would knock her foot against his shell. The wife called her husband by name when she hurt her foot so the tortoise was able to tell him his name at the next feast and the hippopotamus left to live in the water

 How the Tortoise overcame the Elephant and the Hippopotamus
The tortoise told the elephant and hippopotamus though they were both large and strong neither could pull him out of the water with a strong tie-tie. He challenged the elephant and the elephant bet twenty-thousand rods. the tortoise tied the end of the tie-tie to a rock instead of himself so the elephant could not pull him out. Then when the elephant gave up he tied the end to his leg and emerged from the water. When the twenty-thousand rods ran out he challenged the hippopotamus. The hippopotamus agreed but he wanted to pull the tortoise into the water. The tortoise tied the tie-tie twice around a tree and then when the hippopotamus gave up he tied the tie-tie to his leg. The elephant and hippopotamus then both respected the strength of the tortoise and became friends. The tortoise told his son to live on land with the elephant and he himself lived in the water with the hippopotamus.

Folk Stories From Southern Nigeria by Elphinstone Dayrell