The man elephant: A book of African fairy tales

The man elephant by Hartwell James and John R. Neill is an illustrated collection of African fairy tales compiled in the early 20th century. It presents folktales full of magic, animals, and tricksters, drawing on sub-Saharan storytelling to offer lively adventures with clear morals about courage, cleverness, and fairness.

The book contains five tales. In The Man Elephant, Parle marries a handsome stranger who is really an elephant under a spell; he forces her to cook endlessly until her brothers arrive, and she escapes using a magic charm that parts the rocks, leaving the elephant behind. The Master Weaver follows Malla, a famed hunter injured after his wife weakens his spear’s magic; guided by a spider, he invents game nets and then fine weaving from grass, prospering while crediting the spider as the true master. In The Flying Lion, Princess Pearl Blossom learns from the spirit Gulu, makes an invisible robe, and, with help from crows and the Great Frog, has the lion’s bone-house destroyed so he loses his wings, freeing her people. King Mungo tells how a baboon king, misled by his jackal minister while judging a tailor’s torn cloth, orders a chain of punishments that fixes the world’s enmities (cat and mouse, fire and wood, water and fire) and loses his upright walk. Uncle Lion shows the jackal Kanja outwitted by a ram’s clever wife, then recovering his advantage by stealing fish from wagons and tricking a greedy hyena—explaining the phrase “the lion’s share.”