The Girl Who Married a Lion and Other Tales from Africa

Gathered here is a beguiling selection of folktales from Zimbabwe and Botswana. This treasury contains most of the stories previously collected in Children of Wax and seven new tales from the Setswana-speaking people of Botswana.

A girl discovers that her young husband might actually be a lion in disguise, but not before they have two sons who might actually be cubs… When a child made of wax follows his curiosity outside into the heat of daylight and melts, his siblings shape him into a bird with feathers made of leaves that enable him to fly into the light…. Talking hyenas, milk-giving birds, clever cannibals who nonetheless get their comeuppance, and mysterious forces that reside in the landscape — these wonderful fables bring us the wealth, the variety, and the particular magic of traditional African lore.

Letter from Mma Ramotswe —
Guinea fowl child —
Bad way to treat friends —
Girl who lived in a cave —
Hare fools the baboons —
Pumpkin —
Sister of bones —
Milk bird —
Beware of friends you cannot trust —
Children of wax —
Brave hunter —
Stone Hare —
Tree to sing to —
Blind man catches a bird —
Hare fools Lion, again —
Strange animal —
Bad uncles —
Why Elephant and Hyena live far from people —
Wife who could not work —
Bad blood —
Sad story of Tortoise and Snail —
Old man who saved some ungrateful people —
Lazy baboons —
Great snake —
Girl who married a lion —
Two bad friends —
How a strange creature took the place of a girl, and then fell into a hole —
Greater than Lion —
Head tree —
Grandmother who was kind to a smelly girl —
Baboons who went this way and that —
Two friends who met for dinner —
Thathana moratho tree —
Tremendously clever tricks are played, but to limited effect