INTRODUCTION

A series of fairy tales from different countries would be incomplete without a book of stories from Africa, which for many years was called the “Dark Continent.”

We are very largely indebted to travelers, explorers, and missionaries for African legends and stories. Those in this book were told to them by the natives themselves in dark and gloomy forests, and by the great, brown rivers of that wonderful land. They are not so much about princes and princesses as are the fairy tales of other countries, but are more about animals—elephants, and lions, and jackals.

There is plenty of magic in these stories, however. Ramil, the witch mother, used it on her elephant son; the hunter’s wife in “The Master Weaver” rubbed a stronger magic “medicine” on her husband’s spear than he had been using, and so had her way about things; and The Flying Lion never would have lost the power of using his wings if the beautiful girl with red flowers in her hair and a gold bracelet on her arm had not learned how to make an invisible robe for herself. “King Mungo” is a very funny story, and in “Uncle Lion” we are told how the phrase “taking the lion’s share” originated. All of these tales are extremely interesting.

The borders and other decorations in the book will be of great interest to young people, for they represent musical instruments, headdresses, war clubs, war drums, spears, belts, idols, and other rude objects used by African tribes hundreds of years ago.

H. J.