Read online · Ghana
Akan-Ashanti Folk-Tales
Robert Sutherland Rattray · 1930
Original text in Twi.
A colonial administrator who speaks Twi transcribes, over the course of evening gatherings, the tales the Ashanti villagers tell one another.
Tale · 76 parts · about 74 000 words · about 5 h 21 of reading
Contents
- Preface18 min
- How It Came About That Obonto Ya, the Minnow, Is Always “Walking” About Aimlessly in the Water1 min
- Mpitripi and Mpatrapa1 min
- How It Came About That Wisdom Came Among the Tribe2 min
- How It Came About That We Do Not Leave a Child in an Empty House8 min
- How It Came About That the Vulture Always Sits Among Filth2 min
- If Some One Does Good to You, Show Your Thanks by Doing Him Good in Return4 min
- How the Leopard’s Body Became Spotted5 min
- How the Babadua Reed Got the Joints (On Its Stalk)4 min
- How Okoto, the Crab, Got a Shell, and Aberewa, the Old Woman, Got White Hair5 min
- How the Neck of Anene, the Crow, Became White and His Back Became Black3 min
- How Kwatima, the Ram, Came to Get the Name of Odwanini5 min
- How (The) Hoe Came to Ashanti1 min
- How Akokonini, the Cock, Got a Pointed Mouth2 min
- How the Tail of Efuo, the Black-Colobus Monkey, Became White3 min
- How It Came About That Some People Are Good-Looking, and Others Are Not Good-Looking4 min
- Every Girl Should Marry Him to Whom She Is Given in Marriage3 min
- How It Came About That the Sky-God’s Stories Came to Be Known as “Spider-Stories”7 min
- How Tale-Bearing Came into the Tribe5 min
- How It Came About That Children Were (First) Whipped5 min
- How It Came About That the Hinder Part of Kwaku Ananse, the Spider, Became Big, at the Expense of His Head, Which Became Small3 min
- How Owea (The Tree-Bear), Abosom-Akotere (The Chameleon), and Opatuo (The Owl) Came to Get Their Distinctive Cries1 min
- How It Came About That Men Commit Evil by Night How It Came About That Children Play by Moonlight How It Came About That Matters in Dispute Are Heard in the Daytime6 min
- How It Came About That Many Diseases Came Among the Tribe3 min
- How It Came About That Hunters Are Poor8 min
- When Some One Spoils Something Belonging to You (Accidentally), Do Not Accept Payment for It7 min
- Why the Apupuo (Fresh-Water Mussel), Which Made Her Rivers Flow, Itself Lies on the River Bank2 min
- In a Tribe There Is No Person Wholly Devoid of Sense4 min
- How It Came About That the Tail of the Oka Fish Is Red, and the Gills of the ’Kobo Fish Are Striped3 min
- How Some One Got a Wife (And Also Saved) His Life by Means of Interpreting Symbols4 min
- How Contradiction Came Among the Tribe5 min
- How It Came About That We Shall Always See Okra, the Cat, Lying on a Velvet Cushion, While ’Kraman, the Dog, Will Sleep Among the Ashes of the Kitchen Fire12 min
- How the Spider Got a Bald Head4 min
- They Say When You Go Elsewhere, Return Home Quickly2 min
- How It Came About That One Person Does Not Reveal the Origin from Which Another Person Sprang6 min
- Why It Is the Elders Say We Should Not Repeat Sleeping-Mat Confidences4 min
- How Kwaku Ananse (The Spider) Got Aso in Marriage7 min
- Why Ananse, the Spider, Runs When He Is on the Surface of the Water4 min
- The Elders Say, “Be It Your Kinsman, or Husband, or Any One at All Who Has Work to Do, If He Ask You, Help Him”4 min
- How the Elephants Came to Go Off to the Long-Grass-Country7 min
- Wait There and You Will See3 min
- If You Are Going Anywhere, When Your Kinsman Says He Will Accompany You, Then Go Along with Him5 min
- How It Came About That Osebo, the Leopard, and Adowa, the Antelope, Became Friends9 min
- How It Came About That When Nwansana, the Fly, Settles on Kraman, the Dog, He Snaps at It, Kam! Kam!4 min
- How It Came About That the Parrot’s Tail Became Red4 min
- When Kokosakyi, the Vulture, Speaks in Allegories to Bonekyerefo, the Hyena, He Understands Him2 min
- No Man Should Say, “This Is the Wife Whom I Love Best”2 min
- How Toothache and Birds Came into the Tribe3 min
- How It Came About That the Elephant’s Bottom Became Small3 min
- How It Came About That Co-Wives Do Not Use the Same Hearth-Stones3 min
- How Abosom, the Lesser-Gods, Came into the World10 min
- How It Came About That Aturukuku, the Turtle-Dove, Went to the Bush, and Let Akoko, the Hen, Come to the House3 min
- How the Ntoro Called “Aninie” Came into the Tribe4 min
- How the Ekuona Clan Came into the Tribe4 min
- How the Interplay of Friendship Came into the Tribe6 min
- How Spear-Grass Came into the Tribe8 min
- How It Came About That Men and the Animals Began to Awake from Sleep2 min
- Child-Kwasi-Gyinamoa8 min
- On Any Path, Where You See That Osebo, the Leopard, Has Scratched, There Adanko, the Hare, Has (Already) Passed5 min
- How It Came About That ’Kraman, the Dog, Can Never Be Cured of His Thieving (Ways)5 min
- How (The Salutations) “Kuronto” and “Buru” Came to Be Used2 min
- How It Came About That When One Goes into a Room at Night, It Is Dark7 min
- How Divorce Came into the Tribe4 min
- How Abosom, the Lesser-Gods, Came into the Tribe3 min
- How It Came About That Ananse, the Spider, Went Up on the Rafters2 min
- How Aketekyire, the Cricket, Got His Teeth Burned1 min
- Kokokyinaka, the Blue-Crested Turacou, Did Not Go to Ananse, the Spider, for a Loan1 min
- Ananse, the Spider, Said He Was Going in Search of a Fool, While All the Time He Himself Was a Fool4 min
- How Ananse, the Spider, Became Poor5 min
- How It Came About That When One Plants Nwiadowa, Garden-Eggs, They Grow Along the Ground, While Nkuruma, the Okro, Stands Up Tall2 min
- A Riddle1 min
- You Are as Wonderful as Ananse, the Spider3 min
- There Is Nothing Anywhere (That We Fear)2 min
- We Do Not Leave an Elephant Behind, to Go and Throw a Stone at Aserewa, the Wren3 min
- Kwamena, the Tiered Ant-Hill, That Stands Within the Buttress Roots2 min
- How (The Ntoro, Called) “Akyem Aboadee”, Came into the Tribe2 min
About this text
Robert Sutherland Rattray († 1938): public-domain work. The text is that of la transcription établie par Erostrate sur le fac-similé d'Internet Archive (Akan-Ashanti Folk-Tales, collected and translated by Captain R. S. Rattray, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1930). Erostrate has not changed a single word: only the layout and the division into pages are ours.
Note on the edition (in French): Texte anglais de l'édition originale (1930), d'après une réimpression qui en reproduit les pages sans changement ; sans le texte twi des pages de gauche, la note sur les illustrations ni les dessins. La formule « We do not really mean… », imprimée au-dessus du titre de nombreux contes, est placée après le titre. Texte établi en collationnant deux lectures du scan.
A typo, a missing word? Let us know.