The typical native African story or legend is marked by many repetitions of certain portions of the account. The same incidents occur to a succession of individuals; monotony being prevented by a variation in the conduct of those individuals, as they reveal their weakness or stupidity, artifice or treachery. The Narrators, while preserving the original plot and characters of a Tale, make variations, and graphic by introducing objects known and familiar to their audience. These inconsistencies do not interfere with belief or offend the taste of a people with whom even the impossible is not a...